Category: MLB

Jonathan India turned around a 94.3 mph sinker in a 2-2 count, launching it 392 feet over the left field wall for a leadoff dinger in Saturday afternoon’s Cactus League outing. It was precisely the kind of thing that made Cincinnati Reds fans smile for most of four seasons, the 2021 National League Rookie of the Year working a count, waiting for his pitch, and punishing it atop the lineup.

India, of course, is on the Kansas City Royals now. His homer came off Reds lefty starter Nick Lodolo and put the Reds in an early hole, one they’d never get out of in an eventual 6-2 loss. Good for Indy, though, who struggled mightily in his first season with KC and is looking for a serious bounce-back campaign in ‘26.

In his second start of the spring, Lodolo struggled a bit more than he had in his previous outing – he yielded 6 hits and issue a pair of walks in his 3.0 IP day – but he struck out 4 and didn’t allow anyone else to score after India, somehow. The Reds of the Cincinnati pitching staff looked rather excellent on the day so long as you ignore the outing by Caleb Ferguson, who was thumped for 5 ER in 0.2 IP after allowing a pair of walks and 5 hits on the day.

Cincinnati’s offense simply couldn’t wake up in Surprise on the day. Both Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz went hitless, which is something that’s been completely unthinkable for both during their white-hot starts to Cactus League play, and Sal Stewart went 0 for 3, too. The lone offensive bright spots on the day came from Spencer Steer (2 for 3 with a double and a run scored), Dane Myers (who walked twice), and Christian Encarnacion-Strand (a double that plated Steer).

While India’s leadoff homer immediately set the tone for the day, he wasn’t the only former Red who did damage against them. Kevin Newman started at shortstop for the Royals and went 2 for 3 with a double and a run scored, and Brandon Drury went 1 for 4 as KC’s starting 1B on the day.

The Reds will head back to Goodyear and will host the Arizona Diamondbacks tomorrow at 3:05 PM ET, this time with Brady Singer on the mound to start. He’s looking to improve upon his rather ugly first outing of the spring, and he’ll get the chance to do so in front of your eyes as this one will be viewable via MLB.tv and Reds.tv (for those of you in the Reds TV area).

After five straight spring training losses, including one in the Team USA exhibition, the Colorado Rockies got back in the win column against the Athletics, riding an 11-run explosion from the offense. Front and center in those fireworks was spring standout T.J. Rumfield, who notched three runs including a solo HR (his fourth of camp). Kyle Karros had a day as well (2-for-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI), and Brett Sullivan and Chad Stevens pitched in with early dingers. The offense will look to carry that momentum into a Saturday night showdown with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Prospect Sean Sullivan (0-0, 2.45 ERA) will take the mound for the Rockies against LA, his first start of the spring. The southpaw has tallied six strikeouts and one earned run in 3.2 innings pitched across three appearances so far. The non-roster invitee will look to make the case for his big league potential after a year derailed by injuries. Brenton Doyle and Hunter Goodman make their returns to the lineup.

On the other side, Landon Knack (0-0, 16.20) will get his third start in what has been an up-and-down spring to this point. The “up” was impressive. Knack’s first start came against the Seattle Mariners, where he delivered a clean first inning. The “down” was ugly. The Los Angeles Angels rocked Knack for four hits (two of which were home runs), a walk, and three runs across seven batters faced, jacking up his ERA to 16.20. The Rockies could be poised to test his susceptibility to the long ball after their big day.

First Pitch: 6:05 p.m. MST

TV: MLB Network

Radio: Dodgers Radio AM570

Lineups:

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Boring is good. 

The Mariners lost to the White Sox on Saturday. It doesn’t really matter how because it’s Spring Training. That I have nothing more pressing to tell you is a good thing. Spring Training is meant to be boring. It’s practice. And practice baseball follows the same conventions for all news: if it bleeds, it leads. Nothing bled today.

Logan Gilbert

Logan Gilbert pitched exactly as you’d expect. He loaded the bases in the second inning with a hit by pitch, a four-pitch walk, and a flare single. Then he got a strikeout on a pretty nasty splitter, followed by a pop out to escape the jam. He finished the day after four innings with two hits, two walks, two strikeouts, and his health. 

Gilbert in Spring Training continues to feel like an extension of 2025: nasty and unhittable and still somehow kind of frustrating. It’s like a precocious child making a double helix with their mashed potatoes—how the hell do you know what that is, please just eat. 

I’ve written (and read) about Gilbert’s efficiency a bunch over the last year and I’m not sure what’s left to say. If he can work through batters a skosh quicker, I think he’s a top three pitcher on the planet. If not, he’s merely top 20. Such is the burden of expectation. 

The Rest

The Mariners batters were bad in this game. Well, not the ones who matter. Brendan Donovan picked up a pair of hits, and Colt Emerson walked and looped a single. The rest of the lineup—mostly role players and organization depth—did nothing of note.  They got their only run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Will Wilson got hit by a pitch to leadoff, and Jarred Sundstrom doubled him home. 

The Mariners had no room to complain about the hit by pitch, as Randy Dobnak plunked three batters in the top half of the inning. Ryan Loutos had to come in to get out of it.  Then, in the inexplicable hijinks only possible in Spring Training, Dobnak returned to pitch the ninth. Somehow he got three outs on just seven pitches, though how much of that was him versus the batters trying to get out of the box ASAP, I’m not sure.

World Baseball Classic 

One reason I’m grateful for Boring Baseball is last night I watched Cal Raleigh step to the plate against an incredibly amped, increasingly exhausted (and obviously talented) 17-year-old pitcher throwing 95+ mph not always near the zone. Cal did not get hurt during the game, but I’ve since been primed to wince while Mariners are hitting, pitching, fielding or, in the case of Michael Arroyo this morning, running the bases. Thankfully, he appeared OK after this play: 

Also at the World Baseball Classic today, Dom Canzone obliterated a baseball. This is the exact pitch Dom has a very real claim to being the top player on the planet at hitting, as I wrote about at the beginning of the offseason: 

This wasn’t even Dom’s hardest hit ball of the day at 104 mph. He also had a single at 105 mph and a lineout at 114 mph.

The WBC continues on this evening. If you’d like to know which Mariners are playing when, an LLer made this great app with that exact information.

HOUSTON — Sam Aldegheri, still in his Team Italy uniform hours after he came out of the game, simply wasn’t ready to take it off Saturday afternoon.

He has pitched 95 games throughout his eight-year pro career — 79 games in the minors, seven in the major leagues for the Los Angeles Angels, and nine in the Italian League — but has never felt like this.

Aldegheri, the first player to be born and raised in Italy to reach the major leagues, put on one of the most dazzling pitching performances in World Baseball Classic pool history, suffocating Brazil’s lineup in an 8-0 victory.

He pitched 4⅔ shutout innings, only the second pitcher to pitch into the fifth inning in WBC pool play this year, striking out eight batters and allowing just one hit.

Sure, he has had better performances in his career, but never one more meaningful.

“It’s different,’’ Aldegheri said. “Play for your country is something that you can't really explain, but you can feel it, feel all the support from back home. It's amazing.’’

The nerves began when he awoke, knowing what this meant for his country, and he became emotional standing in the bullpen and listening to the Italian national anthem.

“I had goosebumps all over my body,’’ he said. “It was chilling. … I was just feeling deep inside, I was just trying to think about the game.

“Those moments are hard. You have all these feelings back home, everything goes by your mind. So it was really cool.’’

This is a 24-year-old who was born in Verona, Italy, and the only baseball he watched as a kid was YouTube videos of Dodgers three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw. There were a few baseball fields near his house, and with his older brother, Mattia, a right-handed pitcher, he grew up as a left-handed pitcher on the baseball diamond instead of the soccer field.

He was discovered as a 15-year-old in a tournament in Spain by a Kansas City Royals scout, and in 2019, the Philadelphia Phillies believed in him enough to pay him a $210,000 signing bonus. Aldegheri, the son of a father who works in a glass factory and a mother who works in a bakery, went off to America to chase his dreams.

He has pitched mostly in the minors for teams called the BlueClaws and Pandas and Bees and Threshers, and was traded in 2024 to the Angels for closer Carlos Estevez. He has pitched in seven major-league games for the Angels.

He still believes in himself, still wants to be an inspiration, and knows his Saturday performance could resonate throughout all of Italy.

“I think the game is growing,’’ he said. “Back home in Italy, I have been in a lot of camps during the offseason working with kids, and I have seen a lot of experienced coaches trying to help the game to grow. …

“They are starting to do these academies every region, every city. I have seen a lot of kids, they start from 6 to 8. Hopefully next couple years we will have better technology, too, more sponsors hopefully come in and just try to get better.’’

Says Italy catcher Kyle Teel of the Chicago White Sox: “Doing what he does on the mound and throwing like he can, it just goes to show how big baseball is in Italy, and how baseball is a big part of Italian culture.’’

TAMPA — An instructive and telling moment is approaching for Carlos Rodón. 

After another bullpen session Saturday — “like my 12th one,” he said — the Yankees lefty is set to graduate to facing hitters next week for the first time since his elbow limited his range of motion last season, prompting a surgery to remove loose bodies and shave down a bone spur. 

The slow buildup is part of an attempt to keep Rodón healthy and allow him time to learn how his arm — which he will happily stretch out and bend, as if proving he can — now can rotate. 

“It’s different. Things have changed since last year or since the last few months,” Rodón said at Steinbrenner Field. “I’m still trying to figure out how everything moves again and just find the [pitch] shapes. 

“… There’s a lot more movement now. With the arm, there’s a lot more space it covers.” 

By the end of last season, Rodón could not fully bend his arm. To sip a cup of water with his left hand, he would have to lean forward because he did not have the elbow flexibility to reach his mouth otherwise.

Such limitations spilled onto the mound, where Rodón found a way to pitch — and generally well in an All-Star season in which he notched a 3.09 ERA, albeit compromised and struggling late — before the October surgery. 

Now he is toying with his arm and throwing an “easy 90-91” mph during his bullpen sessions and has begun throwing his full array of pitches.

He is progressing but “throttled,” he said, pitching in control to test his mobility and find what to do with flexibility with which he is not accustomed. 

“It changes when a hitter gets out there. You get an extra bump,” Rodón said. “I kind of need that. I need to do that so I can figure out where I need to be and how much more I need to be ready.” 

The goal remains to debut in late April or early May, he said, during a season in which the Yankees plan to sprinkle him, Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt back into the rotation following surgeries.

They will have representative arms in the group in the meantime, a starting five of perhaps Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Ryan Weathers, Will Warren and Luis Gil — with Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough further options. 

The Dodgers, for one, have solid pitching depth and routinely play for October rather than April and May.

They have become known for slow-playing their horses, ensuring the arms they most want on the mound in the playoffs are not burned out. 

But no, Rodón said, such a strategy of a prolonged absence is not part of the Yankees plan. 

“That’s worked out,” Rodón allowed of the Dodgers. “But you still need to have guys that will eat innings. 

“If I’m able to pitch … obviously, I’m going to take myself over most people.” 

It is remarkable that Rodón was able to pitch all of last season, when he couldn’t button his shirt but still made 33 regular-season starts.

By the tail end — including a pair of starts against the Red Sox and Blue Jays in the playoffs — his velocity (and the corresponding results) had dipped. 

He kept taking the ball because he felt he could and because “that’s all I’ve known,” he said. 

Now he needs to know what to do with a left arm he can bend, the next step facing hitters and seeing how his body and adrenaline respond. 

“I’ve used the word ‘patient’ a lot over the past few weeks,” Rodón said. “I feel good. I’m happy with where I’m at. … Just need the competition aspect of it. Put someone in there, and let’s make it somewhat real.” 

It seems like February grinds to a halt once pitchers and catchers report every year. While the excitement of spring training games provides a midwinter jolt, that buzz quickly wears off as you remember the RBIs don’t count, but the oblique injuries do. But now it’s March, the World Baseball Classic’s pool play is in full swing, and high schoolers are getting out of jams by breaking Aaron Judge’s bat. Baseball is back, baby, and as is the custom of this three-year cycle, we have meaningful baseball to tide us over these last ~three weeks until meaningful baseball begins all over again.

• Starling Marte is still kicking around this ol’ league here, having just finished four mid-30s seasons with the New York Mets and finding a way to close in on a 40.0 bWAR career. He’ll have a shot to add more to that figure on a new deal with the Kansas City Royals that broke at the tail end of last week.

• The Cleveland Guardians are bringing on Rhys Hoskins via that classic late-February minor-league deal avenue. Details indicate that Hoskins would receive an escalation to a $1.5MM salary should he advance to the major-league roster. Name a more classic duo than “details” and “providing information”.

• Royals Review proposes that the Royals have a surplus of catching depth from which they may be motivated to utilize in shoring up weaknesses elsewhere around the diamond. It reminds me of how the Twins have a surplus of starting pitching depth, which they, uh, which they could draw from to — hold on.
• I mentioned it last Roundup, but it still blows my mind that Yoan Moncada and Alexei Ramirez are teammates in a 2026 baseball exhibition.
• Some Cleveland news and notes from their latest wave of internal spring transactions:

• Fans of both the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox may have mixed/bittersweet feelings about Jason Benetti’s hiring as the lead play-by-play man for NBC’s renewed coverage of Major League Baseball. Widely considered the favorite to land the position, the popular broadcaster will add another national gig to an already feathered national-gig-themed hat. He continues to serve in an increasingly-popular dual role a la Joe Davis or even Matt Vasgersian, holding down a local gig while moonlighting as a voice with a little more reach.
• Kevin McGonigle is coming, so you better get used to him now.
• Finally, Eric Hosmer will be joining the Kansas City TV booth this season, the latest in a long line of post-career coaches or broadcasters proving that even if you are only in your 20’s, if you’ve been watching baseball for long enough, somebody is out there who can make you feel old. There’s a part of me that still hasn’t processed that ours is the same Justin Morneau.

MESA, Arizona — The Cubs defeated the Athletics 4-3 on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon at Sloan Park, largely on the strength of home runs by Pedro Ramirez and Ian Happ. Those were good!

Not so good was yet another home run allowed by Shōta Imanaga hit by A’s catcher Brian Serven. That homer accounted for two of the three A’s runs. (Incidentally, if Serven’s name rings a bell, he was a Cubs waiver claim in January 2024 and was on the 40-man roster for 11 days before being waived again and claimed by the Blue Jays.)

I’m here to tell you that Shōta actually threw a pretty good game. He allowed hits to the first two batters he faced, then retired eight A’s in a row. It would have been nine — and ended the third inning — if Happ had been able to catch up to a long drive that just missed his glove near the fence in left field. that went for a double. There’s no video of the play, but the photo at the top of this post shows what happened to Happ. He actually got closer to catching the ball than that photo would indicate.

A single scored the A’s first run and then Shōta served up the home run.

Here’s the pitch that went for the homer:

I’m not going to blame Shōta for this one. As you know, he has the propensity for the long ball. This pitch was a decent pitch, looks like he just didn’t get the location he wanted. Here’s Imanaga’s pitch selection for this game [VIDEO].

The Cubs, as I noted, had two homers of their own. Here’s the one by Ramirez, with two out and nobody on in the second:

Now that’s a well-placed hit. That’s an outside fastball and Ramirez got all of it. I’ve been impressed by Ramirez’ offense and defense this spring. He turns 22 next month and will likely be at Triple-A Iowa this year. He’s a player to watch.

The Cubs scored another run in that inning. Josiah Hartshorn, who is only 19 and was the Cubs’ sixth-round pick out of high school in California last year, singled after the Ramirez homer. He went to second on a walk by Michael Busch and scored on a single by Nico Hoerner.

Happ’s homer came with one out in the fifth. Here’s where that pitch was:

That was a high fastball and Happ did not miss it.

The Cubs’ fourth run, the eventual game-winner, came in the sixth. Carson Kelly doubled and was replaced by pinch-runner Ludwing Espinoza. Espinoza took third on a ground out and scored on a sac fly by Ramirez.

The Cubs bullpen did an excellent job in this one. Grant Kipp, Riley Martin, Gavin Hollowell, Jack Neely and Jeff Brigham combined to throw 5.1 shutout innings, allowing one hit, three walks and striking out seven. I’ve been particularly impressed with Hollowell this spring. He’s got a chance to make the Opening Day roster. As you know, Jed Hoyer has been really good at picking good relievers off the scrap heap and Hollowell, who is 28, could be one of those guys.

That’s all I’ve got for this one. There’s no video to share, not even from the two-camera feed.

Attendance watch: 13,574 paid to see this game at Sloan Park. That makes the season total 105,775 for nine dates, or 11,753 per date.

Sunday, I promise you I’ll have video highlights, as the game against the Giants will be televised via Marquee Sports Network. The Cubs are going with all relievers Sunday, and Hunter Harvey will throw first. He’ll be followed by Phil Maton, Caleb Thielbar and Hoby Milner. Landen Roupp will start for the Giants. Don’t forget that with Daylight Saving time starting overnight, game time Sunday is 3:05 p.m. CT. In addition to TV, there will be a radio broadcast via The Score.

It started out as a joke: while Cal Raleigh is away, his pitchers will play. Cal’s clubhouse chair wasn’t even cold before Logan Gilbert made a start where he was throwing his cutter and sinker, two pitches his opinionated catcher does not like him to throw, as revealed in this in-depth analysis by Zach Mason. But three outings into spring training, it’s looking like the cutter might survive spring training for the first time since 2024.

Gilbert said he felt a little “off” timing-wise in his start on Saturday, leading to him spraying his fastball some and missing arm-side, so he and Garver made the adjustment to go to the cutter, which moves more glove-side.

“It actually proved that there could be a little more value in the cutter than we thought.”

In Saturday’s outing Gilbert threw seven cutters out of 54 pitches, primarily to Chicago’s lefty hitters. Of those seven pitches, he got four swings: a foul in a 1-0 count that set up a strikeout, a weak-contact groundout, a foul in a 3-0 count that set up a groundout on the slider and a foul in a 2-0 count that set up a groundout on the curveball,. He also threw the pitch for a ball, in a four-pitch walk after he’d hit a batter, and got two called strikes on the pitch, one in a three-pitch sequence that went cutter-slider-splitter for a weak-contact flyout. On a day when Gilbert was “spraying the ball around” more than he wanted to, the cutter was a steadying force on the rest of his arsenal.

Here’s the groundout he got on the cutter, which came in a 2-1 count. You can see him shake Garver a couple of times before he gets to the pitch he wants.

Gilbert attributes the improvement in his cutter to the mechanical work he did this off-season cleaning up some things with his delivery, such as being attentive to a tendency to “cheat” on his front leg and swing open. Opening his hips early then brought his chest with it, causing his arm to fall into a slower slot.

“Now that I’m staying closed and a little more firm on my front side, I can get over it a little better,” Gilbert said, noting that in order for the cutter to be successful, he needs to make sure not to get “around” the pitch, which can cause the cutter to have more slider-like movement. But with his improved mechanics, he is able to be more consistent with the pitch.

“I feel like I’m in a better slot for it. That’s how I started in ‘24. I’m always north-south and if my fastball is true, my cutter does have glove-side movement. At the end of ‘24 and especially in ‘25 I was a little lower than I like to be, so my fastball was running a little bit. So my cutter actually didn’t really cut glove side, it almost got back to straight, which you don’t really want. So now that I’m a little more true on my fastball, I feel like the cutter plays off it better.”

Gilbert—perhaps fearing the wrath of his catcher—is careful to say that he’s not working on the cutter at the expense of his other pitches, and he focused hard this off-season on getting better with his slider and curveball. He says former Mariners manager Scott Servais told him that the cutter is best as an 8-10% usage pitch, but says in 2024 there were times where he used it more heavily, maybe double that.

“I don’t think that’s the goal or the role for it but like we saw today, it can get me out of a couple 2-0, 3-1 counts. I don’t want to oversell it—it’s definitely still like a third option—but there’s definitely a way to use it that can help get me out of some of those situations.”

So will the cutter make it out of spring training this year? Gilbert wouldn’t commit to a firm answer, even without the shadow of his catcher looming, but he didn’t outright shoot down the idea, especially after it bailed him out of some jams today.

“I think there’s a time and a place for it,” he allowed.

Team USA handles Great Britain 9-1 in Game 2 of World Baseball Classic originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Team USA is 2-for-2 at the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

But it took about half of the game Saturday to get the ball rolling, as the U.S. found momentum in the fifth inning before routing Great Britain 9-1 in Pool B play in Houston.

Great Britain started off in the best way possible. Nate Eaton of the Boston Red Sox took Tarik Skubal to yard on the very first pitch. It was initially called a double before review showed the ball clearly crossed the home-run line.

The U.S. thought it had the equalizing run in the bottom of the second when Will Smith delivered a potential one-run homer hit. But just as the ball fell into the crowd, Trayce Thompson, currently a free agent, robbed Smith with a spectacular catch.

Skubal pitched 41 times across three innings in what will be his lone appearance at this year’s tournament. He had five strikeouts and two hits allowed, including the aforementioned opening homer.

It took until the fifth inning for the U.S. to get on the board and, eventually, spoil Great Britain’s hopes of a possible stunner. And when the first run came, the dam broke.

Philadelphia Phillies star Kyle Schwarber delivered the highlight hit, sending a no-doubt two-run homer to help establish a 5-1 lead after five. Chicago Cubs‘ Pete Crow-Armstrong joined Schwarber to round home.

Three more U.S. runs followed in the bottom of the sixth, as Alex Bregman and Aaron Judge highlighted an inning where bases were loaded multiple times. No Grand Slam transpired, but it put Great Britain in awkward situations it couldn’t easily wiggle out of.

One more run came in the seventh as Bregman hit a sacrifice fly to center, allowing Ernie Clement to score. There were more chances to score 10 runs and end the game early, but Great Britain held firm.

It was the opposite story for Great Britain on the other side of the ball, as hitters struggled to get on base to threaten the U.S. The quality disparity between the two was on show, especially when the Americans got it going for a few innings.

The U.S. opened with a 15-5 rout of Brazil on Friday. The next pool game will feature another country rival, as Mexico is on deck on Monday, March 9. Houston is the host city for the action that will begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Mexico’s roster features MLB stars such as Randy Arozarena, Alejandro Kirk, Jarren Duran and Jonathan Aranda, among others, so it will be Team USA’s most challenging test thus far.

Team USA handles Great Britain 9-1 in Game 2 of World Baseball Classic originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Team USA is 2-for-2 at the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

But it took about half of the game Saturday to get the ball rolling, as the U.S. found momentum in the fifth inning before routing Great Britain 9-1 in Pool B play in Houston.

Great Britain started off in the best way possible. Nate Eaton of the Boston Red Sox took Tarik Skubal to yard on the very first pitch. It was initially called a double before review showed the ball clearly crossed the home-run line.

The U.S. thought it had the equalizing run in the bottom of the second when Will Smith delivered a potential one-run homer hit. But just as the ball fell into the crowd, Trayce Thompson, currently a free agent, robbed Smith with a spectacular catch.

Skubal pitched 41 times across three innings in what will be his lone appearance at this year’s tournament. He had five strikeouts and two hits allowed, including the aforementioned opening homer.

It took until the fifth inning for the U.S. to get on the board and, eventually, spoil Great Britain’s hopes of a possible stunner. And when the first run came, the dam broke.

Philadelphia Phillies star Kyle Schwarber delivered the highlight hit, sending a no-doubt two-run homer to help establish a 5-1 lead after five. Chicago Cubs‘ Pete Crow-Armstrong joined Schwarber to round home.

Three more U.S. runs followed in the bottom of the sixth, as Alex Bregman and Aaron Judge highlighted an inning where bases were loaded multiple times. No Grand Slam transpired, but it put Great Britain in awkward situations it couldn’t easily wiggle out of.

One more run came in the seventh as Bregman hit a sacrifice fly to center, allowing Ernie Clement to score. There were more chances to score 10 runs and end the game early, but Great Britain held firm.

It was the opposite story for Great Britain on the other side of the ball, as hitters struggled to get on base to threaten the U.S. The quality disparity between the two was on show, especially when the Americans got it going for a few innings.

The U.S. opened with a 15-5 rout of Brazil on Friday. The next pool game will feature another country rival, as Mexico is on deck on Monday, March 9. Houston is the host city for the action that will begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Mexico’s roster features MLB stars such as Randy Arozarena, Alejandro Kirk, Jarren Duran and Jonathan Aranda, among others, so it will be Team USA’s most challenging test thus far.

I realize that it’s a big mistake to overreact to Spring Training performances and I don’t intend this to be that, but I think there’s a legitimate question as to who the St. Louis Cardinals should put on their opening day roster as their starting right fielder and who should start the year in Triple A. If you had to make the call today, would you make Jordan Walker or Joshua Baez your starting Cardinals right fielder?

Safe to say that the St. Louis Cardinals started Spring Training expecting that Jordan Walker would again be the team’s right fielder. We were told that Jordan Walker was finally accepting the coaching guidance and had dialed his swing and approach in. After a couple of weeks of Spring Training games under his belt, Jordan’s offensive line is an unimpressive .231 with a .333 OBP, .231 SLG, and a .564 OPS. Questionable swing decisions and lots of ground balls look the same as they did last season.

Joshua Baez came into camp expecting to see lots of playing time, but with Triple A as his likely 2026 home with a possible call up in September as a best-case scenario. He’s proceeded to hammer Spring Training pitching with a .353 average, 2 home runs and an OPS of 1.156.

Is it possible that Joshua Baez could force the Cardinals hand and play his way into the starting lineup for the major league team? I can’t read Chaim Bloom’s mind, but my gut feeling is that Jordan Walker will still be allowed to at least start the year with the big league team. If he struggles and Baez continues to be an offensive force in Triple A, then a move could be made. There’s also an argument to be made that making Baez the starting right fielder would be repeating the mistake made with Jordan Walker when he was brought up to the majors too early in March of 2023.

I’ve said before that I would be in favor of the Cardinals using Jordan Walker’s final minor league option to allow him time to fix his swing and mental approach with the improved development tools the team has put into place in the minor leagues over the past two years. After seeing his start to Spring Training, I’m even more convinced he might benefit from that. However, I also am wary of hurrying the development of Joshua Baez. I had no expectations that he should receive major league roster consideration even if he had a hot Spring, but I’m now questioning that. What would you do if you were in Chaim Bloom’s shoes? Would you move forward with the expected opening day lineup with Jordan Walker in right field or would you give Baez the chance to prove he’s ready for the majors?

Like Ty Madden, our 21st ranked prospect, right-hander Dylan Smith was a starting pitching prospect for years in the Tigers system. The lack of a third pitch always had Smith on the outside looking in, and then injuries did the rest. Reinvented as a reliever, Smith showed some flashes of potential in the Tigers’ bullpen last summer and he entered spring camp with a chance to establish himself as a possibility for the relief corps in 2026. Now with two options remaining, Smith has been optioned to minor league camp, but no doubt the Tigers could really use some help from him this year.

Smith was the Tigers’ third rounder out of Alabama back in the 2021 draft. Al Avila and company went pitcher heavy that year, taking Jackson Jobe third overall and then using their competitive balance round A pick on Madden. They paid a pretty penny for Smith as well, inking him for a $1,115,000 signing bonus.

Smith got off to a good start in the A-ball levels in 2022. He kept the walks low, showing the advanced strike throwing and solid stuff the Tigers expected after his good college career. But in 2023-2024 combined, forearm and shoulder strains held Smith to less than 100 innings total across those two seasons. His splitter never really played that well despite multiple attempts to get that pitch going, and those two factors combined to convince the Tigers to alter his role. They converted him to relief in 2025, and once he was able to focus on his fastball-sweeper combination, Smith improved his fastball shape and started punching out a lot more hitters.

At the Double-A level in 2025, Smith struck out 37 percent of hitters faced, and then upped that to 44 percent at the Triple-A level. We’re only talking about a combined 32 1/3 innings of work, but the difference was marked. Smith hasn’t consistently found a big velocity bump in relief, and still averages 94-95 mph, but he was sometimes able to reach back for 97 mph when he wanted it. More importantly, he averaged 18 inches of induced vertical break, which is not great, but does get him into above average territory. He’ll still break out the splitter here and there against lefties, and it’s a decent third pitch in isolation. He just struggles to command it and using it a lot led to waste pitches. His primary breaking ball has morphed from a more traditional gyro style slider into a sweeper, and that pitch collected plenty of whiffs in 2025, including a hilarious 67 percent whiff rate in his limited time at Triple-A Toledo.

Those strikeouts completely dried up in his short MLB debut in June, but he allowed just two earned runs in 13 innings of work. However, that was spread over just seven appearances before minor shoulder trouble bit him again, and he wasn’t recalled despite the bullpen’s needs down the stretch. He did return in late July to close out the year with pretty good work in August and September for the Mud Hens.

So often, good major league relievers come from the starting pitching ranks, and that’s still the hope for Smith. He’s still only 25 years old, and his long experience as a good college starter at a big program and his minor league work, has allowed to him to develop good control over the fourseam-sweeper combo. Walks have rarely been a big issue for him. The limiting factor is that the fastball is still a pretty average offering. If he can command that sweeper to both sides of the plate, or get the splitter going, there’s the possibility that Smith could be a pretty good setup man, but right now it’s hard to forecast any of his stuff really playing like a true plus pitch. That limits him to more of a middle relief role, as opposed to working high leverage innings as a setup man.

Smith only got a brief look in spring camp so far, but the fastball velocity was 94.2 mph and he again showed a potential uptick in ride on the fourseamer, averaging 18.9 inches of induced vertical break. That continues to look like the major piece of tuning the Tigers are doing with Smith overall. The ride could turn the heater into an above average pitch if he’s consistent. With the above average sweeper, the profile would then look quite solid overall, and creeping closer to setup man quality levels.

Smith should get another shot at the Tigers’ pen this season if he’s throwing well in Toledo. He’s still young enough to improve, and he has the size and athleticism to get that fastball up to more of the 96 mph range. Combined with the better ride, that’s probably what it will take to make him a really impactful relief arm, but even as is he should be able to help the bullpen out this year. Hopefully he can put the minor shoulder issues of the last few seasons behind him, make a little sustainable progress, and finally take the next step in 2026.

I’m going to get my grumblings about this game not being televised out of the way here, though I reserve the right to grumble again in the recap. The pride of the Yankees’ farm system heads to West Palm Beach to take on the Nationals, and the only way we’ll be able to follow it is through the Washington radio feed. Spring training is annoying!

Will Warren has looked strong in two spring starts, allowing a single run across 6.1 innings so far. Perhaps more importantly, he’s struck out seven against no walks, making the case that he can be a key supporting pillar in the season’s first month as the Yankees look to get their rotation back to 100 percent health. We may be watching the maturation of an MLB pitcher in real-time, and another good outing especially against a tough top three in the Nationals’ lineup will be another step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, the Yankees send Jasson Domínguez, George Lombard Jr., and Spencer Jones to take on Nats starter Josiah Gray. That triumvirate represents what could be the future of Yankees’ baseball, even if at least two of those guys carry major question marks entering 2026. Best-name-in-baseball Jorbit Vivas also makes the trip, manning second base.

How to watch(lol)

Location: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches — West Palm Beach, FL

First pitch: 6:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: N/A

Radio broadcast: 106.7 The Fan (WSN) via MLB.tv

Online stream: N/A

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After a pair of night games, the Dodgers are back under the sun on Sunday, playing the A’s at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa. Sunday is also the first day of daylight savings time, which aligns the clocks in Arizona and Los Angeles.

In other words, Sunday’s 1:05 p.m. game in Mesa will also be at 1:05 p.m. in Los Angeles.

Justin Wrobleski gets the start on Sunday, his second start this spring and third appearance. He last pitched in a game last Saturday against the Chicago Cubs at Camelback Ranch, tossing two scoreless innings.

Sunday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at A’s
• Ballpark: Hohokam Stadium, Mesa
• Time: 1:05 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: none

The Dodgers host the Colorado Rockies at Camelback Ranch on Saturday in their second consecutive night game.

Lineup

Miguel Rojas 2B
Freddie Freeman 1B
Mookie Betts SS
Teoscar Hernández LF
Max Muncy 3B
Andy Pages CF
Santiago Espinal DH
Alex Call RF
Eliézer Alfonzo C

Landon Knack will be first on the mound on Saturday night.

Other pitchers

Bullpen regulars Blake Teinen, Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer, and Ben Casparius are also slated to pitch, with non-roster invitees Carlos Duran and Garrett McDaniels also active.

Making the familiar trek over from the minor league side of camp are Cody Morse (wearing number 90), Antonio Knowles (91), and Nicolas Cruz (93). Also active is Davis Chastain (87), the right-hander drafted in the 14th round last year out of Georgia who got into seven games in 2025 for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga.

Other position players

Ryan Ward is active as well for this game, as are non-roster invitees Josue De Paula, Zach Ehrhard Noah Miller, Ryan Fitzgerald, Kendall George, and catchers Seby Zavala and Griffin Lockwood-Powell.

Catcher Jesus Galiz (06) is active for the first time this spring. The 22-year-old missed all of last season on the injured list before playing in eight games for Glendale in the Arizona Fall League. Also active from the minor league side are infielder Jose Izarra (00) and outfielder Damon Keith (05).