Category: MLB

Spencer Strider is back on the bench.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The lineup:

Nimmo — RF

Langford — CF

Seager — SS

Burger — 1B

Smith — 2B

Jung — 3B

Pederson — DH

Carter — LF

Jansen — C

7:05 p.m. Central start time.

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

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

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) March 23, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) March 23, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

Game information:

Game time: NOW

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

Radio: 710 AM Seattle Sports

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Mets’ starting rotation is a mixture of homegrown players and acquired talent heading into the 2026 season. They’ve got some young players fresh from the minor leagues either firmly entrenched or knocking on the door in Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, and Jonah Tong. And they have a group of starters they acquired outside the organization, either in free agency (Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes) or by trade (Freddy Peralta). 

The one starter sort of stuck in the middle is longtime Met David Peterson. After an offseason of roster upheaval, Peterson finds himself the longest-tenured Met, having made his debut with the team during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He has been with the team his entire career, and 2026 is his final season before hitting free agency. A good walk year could set him up for a good payday, but will he be able to be consistently good for a whole season?

Over the course of his career, Peterson has a 4.12 ERA in 622.2 innings pitched. He has 614 strikeouts, a 1.373 WHIP, and a 98 ERA+, and he’s accumulated 6.7 bWAR in his six major league seasons. His ERA+ perfectly explains his career, he’s been an almost exactly average pitcher. Sometimes he’s been a bit better, sometimes he’s been a bit worse. But he’s never had that transcendent season or the absolutely awful season, instead just cruising through every season right around the middle of the pack.

His 2025 season was split into two parts that couldn’t be more starkly different. Through the end of July, he was enjoying one of the best stretches of his career. In the first half of the year, he had a 3.06 ERA across 109 innings, with 93 strikeouts, a 7.7 K/9 and a 1.239 WHIP. He threw a complete game shutout, his first and only one in his career thus far. And he pitched well enough to be named to the All-Star Game as a roster replacement. His performance in the month of July was transcendent, with a 1.05 ERA in 25.2 innings across four games that month. At the end of July he looked like he was the only dependable option in the Mets’ rotation.

But starting in August, the wheels came off and he imploded. He threw 59.2 innings across the last two months of the season, and in September he only pitched 16.2 innings in four games. His ERA in August was an awful 6.68, and his September was even worse with a 9.72 ERA. In August, there was at least the lone bright spot of his best K/9 of the season, with a 10.2 K/9. But in September he went back down to a 7.6 K/9, and he had an unbelievably bad 1.920 WHIP, giving up 18 hits in fewer than 17 innings.

Now, one of the other positives of Peterson’s 2025 season was that it was the first time in years that he didn’t have his season interrupted by an injury. He might have been way worse in the second half, but he played the whole season. He had suffered through multiple injuries in his career, with shoulder fatigue in 2020, side soreness that ended his 2021 season in July, and a torn labrum in his left hip in 2024. But he stayed healthy in 2025 and didn’t once get sent to the minor leagues, which happened in his only other healthy season in 2023.

Peterson is entering the 2026 season with an eye on his impending free agency at the end of the season. If his season is more like the first half of 2025, he could find himself signing a nice contract and setting up his future, as well as helping the Mets immensely this year. If his season is more like his second half of 2025, though, it could be a disaster for both him and the team.

The Yankees have wrapped up their 2026 spring training slate in Florida, as they prepare to begin the new season on Wednesday. However on their way out to San Francisco for Opening Day, they’ve made a little pit stop at the Cubs’ spring complex.

Today and tomorrow, the Yankees are in Arizona to wrap up their preseason play with a pair of games against the Cubs. Although it’s not unusual that team leave their normal environment in the finale days before the regular season starts, this is the first time that I can remember the Yankees playing exhibition games in Arizona. The Yankees actually trained in Phoenix in 1951 in a one-year swap of spring sites with the New York Giants, but aside from that, such spring visits have been rare.

As you might expect from the final days before they have to start playing for real, the Yankees’ lineup resembles one that we could see in a regular season game. Opposing a lefty pitcher, Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario are both in the lineup, but other than that, it’s basically the first choice player at every other position.

They’ll be backing up Carlos Lagrange on the mound. Lagrange probably won’t be in a MLB lineup in the next couple weeks, but this is a nice reward for him after he’s been very impressive this spring. He won the James P. Dawson Award as the best Yankees rookie in camp.

Said lefty that the Yankees’ lineup will face is Shota Imanaga. After a very impressive rookie campaign in 2024, Imanaga took a step back last season, and has been so-so in spring training so far. Like the Yankees, the Cubs’ lineup is pretty strong, including new addition Alex Bregman.

We won’t get much in the way of video from this game, as it’s a radio-only day, but thankfully, that’s something we won’t have to deal with when the regular season starts.

How to watch

Location: Sloan Park — Mesa, AZ

First pitch: 3:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: N/A

Radio broadcast: WFAN 101.9 FM/660 AM or WSCR 104.3 FM/670 AM (Cubs)

Online stream: none (audio available via MLB.tv)

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

Quick Stop in Arizona 🏜️#RepBXpic.twitter.com/oHit5S4Pd0

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) March 23, 2026

This afternoon’s lineup: pic.twitter.com/KzcWsY61XG

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 23, 2026

Mets top outfield prospect Carson Benge entered 2026 spring training with a legitimate chance to win a spot on the Opening Day roster.

And that's exactly what he's done.

Manager Carlos Mendoza announced that Benge, the Mets' first-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, has made the Opening Day roster.

"We just told him that he will be playing right field on Thursday for the New York Mets, so he made the team," Mendoza said.

"A moment that he’ll never forget…. It’s a big day for the organization. A kid that gets drafted in 2024 and two years later here we are giving him the news that he’s going to be playing in the big leagues for us."

Benge, understandably, was ecstatic to hear the news.

“Joy over everything, I would say. Just knowing that I worked hard for it," Benge said. "Countless hours I spent, all my family members and friends that have sacrificed some time for me, that it’s all going to come true, my dream since I was little, it’s pretty cool.”

The 23-year-old Benge hit .366 with a .435 OBP, driving in five runs and stealing a base. And that doesn’t include a home run that he hit in an exhibition game against Team Israel.

He also more than held his own among a lineup filled with stars like Juan Soto, Bo Bichette, Francisco Lindor, and others, looking confident at the plate while playing a strong right field.

"He earned it," Mendoza said. "He had a hell of a camp, and we are all excited to watch this kid play."

"We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here, but just how he carried himself throughout camp, you could tell with the way that he was interacting, the way he presented himself on the field and off the field, you could tell right away that there is something special about this guy," the manager added.

“I’d say I’ve always had a certain amount of confidence in myself," said Benge, "being able to compete with whoever it may be that I’m going up against. So I feel like I’ve always had a good amount of confidence in myself.”

The Mets will now travel from Port St. Lucie back to New York, with first pitch of Thursday's Opening Day matchup with the Pittsburgh Pirates set for 1:15 p.m.

Benge will take the field with his teammates for the first time as a big leaguer, and should receive a rousing ovation from the Citi Field crowd.

“I’ve always thought about it since I was a little kid, thinking about that moment when you first take the field in the big stage for the first time," Benge said. "It’s going to be surreal. I’m going to try my best to take it in. Stay calm and play my game.”

Seattle Mariners at Seattle Mariners, March 23, 2026, 12:10 p.m. PST

Watch: None

Location: Peoria Sports Complex – Peoria, AZ

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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Last one of Spring. pic.twitter.com/INazw40mmD

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 23, 2026

One more before the real thing at @TMobilePark on Thursday. #TridentsUppic.twitter.com/VMdXyTz41R

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) March 23, 2026

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

It’s finally here: this week Opening Day arrives and the Yankees’ 2026 season will kick off in San Francisco. We’ve got just a couple of spring training games left to get through before the record resets, but by the time this mailbag returns to answer your questions New York will officially be either a half-game up or behind the rest of the division.

Max Fried will get the first start of the year, and then a trio of Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, and Ryan Weathers will follow him. The early schedule will allow the team to forego a fifth starter, at least for the first couple of turns through the rotation, and that’s allowed them another bat off the bench in Randal Grichuk. Will the journeyman outfielder manage to impress enough to stay on the roster once they return to a five-man rotation? How will Fried shoulder being the ace of the staff once again? How will Aaron Judge open his quest for a third-consecutive MVP season? If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ‘em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.

Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of March 26th will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Robert Vargas is in a bit of a time crunch.

The Los Angeles-based artist has embarked on one of his most ambitious murals. Titled "Samurai of the Diamond," it features the Dodgers' trio of Japanese stars — two-way player Shohei Ohtani and pitchers Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — in larger-than-life fashion on a 12-story wall of the DoubleTree Hotel in Torrance.

As of early Saturday afternoon, Vargas still had a lot of painting to do in order to have the mural finished by the official unveiling at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Anyone familiar with Vargas and how he works, however, knows he will get it done.

"It may be finished at 9:59, but at 10 o'clock we will unveil this," Vargas said

Koreatown resident Diego Guerrero is one of those who knows Vargas' style. After witnessing the artist working on his massive Fernando Valenzuela mural in Boyle Heights during the fall of 2024, Guerrero said he had "full faith" Vargas would meet his deadline this time around.

“I know he’s got this," Guerrero said while visiting the DoubleTree site Saturday. "Last time he was doing this, it was raining and even that time he pulled it off. So I have no doubt he’ll finish it.”

Read more:Robert Vargas began Fernando Valenzuela mural on the day the Dodgers great died. It's become an altar

Vargas said the new piece was conceived as a follow-up to the massive mural of Ohtani he painted on the side of the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo soon after the former Angels pitcher signed with the Dodgers prior to the 2024 season. In two seasons with L.A., Ohtani has won two National League MVP awards and helped the Dodgers win two World Series championships.

The Dodgers signed Yamamoto during the same offseason and Sasaki a year later. Both pitchers played key roles in the team's 2025 postseason run. Yamamoto went 7-1 with two complete games and pitched for the final out in Game 7 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Sasaki moved to the bullpen for the playoffs and recorded three saves and two holds.

“If [the Ohtani] mural was about ushering in a new era and a new face here in Los Angeles, this mural is about building a cultural bridge from Los Angeles to Japan and really emphasizing the greatness that these foreign-born Japanese players are contributing not only to the team, but to this community's identity," Vargas said. "And also inspiring to kids who can look up and see heroes that look like them from this community.”

Known for its large Japanese American population and concentration of Japanese businesses, Torrance signed friendship city agreements with Bizen (Yamamoto's hometown) in August 2024 and Oshu (Ohtani's hometown) in October 2024.

Vargas, who has a home in Japan because of the frequent mural work he does there, came up with the idea of a Torrance mural honoring the Dodgers' Japanese stars around that time.

“I feel that they are examples of how to do things right on and off the field," Vargas said of the three players. "Their work ethic is really reflected in the culture. That's why Ohtani is so respected out there on the field, not just for what he's doing with the bat or with the baseball but just how he conducts himself. It's refreshing.”

His idea received support from local leaders, such as Mayor George Chen and city council member Jon Kaji.

"Ever since the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani in December, 2023, the community has rallied around Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki giving us all a sense of pride," Kaji said in an email to The Times. "...'Samurai of the Diamond' exemplifies the unifying power of sports that transcends borders and nationalities."

Chen wrote in a separate email: "There are many Dodgers fans in the City of Torrance and the greatness of these 3 players have been great role models to young and old. They are performing at the highest levels in MLB, yet they have shown us that even great athletes and celebrities can maintain a certain level of maturity, respectful to others, picking up trash, not retaliating when attacked, and always showing great sportsmanship."

Read more:New mural at Dodger Stadium honors Fernando Valenzuela

The wall will include an interactive feature: When visitors scan a QR code, they will see each player come to life and throw a strike, with animation provided by the AR Firm. Also, lights are being installed in the parking lot to illuminate the mural at night.

"It's going to be a destination," Vargas said.

DoubleTree general manager Linda Amato, who is also the executive chairperson of the Discover Torrance visitors bureau, said the hotel plans to create "opportunities for guests to gather outdoors, enjoying [Dodgers] games under the stars alongside the interactive mural."

"The response from the community has been incredible," Amato said in an email. "There’s a real sense of excitement — people are stopping by daily to watch the progress and engage with the project. It’s brought a new energy to the city. Robert Vargas has been amazing throughout the process, often speaking with visitors about his vision and techniques, which adds to the overall experience."

Vargas hand-picked the DoubleTree as the site, even though he said the hotel's exterior "presents the most difficult surface challenge" he has faced. The wall is lined with thick, vertical grooves, described by Vargas as "almost like a lattice surface because the corrugation is so deep."

Because of that, Vargas — who always works freehand and does not use spray paints — has to carefully paint each section with a brush, as even a roller will not work on that surface. He calls the process "very exciting."

Actor Edward James Olmos, who was visiting Vargas at the site Thursday morning, thinks his longtime friend is nuts.

"That’s the worst f— texture I’ve seen in my life," the 79-year-old "Stand and Deliver" actor said of the wall's surface. "Not one artist I’ve ever known would even want to try to do this. He chose it. I told him he’s off his a—. Have you ever seen that texture before? Never.”

Read more:Latinx Files: The Edward James Olmos Interview

Vargas he said he's not thinking about that or any other challenges when he's several stories in the air working on a project he knows will mean a lot to many people.

"When I'm up there and I think about the community that's down here and how excited they are to see an image like this — not only because of what the content is, but that it's happening here in Torrance and not just in Little Tokyo — they feel very, very proud," Vargas said. "So the wind conditions, the heat conditions, the scaling, all of that becomes secondary when you think about why you're creating it.”

On Saturday afternoon, East Los Angeles resident Edgar Reyes came out to see the super-sized artwork being created in real time.

Read more:For two-time defending champion Dodgers, the goal is simple: 'They want to keep winning'

"It’s just amazing to be able to witness it and see how people are coming together," said Reyes, who described himself as a "big Robert Vargas fan." "I think for Torrance this is a good thing because you see a lot of murals in the east side of L.A. because there’s a lot of graffiti artists and all that, compared to over here. So it’s something really huge for Torrance, I believe."

Koreatown resident Diego Guerrero, who also visited the site on Saturday, said it is "mesmerizing" to watch Vargas work and called the mural "mind-blowing."

"It’s so huge," Guerrero said. "You could see it from miles away. And it’s like, hey, I know them — they’re part of the Dodgers. But not just that. They’re part of the minority. They’re Japanese players, we’re Hispanics, but we’re the same. We want to feel like we’re represented and we’re here. The world will see us, you know?”

Around midday Saturday, Vargas faced another delay when high winds caused him to temporarily come down from the wall. He had already made arrangements to be able to work through the night on Saturday and said he was prepared to work nonstop, if necessary, to be finished in time for the unveiling two days before the Dodgers' season opener Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

"I'm going to get it done," he said.

“My time frames are pretty ambitious, but I also know what I'm capable of when it comes to my speed," Vargas added. "And also I think that my process is really charged by my intention of why I'm creating these pieces, and that is what fuels me to completion.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

It’s a morning game today — well, morning in Arizona — as the White Sox who end up making the team get packed up to fly to Chicago (where the wind chill will be 26° at game time, compared to about 70 degrees warmer in Phoenix).

It’s down to the wire to see if the Sox have a winning Cactus League record! Did you catch the excitement?

To try for that magic 16-15-1, White Sox are sending out a starting lineup that is mostly like what they’ll put on the field Thursday for Opening Day in Milwaukee — but with lefty Anthony Kay on the mound. Kay has had the best spring of any Sox starting pitcher, with a 2.20 ERA that shows (we hope) that the resurrection of his career in Japan last year wasn’t a fluke.

The A’s counter with righty Luis Morales, who had a fine rookie season in 2025 — 1.2b WAR on a 3.14 ERA — but is having a miserable spring, giving up 13 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings, much of the problem being 10 walks.

There is enough in the way of trips to the plate now for the extremely high or low batting averages of early spring to return toward normal, with the only one better than .300 being Luisangel Acuña’s hefty .405, and the only one short of .200 being Colson Montgomery’s .170.

The A’s also have most of their regulars in the game, led by Brent Rooker, who has a .348 average this spring, along with five homers.

One last desert matchup! pic.twitter.com/FEYdWBAYmB

— Athletics (@Athletics) March 23, 2026

First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. Central, with the early start in Arizona giving everybody heading north plenty of time to pack. This is a game where you’d normally see the starters leave after a few innings and start to haul their gear homeward. It also avoids the worst of the heat, though it’s not supposed to get hotter than the mid-90s in the Phoenix area, not the 100+ of recent days.

Or, you could see them hauling gear if the game was on TV, which it isn’t. Not on radio, either. So you’ll have to catch Gameday on occasion and use your imagination.