MLB News
The St. Louis Cardinals Spring Breakout Game will feature JJ Wetherholt, Rainiel Rodriguez and Liam Doyle on the mound as they take on the Washington Nationals starting at 3:30pm. The game should be available through MLB.tv.
A lot of the attention in the sporting world — including occasionally that of your humble author — was elsewhere on Thursday afternoon, with the start of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. However, even with the World Baseball Classic having come to a close, there’s still plenty of spring training action left to go before the regular season gets going.
For the Yankees on Thursday, we got double the action. The Yankees were in split-squad mode today, as they took on a pair of AL East foes. Half of the team hosted the Orioles, while the other half made the trip to take on the Blue Jays. For much of the day, it seemed like both games were headed for Yankees’ losses, but a late rally in the home game gave them a split for the day.
Despite a couple RBI — including a homer — from Giancarlo Stanton, it appeared as though the Yankees were going down in this one. However, a ninth inning rally allowed the Yankees to tie the game and then win it, ensuring that they would split Thursday’s games.
Running out the stronger of the two lineups, the home Yankees’ team struck early against the Orioles. With Trent Grisham on third after leading off with a single, and then moving over thanks to a Jazz Chisholm Jr. walk and a balk, Giancarlo Stanton got one in the air and deep enough for Grisham to tag up and score.
Baltimore struck back to overtake the Yankees over the next couple innings. In the second, a two-run homer from Colby Mayo gave the O’s the lead, and a Adley Rutschman single tacked on another run the following inning.
The Yankees eventually got one of those runs back in the sixth, courtesy of Stanton. He continued his impressive spring with a trademark “how the hell did that get out?” blast to get the Yankees back within a run.
Max Fried got the start for the Yankees in this one, and wasn’t his sharpest self. He ended up going five innings, but allowed three runs on five hits and four walks. Holding Baltimore to three runs despite the rest of those numbers is solid, at least.
The teams later traded runs in the eighth, which left the Yankees still down a run going into the ninth. There, prospect Garrett Martin hit a game-tying home run. After that, Roderick Arias drew a walk, with Coby Morales then singling him to third. That brought Ali Sánchez to the plate, and he flied out deep enough to center for Arias to score, giving the Yankees a walk-off win after doing not much for most of the game.
The other half of the Yankees hit the road to take on a strong Blue Jays’ lineup. Said strong lineup had absolutely no issue with the Yankees, pounding them both offensively and pitching-wise in an 11-0 win.
In Dunedin, the Blue Jays quickly got on the board. In the second at-bat in the bottom of the first, Daulton Varsho homered off Ryan Weathers to give Toronto the early lead. Then in the third, some Jays’ regulars added on. With George Springer and Varsho already on after hits, Vladmir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger each added RBI single to put them further in front.
Then in the fourth, the Blue Jays fully put things away. Springer took Weathers deep for a grand slam, knocking the pitcher out of the game. It was another less than stellar day for Weathers. In 3+ innings, he allowed seven runs on eight hits and a walk. He struck out five, but his ERA for the spring now sits at over 11.
However even after Weathers, the Yankees’ bullpen didn’t exactly perform either. While he did finish off the fourth inning, Kervin Castro started the fifth and failed to record an out before Cade Winquest replaced him. Winquest then allowed a couple more hits, including a Andrés Giménez homer, and added in a wild pitch for good measure. Toronto put up another four spot, going up by double digits in the process.
Meanwhile, other than Amed Rosario, no guaranteed regular position players made the trip to Dunedin. Rosario himself had two hits, but the rest of the lineup combined for just one more, as the Blue Jays truly crushed the Yankees in this one.
One of my favorite events of Spring Training is the Spring Breakout game. It is a great chance for fans to see some of their team’s top prospects. The Spring Breakout game is here and the Nationals have an impressive lineup. Both the Nats and the Cardinals have much improved farm systems.
The Nats lineup is headlined by first overall pick Eli Willits, who is leading off and playing shortstop. Willits is such a polished player for being just 18 years old, and we will get to see him today. Gavin Fien, the headliner of the MacKenzie Gore trade will be hitting behind him. We will also get a look at Seaver King. One prospect who has impressed this spring is Ronny Cruz, and he will be playing third base. Hard-throwing righty Davian Garcia will be on the mound, but we should see plenty of pitchers.
JJ Wetherholt is a strong candidate to open the season in the MLB, but he will be in the Cardinals Spring Breakout lineup. Teenaged catcher Rainiel Rodriguez is another player to watch on the Cardinals side. Joshua Baez is also a top 100 guy after a breakout year in 2025. Liam Doyle, who was the fifth overall pick last year will be on the mound for the Cardinals.
Game Info:
Stadium: Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium
Time: 4:30 PM EST
TV: MLB Video
Radio: N/A
As I said up top, I really do love this event. It is a great way to showcase young talent. This is also an opportunity for prospects to make a statement heading into their seasons. That gets me fired up. Follow along down below and let’s go Nats prospects!
While the Tigers’ rotation is currently set, and they appear to have starting depth both among their relief corps and at the Triple-A, they don’t have much in the way of actual starting pitching prospects to help them this year. The most advanced of the bunch are left-handers Jake Miller and our 11th ranked prospect, lefty Andrew Sears. Miller is working his way back from offseason hip surgery. Sears is another somewhat underrated college draft pick who has refined his game and is now set to tackle Triple-A with a chance to make an impact sometime this season.
The 23-year-old is another example of the Tigers extensive scouting in the northeast, an area some teams neglect as it isn’t generally a major hotbed for pro talent. They spent their sixth round pick in 2023 on Sears, drafting him out of Connecticut and signing him for $167,500, just slightly over the minimum bonus. That was money well spent as Sears has really broken out over the past two seasons.
On draft day, Sears was a low-90’s crafty lefty type with solid secondary pitches and good control. Over the past two years, he’s built velocity and he’s also really sharpened his slider and changeups into weapons.
Sears started out with a solid campaign for the Lakeland Flying Tigers in his 2024 full season debut. At those levels, the number of lefties who are refined enough to locate their fastball and show solid secondaries isn’t that great, and advanced southpaws tend to do well. The bigger tests come when they start facing more experienced hitters in High-A and at the Double-A level, and that was what Sears had to tackle in 2025. He handled that test pretty well while showing improved stuff with all three of his main offerings.
With the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps in 2025, Sears gave a deep pitching staff with numerous older minor leaguers some real presence. He works quickly and with a lot of intensity, rarely stepping off the mound for even a moment. He gets the ball back, stares in while sometimes muttering what we’ll term “encouragement” to himself for a beat, rocks and fires. As soon as the catcher throws it back he’s on the rubber again, staring in and waiting on hitters to dig back into the batter’s box. He’s an intense competitor and the psycho vibes and quick pace are pretty fun to watch.
Sears works from a low three-quarters slot with a fastball mix that touches 96-97 mph but is more typically 93-94. He gets plenty of life on the fourseamer and from a low release point he has a good angle to the top of the zone to get whiffs and weak contact in the air. He’ll use plenty of sinkers too, with the horizontal break augmented by good, late sink, but he’s not necessarily a ground ball pitcher and tends to get a pretty even mix of contact, though most of the contact in the air is really weak and he pops guys up pretty routinely. He’s pretty adept at working both sides of the plate and likes to jam right-handers inside, though he’ll sometimes tail fastballs back over the middle of the plate or hang his secondaries where they can launch them.
Sears struck out 27.2 percent of hitters with the Whitecaps, with a decent walk rate of 8.4 percent. His home run rate was fine at 0.87 HR/9, but a little higher than you’d like at that level. Still, he posted a 2.95 ERA with a 3.70 FIP in his first look at the High-A level, and since he was a little on the young side on draft day, it was only his age 22 season. Altogether it was a pretty nice success, though a short look at the Double-A level saw him hit a little more, as you’d expect. Overall, he threw 111 innings between the two levels, a nice progression in workload, with a combined 3.49/3.61 FIP.
His best weapon is a sweeping slider in the mid-80’s with good two plane movement. Sears is already pretty consistent with it, with the best ones showing plus and drawing a lot of whiffs. He has some feel for adding depth or sweep depending on the count and the hitter, and is adept at stealing strikes at the bottom of the zone with it too. His other pitch that flashes above average is a good circle changeup with nice velocity separation and a lot of late depth. He’ll still lose command of it at times and when he does it turns into a meatball without much depth, but there was less and less of that over the course of his 2025 campaign. When Sears is strafing the edges with sinkers and then playing the changeup off it effectively he is pretty tough to deal with. He can also mix in a curveball and a cutter at times, though he streamlined his pitch mix mainly to fastball, slider, changeup last year.
At this point, Sears has the stuff to be a major league starter. There just isn’t a ton of margin for error in his command. The fastball combo is pretty average, though a little better when he’s at the top of his velocity band. However, when he’s commanding his mix well he is very tough to deal with. He sets up on the third base side, and generates some deception with his crossfire delivery and low arm slot. It’s a classic, funky lefty delivery, but it does make it tricky to repeat and Sears’ velocity tends to rise and fall with how locked in his delivery is from start to start. When he makes mistakes out over the plate with the fastball, the raw stuff is usually enough to avoid them getting barrelled up, but that won’t be the case in the upper minors. When Sears is throwing first pitch strikes, locating reasonably well, and staying out of hitters’ hot zones, they’re in a bad place against him.
The lack of a dominant fastball or precision command is probably going to keep Sears from tracking like a future mid-rotation arm. Instead, he still profiles best as a spot starter/swingman type. However, he could be really valuable in that role. He handles right-handers well, and if his fastball command is a little sharper in the years ahead, a future full-time role as a depth starter isn’t out of the question. He holds runners well and shows what used to be called moxie in tough situations, continuing to attack the strike zone with a lot of aggression. In short, he has all the traits of a versatile lefty swingman, but with enough gas to throw it by good lower level hitters as well.
The Double-A jump isn’t quite the major separator it was a few years ago, but for left-handed pitchers it’s still a major hurdle in particular. Lower level hitters just haven’t seen many good lefties and there tend to be more easy outs in lineups for a good southpaw until the better A-ball hitters funnel up to Double-A. We haven’t seen him in major league camp, but there’s no report of a major injury either, so we’ll assume he’s dealing with something minor for now. Sears will start the season in Erie when he’s ready, and if his command ticks up a little more he should reach Triple-A with a chance to help the Tigers out later on in the summer. His real ETA is 2027, but if the Tigers decide they need his versatility in the bullpen he could certainly move more rapidly.
The Yankees' split squad beat the Orioles, 5-4, on Thursday as their spring training slate continued.
- Max Fried was solid, allowing three runs in five innings while throwing 81 pitches (48 strikes).
Half of the damage against Fried came on a two-run homer by Coby Mayo in the second inning.
Fried, whose spring ERA is 4.40, allowed five hits, walked four, and struck out two.
His next start will come on Opening Day against the Giants next Wednesday in San Francisco.
- Giancarlo Stantonhit a sacrifice fly in the first inning and went a bit deeper in the seventh, cracking a solo homer to right field for his fourth dinger of the spring.
- Yerry De los Santos tossed 1.2 scoreless innings, allowing two hits while walking one and striking out none. His ERA in Grapefruit League play is 0.00.
- Trent Grisham, who has struggled at the plate this spring, went 1-for-3 with a run scored.
- Ryan McMahon went 1-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts.
- Paul Goldschmidt went 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Jasson Dominguez went 1-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Garrett Martin hit a solo homer to tie the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
-An Ali Sanchez sacrifice fly gave the Yanks the win.
Cab turns ✌️#YANKSonYESpic.twitter.com/OOwOmSH9Op
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) March 19, 2026
Stanton drives in Grisham#YANKSonYESpic.twitter.com/iRJQa0UGBB
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) March 19, 2026
Stanton solo BLAST to RF!#YANKSonYESpic.twitter.com/EXN3OVtLNd
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) March 19, 2026
All tied up in Tampa!#YANKSonYESpic.twitter.com/GC8xVuUcvo
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) March 19, 2026
The Yankees travel to face the Orioles on Friday at 6:35 p.m.
Ryan Weathers showed off some good stuff, but the Yankees' left-hander got touched up by a strong Blue Jays lineup as Toronto grabbed an 11-0 win on Thursday afternoon in Dunedin, Fla.
New York, with the rest of the squad staying in Tampa and beating the Baltimore Orioles, was without just about every one of its expected regular players and was facing what appeared to be the Jays' Opening Day lineup. The disparity bore out in the hit totals: 14-3 in favor of the Canadian side.
- Weathers fell behind George Springer 3-0 before battling back and getting him swinging on a good sweeper. But he was stung when Daulton Varsho clocked a 2-2 up-and-away 97 mph fastball for a homer just over the wall in left. The left-hander ended the inning in painful fashion, taking a hard-hit Addison Barger comebacker (112.4 mph) off his hand. After getting the out at first, he walked off the mound shaking his digits.
Weathers managed to shake it off as he got Alejandro Kirk swinging on a biting breaking pitch down-and-in, Jesús Sánchez looking on a hard heater on the outside corner, and Kazuma Okamoto fishing on a changeup in the dirt.
The lefty added another strikeout on the breaking pitch in on Ernie Clement before his run of seven straight retired ended with back-to-back two-out infield hits as Springer chopped one (49.1 mph) off the bag at third and Varsho muscled one off his hands (38.7 mph) toward second. Valdimir Guerrero Jr. plated a run, ripping a high-and-away changeup through the right side (104.5 mph) and Barger, after swinging through two sweepers, got a 2-2 sweeper that stayed in the zone, and knocked an RBI single up the middle (107.6 mph) for a fourth-straight hit.
Brad Ausmus (the acting manager on the day) brought in Tony Rossi to get Kirk swinging to end the inning and save Weathers’ arm as he had thrown 29 pitches in the frame (20 after getting the first two outs).
Weathers returned for the bottom of the fourth and allowed yet another infield hit before Okamoto pulled a single through the left side of the infield. After Clement popped out to center, the lefty walked Andrés Giménez to load the bases. And on the seventh pitch to Springer, Weather’s sweeper hung on the outside corner for a grand slam the other way to right.
Bad luck on some soft contact led to hard-hit balls costing him. Weather’s final line: 3.0 innings, seven runs, eight hits, one walk, five strikeouts on 74 pitches (44 strikes). He struggled in his last outing, allowing four runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings against the Atlanta Braves.
- Cody Ponce, back in America with a new kick-change after three seasons in Japan and one in Korea, made quick work of the Yankee lineup early, needing just 36 pitches (24 strikes) to get the first nine batters in order with four strikeouts. Amed Rosario got the Yanks’ first hit on an infield single deep in the hole to short to start the top of the fourth, but that was it as Ponce allowed just the one base runner in his 5.2 innings while adding five strikeouts on an efficient 65 pitches (44 strikes).
Rosario took a first pitch from Jays reliever Yariel Rodriguez for a base hit up the middle to give him a two-hit afternoon in his three times up.
- Kervin Castro, on the Yanks' 40-man roster, got around a walk and a single to get the final two outs in the fourth. The right-hander, who has some big league experience, allowed a single and a double off the wall in center to start the fifth, ending his afternoon.
- Cade Winquest came in with two in scoring position and threw a wild pitch to score one run. He recovered to get Clement swinging, but a 1-1 curveball at the bottom of the zone went for a two-run shot to right-center by Giménez to make it 10-0. Springer then jumped on a fastball up-and-away to smash a double to center (111.5 mph) and a center-cut fastball to Varsho resulted in an RBI single, before Winquest got out of it with a 4-6-3 double play.
The righty is a Rule 5 pick for the Yanks, their first since 2011, and everyone will be hoping for better results in the regular season.
- Randal Grichuk was on his way to first base when home plate umpire Darius Ghani (a rookie ump in MLB this year) called strike three on a 3-2 pitch in the first. The 34-year-old, who is hoping to be the Yanks' fourth outfielder, should have challenged as the splitter was off the plate. He went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, swinging through a Rodriguez splitter in his final at-bat to start the seventh.
- Paul DeJong was robbed of potentially extra bases on a 101.6 mph shot down the third base line, but Okamoto made a fantastic diving stop and strong throw to record the out to start the fifth. He went 0-for-2 with a walk.
- J.C. Escarra went 0-for-3 with a flyout, groundout, and pop out.
- Seth Brown went 0-for-2 flyout and groundout.
- Yanquiel Fernández notched the game's fifth infield hit with two outs in the seventh, finishing the day 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Max Schuemann hit one hard to right, but Barger made a running grab on the warning track before bouncing into the wall. He went 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Kenedy Corona went 0-for-3 with a strikeout swinging on a Ponce fastball.
- Enmanuel Tejeda went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts swinging.
The Yankees take on the Orioles on Friday with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch in Tampa. Luis Gil is the scheduled starter for New York.
PHOENIX –– The final days of spring training mean final roster cuts are here for the Dodgers.
And on Wednesday, in two of their more difficult decisions before Opening Day next week, the club announced that a couple young camp standouts had failed to make the team.
Last year, River Ryan and Kyle Hurt missed the entirety of the season, recovering from Tommy John surgeries that derailed each of their debut MLB campaigns in 2024.
This spring, however, both impressed in their return to action –– easily looking the part of productive big-league arms.
Ryan, 27, bulked up during his year-and-a-half rehab, adding 30 pounds to his frame and a couple ticks of velocity to his fastball. In Cactus League play, it resulted in a sterling stat line, with the right-hander posting a 1.86 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 9 ⅔ innings.
Hurt, 27, also opened eyes with his performance in camp, transitioning to a multi-inning relief role in which he struck out 12 batters over just 7 ⅓ innings of three-run ball.
At various points in recent weeks, manager Dave Roberts raved about the progress of both pitchers –– who were two of the organization’s top prospects before getting hurt two years ago.
Yet, on Wednesday, the Dodgers optioned them both to the minor leagues to begin the season.
In a spring with little roster intrigue, the cuts qualified as two of the biggest surprises.
The reasons for the moves, however, were rooted in similar thinking. Because both pitchers were out all of last year, the Dodgers want to be cautious with their workloads in 2026, preferring to ease them into this new season and save the limited number of innings they’ll be able to pitch for later in the campaign.
Eventually, they are expected to contribute at the MLB level. But for now, they’ll have to bide their time in the minors a little longer.
“We realize how talented he is,” Roberts said Wednesday of Hurt, whose demotion was announced first. “But to get him to get a foundation this year –– to be able to go back-to-back, pitch two innings in a night then see how he is on the third day to go out and pitch and see how he responds –– those are things that, [we need to] just kind of get some wear on his tires, as an analogy. That’s what he needs to do.
“When you get with us [in the majors], we’ve got to push guys because we’ve got to win baseball games,” Roberts added. “That’s the next part of his development. And he completely understood.”
Same thing goes for Ryan, whose roster move wasn’t announced until later in the day.
“It’s hard, because as a competitor, he wants to go wire-to-wire,” Roberts said of him earlier this spring. “He’s put in the work. He looks great. But you look at the history of guys that have had those types of injuries, to think he’s gonna take down 30 starts [in his return this year] is unrealistic … So for us, speaking for the organization, it’s letting him continue to build up and see where that takes us.”
The knock-on effects of the news, of course, are the players who will earn Opening Day spots in each pitcher’s place.
In the bullpen, Hurt’s cut likely clears the way for Edgardo Henriquez to make the team, despite a spring performance that included an 8.53 ERA and as many walks and hit batters (six total) as strikeouts in his seven Cactus League appearances.
In the starting rotation, Ryan’s demotion effectively cements Roki Sasaki’s spot on the Opening Day roster, even after a camp that raised renewed questions about his ability to be an MLB-caliber starter.
The Japanese phenom scuffled in eight MLB starts as a rookie last year before going down with a shoulder injury, then returning to the mound late in the season to become the Dodgers’ surprise playoff closer.
His shift back to starting duties this year has not begun well, with Sasaki suffering a 13.50 ERA in three Cactus League outings that were marred by a lack of fastball command and pitch efficiency.
“He’s going to be one of our starters,” Roberts confirmed of Sasaki on Wednesday. “I think I’ve been very consistent in the sense of, we don’t solely evaluate spring training in its entirety alone. So with that, he’s obviously got things to prove — consistency of getting guys out, consistency of strike throwing. But he’s going to get that opportunity to start the season, and we’ll see where we go from there.”
When asked if Sasaki is one of the Dodgers’ 13 best pitchers now, Roberts demurred.
“He is going to start the season in the rotation,” he answered –– not exactly a ringing endorsement of Sasaki’s form ahead of the season.
Alas, this is the approach the Dodgers have telegraphed all spring, taking the long view with two of their more promising young arms even if it means giving Opening Day opportunities to two bigger question marks.
Eventually, Ryan and Hurt should return to the majors. If all goes well, they could be key parts of the pitching staff come the stretch run of the season.
But for now, they’ll have to wait. In the end, workload calculations outweighed preseason performance.
As if there was any doubt, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner will start the first game of the year.
The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Thursday that Paul Skenes will get the ball in New York to start Opening Day against the Mets.
“Duh,” the Pirates tweeted.
Skenes tallied 1.97 ERA and struck out 216 batters in 187.2 innings, the most strikeouts but a Pirates starting pitcher in franchise history.
Skenes only allowed 31 earned runs and totaled a 0.95 WHIP en route to his first Cy Young.
The 2023 No. 1 overall pick and 2024 NL Rookie of the Year will make his second-career Opening Day start.
Skenes, 23, posted a 7.7 WAR last year and started his second-consecutive All-Star Game for the NL.
He continues to accumulate accolades rarely seen in over 100 years. Skenes started two games for the United States in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, allowing one run over 8.1 innings.
Facing potentially the greatest lineup he’ll ever face against the Dominican Republic in the semifinals, Skenes allowed only one run in 4.1 frames. Outside of a Junior Caminero solo home run, Skenes silenced the Dominican Republic offense.
In 55 starts, Skenes owns a 21-13 record, 1.96 ERA, 386 strikeouts, 2.40 FIP, and a 0.948 WHIP.
Skenes starts game one of 162 at Citi Field on Thursday, March 26 at 1:15 p.m.
As the Mets continue to trim their roster ahead of Opening Day, they made four moves on Thursday.
Infielder Ronny Mauricio and right-handed pitcher Joey Gerber were optioned to Triple-A Syracuse.
Left-handed pitcher Brandon Waddell and right-handed pitcher Mike Baumann were reassigned to minor league camp.
Mauricio never really had a path to a spot on the Opening Day roster due to a full infield and the possibility that New York will not carry a backup shortstop.
The Mets' roster is at 42 with Opening Day one week away.
The Astros aren’t dead yet.
It felt like the AL West would run through Houston forever. The Astros won seven consecutive division titles in non-COVID seasons, collecting three pennants and two World Series’ trophies between 2017 and 2024. Few teams had ever been more successful, and few teams had ever been more relevant. They were a mix of intoxicating tropes: the classic Worst To First, the contemporary Pioneers In Economics, and the forever elegant I’m Not Aware Of The Allegations. From doubted to destined to despised.
To denied, in 2025. The Mariners yoinked the throne from behind over three nights in Houston. Their buttocks now shape the seat, paranoid thoughts of usurpation already taking hold. Who should dare challenge their new title?
Well, perhaps still the Astros. They enter 2026 in the death throes of dynasty, but still contained within their hulking frame. They are projected 12th in the majors by FanGraphs Depth Charts, well behind the Mariners, but still above average, and very much in striking distance.
| Position | Astros Projected WAR | Mariners Projected WAR | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catcher | 3.0 | 6.1 | Mariners |
| First Base | 2.0 | 2.9 | Mariners |
| Second Base | 2.8 | 2.7 | Astros |
| Shortstop | 4.0 | 2.8 | Astros |
| Third Base | 4.1 | 3.0 | Astros |
| Left Field | 2.1 | 2.2 | Mariners |
| Center Field | 2.8 | 6.0 | Mariners |
| Right Field | 1.4 | 1.9 | Mariners |
| Designated Hitter | 3.8 | 1.5 | Astros |
| Starting Pitching | 11.1 | 14.3 | Mariners |
| Relief Pitching | 3.7 | 3.5 | Mariners |
| Total | 40.8 | 46.9 | Mariners |
The lineup is familiar. Jose Altuve is in the compiler stage of his Hall of Fame career, continuing to post solid but diminishing seasons, hoping to amass just enough value that future voters might look the other way. The same could be said for Carlos Correa, who was returned to sender (in a fair amount of bubble wrap) at the last trade deadline. Yordan Alvarez is back in action — his injury saga perhaps the difference in the AL West in 2025 — though he’s relinquished his status as the best left-handed hitter in baseball. Jake Meyers continues to roam the space where Tal’s Hill once lay, and Isaac Paredes continues to pepper the Crawford Boxes. Jeremy Peña should join them shortly. Really, it’s not that bad. No, seriously, the stain isn’t noticeable at all, don’t even worry about it.
The pitching is less familiar. This is not the vaunted staff of Astros’ past, nor even the tepid encore of 2025. Hunter Brown and Bryan Abreu are great, but everyone else is hurt or unknown or lost to free agency. It’s tough to see the upside; it’s very easy to see the downside. The thing about pitching, of course, is everybody’s down side is the same.
Premonitions have followed the Astros their entire competitive cycle. They’ve had projection lulls before and found new life. But where 2025 was the first year they weren’t obvious favorites, 2026 is the first year they’re projected below .500. It’s not clear where they plan to find more wins.And so they teeter, and so the totter, on the precipice of oblivion. Nobody knows what comes next. -RB
2026 FanGraphs Depth Charts projections: 80.5-81.5, 3rd in AL West, 35.0% playoff odds
2026 PECOTA projections: 85.0-77.0, 2nd in AL West, 53.3% playoff odds
The Astros were a joke in 2012. But they weren’t laughing; they were planning. When their rise began in earnest in the summer of 2015, many of us still found it hard to take them too seriously. But by 2017, nobody could deny that they were a force to be reckoned with. For years after that, they were impossible, aggravating, and ever-present. They seemed wrapped in teflon, with scandal after scandal outraging so many of us but resulting in essentially no consequences.
Then, there was a moment. For one moment, it felt like it might finally be over. It was still a close race, but the Mariners came storming in and took the division crown, leaving the Astros out of the playoffs. Yet they finished 87-75, led the division deep into the summer, and weird circumstances intervened in ways that felt more like luck than justice. Certainly the 2025 Mariners division win was thrilling, but they were an imperfect vehicle for hope. We got the result we wanted, but not the reckoning. The Astros lost, but retained their core talent and hardly conceded.
Their comeback shouldn’t have felt as gobsmacking as it did. They were always lurking, and clearly a threat. But even though it was an obvious possibility, it was a little too horrible a thought to engage with. We wanted a little too badly to just move on.
But wanting it isn’t enough when the enemy has amassed too much power. Their 23-win April was immediate, horrifying, and inevitably powered by the guys who never had to face the music: Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa each had the best month of their careers, totaling a nauseating 16 home runs and 68 hits between them. The whole season was over before you could even catch your breath. The rest of the summer was a tour of vengeance, with Yordan Álvarez and Jeremy Peña taking the lead. Yes, the 2025 Astros had lost, but injuries to their core played too big a role to ignore in retrospect. Peña’s fractured rib wasn’t a reckoning, just a setback. It didn’t stop him from coming right back and putting up a full season at the 135 wRC+ he had in his partial season. No one was safe. Julio, robbed of four hits in the same game; Muñoz, taken deep three times to turn wins into blown saves; Woo, taking a 105-mph comebacker off his hand.
We’d seen it all before of course, and there was some emotional armor from that experience. But where worse came to worst was that it all looks so permanent. Hunter Brown, the heir to Verlander, opened Game 1 with six perfect innings before settling into a two-hit complete game, utterly dismantling the Dodgers—the best resistance the rest of MLB could put up. The extension he signed the day after he hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy will keep him in Houston for an additional six years. For a moment, it seemed like it might be over, but it hasn’t even started.
We’ll carry on. The Mariners will too, continuing to put up their best. Because what other choice is there? But it’s the Astros’ world again, as it’s been for a decade, and after this, it feels like it will be forever. —ZAM
When did the Roman Empire end? Was it Marcus Aurelius’s death, which ended the run of the Five Good Emperors? Was it the Crisis of the Third Century, when Rome went through 26 emperors in 50 years? How about the death of Theodosius I, when the Eastern and Western Empires permanently split? Or perhaps when Aetius was murdered, leading to the Vandals sacking Rome within a year? By the time the last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by a Germanic chieftain, there was nothing left of Rome to fall. It was a climactic event, but things had been over for a while. It clarified what in retrospect should have been obvious.
With the Houston Astros falling to fourth place in 2026, the question is the same: when did it end?
The franchise once famous for taking nameless minor leaguers and turning them into stars just couldn’t pull it off anymore. Gone were the days of replacing Carlos Correa with Jeremy Peña. Instead, the franchise was replacing Kyle Tucker with Cam Smith. Smith’s rookie year was easy to write off, especially given how young he was. But his 41 wRC+ in the second half was the signal, not the noise, and by the 2026 All-Star break, he was back in AAA, where he carried a strikeout rate north of 30%.
The franchise once boasted the most fearsome rotation in all of baseball, with a front three of Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Zack Greinke. But 11 guys made more than five starts for them in 2025 and it only got worse this year. A mid-June labrum tear for Hunter Brown shattered the rotation into a mishmash of spot starts and bullpen days. NPB transplant Tatsuya Imai was the only player to make at least 20 starts, and while Joe Espada was grateful for the innings he ate, Imai’s ERA approached 5. Lance McCullers Jr. finally pitched again, but only for four innings before heading right back to the IL. It was a team that really could have used Framber Valdez, but they let him get scooped up by Detroit on a deal they could have afforded if they hadn’t spent so much on Christian Walker.
The last members of the dynasty—Peña and Yordan Álvarez—were the bright spots. Álvarez stayed on the field for a career-high 150 games, and Peña put together a second consecutive 5-WAR campaign. But the old hands showed their age, with Altuve batting under .250 for the first time in a full season and Correa having an on-again-off-again relationship with the IL and offering streaky performances when available.
It was so clear that these Astros were going nowhere that they did something they haven’t done in more than a decade: sell at the deadline. Mariners fans had a thrilling weekend when it looked like Seattle might be the team to get their best chip, Bryan Abreu—a moment to savor the true transition of power. But it’s hard to blame the Mariners for not wanting to give up the reported ask of Michael Arroyo for a rental. Ultimately, since Abreu hit free agency at the end of the year, Houston only got one backend top-100 prospect for all their trouble. So Mariners fans can take comfort in not having helped restore Houston’s farm system.
For four offseasons in a row, the AL West mantra has been: the Astros are both very good and also worse than they’ve been since 2014. Eventually, that worse and worse and worse boiled over. Headed into 2027, the new line is: the Astros are not very good. It’s been headed this way for a while, but only now is it finally clear. It’s finally time for the autopsy. —ZAM
With an entertaining World Baseball Classic coming to a close, it's time to turn our attention to the start of the 2026 MLB season. Below is everything you need to know about Opening Day for all 30 clubs.
⚾️ Coming soon: MLB returns to NBC and Peacock in 2026! In addition to becoming the exclusive home of Sunday Night Baseball, NBC Sports will broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, “Opening Day” and Labor Day primetime games, the first round of the MLB Draft, the entire Wild Card round of the postseason, and much more.
The 2026 MLB season will begin in three parts. The first game of the season will be on Wednesday March 25, as the Yankees and Giants play in San Francisco. Most teams will begin their season on Thursday, March 26, however a handful of teams will get things underway on Friday, March 27.
Arizona Diamondbacks: Thursday, March 26 at Dodgers (8:30 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock)
Athletics: Friday, March 27 at Blue Jays (7:07 p.m. ET)
Atlanta Braves: Friday, March 27 vs. Royals (7:15 p.m ET)
Baltimore Orioles: Thursday, March 26 vs. Twins (3:05 p.m. ET)
Boston Red Sox: Thursday, March 26 at Reds (4:10 p.m. ET)
Chicago Cubs: Thursday, March 26 vs. Nationals (2:20 p.m. ET)
Chicago White Sox: Thursday, March 26 at Brewers (2:10 p.m. ET)
Cincinnati Reds: Thursday, March 26 vs. Red Sox (4:10 p.m. ET)
Cleveland Guardians: Thursday, March 26 at Mariners (10:10 p.m. ET)
Colorado Rockies: Friday, March 27 at Marlins (7:10 p.m. ET)
Detroit Tigers: Thursday, March 26 at Padres (4:10 p.m. ET)
Houston Astros: Thursday, March 26 vs. Angels (4:10 p.m. ET)
Kansas City Royals: Friday, March 27 at Braves (7:15 p.m. ET)
Los Angeles Angels: Thursday, March 26 at Astros (4:10 p.m. ET)
Los Angeles Dodgers: Thursday, March 26 vs. Diamondbacks (8:30 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock)
Miami Marlins: Friday, March 27 vs. Rockies (7:10 p.m. ET)
Milwaukee Brewers: Thursday, March 26 vs. White Sox (2:10 p.m. ET)
Minnesota Twins: Thursday. March 26 at Orioles (3:05 p.m. ET)
New York Mets: Thursday, March 26 vs. Pirates (1:15 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock)
New York Yankees: Wednesday, March 25 at Giants (8:05 p.m. ET)
Philadelphia Phillies: Thursday, March 26 vs. Rangers (4:15 p.m. ET)
Pittsburgh Pirates: Thursday, March 26 at Mets (1:15 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock)
St. Louis Cardinals: Thursday, March 26 vs. Rays (4:15 p.m. ET)
San Diego Padres: Thursday, March 26 vs. Tigers (4:10 p.m. ET)
San Francisco Giants: Wednesday, March 25 vs. Yankees (8:05 p.m. ET)
Seattle Mariners: Thursday, March 26 vs. Guardians (10:10 p.m. ET)
Tampa Bay Rays: Thursday, March 26 at Cardinals (4:15 p.m. ET)
Texas Rangers: Thursday, March 26 at Phillies (4:15 p.m. ET)
Toronto Blue Jays: Friday, March 27 vs. Athletics (7:07 p.m. ET)
Washington Nationals: Thursday, March 26 at Cubs (2:20 p.m. ET)
**check back as more official announcements are made**
For a team with as many established veteran players as the Phillies have, there were only a handful of roster battles taking place in Clearwater this spring.
Some of those battles are coming into sharper focus now.
The Phillies announced utility infielder/outfielder Dylan Moore triggered the player opt-out in his contract Thursday morning, which gives the team 48 hours to either add him to the 40-man roster, or release him, making him a free agent on Saturday.
There seems little doubt another team would snap him up if the Phils chose not to add him, and the move by Moore was expected. Moore is 7-for-31 this spring (.226 AVG), with just one extra base hit. But he’s shown good plate discipline and can play all over the field. The Phils currently have 39 players on the 40-man roster, so there would be room to add Moore if need be.
However, spring stalwart Bryan de la Cruz is battling Moore for that final bench spot and has had a fantastic spring. He leads the Phils with 12 hits in 37 ABs (.324) with a homer and a double, and is coming off a Dominican Winter League in which he took home MVP honors. But he is limited to a corner outfield spot, whereas Moore can play anywhere.
The smart money is for the Phillies to add Moore to the 40-man roster. Like Moore, de la Cruz also has an opt-out clause, but not until later this summer, presumably July. By sending de la Cruz to AAA to get regular at-bats, they can punt that decision and add Moore, keeping both players in the fold.
In terms of the bullpen, we know a few more names who won’t make the team out of Clearwater.
Right-handed reliever Seth Johnson is the most notable name here. He was on the outside looking in at a bullpen spot, with left-hander Kyle Backhus all but assuring himself of a spot in the Opening Day bullpen. Should Orion Kerkering be on the 26-man roster when the team breaks camp, there would be room for one more reliever. Johnson, who didn’t give up many runs this spring (1.86 ERA), walked seven in 9.2 innings. He’ll continue to get more seasoning as he makes the transition from starter to reliever for the Iron Pigs.
Zach Pop and Chase Shugart are already on the 40-man roster and would appear to have the best chances of landing one of the final bullpen spots, and both could make the team if Kerkering is not ready for Opening Day.
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Spring training is a chaotic endeavor, particularly when betting. There are fewer markets available, and picking a moneyline winner can be stressful, especially when a team throws out a less-than-stellar bullpen to throw the whole wager in the bin.
I'm looking at a variety of moneyline MLB picks for my spring training predictions today, highlighting a favorite, a slight underdog, and a bit of a long shot on Thursday, March 19.
| Pick | Odds |
|---|---|
 Red Sox moneyline | -140 |
 Astros moneyline | +115 |
 Rockies moneyline | +150 |
With the exception of Roman Anthony not being in the lineup, the Boston Red Sox batting order looks close to what the Opening Day edition will be.
Like Anthony, Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton won't be in the starting nine in the wake of the World Baseball Classic. They mostly cancel each other out, leaving Boston as the better offense from top to bottom.
Twins starter Mick Abel has been sharp this spring (1.35 ERA, 0.75 WHIP), and may seem the better choice over Brayan Bello (9.72 ERA, 1.68 WHIP), but the Red Sox righty has been a bit unlucky, as evidenced by an unsustainable .440 BABIP and his 3.55 FIP. He also allowed just one run and one hit in five innings at the WBC.
I want a better number than +120 on Minnesota if I'm taking the underdog here.
If Juan Soto isn't back in the New York Mets lineup tonight, then I'll feel even better about this.
Kodai Senga is an electric starter, but his struggles to stay on the field have limited him over the last calendar year. He's also thrown just 5 2/3 innings this spring, so New York is slow-playing the right-hander. He may not be in this game very long.
I'll take the plus money on the Houston Astros. This line may even tighten up if Soto doesn't play, so it's worth a sprinkle now.
The Colorado Rockies are the long shots of the day. It makes sense. San Francisco Giants right-hander Logan Webb is excellent. However, he also traditionally pitches to contact, and is prone to giving up runs in bunches when his defense can't make the plays behind him.
This also isn't at Coors Field, so I'm less concerned about Tomoyuki Sagano getting lit up by San Francisco's suspect lineup.
I like the value on +150 more than anything else here, but I'm also encouraged by several of Colorado's young hitters.
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
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You’ve already seen Jefferson Rojas and Pedro Ramirez play for the Cubs this Spring Training. Both have hit well and Ramirez, in particular, has flashed some glove at third base, shortstop and second base.
In 14 MLB spring games this year, Ramirez is batting .357/.429/.607 (10-for-28) with a double, two home runs, 11 RBI and five stolen bases. Rojas, in 18 MLB spring games, is batting .227/.277/.523 (10-for-44) with four doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI.
Ramirez was added to the 40-man roster last November, and even though he’s not quite 22 (turns 22 on April 1), it’s not impossible that we might see him at Wrigley Field this year.
The two will lead a roster of top Cubs prospects against top Padres prospects in a game this Saturday at Sloan Park. Game time is 8:05 p.m. CT and the game will be televised via Marquee Sports Network. There will be a game thread here Saturday both for this game and the MLB Cubs vs. Mariners game at Peoria, scheduled for 8:10 p.m. CT.
Other top Cubs prospects on the Spring Breakout roster:
Here’s the complete Cubs Spring Breakout roster. The article has some more information about the game, the players, and how they were selected for this game.
There will be other Spring Breakout games in both Florida and Arizona beginning today. Here’s the entire Spring Breakout schedule, along with more information.
He’s Tommy Kahnle and, like most relievers in their mid-to-late 30s, he comes from all over the league. As one of the rare baseball players to grow up in upstate New York, Kahnle settled for Division II baseball in college before being selected by the Yankees in the 2010 amateur draft. But he made his big league debut with the Rockies, who swiped him from the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft, and has since spent 11 years in the majors, dividing his time between Colorado, the South Side of Chicago, the Bronx, Chavez Ravine, the Bronx again, and Detroit. The Sox signed him to a minor league deal yesterday
Kahnle was a big part of those Yankee super-bullpens of recent vintage, which is probably where you know him from. In fact, for the entire stretch between 2016 and 2024, Kahnle’s 3.11 ERA ranked 28th amongst relievers who threw at least 250 innings. He was a flat-out solid and dependable late-inning option for years, heavily relying on one of the game’s best changeups, which darts down and in on the arm-side. Earlier in his career he complemented that change with a fastball that approached 100 MPH, but that’s now down to the mid-90s.
Kahnle has battled injuries recently. From 2020 through 2023, he made just 14 appearances, missing significant time to both Tommy John surgery and subsequent forearm issues, and he then missed the first two months of the 2024 season with shoulder inflammation.
2025 was an up-and-down season for Kahnle in Detroit. He was outstanding for the first three months of the year, posting a 1.77 ERA in 35.1 innings pitched. But then he gave up five earned runs without recording a single out in his first appearance in July and looked cooked for the rest of the season, yielding 32 hits and 22 walks over 27.1 innings en route to an ugly 7.90 ERA. He made 32 appearances from July through the end of the season and gave up at least 1 run in 12 of them.
63 IP, 51 H, 31 BB, 8 HR, 4.43 ERA
Remember when I wrote that Kahnle relied heavily on his changeup? Well he once threw 61 of them in a row in 2024 playoffs while allowing just 2 earned runs over 8.2 innings.
Here’s a video of the first 56 of those:
Celebrating the fact that he now gets to join a bullpen with Garrett Whitlock, who, like him, is another quality reliever the Yankees lost in the Rule 5 draft. Lol, losers!
He’s signed to a minor league deal, but I fully expect him to be in the big league bullpen as soon as they deem him ready. He’ll start in a middle-innings role and whether he stays there will depend on whether he can figure out what went wrong in the second half of 2025.