Category: MLB

One of the most anticipated minor league debuts this season will be Zach Swanson embarking on his first pro season. The right-hander is another in the Detroit Tigers stash of prep pitchers they’ve drafted over the last three years who immediately went down with a major injury. The theory is that they can add a lot more high end pitching talent by taking multiple prep pitchers for overslot bonuses beyond the early rounds, rather than paying full price for just a few college arms each draft. That makes some sense, but it’s a long-term play and so far the risk seems to be heavily outweighing the potential rewards. It will take a few more years to really know, but we’ll be curious to see if the draft strategy starts to tip back toward JUCO and college junior pitchers this year.

Is this the new market inefficiency? Get the big injury out of the way early and go from there? No, no it is not, but the point of taking risky prep pitchers is the chance of hitting a home run because of their upside, and Swanson, like all of them, has a lot of upside. The Tigers are going to need this to pay off over the next few years with a couple of them developing into starters and relievers. For Swanson, that process should begin this season, hopefully by June.

Swanson was taken in the ninth round of the 2024 draft, but the Tigers paid him roughly late third round money, $722,500 to forgo his commitment to Oregon State. The Washington state, Toutle HS, grad is yet another pitcher taken out of the Pacific northwest over the past few years, as the Tigers scout that area heavily.

The 6’3” right-hander was pretty well known on the national senior circuit, but had an inconsistent final year of high school ball. At his best, he showcased big-time stuff with the potential to develop into a very good power pitcher. His delivery was still fairly raw, but Swanson was a reasonably good basketball player as well, and the Tigers like that well rounded athleticism as a predictor of the ability to make mechanical adjustments and develop good balance and a repeatable delivery.

Swanson was up to 95-96 mph as a senior, though more typically sitting 92-94 mph. He has high spin rates on his fourseam fastball, and can spin the slider up to 2800 rpms, which is borderline elite. It’s a two plane, frisbee style slider in the low to mid 80’s, sometimes looking more sweeperish, and at other times snapped off for more bat missing depth. Swanson wasn’t always getting consistent break on it in high school but with consistently it looks like a future plus breaking ball. He has a decent curveball and changeup combination as well, but on draft day they were both somewhat crude by comparison.

The Tigers will presumably be working with Swanson on raising his arm angle, improving his stride, and learning to block himself better with his lead leg. In high school he had a fairly simple delivery without a ton of push off the rubber. As a result he tended to fly open with some excessive head whack, while his arm angle dropped into a low three-quarters position through release. That delivery required a lot of upper body effort to throw hard, and comes with a tendency to sail pitches to his armside. That’s not ideal for efficient velocity and command, and it doesn’t help him use his ability to spin the baseball that well, so adjustments will be required.

In high school, he looked a little bit like long-time farmhand and former Tigers pitcher, Alex Faedo. Despite being a top college starter and a first round pick, Faedo needed a lot of work to use his lower half more effectively and improve his fastball shape with a higher arm slot in the minor leagues. Fortunately, Swanson projects to be a better athlete on the mound, with more velocity projection and a similar quality slider to Faedo. There’s certainly plenty of relief risk in the fact that Swanson has two strong offerings and needs to develop a third pitch, but he’s got a long road ahead just to develop his command. They can worry about his future role later.

Swanson worked in camp after the 2024 draft, so the Tigers did have an opportunity to start coaching him up before his UCL tear in the buildup to the 2025 season. He went on the full season minor league injured list in mid-March last year, but the surgery seems to have occurred before spring camp opened, so hopefully by May or June we’ll see him out in the Complex League, or even in Lakeland if he’s made some nice strides during the rehab process.

We haven’t seen Swanson on a mound since the spring of 2024. At the time he was a hard throwing right-hander with a nasty slider at his best, who generally threw strikes, and who has a lot of physical projection ahead. With nearly two years elapsed, and likely a full two years between his final high school start and his pro debut sometime later this spring, a lot may have changed. At a minimum, we’d like to see Swanson built up physically during the rehab process. There’s a lot of work that can be accomplished without throwing, and we’ll be looking for strength gains and better use of his legs to power his delivery when he returns to action. Without some advancement in that regard, and with a lot of time lost to injury, Swanson’s projections will turn to more of a control over command relief project than the power starting pitcher the Tigers were looking for when they drafted him.

Of course, pitching is a bulk business. The Tigers have paid well overslot bonuses to roughly a dozen prep pitchers in three drafts under Scott Harris. They’ve stockpiled a lot of talented young arms and so far have struggled to keep them healthy and developing. Meanwhile, they’ve done a lot better to date hunting undervalued college and JUCO pitchers. Troy Melton, Jaden Hamm, Jake Miller, and Andrew Sears have all moved quickly into the upper minors, with Melton already having some success, while Hamm’s rough 2025 sinking his stock somewhat for now. It will be interesting to see if the Tigers are encouraged to alter their draft strategy somewhat, while still expecting that some of this youth group will put the injuries behind them and start making progress.

Right now we’re still working with little more information on Swanson than we had on draft day. Anyone can lose a year to injury, so we’ll hold the line here. However, further setbacks will push his grades and projection down, and we really need to see at least some of the expected physical development this year. For now, there’s nothing to do but wait for Swanson’s pro debut and see what has changed and what hasn’t in the interim. Hopefully we see a stronger, more refined young pitcher on the mound, ready to start the work of developing his command and a third pitch to round out his arsenal. The potential in his fastball and slider are really intriguing. Now he needs to start making up for lost time.

Remember 2022? We kept waiting for the Orioles to call up Adley Rutschman, the 2019 #1 draft pick. When Mike Elias chose to bring him up, there was little time to prepare. The move was announced at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, the same day as Preakness.

Rutschman went hitless in that first game, but heated up quickly after that. In 113 games as a rookie, he had an OPS of .806, looked great behind the plate, and put up a bWAR of 5.4. He was a revelation.

Things have gone downhill since then. Rutschman had a good 2023, but it wasn’t quite as good as his rookie season. He started off well in 2024, but was terrible in the second half. It seemed logical that he was playing with an injury, though he didn’t own up to it.

If he had bounced back in 2025, 2024 could have been written off. But he did not. In fact, he had his worst year as a major leaguer with a bWAR of just 1.9. He hit .220/.307/.366 and was limited to just 90 games due to multiple trips to the IL with oblique strains.

Rutschman felt like a franchise savior in 2022, but he has gotten worse each year. And our young star isn’t so young anymore. He turned 28 years old last month and will be a free agent in just two years.

I am a hopeless Adley dreamer. I just can’t believe that his time as an impact player on the Orioles is already over. Thus, I have high hopes for his 2026 season, even if it makes me nervous to do so. Let’s check out some projections:

• ZiPS: 133 G, 559 PA, 19 HR, 62 BB, .254/.338/.441, 4.7 fWAR
• Baseball Reference: 446 PA, 13 HR, 48 BB, .232/.333/.402

ZiPS is more optimistic here and puts his performance close to his 2023 numbers, although with fewer games played. I would be very happy with that ZiPS line from Rutschman this year. It’s not a superstar year, but it’s very good year. A borderline All-Star year, depending on other factors. Sign me up, although the dreamer in me also hopes for more.

Baseball Reference paints a less friendly picture. 446 plate appearances would shake out to just over 100 games played. And while a SLG% of .402 would be either than he had in either 2024 or 2025, it would still be a disappointing number.

So what are you expecting for Adley Rutschman in 2027? Will he bounce back to be more like the player we hoped to see? Or will he continue to disappoint?

Every MLB season gives us something new, but 2026’s changes will be quite drastic. The automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system will take center stage this year, as pitchers, catchers, and hitters will all have the ability to double-check whether or not a called strike was actually a strike. I’m a big fan of the challenge system over pure roboumps, in large part because it introduces a new tactic: who gets to challenge, how frequently does a team challenge, and how good are you at it?

In short, a team’s approach to ABS will fall somewhere inside this matrix:

For our definitions, we’ll use liberal and conservative to describe how many players on a given team are allowed to challenge at all. Some of the early returns in spring training have indicated that pitchers, because they’re naturally falling away from the plate, have poor angles of view and shouldn’t be allowed to challenge. Some hitters have excellent command of the strike zone and others are free swingers; Juan Soto should be allowed to ask for reviews on close pitches, but I’m not sure Javy Baez should.

How readily you challenge falls on that x-axis, rarely or frequently. Every team has a limited number of challenges, but some — or indeed even some individuals — will no doubt choose to keep a challenge in reserve for a hypothetical scenario later in the game. I’m not a fan of this personally. Yes, you may want to have a review in your pocket for a 50/50 call in the ninth inning when you’re down by a run, but if an overturned strike gives you a 3-1 count in the 5th and you break the frame open with a big hit, you never run into that close ninth inning. There’s no way of telling when the Big At Bat is in a game, so don’t let a possible moment go by and end the game with a challenge to give.

And then of course there’s the thing that matters most, our inclined axis, are you good at challenging? Your approach to the two above axes probably derives from where you are here. If your team consistently wins more challenges than it loses, you should probably allow more hitters and catchers to call for review, and you should probably be more ready to use those reviews earlier in the game. If your team consistently gets these reviews wrong, the opposite will happen — pare down who is allowed to challenge, and keep one in your pocket.

I think for April most teams will be pretty high on our x and y axis, to determine where on our inclined axis they fall. For the Yankees in particular, I expect them for most of the season to be pretty liberal in who is allowed to challenge, but in the midpoint in how readily they do it. Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman are far from the most aggressive people running MLB teams, and whether you like it or not the Yankee teams they’ve constructed have always had multiple redundancies — Paul Goldschmidt back again just in case Ben Rice can’t hit lefties, things like that. That kind of behavior indicates to me that they’ll prefer to keep a challenge in hand in case of that big ninth inning moment, even if just about anyone 1-through-9 will be allowed to use one review earlier in the game.

Since the last round of changes to the replay review system in 2015, Aaron Boone has been the fifth-most-successful manager, with just over 60 percent of his challenges being won, and he’s had far more games under his belt than anyone else in the top 10 except Alex Cora. Now this isn’t really credit to Boone himself but rather the group the Yankees have assembled that advise the manager on whether to challenge or not, but it should give us confidence that the ABS review will be a strength for the club in 2026. There’s also the small factor of them rostering the player who has had more incorrect strikes called against him than any other player since he debuted, and I’m holding out hope for a .600 OBP season from a challenge-enabled Aaron Judge.

This time next week… you will not be watching the Phillies play regular season baseball. This time the week after next… you will also not be watching the Phillies play regular season baseball. But one day before this time next week… then you’ll be watching Phillies regular season baseball.

Unless opening day gets rained out again, in which case you will be watching the Phillies play regular season baseball this time the week after next.

Anyway, onto the links.

Phillies news

Mark your calendars: on August 7th, Chase Utley joins the Phillies Wall of Fame.

Aaron Nola changed his offseason training approach, and the early results look good. ($)

Zack Wheeler will be taking the next step in his recovery with a live batting practice this Saturday.

MLB news

MLB.com’s Mike Petriello evaluates every MLB ballpark by how hard it is to play outfield there. Phillies outfielders have it tough.

Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs takes a look at the scenarios that could spell doom for top teams, including the Phillies. ($)

Start checking those old binders and boxes: a one of a kind Aaron Judge card just sold for $5.2 million. (I checked my old collection, but all I found was a 1st edition shadowless Charizard. Darn.)

Free of charge for the discerning reader.Not much happened, but what did happen was important. Happy birthday to former Cubs Mark Leiter Jr. and Keegan Thompson*.

Today in baseball history:

• 1917 – After hearing that Gabby Street had caught a ball dropped off the Washington Monument in 1908, Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson brags that he could catch a ball dropped from an airplane at spring training, even though he is in his mid-50s and well above his playing weight. Robinson circles unsteadily under the descending spheroid. Instead, a grapefruit was secretly substituted and it explodes on impact with his glove. Once he feels the ooze, Robinson thinks it is blood, and screams that he is dying, until he tastes the juice. He later concedes that he probably would have been killed if a real baseball had been dropped from the plane. Aviatrix Ruth Law dropped the grapefruit as outfielder Casey Stengel assumed culpability for the switch.
• 1943 – The major leagues approve a new official ball manufactured by the Spalding Company for the upcoming season. Instead of the usual combination of cork and rubber, the inside of the ball is made up of recycled cork and balata, materials not needed in the war effort. Officials insist the ball will have the resiliency of the 1939 ball, but the players will express dismay that they cannot drive the new ball and point out the dearth of runs and homers in 1942 even with the old ball.
• 1954 – ABC’s attempt to turn a spring training game between the Phillies and White Sox in Clearwater, FL into a national telecast ends in a fiasco. As part of its contract to air the Game of the Week, the network has until now been prohibited from broadcasting any game within 75 miles of an existing major league franchise, but it tries to contravene this by omitting the clause from that broadcast’s contract. The teams only realize this just before the game is aired, and then force ABC to pull the game from the “illegitimate” stations. As the network is unable to do so in time, it simply stops the broadcast after three innings without providing an explanation to viewers.
• 1960 – The Chicago White Sox unveil an important uniform innovation. The Sox’s road uniforms feature players’ names on the backs of the jerseys, marking the first time that players’ names will appear on major league uniforms. The innovation will make it easier for fans watching games on television to identify the players on the field. The idea is yet another creation of colorful White Sox owner and innovator Bill Veeck.
• 1969 – In addition to this year’s lower mound and tightened strike zone, Major League Baseball tries an experimental ball with 10 percent more resiliency for a spring training game between the Mets and Tigers in Lakeland, Florida. It has an all-rubber center instead of a cork and rubber core, and the seams are higher than the regular ball. Mets pitcher Don Cardwell surrenders three home runs in the 4th inning to Dick McAuliffe, Norm Cash, and Gates Brown in the Tigers’ 7-4 victory. Tomorrow, in Phoenix, Arizona, the same ball is used in the Giants’ 13-1 win over the Angels, with Bobby Bonds hitting the only two homers off George Brunet. The players agree the ball is definitely livelier and sounds louder coming off the bat.
• 1986 – The father-and-son team of Hal and Brian McRae appears together in an exhibition game for the Kansas City Royals. Brian, who will be sent back to the minor leagues before the start of the season, will not make his major league debut until 1990. In 1991, Brian will play for his father when Hal takes over as Royals manager.
• 2006 – In Round Two of the inaugural World Baseball Classic, at Angel Stadium, slugger Hee-Seop Choi hits a three-run home run as South Korea humbles the United States, 7-3, to maintain its unbeaten run and leave the US’s title hopes in jeopardy. Ken Griffey, Jr. hits a solo homer and an RBI single.
• At Hiram Bithorn Stadium, Odalis Perez pitches 4.2 shutout innings and David Ortiz powers the Dominican Republic to a key victory over Cuba, 7-3. A 5th-inning mammoth blast by “Big Papi” – hit clear out of the stadium – is symbolic of Cuba’s defeat. In the second game, Victor Martinez belts a grand slam, Endy Chavez hits a two-run homer for the second consecutive day, and Carlos Zambrano combines with six pitchers on a seven-hit shutout, as Venezuela defeats Puerto Rico, 6-0. Pool Two is all knotted up with 1-1 records among all four teams.

Cubs Birthdays:Mal Eason, George Gaw, Eddie Butler, Mark Leiter Jr., Keegan Thompson*. Also notable: Home Run Baker HOF.

Today in history:

• 607 – 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.
• 1639 – Cambridge College, Massachusetts, renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard.
• 1781 William Herschel sees what he thinks is a “comet” but is actually the discovery of the planet Uranus.
• 1930 – Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory.
• 1960 – NFL’s Chicago Cardinals move to St Louis.
• 1980 – John Wayne Gacy receives the death sentence in Illinois for the murder of 12 people.

Greetings, Brew Crew Ball community. Welcome to March, as Opening Day is now less than two weeks away!

Feel free to use this thread to chat about (almost) anything you want: video games, food, movies, non-baseball sports, the Brewers, you name it. As long as it’s appropriate and is allowed by our moderators, it’s fair game here.

You know the drill.

This is now an open thread:

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

The Orioles had their final off day of spring training yesterday, and now it’s an all-out sprint to the end of camp. The O’s will play 13 games in the next 11 days, which includes a pair of split-squad games next Thursday, the prospects-only Spring Breakout game next Friday, and games against the Nationals in both Baltimore and D.C. to close out their exhibition schedule March 22 and 23.

With less than two weeks until Opening Day, everyone seems to be wondering how the O’s will pare their current camp roster of 53 down to their season-opening 26-man. MASN’s Roch Kubatko, MLB’s Jake Rill, and Baltimore Baseball’s Rich Dubroff all offered their thoughts about how the roster might line up when the season starts. All three predict the Orioles to solve their six-starting-pitcher dilemma by having Zach Eflin start the season on the IL and continue to ramp up after last year’s back surgery. Things sure seem to be leaning that way, considering that Eflin has thrown just two innings this spring — impressive as they were — and isn’t currently scheduled to pitch for the rest of this week.

The three writers are mostly in sync about how the bulk of the roster will shake out. The biggest questions right now are the final couple of spots in the bullpen and on the bench. Kubatko and Rill advocate for hard-throwing, out-of-options righty Jackson Kowar, while Dubroff pegs the last bullpen spot for Yaramil Hiraldo. All seem to agree that Grant Wolfram has pitched his way onto the team with his stellar spring (five scoreless innings, nine strikeouts) while Albert Suárez (nine runs in 6.2 innings) has probably pitched his way off of it.

On the bench, the utility infield decision seems to come down to either Jeremiah Jackson (Dubroff’s pick) or Luis Vázquez (Rill’s selection). Personally I’d go with Vázquez, because if you have Coby Mayo as your starting third baseman, you need to have a competent defender available to replace him in the late innings, and Jackson isn’t that guy.

I think the beat writers have got the roster competition sized up pretty well based on who’s currently in camp. But I feel like the Orioles might have another significant move up their sleeve before the season starts. To me there’s still a bit too much redundancy among the position-player group — particularly Ryan Mountcastle, who isn’t going to knock Pete Alonso out of the lineup and doesn’t provide any defensive versatility beyond first base.

The bullpen also seems a little light, especially now that Andrew Kittredge is injured. I don’t like the idea of Keegan Akin and Yennier Cano getting high-leverage innings, not to mention the relatively unproven guys like Wolfram, Dietrich Enns, and Rico Garcia. Maybe there’s a way for the O’s to address two problems at once by trading Mountcastle for a relief pitcher if they can find an interested partner. Just spitballing here.

What say you, Camden Chatters? As of now, what would your Opening Day roster look like?

Links

As Mayo reacclimates to 3rd, his bat shows why he’s needed in O’s lineup – MLB.com

I’m going to be holding my breath every time an opposing batter hits a grounder to third base. But I’ll learn to live with it if Mayo keeps hitting like he’s been doing this spring.

Does Chris Davis belong in Orioles’ Hall of Fame? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com

Yes, of course he does. Davis’s O’s career was worlds better than some other guys in the Orioles Hall of Fame. But I understand why his epic collapse is still a a fresh wound for Orioles fans. I would have maybe waited a couple more years before putting him in.

Is new O’s outfielder Taylor Ward flying under the radar right now? – Steve Melewski

I’ve barely thought about Taylor Ward in months, so I suppose the answer is yes.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Only one player in O’s history has a March 13 birthday: happy 62nd to Will “The Thrill” Clark. He was best known for his prolific career with the Giants and Rangers, but he spent the last two years of his career in Baltimore from 1999-2000. Clark had a .964 OPS in his final season, including 1.081 in 51 games with the Cardinals after a deadline trade, so he certainly went out on top.

On this date in 1996, the Orioles traded outfielder Sherman Obando to the Expos for outfielder Tony Tarasco. Amidst an otherwise unremarkable two seasons with the Orioles, Tarasco infamously was the right fielder from whom Jeffrey Maier stole Derek Jeter’s fly ball at the fence in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS. Three years later, Tarasco played 14 games for the Yankees, but as far as I know he had no further incidents with fans at the wall.

It’s about that time in spring where the real games start to get close, we’ve seen everyone take the field for a few weeks, and some surprise names have had hot starts while others are working off the rust. The Yankees are making their roster decisions on a near-daily basis, whittling down their invitee list starting with the obvious prospects that were always here just to get a look-see and some time with their hopefully-future teammates and coaches. Everyone else around the league is doing the same, and as those rosters begin to take shape we can start to consider where our relative preseason rankings fall.

The Yankees are expected to be contenders, both within the locker room and by the media at large. It’s expected, but it shouldn’t be taken for granted that their aim is playing in October because as we’ve seen in recent years… there’s plenty of teams that aren’t. Still, sometimes the team that’s finally looking to make some strides towards contention manages to skip a step or two and finds themselves playing deeper in the fall then they’ve done in a long time, or a team that’s been in the dance a bunch of times just to get kicked right out finally puts it all together to go on a magical run. You can’t predict baseball, as a famous radio broadcaster once said, and every year there’s one or two teams that really turn heads just based on how far they got in the end. Who could it be this year?

The Mariners and Blue Jays both fit the bill last year, meeting in the ALCS after years of playoff frustration with the latter making their first World Series since the early 90s. This year teams will be ready for them, but will they be ready for a team like the Rangers, who had a stellar rotation bogged down by one of the weakest lineups in baseball? Perhaps it all turns around for them, and they find themselves back in it like their 2023 run. Or maybe the AL Central finally gets some respect, with the Guardians once again getting little fanfare despite winning the division three out of the last four years. The Tigers have the flashiest piece with their ace Tarik Skubal and they added Framber Valdez to form a monster 1-2 combo, but don’t count Kansas City out with Bobby Witt Jr. leading the charge. Their rotation is formidable as well, and their supplementary hitters could be enough to get them back into a Wild Card Series.

Over in the National League, the Mets and Phillies have leapfrogged Atlanta after the Braves spent more than a half-decade ruling it. Atlanta missed the postseason altogether, and they face an uphill battle to get back into it, but perhaps Ronald Acuna Jr. and company can surprise some folks and get back on top this year. The NL Central could be the most ripe field for dark horses, as Milwaukee stunned with an MLB-best 97 wins last year but faces competition to hold onto their new crown. The Cubs remain a threat, and while the Cardinals have faded into the foreground of a division they once dominated the Reds could take a leap and prove that ownership should have invested in them more with another ticket to October. The Pirates would be a truly absurd team to rise out of the ashes due to their overall ineptitude, but they do have Paul Skenes — and wouldn’t it be fun to see him in meaningful games come September? About the only division that doesn’t seem interesting on this front is the NL West, as the Dodgers have remained kings for over a decade barring one strange 2021 run from the Giants and the Padres are known contenders who’ve had to settle for the Wild Card.

If you forced me to pick one team from each side to watch out for, I’d go with Kansas City and Atlanta. I don’t expect the Royals to go very deep, but I think they could give their contemporaries in the Central a run for their money and perhaps upset one of them in the standings. As for Atlanta, despite all their years ruling the East it was the year that they looked their least appealing in that span that they won it all. The Mets and Phillies are flashier, but there’s plenty of room for one of them to combust this season, and I’ll believe Atlanta’s down for the count when I see it. Who would your picks be, and how far do you think they’ll go?

Today on the site, Josh leads off with some thoughts on the ABS Challenge influence on this season and how teams will be poised to utilize it. Matt takes us back to the Deadball Era to wish Home Run Baker a happy birthday, Jeff walks us through how the Yankees’ archrivals will look heading into 2026 with a Red Sox preview, and after the exhibition I’ll be around to answer your latest mailbag questions.

Today’s Matchup

New York Yankees vs. Atlanta Braves

Time: 1:05 p.m. EST

Video: Gotham Sports App, Gray TV, MLB Network (out-of-network, only)

Venue: CoolToday Park, North Port, FL

Unable to ramp up through the first month of spring training because of lingering shoulder soreness, Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell took a step toward readiness Thursday, throwing his first bullpen session.

Two hours before Thursday night's Cactus League game, Snell threw off the mound in front of a group of reporters and fans at Camelback Ranch. Snell threw 15 pitches — all fastballs — sitting between 87 to 89 mph.

“I feel good,” Snell said after his bullpen. “I was very excited to throw off the mound again and pitch. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. This being like the first one where I actually could have the catcher down. I was still limited to what I could throw. I was throwing 87 to 89 [mph]. It felt effortless, easy, could command the ball, so [I’m] happy with that. [I’m] just happy to continue to grow and get better.”

Read more:Dodgers prospect James Tibbs III attempts to show staying power after multiple trades

The two-time Cy Young Award winner says he’s targeting an April return, and that he’s hoping to get back faster than initially expected.

“I want to pitch in April,” Snell said. “That’s my goal. So, I’ve kind of been the one pushing it, and they’re being more cautious. I think we’re just talking a little back and forth, but I think them seeing me throw a pen today, hopefully that just gives them more confidence to keep it going. I think we won’t really know until I throw a live [batting practice], I think that’s when we’ll really know. How do I recover from that? How do I feel? And then that will be like, ‘OK, let’s get him into games.’ That’s what I would envision. I’m not the front office or Dave, but that’s what I would think.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, however, isn’t ready to give a timetable for Snell’s return.

“I think honestly, to think about when he’s going to come back, we’re just a ways away from even really having that conversation,” Roberts said, noting that six weeks is "the floor" when you also account for a potential rehab assignment.

Thanks to the depth of their pitching staff, the Dodgers can afford to be patient with building up Snell. Right-handers Emmet Sheehan and River Ryan, along with left-hander Justin Wrobleski, are all possibilities for starting assignments early in the season.

"We still need him to pitch, and I know he understands that," Roberts said of Snell. "But we do have the luxury of trying to err on the side of caution. ... We are certainly better when he's pitching for us, when he's active."

Snell, for his part, is thankful to be throwing again without shoulder pain.

“The whole offseason, I mean, every throw kind of hurt,” Snell said. “It was just every throw, I could feel my shoulder. It was just cranky and I couldn’t get it going. And I thought I was doing everything I needed to, and I believe I was, and ultimately, I’m feeling better.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto to depart from WBC early, rejoin Dodgers

Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto is gearing up to make his biggest start since last year’s Fall Classic, as he will take the rubber for Team Japan in its battle with Team Venezuela in Saturday night’s World Baseball Classic quarterfinal.

Roberts revealed Thursday that it will be Yamamoto’s final appearance in the WBC, and sometime after Saturday’s game, he will return to Phoenix for the remainder of Dodgers camp.

“The thought is and the conversations we’ve had is that he’ll make this start and then come back and join us,” Roberts said.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are fleshing out what their roster is going to look like when the regular season rolls around, and one pitcher could find himself on the final roster after Spring Training. Lefty Hunter Barco might be on the outside looking in right now, but he could end up being the last man in the rotation before too long.

First of all, Barco is currently the only left-handed starter on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster. Now while that alone won’t be enough for him to crack a spot on the roster, it does add a lot of value to a group that is lacking a lefty. Barco saw some time out of the bullpen in 2025 and was a great set up man, but even just that small sample size would suggest that he’s too talented to be relegated to pitching in relief long term. The 25-year-old has looked like a bonafide starter in his three years in the Minor Leagues, and 2026 may finally be when he gets to put those talents to use in Pittsburgh full time.

Barco was also able to add three pitches to his arsenal this offseason. The former Florida Gator added a sweeper, sinker and a changeup to his repertoire to go along with his four-seam fastball, slider and splitter. That’s a heck of a workload to take on in one offseason, especially for a player fighting for a big league roster spot but to this point Barco has impressed. In Spring Training Barco has nine strikeouts across 7.1 innings pitched. In his three appearances (two starts) he has an ERA of 3.68 with one win on his record.

2025 was a huge breakout year for Barco. Despite being drafted 44th overall in 2022, Barco’s professional career was derailed early after being out in 2023 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Although it took some time for him to finally get on the field, once he did it was very strong especially considering the injury history. Last season between Altoona and Indianapolis, Barco posted a 2.81 ERA across 99 innings. He finished the season with a 4-1 record in the minors with 116 strikeouts.

Considering Barco only had a three pitch mix a season ago those marks are pretty impressive. Now with the added pitches in his bag he’s primed to have a big 2026. Right now veteran José Urquidy is projected to have that final spot in the Pirates’ rotation, but Barco is having a significantly better Spring and could also impress in the upcoming Spring Breakout Series. Barco will need to work on some control issues that come with his atypical delivery, as he walked 49 batters last season. Still though his funky delivery is part of what makes him so affective on the mound, and even if he doesn’t start his season in Pittsburgh, there’s a very good chance he sees some significant time in the majors at some point this year.

Barco is currently ranked as the fifth best prospect in the Pirates’ system and the 96th ranked prospect in baseball.