Category: Baseball

Pirates 2 Blue Jays 9

Not that it really matters, but it is nice to have a win.

José Berríos wasn’t great but only allowed 2 earned, with 5 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts and a home run. His ERA is now 3.38 on the spring. Normally, I’d say his spring training numbers don’t matter, but he had a bunch of stuff happen at the end of last season, so doing well will go a long way to make us, and the decision makers for the Jays, feel better.

Other pitchers:

• Jeff Hoffman: 1 clean inning, with a strikeout. He looked good.
• Jorge Alcala: 1 inning, 2 hits, 2 strikeouts.
• Tyler Rogers: 1 inning, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts. I love watching him pitch.
• Brendon Little: 1 inning, 1 walk, 1 strikeout.
• Tommy Nance: 1 inning, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts.

Offense, starters:

• Nathan Lukes: 1 hit, 1 walk, 1k, grand slam home run. .649 BA on the spring. I really want him to have a great spring, and, so far, he is. Not that I think a good, or bad, spring training will change a thing for his regular season playing time. But I still want him to to well.
• Davis Schneider: 0 for 3, 2 strikeouts. .063.
• Addison Barger: 0 for 1, 2 walks. .211.
• Daulton Varsho: 1 for 3. .412.
• Eloy Jiménez: 1 for 3. .391.
• Brandon Valenzuela: 1 for 2, walk. .333. We really don’t have enough Brandons, Brendons, Brendens, Braydons, and other guys whose names start with Br so I’m sure he’ll be on the roster at some point this season.
• Josh Rivera: 1 for 2, walk, k. .182.
• Rafael Lantigua: 0 for 3, k. .500.
• Riley Tirotta: 1 for 2, walk, k. .176.

Replacements:

• Yohendrick Pinango: 1 for 2, 2 RBI, home run. .125.
• Eddie Micheletti Jr.: 2 for 2, home run. .500. I love when guys who we don’t expect to be on the team at least for a year or two, hit a home run in spring. It is a nice way to get me to remember them and I’ll watch third minor league numbers a little more than others. I know one spring home run means nothing, but it makes me pay attention.
• Cutter Coffey: 0 for 2. .077. I still think he’s the best name in the organization.
• Johnatan Clase: 1 for 2, k. Triple. .286. I’ve liked watching his defense this spring. I know it has only been a few innings, but he’s looked more confident out there.
• Geovanny Planchart: 0 for 1. Sac fly.
• Aaron Parker: 0 for 1, k.
• Josh Kasevich: 0 for 1. .438.
• Carlos Mendoza: 1 for 1. .545.
• Sean Keys: 0 for 1, k.

The Jays are now 3-8-2 on the spring. Tomorrow they make the 15 minute drive to Clearwater to play the Phillies. Max Scherzer makes his first start. It is an 11:00 start.

Record 7-7. Change on 2025: +0.5. 5-inning record: 4-9-1.

The D-backs found themselves swept on both sides of today’s split squad double-bill, with fairly weak line-ups in both games. Starting off at Salt River Fields, a pair of three-run homers did all the damage as the White Sox blanked the D-backs 6-0. They were allowed by Landon Sims and Joe Ross; the latter came in to relieve Daniel Eagan with two outs and two on in the second, and didn’t. The best of the relievers for Arizona was likely Andrew Hoffman who struck out three batters in a scoreless seventh. The Diamondbacks were held to four hits and two walks: Angel Ortiz had the only extra-base hit, a double, as the team went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

Over in Maryvale, the team did at least pick up a five-inning win, leading 2-1 at that point. But the Brewers scored five unanswered runs to beat the D-backs 6-2. Mitch Bratt started, and walked four over 2.2 innings, but gave up just one run on one hit, with two strikeouts. Bryce Jarvis tossed two scoreless, but Juan Burgos, John Curtiss and Taylor Rashi allowed five runs on six hits and two walks, over their three frames. Gavin Conticello and Demetrio Crisantes each went 2-for-3, while DH Manuel Pena had a homer and drew a walk. LuJames Groover drove in Arizona’s other run with a groundout.

Tomorrow, it’s back to one game: that comes at Salt River Fields against the Giants, with a 1:10 pm first pitch, and Kohl Drake starting for the Diamondbacks.

As the Mets continue camp this spring, here are the latest moves as New York cuts their roster to 26 active players ahead of Opening Day...

March 6, 6:10 p.m.

The Mets have made another move prior to Friday's game, optioning Dylan Ross to Triple-A. 

Ross' early departure certainly comes as a surprise.

The hard-throwing right-hander finished with a 2.17 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and 80 strikeouts in just 54 innings of work across three different levels of the minors last season. 

He earned a call-up to the majors at season's end, but never appeared in a game. 

Ross was viewed by many as one of the up-and-coming arms who could potentially crack the Opening Day bullpen, but instead, he's sent back down without appearing in a spring game. 

New York is now down to 67 players in camp. 

March 4, 4:45 p.m.

The Mets announced their second wave of cuts, optioning LHP Nate Lavender and C Chris Suero to minor league camp. 

Lavender, of course, was picked up by the Rays after being left exposed to the Rule 5 Draft last offseason. 

The southpaw wouldn't appear in a game all year, though, as his recovery following internal brace surgery didn't quite go as planned and he was returned to the Mets this winter.

Back with the organization, he'll look to prove that he can stay healthy to start the year.

Suero, one of the up-and-coming prospects in the organization, impressed during his time in big-league camp. 

The 22-year-old reached base three times over four games, including a homer.  

March 1, 4:50 p.m.

The Mets have optioned RHP Alex Carrillo to Triple-A. 

Additionally, LHP Anderson Severino and LHP Matt Turner have been reassigned to minor League camp.

The A’s were at home today at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona to face off against the NL West’s Colorado Rockies in Cactus League play.  J.T. Ginn got the start against Chase Dollander for the Rockies.

Ginn got off to a rough start giving up his first earned run of the season on a three-run homer to Brett Sullivan in the bottom of the first inning. But the A’s bounced back in the bottom of the inning with a Shea Langeliers double followed by a Max Muncy single. Muncy followed with a stolen base, his first of the spring, but was stranded on second.

In the second, Ginn gave up a Chad Stevens homers to center field to make the score 4-1, in favor of Colorado. Ginn ultimately pitched three full innings giving up four earned runs on four hits (two of them homers), two walks while striking out three Rockies. While it’s still early in the spring, only his third outing, I’m sure Kotsay was hoping for more from Ginn.

Luis Medina relieved Ginn in the fourth and promptly gave up two hits and his second earned run in as many innings. There will likely be more wiggle room for Medina since he missed all last year after his Tommy John Surgery and the fact that he’s out of minor league options.

Brooks Kriske replaced Luis Medina in the top of the fifth and he too gave up a home run, a two-run shot to center field to Kyle Karros bringing the score to 7-1.

Cade Marlow hit his first homer of the spring, his seventh hit in twenty at-bats, to tighten the score to 7-2 in the bottom of the sixth, but TJ Rumsfeld got that run back with the Rox fourth homer of the afternoon, this one off rookie reliever Kade Morris.

Colby Thomas got his first hit of the day in the seventh, a double driving in two runs to tighten the score to 8-5.

Morris continued to pitch three innings, giving up just that one earned run on two hits and a walk. He also struck out two Rockies. The Rockies tagged on two more runs in the ninth off Cole Miller, making his spring debut for the A’s. It was an inauspicious start, giving up three earned runs on two hits and two walks while not registering an out.

The A’s scored one last run in the bottom of the ninth on Thomas’ second hit and third RBI of the day.  That brought the final score to Rockies 11- A’s 6.

Hey everyone! It’s good to be back. Speaking of back, so are the Yankees, and they’ll be looking to wash away the aftertaste of yesterday’s 15-0 drubbing at the hands of the Twins. Their opponents today will be the Rays, with Cam Schlittler making his spring debut against Joe Boyle.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that Schlittler made as a rookie last year with the Bombers — and he only debuted in July! In his 14 regular season starts, Schlittler threw 73 innings of 2.96 ERA ball, with very good peripherals to boot. However, he saved his best work for the postseason, posting eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts over the Red Sox in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. Though his next postseason start—Game 4 of the ALDS against Toronto—didn’t go as well, he still earned the admittedly dubious distinction of being the only Yankee starter to post a quality start in that series. This will be Schlittler’s spring debut, and I’m hoping it will be the harbinger for a strong sophomore campaign for the big guy.

Schlittler will duel against Joe Boyle, whose accolades include eight Oscars, all won for his 2008 film Slumdog Millionare, though die-hards still swear by his 1996 classic Trainspotting — oh wait, wrong Boyle. The Boyle starting today is less decorated than Danny, but that doesn’t mean he’s a pushover. Selected in the 12th round of the 2020 draft by the Reds, he made his MLB debut in 2023 with the Athletics, posting a 1.69 ERA over three starts. After a rough 2024, he was shipped to the Rays as part of a package for Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez, where he split time in Triple-A, where he was an International League All-Star, and the majors, where he posted a 4.67 ERA (4.19 FIP) and 58 strikeouts over 52 innings. Armed with premium stuff, the next step for Boyle is finding the strike zone with consistency. If he does, he’ll be a thorn in the Yankees’ side for the next few years.

The top of the Yankees’ lineup tonight features their big guns, sans Aaron Judge (leading Team USA tonight against Brazil in their WBC opener). Trent Grisham is in center field leading off, followed by Ben Rice at first, Cody Bellinger in left, and Giancarlo Stanton at DH. Ryan McMahon and Paul DeJong will be at third base and second base, batting fifth and sixth. Making his spring debut will be Oswaldo Cabrera—we love you Oswaldo!—coming back after a left ankle fracture ended his 2025 season in May. Max Schuemann will hit eighth and start in right field, and Payton Henry will don the tools of ignorance in the nine spot.

How to watch

Location: George M. Steinbrenner Field — Tampa, FL

First pitch: 6:35 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES Network

Radio broadcast: WDAE (Rays broadcast on MLB.tv)

Online stream: Gotham Sports Network, Rays.TV

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

If you are going to produce few hits, might as well make them count.

The White Sox chased a morbid offensive effort on Thursday night with one not much better on Friday. The difference? Two of the hits left the yard, and with the sacks close to packed. Or, in other words: Five-hit games don’t result in wins very often — but six-run games sure do.

The key blow came early, as Oliver Dunn stepped to the plate with two on and two out in the second inning. Facing reliever Landon Sims fresh in from the pen, Dunn drove a center-cut, 92.3 mph fastball on 1-0 out 429 feet to right. Anyone questioning the strangeness of batting your designated hitter ninth in the lineup (uh, not me, no way) can pack those three runs home in their pipes and smoke ’em.

Just two innings later, it was Jarred Kelenic blasting another three-run shot, his first long ball with the White Sox. And even in the hot air of Arizona and Spring Training pitching always just one meltdown from defeat, Kelenic’s shot put the game away.

The game was over before its midpoint thanks to some outstanding pitching, as the White Sox arms put forth their best efforts thus far in 2026: Anthony Kay, Tanner McDougal and Noah Schultz took on all but two outs and combined to stifle the Diamondbacks on just four hits. None of the three had dominant K stuff rolling, but the White Sox defense backed each up on balls in play, keeping the game scoreless and the Dbacks frustrated.

Schultz in particular was outstanding, needing just 25 pitches to pocket seven outs. His removal with one out in the ninth rang a bit odd, but perhaps leaving right at 25 tosses meant the White Sox are working off a hard cap of 25-30 throws for the tall lefty rebounding from knee issues in 2025.

With the rout, the White Sox got back to better than .500, at 8-7, and return home tomorrow to take on Seattle in a CHSN/WMVP broadcast game. Leigh Allan (yes, undefeated on his four-game coverage season so far) will have your coverage.

Right after the game, the White Sox announced one demotion to Triple-A and nine other reassignments from MLB camp, none of them surprising:

The Atlanta Braves are continuing their spring training while some of their star players are off to the World Baseball Classic to include Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuña Jr. facing each other today. The Braves will face off against the Minnesota Twins with Reynaldo López taking the mound again.

One of question marks for López after coming off a significant injury was whether he could get his velocity back. Back in 2024, when he arguably had his best season of his career, he averaged 95.5 MPH on his fastball. López was already hitting 94 MPH back on February 19^th.

López has had positive results in spring thus far. He has pitched 5.0 innings while surrendering zero runs, only two hits and accumulating five strikeouts to only two walks. Of course, odds are it will be hard to replicate this over an entire season, but it is most certainly a positive sign.

It should also be noted that there is a fun stat on Baseball Reference that measures the opponent quality. It ranges from one being rookie ball to ten being a full MLB squad. So far López has a score of 7.0, which is equivalent of AA opponents.

It could be guessed before the lineup was dropped, but since the Braves are playing away from home, the lineup is largely full of players that will have minimal playing time in the regular season. Red hot Dominic Smith will get the start at 1B looking to boost his hopes for a roster spot now that Profar is done.

The Braves will face an outside-of-the-box trade option for them in Bailey Ober. Ober will be making his spring debut for the Twins who are already down a few rotation arms this year. It will be interesting to see if the Twins decide to go into a full rebuild mode this season.

The Twins’ lineup will feature former top prospect Royce Lewis, as well as old friend Orlando Arcia.

Game Notes

Time: 6:05 ET

TV: Gray TV

Streaming: MLB.TV (free game of the day)

Radio: ESPN 103.7/WIFN 1340

Friday notes…

• FORMER CUBS IN PADRES CAMP: Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada, Nick Castellanos.
• CUBS STAT LEADERS: (minimum 10 AB): OPS, Dansby Swanson (1.750). BA: Swanson and Dylan Carlson (.500). OBP: Carlson (.652). SLG: Swanson (1.100). HR: Swanson, Jefferson Rojas and Carson Kelly (2). SB: Scott Kingery and Pedro Ramirez (4).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Padres lineup:

Ben Brown will start for the Cubs. Other Cubs pitchers scheduled today: Ethan Roberts, Ryan Rolison. Jack Neely, Collin Snider and Grant Kipp.

Germán Márquez will start for the Padres. Other Padres pitchers scheduled today: Marco Gonzales, Adrian Morejon, David Morgan and Jeremiah Estrada.

Today’s game will be televised by Padres TV. It will also be on MLB Network (no blackouts). There will be a radio broadcast via the Padres station KWFN 97.3.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Padres site Gaslamp Ball. If you do go there to interact with Padres fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

As we have done in the past, we’ll have a first pitch thread at five minutes to game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time. For today, that will be 7:05 p.m. CT and 8:40 p.m. CT.

These threads will not post individually onto the front page; instead, you can find links to them in the box marked ”Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page. There will also be a StoryStream on the front page with all the game thread links, as well as the recap after the game is over. The pitcher photos and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Carlos Lagrange continues to turn heads at Yankees camp. 

The young right-hander has arguably been one of the biggest standouts to this point, helping him receive some big-time praise from captain Aaron Judge. 

After a live BP battle between the two earlier in camp, Judge said that Lagrange has all the makings to be a top-of-the-rotation arm in the big leagues. 

On Friday, another Yankee great offered his two cents on the 22-year-old. 

This time, it was ace Gerrit Cole who was left blown away by the consistent heat he showed as the two completed their latest live BP session at Steinbrenner Field. 

“It’s like, silly, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cole told MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. "I'm just blown away by the velocity every time."

Lagrange topped out at 101.5 mph during his three innings on Friday, and he only needed three pitches to dispose of Jasson Dominguez during their matchup. 

Dominguez is just the latest to fall victim to the 23-year-old’s heat. 

He’s punched out six batters and allowed just two runs (one earned) while topping out at 103 MPH over his first two Grapefruit League appearances. 

This has been just a glimpse of Lagrange’s big-time potential.

He racked up 168 punchouts last season in 120 innings between High-A and Double-A.

First Pitch (CT):5:05 PM
TV: Twins.TV
Radio: 830 WCCO/Audacy App
Know Yo’ Foe: Battery Power

What to watch: We’re on Roden CF watch yet again. With how well both he and James Outman have been playing this Spring, the Twins will have some hard decisions to make if a trade isn’t done before Opening Day. Also, Twins legends Kyle Farmer and DaShawn Keirsey are in the lineup for Atlanta!

Lineups

First pitch against the New York Yankees is at 6:35 at Steinbrenner Field and the Rays will be providing TV and radio coverage.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza provided some updates prior to Friday's game against the Marlins...

What Benge needs to do to secure spot

Carson Benge has been extremely impressive so far this spring in his bid for a roster spot.

While the right field competition is very crowded to this point, the team is simply looking for him to keep doing his thing in order to lock-up his Opening Day spot. 

“There are a lot of things out of his control, but he’s having a good camp,” Mendoza said. “He’s controlling the zone, I like the quality of at-bats especially against lefties -- we saw it the other day going the other way with two strikes -- the defense, the way he’s running the bases. Still a long ways to go, but he’s having a really good camp.”

Heading into Friday’s game, Benge is hitting .312 with a homer and a .357 OBP on the spring.

He also made a diving catch and has shown off his plus-arm in right. 

Ewing impressing, as well

Benge hasn’t been the only young standout earning praise early in camp. 

Outfield prospect A.J. Ewing has also been very solid so far on both sides of the ball.  

Asked about the 21-year-old on Friday, Mendoza simply described him as “a ball player.”

“There’s a lot of different ways he can help a team win baseball games,” the skipper said. “Whether it’s with the way he plays defense, the way he runs the bases, his good at-bats -- just putting the ball in play, driving the ball.

“He’s another kid who I don’t think people talk much about, but he’s another good one.”

Ewing didn’t crack SNY's Top 30 prospect list last season, but rose all the way up to No. 3 this year, and is already among the Top 100 prospects in the sport. 

So far, the youngster looks ready to continue his rapid rise.

Other surprises

Along with Benge and Ewing, there have been plenty of others who have caught Mendoza’s eye thus far in camp.

That includes both young talent and the vets.

“A lot of them,” Mendoza explained. “We mentioned Ewing, [Chris] Suero, [Ryan] Lambert, and then just a lot of our established players, the way they showed up to camp.

“[Kodai] Senga, I’m really looking forward to watching him pitch. Sean Manaea put in a lot of work, Luis Robert on the backfield continues to crush pitching, and just the professionalism from some of the new players -- there are a lot of good things we’re seeing in camp.”

LuBob leaves the yard

Speaking of Robert's backfield appearances, the skipper said he successfully completed another on Friday. 

The slugger again appeared in center, and he lifted a homer. 

Following the plan put together by the training staff, he’ll get back out there on Sunday, and play on alternate days leading up to the off day next Wednesday.

If he continues checking boxes leading up to that point, Mendoza said that there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be set to make his Grapefruit League debut. 

Robert could be a difference-maker for this lineup, if they can keep him healthy. 

Stock down at the WBC

Robert Stock will no longer pitch for Team Israel in the WBC.

The right-hander is officially back with the Mets after reporting right shoulder discomfort following his exhibition appearance against the Marlins earlier this week. 

He was set to undergo a series of tests on Friday so that the training staff can see what they are dealing with.

Stock faced an uphill battle for a roster spot in camp, but he’d gotten off to a relatively strong start, putting together back-to-back scoreless appearances. 

The 36-year-old was throwing noticeably harder, touching 98 on his fastball.

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Team USA’s 2026 World Baseball Classic run begins tonight in Houston, Texas.

The first of USA’s four games in five days will be against Brazil, with first pitch set for 8 p.m. ET.

The 2023 WBC runner-up, Team USA is bringing a stacked lineup to this year’s edition of the tournament, starting with “Captain America” and Yankees captain Aaron Judge, who will make his WBC debut after sitting out of the tournament in 2023.

The roster also includes Marines catcher Cal Raleigh, who hit 60 home runs and came second in MVP voting; Kyle Schwarber, who led the NL in home runs and RBIs for the Phillies; and MLB stars Alex Bregman, Bobby Witt Jr. and Bryce Harper.

Brazil enters the World Baseball Classic without a single MLB player on the roster.

Giants ace Logan Webb will get the start for Team USA tonight; Webb has a career 3.38 ERA with 180 MLB games to his name. The rest of Team USA’s starting pitching rotation includes two-time AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, reigning AL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes and Mets rookie phenom Nolan McLean.

Team USA vs. Brazil WBC start time

Team USA vs. Brazil at the World Baseball Classic is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET tonight, March 6.

How to watch Team USA vs. Brazil for free

If you don’t have cable, you’ll need a live TV streaming service to stream the World Baseball Classic for free.

DIRECTV is our favorite service for watching TV live for free — it has a five-day free trial and there are a ton of options for plans that include FOX, including genre packs that offer more flexibility at lower price points. FOX is part of the MyNews genre pack, which is currently discounted to $34.99/month for your first two months.

World Baseball Classic 2026: Team USA roster

• Pitchers: David Bednar (Yankees), Matthew Boyd (Cubs), Garrett Cleavinger (Rays), Clay Holmes (Mets), Griffin Jax (Rays), Brad Keller (Phillies), Clayton Kershaw, Nolan McLean (Mets), Mason Miller (Padres), Joe Ryan (Twins), Paul Skenes (Pirates), Tarik Skubal (Tigers), Gabe Speier (Mariners), Michael Wacha (Royals), Logan Webb (Giants), Garrett Whitlock (Red Sox)
• Catchers: Cal Raleigh (Mariners), Will Smith (Dodgers)
• Infielders: Alex Bregman (Cubs), Ernie Clement (Blue Jays), Paul Goldschmidt (Yankees), Bryce Harper (Phillies), Gunnar Henderson (Orioles), Brice Turang (Brewers), Bobby Witt Jr. (Royals)
• Outfielders: Roman Anthony (Red Sox), Byron Buxton (Twins), Pete Crow-Armstrong (Cubs), Aaron Judge (Yankees)
• Designated hitter: Kyle Schwarber (Phillies)

World Baseball Classic 2026: Team USA schedule

• vs. Brazil, March 6 at 8 p.m. ET (FOX)
• vs. Great Britain, March 7 at 8 p.m. ET (FOX)
• vs. Mexico, March 9 at 8 p.m. ET (FOX)
• vs. Italy, March 10 at 9 p.m. ET (FS1)

Why Trust Post Wanted by the New York Post

This article was written by Angela Tricarico, Commerce Streaming Reporter for Post Wanted Shopping, Page Six, and Decider.com. Angela keeps readers up to date with cord-cutter-friendly deals, and information on how to watch your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and movies on every streaming service. Not only does Angela test and compare the streaming services she writes about to ensure readers are getting the best prices, but she’s also a superfan specializing in the intersection of shopping, tech, sports, and pop culture. When she’s not writing about (or watching) TV, movies, and sports, she’s also keeping up on the underrated perfume dupes at Bath & Body Works and testing headphones. Prior to joining Decider and The New York Post in 2023, she wrote about streaming and consumer tech at Insider Reviews.

Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Don H. asks:I’m just so tired of the Yankees letting players languish in the minors, until their play by or sell by dates are expired. Lombard Jr. is playing shortstop and hitting leadoff this spring, and reminds me a little of Derek Jeter when he first came up. And makes you wonder why Yankee insiders think he needs more seasoning in the minors.

George Lombard Jr.’s development is a far cry from languishing in the minors, having just three seasons as a pro with his age-21 season coming up this year. It’s an understandable concern given the team’s tendency to call up their prospects more towards 25-26 for a variety of reasons (development time, major league players blocking them, etc.), but the clock is nowhere near started on Lombard’s future and he should be around for quite some time should he make a push to the majors soon. On top of that, most scouts and insiders project Lombard to be with the Yankees sometime in 2027, with a few giving him an outside chance of making an appearance this year — Lombard has the potential to be a fast riser in the organization, a great sign for a top prospect.

As for the Jeter comparisons, while his spring has been phenomenal so far it’s important to remember that it’s just that — spring training. Lombard’s track record in the minors so far is a player with excellent defensive potential and a bat that has promise but needs refinement, with his .983 OPS in a 24-game stint in High-A Hudson Valley thus far being an outlier to the rest of his minor league career. The jump up to Double-A Somerset challenged him, and his bat came back down to Earth with a .695 OPS in a 108-game sample size, much more indicative that there’s work to be done still before rushing him into matchups with major league pitching. For all of the vitriol that Anthony Volpe has gotten from Yankees fans for largely being a glove-only shortstop, it’d be naive to rush Lombard into a similar fate when there’s plenty of time for him to figure things out at the appropriate level. And, just to give a look at what Jeter was doing with the bat at that same time, he was crushing the ball to the tune of an .873 OPS in his age-20 season that saw him jump from Single-A to Triple-A, before spending his entire age-21 season in Triple-A slashing .317/.394/.422 before getting a cup of coffee in New York.

NYCKING asks:Should LCS and World Series go to 2-2-1-1-1 format like NBA and NHL does?

The NBA and NHL format is a more “fair” approach from a home field advantage perspective, but there’s a key difference in how the baseball postseason operates that makes the 2-3-2 format feel more fitting for the sport. Introducing more travel would necessitate travel days off as well, allowing more rest for pitchers to recover and potentially allowing for teams to run with just three starters in a series, not to mention the benefits that it would give to high-end relievers whose number gets called in every close game their team finds themselves in come October. That’s not to say that it’d be bad if MLB chose to adopt this format, but it comes with tradeoffs — do you want the biggest stars to get the ball no matter what, or do you want the postseason to test the depth of your roster? On top of that, schedule-wise it would almost assuredly push the World Series further into November, which isn’t the biggest deal to some but might be to executives eyeing how much baseball can compete with football during the late fall ratings-wise.

russell1256 asks:With the Yankees farm system currently ranked in the lower half of baseball, next year, do you see a marked improvement in their ranking? Maybe based on their minor league pitching? They have multiple “studs” everyone is talking about. Carlos Lagrange, Elmer Rodríguez, Ben Hess, Bryce Cunningham, Chase Hampton, Brendan Beck to name a few.

It largely depends on how many of them are still in the system come next season — the group at large looks promising enough to catch the eyes of scouts if they continue developing, but they might also get dangled in front of general managers for upgrades at the deadline. It’s unlikely that the majority of the prospect core gets dealt out unless the team makes wholesale changes, but given the Yankees’ propensity to deal in quantity over quality because of how their top prospects rank relative to other organizations it might still be enough to prevent a major leap from the farm system overall. There’s also the chance for one or two names to end up playing a role in the 2026 campaign and graduating from the system, though there’d either need to be a remarkable run through the minors by them or a chaotic mess going on with the major league team for that to happen.

Spring Training is well underway and the World Baseball Classic pool play has also begun. It’s always a good idea to exercise some caution with early stats because players are frequently working through a few things as they prepare for the regular season. That said, there are early indicators we do keep an eye out for, especially for pitchers, like velocity and new pitches. With the obvious small (and early!) sample size caveats in mind, let’s take a closer look at what the Cubs have seen from Shōta Imanaga two starts into Spring Training.

Cubs fans will recall that the 2025 season ended with Imanaga struggling with pitch location and giving up a large number of home runs as a result. To put that in perspective, you can see some of Shōta’s key stats split by season and month below:

Admittedly, some of these samples are minuscule. The 10.2 innings Imanaga threw between May and June last season while dealing with injury are too small to be meaningful. But there are trends here that are notable. Imanaga’s strikeout rate has declined during his time in MLB. His walk rate is still elite. Say what you will about Imanaga, he throws strikes. Unfortunately, the other thing you can see is that those strikes have been more hittable over time, which is a problem.

During his first two spring training starts there is both good and bad news out of Mesa for Imanaga. The good news is that the velocity on Shōta’s pitches has been up a couple of ticks for both starts. In 2025 Shōta’s fourseam averaged 90.8 miles per hour, his splitter was at 83.0 and his sweeper was 80.3. On February 24, Shōta’s fastball sat around 92 miles per hour and hit 94.1, hist splitter mostly sat at 84 and hit 85.5. He threw one sweeper, it was 82.6 miles per hour. This approximately two mile per hour bump persisted in his second start against the White Sox on March 1 — unfortunately, another problem that reared its ugly head during the 2025 season was on display during the March start: a highly elevated home run rate. Of the four hits Imanaga surrendered in that start against the White Sox, three went over the wall.

Obviously it’s early. Imanaga has only thrown 4.2 innings so far this spring, which is an even smaller sample than either of the tiny months I told you to ignore in the table above. His HR/FB rate will not be 37.5 percent for the spring and unless there is a small sample during a month in the regular season, he won’t post a split like that in the regular season. Pitchers are frequently working on their pitch arsenal and approach during the spring in ways that can radically shift their results from start to start. However, if Shōta is still missing middle-middle when Opening Day rolls around an extra two miles per hour might not be enough to get him back to his 2024 results.