Category: Baseball

It’s a good thing that it’s still spring training and not the regular season because this was the type of performance that would’ve resulted in a very rough outing for Reynaldo López had it come in a game that counted. Instead, it’s something to think about with the regular season on the horizon as López struggled and ended up getting pulled in the fifth inning of this spring training contest.

This figured to be a stern test for López anyways with the Twins posting something that looks very similar to what their Opening Day lineup could look like laster this week. Still, I’d like to imagine that everybody associated with and rooting for the Braves would’ve preferred if López looked a lot better today.

The first three innings of this outing actually went very smoothly for Reynaldo López — he retired the side in order in the first and second innings (a double-play ball helped him get out of the second) and avoided trouble from a one-out single in the third inning. The fourth inning is when things started to get a little shaky, as López got the inning started off by walking Byron Buxton and then giving up a single to Matt Wallner. Another double play ball got López out of this situation but by now it was clear that López’s velocity was going to be sitting below 90-mph on his heater.

By the time the fifth inning had rolled around, the Twins decided that it was time to tee off. López kept a few pitches hanging enticingly in the strike zone during this frame and the Twins capitalized each time. The first resulted in a Royce Lewis double, the second was a single from Austin Martin and then the third and biggest mistake got crushed by Luke Keaschall for a three-run shot that put the Twins in front.

The 80-mph slider was the last pitch that López threw in this one as he finished with 4.2 innings under his belt, along with four earned runs on five hits and two walks. López only finished with one strikeout once he was done, which was his strikeout of Buxton all the way back in the first inning. His velocity also left something to be desired as well, as he was actually sitting at 89-mph with the four-seamer and the velocity on all of his other pitches was way down as well.

Obviously the hope is that he was trying to ease into the regular season and you could make an argument that that this was the case since his velocity was higher in his most recent start before this one. Granted, his four-seamer was still below his usual average of 95-mph back on March 17 but it still looked more lively back then than it did today. Still, it’s pretty concerning that López did struggle in both of his final two starts before the regular season. We could end up laughing about this if he bounces back once the games begin to count but it’s still not great to see when you’re coming off of a season-ending shoulder injury from the season before!

hard for me to believe this is completely meaningless data for a guy's last spring training start pic.twitter.com/ZlTfdaRlw0

— Austin Cain-Reach (@reach_baseball) March 22, 2026

As far as the bats for the Braves go, the first inning was the peak for Atlanta. The Braves scored their first two runs via some good ol’ fashioned A-B-C baseball: Brett Wisely got on with a leadoff walk, Jorge Mateo laid down a sacrifice bunt and ended up making it on base and into scoring position thanks to a throwing error and then Drake Baldwin brought them both in with a bouncer through the middle to initially put the Braves in the lead. Dominic Smith proceeded to cash in Baldwin’s run with an RBI single of his own to make it a three-run first inning.

Drake Baldwin and Dominic Smith both added hits to their tally later on and that was about as good as it got for the Braves from the first inning onwards. Taj Bradley settled down a bit once he got his second chance (he got pulled from the mess during the first inning and returned for the second frame) and the Braves just didn’t get a lot done in terms of production against the Twins and their pitching staff past the first inning.

The big story of the day was Reynaldo López’s underwhelming performance, though. I do remember saying earlier during spring training that if Spencer Strider’s velocity was low in the latter portions of camp like it was to start out then it was perfectly fine to start worrying. Strider doesn’t appear to have that issue but López certainly does and again, the main hope is that he was simply trying not to overexert himself with the regular season around the corner. If it’s like that once things are serious, watch out.

The Yankees closed their Grapefruit League spring training schedule with a 6-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies Sunday at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., where Aaron Judge hit his first home run since rejoining New York after the World Baseball Classic.

Takeaways

1. Judge's first game back as a Yankee after almost three weeks with Team USA was this past Friday's 3-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles, in which he struck out three time in as many at-bats. Saturday's 3-1 loss at the Detroit Tigers saw Judge sit, and the day off fared well for his Sunday return.
   
   His 1-for-2 afternoon featured a leadoff home run in the fifth inning against Aaron Nola -- Judge's first long ball since returning to New York from the WBC -- where Judge sent Nola's 2-2 pitch, an 85 mph changeup, down the left-field line and into the second deck.
   
   Players of Judge's caliber should not miss a beat. After he returned to the tune of Friday's 0-for-3 performance, his Sunday bounce back -- a third-inning walk included -- is a welcome sign for the Yankees with three days until Opening Day.
2. Will Warren saved his best for last. He allowed one hit -- Kyle Schwarber's leadoff double -- in five shutout innings, retiring 15 straight Phillies while striking out six.
   
   Warren threw 44 strikes on 62 pitches. He ends his spring with a 1.42 ERA in 25.1 IP over six starts, striking out 16 and walking three.
3. Ryan McMahon was a bright spot at the plate. His 2-for-3 day featured a third-inning leadoff single an RBI knock with two outs in the fourth, scoring Giancarlo Stanton and putting the Yankees up 1-0.
4. In the outfield, Jasson Domínguez and Amed Rosario each had a defensive lapse. Domínguez, who will start the season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, did not do himself any favors with his 0-for-2 performance after he replaced Judge's lineup spot. Domínguez's  misread on a deep fly ball to left field went down as an error and was a reminder of the struggles and inconsistencies that he has faced at the position.
   
   Rosario's right-field whiff should not be discounted, though he made the most of his mistake with an RBI single to polish off the Yankees' 6-2 lead with two outs in the eighth inning.

Who's the MVP?

Warren, who put the exclamation point on an impressive spring training and seems primed for this season.

Highlights

Aaron Judge ‼️💣 pic.twitter.com/wMt5RakpD8

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) March 22, 2026

What's next

The Yankees head to Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz., for the first of their final two spring training games against the Chicago Cubs -- 3:05 p.m. starts Monday and Tuesday -- before they open the regular season with Wednesday's 8:05 matchup at the San Francisco Giants.

Although the San Diego Padres Prospects lost a 7-5 game against the Chicago Cubs Prospects at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz. on Saturday, there were multiple notable and positive signs to come from the contest. With a farm system currently ranked at or near the bottom according to multiple evaluators, the Padres fielded a team filled with young players. The starting lineup had catcher Ethan Salas (19), shortstop Jorge Quintana (19), catcher Ty Harvey (20), outfielder Kale Fountain (20) as well as pitchers Kruz Schoolcraft (18) and Taiwanese righty Lan-Hong Su (18) all playing against mostly more advanced prospects for the Cubs.

The starter for the Padres, Luis Gutierrez pitched a scoreless inning and was followed by Miguel Mendez, Schoolcraft, Kannon Kemp, Kash Mayfield, Jaxon Dalena, Johan Moreno, Lan-Hong Su and Garrett Hawkins. All pitched an inning except Dalena, who allowed four runs and four hits over 0.2 innings and was replaced by Moreno for the last out.

Su, the young righty from Taiwan, had the most impressive performance. Signed in October of 2025 during the International Signing Period, Su made his Padres debut in this game. Pitching the seventh inning, Su threw four-seam fastballs between 96-98 mph and also featured a curveball and a changeup. He got two strikeouts over his 10 pitches thrown and most of his pitches were strikes. He is slated to begin the season at Low-A Lake Elsinore and will rise quickly if he pitches this well.

The left-hander Mayfield pitched the fifth inning on nine pitches with two fly-outs and a single allowed. The fastball for starter Gutierrez reached a new velocity of 97 mph during his one inning pitched.

On the position player side, Salas put on a show. Starting at catcher, he experienced the ABS system but not in a positive way. Challenging two calls behind the plate, Salas lost both challenges in the first three innings and the Padres played the rest of the game without that option.

But otherwise, it was a standout performance from the young catcher. Salas had a loud out at 108.5 mph, a single and a three-run home run that left the yard at 104.9 mph. He worked a long plate appearance for a walk, scored a run, had a stolen base after his single and threw out two runners attempting to steal second base. If he wanted to announce his return with authority, he did a good job.

Fountain, 6-foot-5 and 230-pounds, played the 2025 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He also had hamstring issues last season which limited his playing time. He was drafted in 2024 as a corner infielder but played this game in right field and is being transitioned to a corner outfielder this spring. Fountain has tremendous power potential, as he showed in the game. He launched a home run deep onto the center field berm at 109.1 mph and it traveled 455 feet. He also had a 110.3 mph single while going 2-for-2 with a walk and a run scored.

Spring Training will be coming to an end this week for the players headed to Triple-A El Paso as their season begins March 27. The other minor league teams will finish their spring games and travel to their locations for early April starts.

There will be a preview coming later this week and the rosters for the respective teams should be coming out over the next week-and-a-half with El Paso this week.

Expect the Padres to continue to push their young and talented prospects with Salas starting in Double-A San Antonio. As individual players perform well, there will likely be promotions to the next level and there are several prospects who could meet that criteria.

On Sunday morning, the Colorado Rockies announced the following position players will break camp with the team:

• Mickey Moniak (OF)
• Jake McCarthy (OF)
• Brenton Doyle (OF)
• Jordan Beck (OF)
• Kyle Karros (3B)
• TJ Rumfield (1B)
• Brett Sullivan (C) 
• Edouard Julien (INF)
• Willi Castro (UTIL)
• Ryan Ritter (UTIL)
• Ezequiel Tovar (SS)
• Hunter Goodman (C)

Additionally, the rotation is set as such:

• Kyle Freeland (LHP)
• Michael Lorenzen (RHP)
• José Quintana (LHP)
• Tomoyuki Sugano (RHP)
• Ryan Feltner (RHP)

The most interesting note was that RHP Chase Dollander will begin the season with the Rockies, but he will start off in the bullpen.

On Feltner, Schaeffer had this to say: 

“Looking at this spring is a part of it. When Feltner did get ahead, he was our best pitcher in camp [while] ahead. It was just a matter of getting him there, and there’s been a commitment to that. We also liked Feltner’s track record of success in the big leagues.”

Schaeffer explained the Rockies thinking in moving Dollander to the bullpen:

“We want Chase to develop at the big-league level, too, and feel like facing big-league hitters on a consistent basis is going to lead to his development better than it would in Triple-A at this point.”

That said, they don’t necessarily see Dollander in the bullpen as long-term.

“We see Chase Dollander as an eventual frontline rotation guy,” Schaeffer continued. “The path there right now – the best path for him in our minds – is to be a length guy in the bullpen. That’s where we’re going to start the season. We’re going to evaluate and move forward as we go, but we believe we’ve got something really good with Feltner as the fifth guy and Dollander in the bullpen.”

Here’s what Schaeffer had to say about the other moves:

Brett Sullivan over Braxton Fulford

“Brett Sullivan had a very, very good camp. He swings left-handed, and swung the bat well, but also just the overall game with the interactions with the pitchers plus the offensive camp led to go with Sullivan.”

He noted that Fulford had a good camp as well but felt it would be best for him to get daily at-bats in Albuquerque. 

Additionally, Schaeffer said that Sullivan will not see a lot of DH at-bats as a left-hander.

“It’s really hard to roll with two catchers in the game at one time, and we’re going to do it a lot with ‘Goody’ DH-ing, so to do it the other way around doesn’t make much sense for us.”

TJ Rumfield

“The overall quality of his at-bats on a consistent regular basis showed us who he is and lined up with what he’s done in the past in Triple-A for the Yankees. But seeing it on an everyday basis was impressive. The way he controls the zone, the way he gets a swing off, the damage he can do, the walks he can take… just on a consistent basis, the quality of the at-bats. And he played well defensively, and I think just his overall game – he’s a high-level player.”

Kyle Karros

“It was obvious [that he was ready]. Then the wherewithal that we all have that he has not had a ton of minor league seasoning. That was talked to him about before camp started, and that this wasn’t a lock for him. He had to go do his thing. We were going to watch him, and it became blatantly obvious that he’s ready to play third base in the big leagues on both sides of the ball.”

Willi Castro

“Expect all year for Willi to have a different role. His role is to play a lot – you saw him play first base. There’s definitely right-handed at-bats for him at first base. It’s great that he’s a utility player that can play everywhere and switch hit. I mean, you talk about value, that’s huge for our team. And that value wouldn’t mean anything if he wasn’t willing to do everything – like, legitimately willing to do everything – for the team. He’s a super guy, a team guy, and so you’re going to see him in a lot of different places. But Kyle Karros is here to play third base the majority [of the time], so I think it’s safe to say you’ll see a lot of second base out of Castro.”

Ryan Ritter

“I loved his ability to come into camp and compete for a job, and add new things to it – which is not an easy thing to do at all – and be really good at it. He played left field at a high level, in my opinion, from first jumping out there and he’ll only get better. I’m really impressed with what ‘Ritt’ did. There was some really, really high competition there with him – Chad Stevens, really good player; Nicky Lopez, really good player. So for ‘Ritt’ to go win that battle was a big deal.”

Edouard Julien

“You’re going to see Eddie Julien against right-handers a lot. I like guys that get on base and he does it a lot. So there’s DH at-bats there, there’s second base, there’s some first base for him. So he’s going to be a big part of this team.”

On the general depth of the roster

“I like it. I hope that you see that. The splits are way better, versus right and versus left. Our team is going to be lined up with better matchups overall. We had to option some really good ballplayers today, and I feel for them because they all played really well. Honestly, there were a lot of position players in this camp that played well, so it made a lot of decisions difficult, but it does lend to our depth. I like our 13 guys plus I like the guys in Triple-A. I like what we’ve got. It seems to be a really good starting point for us. And they’re meshing as a team, and I’m excited to see what they’ve got.”

Closing Thoughts

In addition to setting half of the roster, the Rockies also announced the following moves:

The Colorado Rockies announced today the following transactions:

-C Braxton Fulford optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque.
-INF Nicky Lopez reassigned to Minor League camp.
-LHP Parker Mushinski reassigned to Minor League camp.
-INF/OF Chad Stevens reassigned to Minor League camp.…

— Rockies Club Information (@RockiesClubInfo) March 22, 2026

The Rockies made some expected and unexpected moves today. Which ones were the most surprising to you? 

The bullpen will be announced tomorrow. Who do you think will make it?

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Yesterday the Colorado Rockies organization took two losses. First, a 5-6 defeat for the major league squad at the hands of the Kansas City Royals despite a scoreless four inning start from Kyle Freeland, and a two double performance from Troy Johnston. Later in the day, the Rockies top prospects came together to be beaten 10-3 by their counterparts on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Today the Sacramento Athletics will visit Salt River Fields to take on the Rockies.

On the mound for the A’s will be veteran left hander Jeffrey Springs. His career so far having been defined by injuries, Springs’ ability to take the ball 32 times and pitch 171 innings last year was a welcome accomplishment.

While his velocity is nothing to write home about, Springs features a changeup that is a genuine put-away pitch against righties (41.3% whiff rate in ‘25) and a solid slider that he uses equally against batters on both sides of the plate.

Opposing him will be Michael Lorenzen making his first start for the Rockies since an impressive run with team Italy in the WBC.

While his spring training appearances leave something to be desired, across his two appearances in the tournament he logged 7.1 innings with a 3.68 ERA. That included earning the win against a stacked team USA lineup in pool play. He’ll look to keep those strong performances going against a good A’s lineup in what will be his final start before the regular season.

First Pitch: 2:10 pm MDT

TV: None

Radio: None

MLB Gameday: Live Box Score

Lineups:

One last Cactus League matchup 🌵 pic.twitter.com/46tZTmDv3t

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) March 22, 2026

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If there’s one player we’re a good deal higher on than the industry, it’s left-handed starting pitcher Jake Miller. Personally, I think Miller has a solid chance to develop into a mid-rotation caliber starting pitcher. Others will note the 2025 injuries that stalled his workload progression and see too much downside risk. More likely, he’s a good swingman who spot starts occasionally, but is still a very valuable member of the Tigers’ pitching staff in the years ahead. We’ll see how it turns out over the next few seasons.

Miller had just turned 21 when the Tigers selected him out of Valparaiso in the 2022 draft. They used their eighth round pick on the lefty, paying him the minimum bonus. That looks like another steal from the college pitching ranks. Miller was unheralded in college despite being a left-hander, in part because his fastball sat in the low-90’s. Over the past three full seasons of pro ball, he’s built that up to sit 94 mph. In the process, he’s developed above average command of a deep mix of secondary pitches, helping them all to play up and work in concert together.

The 6’2” left-hander initially weighed in at a somewhat lanky 185 pounds, but has added 15-20 pounds of good muscle over the last few years. He has a simple compact delivery, working into his motion with a rock step and a fairly high leg kick from a closed stance that gives him some deception, and then firing his quick arm through a standard three-quarters arm slot into release.

In his first full season of A-ball, Miller wasn’t particularly impressive until his command really came together late in the year to finish strong. He stayed in Lakeland to start the 2024 season, but eventually moved to High-A and reached Double-A by the end of the year. He posted a combined 1.85 ERA with a 30.4 percent strikeout rate against a truly miserly 5 percent walk rate over 87 1/3 innings of work. His command of a solid fastball and a plus changeup together was just overwhelming to A-ball level hitters.

Miller is typically 93-94 mph with his fastball, hitting 95-96 at max effort. It’s a straightforward fourseam fastball with a bit of riding action and a pretty flat plane to the top of the zone, but nothing outstanding. His crossfire and quick arm accleration give him some deception, and he moves around on the rubber to get different angles depending on the pitch and hitter, shifting his foot on the rubber into his delivery. All that helps make his release point trickier to track for hitters. It’s really just a perfectly average major league fastball, but he does a lot of little things to help it play up.

Miller began the season with Erie, and put together four good starts out of the gate before going on the injured list. There weren’t any reports at the time, so we had to wait until season’s end to find out what was going on. Rumors were that back spasms were the issue, and Miller had a procedure and missed all of May, June, and July, before making a few rehab appearances in Lakeland to close out the year. His second rehab appearance saw him smoked in the back by a 105 mph comebacker and knocked out the game. Kind of a microcosm of his year than as soon as he got back on the mound, something else went wrong.

The back trouble actually turned out to be caused by hip issues. Miller was announced for the Arizona Fall League last fall to make up some innings, but further medical exams after the reguar season ended showed partial tears to both hip labrums. Miller had surgery on both hips and he’s been completing his offseason rehab work throughout camp. Reports on his progress are positive, but he might take until late April for him to get on the mound for the Toledo Mud Hens, where he was optioned back on March 6.

The best secondary pitch in Miller’s toolkit is a plus circle changeup that really falls off the table with good deception and fade away from right-handed hitters. His command of the fastball-changeup combination is his bread and butter. Miller doesn’t just throw a good ratio of strikes. He already spots the fastball consistently all around the zone, jamming right-handers and adding a bit of cut to the fourseamer to do so, and getting more twoseam looking run on it to his armside. He’s very adept at tying up hitters inside and then getting them to expand the zone chasing fastballs up and away, or by dropping the changeup off the same eye line for whiffs and plenty of weak contact. He’ll use it left-on-left, and his excellent armspeed really helps him sell it and get hitters way out in front.

Miller’s breaking stuff is a more ordinary. He throws a pretty prototypical gryo slider around 84-85 mph, and over the past year shaped his power curveball into more of a sweeper at 79-80 mph. The slider is above average at its best but can be a little too rounded rather than breaking sharply. His consistency needs to improve a bit more with that pitch, while the sweeper is easier for hitters to recognize, but has serious horizontal break and is difficult to square up. The velocity on everything was down a tick or two during his rehab work in Lakeland last summer, and that’s the only Statcast data we have to work from, but when healthy he should be right back to the numbers provided here.

The pitcher who looks most similar to Miller on the Tigers’ right now is lefty Enmanuel de Jesus. They have similar stuff, though Miller at his best has a bit of a velocity advantage, but de Jesus’ ability to spot four pitches and really work hitters over with his command is very reminiscent of Jake Miller at his best. Pitchers like this are often underrated because there is no eye-opening “stuff” data to build a projection from, just a solid, well composed mix of pitches. It would help him to develop the slider into a harder, sharper version that plays more like a cutter, but command still plays even without a true plus pitch in the mix.

Most national sites have Miller as a 40+ future value grade. I’ll go two steps higher. He’s not a high percentage guy to develop into a number three starter in a good rotation, but the likelihood that he makes it as a backend starter, is pretty high in my opinion. Of course, he may be good enough to do that and still used in a hybrid/swingman role anyway. Should he come back strong from rehab and sitting closer to 95 mph consistently, as he has for a few brief stretches in the minors, he’ll push closer to top 100 status nationally.

The Tigers know what they have here, and they added Miller to the 40-man roster last fall to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Instead of moving him to the 60-day IL this spring to open a roster spot for Enmanuel de Jesus, the Tigers moved Troy Melton onto that list instead. Reports from camp, along with that set of decisions, suggest that Miller is tracking well to get on the mound in April, but we’ll just have to see how it plays out. One way or another, a healthy Jake Miller is a weapon, and a pitcher who will probably help the Tigers out this year. He’ll just need some time in Toledo to get his timing and command all the way back after a tough 2025 season.

The Dodgers finally made a decision on the final spot for their Opening Day roster.

And their choice qualified as a mild surprise.

On Sunday morning, the team announced it had optioned infielder Hyeseong Kim to Triple-A Oklahoma City, clearing the way for fellow infielder Alex Freeland to make the team to begin the season.

Now, the Dodgers’ position player group looks set, with Freeland likely to platoon at second base alongside Miguel Rojas while Tommy Edman continues recovering from an offseason ankle surgery.

Freeland and Kim had been competing for that second base opening throughout the spring, trying to serve as a left-handed-hitting option opposite Rojas.

But for much of camp, it appeared Kim had the advantage –– thanks not only to Freeland’s struggles in Cactus League play, where he hit .116, but the added dynamic of Kim’s speed and ability to play in the outfield, as well as the strides he seemed to be making early in the spring with his swing mechanics.

However, during his time with Team South Korea in the World Baseball Classic, Kim’s swing suffered a rapid regression. He went 1 for 12 in the tournament with six strikeouts, even against largely lesser-quality pitching. And when he rejoined the Dodgers last week, manager Dave Roberts said his swing was looking “out of sync” compared with earlier in the spring.

Freeland, meanwhile, impressed Dodgers brass enough with his improved plate discipline in camp, drawing as many walks as he did strikeouts (11 each) in the Cactus League.

He also punctuated his spring with a highlight, hitting a home run in Saturday’s Cactus League finale.

“I think he’s taken great at-bats,” Roberts said this week of Freeland, who hit .190 in 29 major-league games as a rookie last year. “The numbers, the surface line certainly isn’t there. But it’s still spring training.”

Sunday’s move might say more about the progress the club still wants to see Kim make, as sending him to Triple-A will provide him with regular playing time he wouldn’t have gotten if he began the season in the majors.

After signing a three-year, $12.5 million deal last offseason, Kim hit .383 in his first 37 games but then slumped to a .175 average over the second half of the year, with MLB pitchers quickly learning to exploit holes in his swing (most notably, an ability to adjust to spin below the zone).

And while Kim still finished his nine Cactus League games this spring with a .407 average, he also struck out eight times and drew only one walk, showing some of the same bad habits that derailed his rookie campaign.

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Here’s the last Cactus League game lineup:

Kwan CF

Martinez LF

Ramirez 3B

Hoskins 1B

DeLauter RF

Arias SS

Naylor C

Manzardo DH

Rocchio 2B

Williams P

TAMPA — The Yankees swung a minor trade on the final day of camp as they whittled down their roster to 26.

The club is sending infielder Jorbit Vivas to the Nationals for minor league pitcher Sean Paul Liñan.

Vivas was out of options and was not going to make the team, so the Yankees were able to get a non-40-man player for him instead of potentially losing him for nothing.

Liñan, 21, is a right-hander who split 2025 between Single-A, High-A and Triple-A, posting a 3.03 ERA across 19 games (15 starts) with 106 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings.

He was originally signed by the Dodgers out of Colombia before being dealt to the Nationals in a package for Alex Call last summer.

Vivas was also an original Dodgers sign before being acquired by the Yankees with reliever Victor Gonzalez for Trey Sweeney ahead of the 2024 season.

He appeared in 29 games for the Yankees last season but hit just .161 with a .516 OPS.

Trading Vivas opens up a spot on the Yankees’ 40-man roster.

The Yankees need at least one open spot to officially sign Randal Grichuk, who is making the club after being in camp on a minor league deal.

The Brewers will take on the Athletics today in the second of two Spring Breakout exhibition games. The Spring Breakout games are a way to highlight prospect talent by giving each team an opportunity to field a full lineup consisting of players from all levels of their minor league systems. Today’s lineup consists almost entirely of top-30 Brewers prospects, including the organization’s No. 1 and 2 prospects (infielders Jesús Made and Luis Peña) in the top two spots of the order. Third baseman Andrew Fischer, who smoked a 112.4-mph ground-rule double off of Mason Miller yesterday, is hitting third.

Blake Burke, who had one of the biggest second-half breakouts in the Brewers’ system, is hitting cleanup. He’s followed by Josh Adamczewski, in left field today, and 2025 sixth-round pick Daniel Dickinson. Matthew Wood, 2024 first-round pick Braylon Payne, and Josiah Ragsdale make up the bottom of the lineup. Starting on the mound today is Tyson Hardin, Milwaukee’s No. 19 prospect, who recorded a 2.72 ERA and 9 K/9 last year between High-A and Double-A.

You can watch today’s final Spring Breakout game on MLB TV and MLB Network. First pitch is slated for 3:05 p.m. CT.

Spring Breakout Game 2️⃣

📺: https://t.co/0aVCkWeSJz & @MLBNetwork#ThisIsMyCrewpic.twitter.com/UYS081oCNp

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) March 22, 2026

Spring Breakout is here 👀 pic.twitter.com/uk2Q9M8bPj

— Athletics (@Athletics) March 22, 2026

The Philadelphia Phillies already had Cristopher Sánchez locked into a long-term deal that ensured the left-hander could remain a Phillie through 2030.

Yet they feel so strongly about their All-Star ace that they guaranteed him an extra $60 million into his mid-30s.

The Phillies announced Sunday, March 22, they signed Sánchez to a six-year contract that begins in 2027, runs through 2032 and includes a club option for 2033. Including the $3.5 million Sanchez will earn this season, he’s now guaranteed $107 million through 2032, according to The Athletic.

It’s an interesting maneuver for both sides: Sánchez had signed a four-year, $22.5 million contract in June 2024 that included club options of $14 million and $15 million in 2029 and ’30. That’s a decidedly club-friendly deal for a lefty who led all pitchers in baseball with 8.0 WAR in 2025, crossed the 200-inning mark with a 2.50 ERA and finished runner-up in NL Cy Young Award voting.

So what was in it for the Phillies? Extending Sánchez for two years and $60 million at the end of the deal, which, given inflation in pitcher salaries, might look like a bargain come 2034 and 2035.

As for Sánchez, he locked in a degree of financial security in originally signing the deal, but now has guarantee of a salary approaching market value by the deal’s end, all while remaining with a team that appears in it for the long haul.

It’s a significant leap of mutual faith by club and player.

While unusual, it’s not without precedent a club would go longer with a player they’d inked to a deal that’s already been out-performed. The Kansas City Royals signed catcher Salvador Perez to three extensions after he sailed past the five-year, $7 million deal he’d originally signed – eventually inking a five-year, $52.5 million deal a year before his first one expired.

And the Cleveland Guardians locked up franchise player Jose Ramírez to a seven-year, $141 million deal entering the option year of an original five-year, $26.5 million extension. In January, Ramírez added a seven-year, $175 million extension that superseded the final three years of that old deal and added four more seasons.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cristopher Sánchez contract: Phillies ace gets $107M extension

The Yankees are quicklyfinalizing the 26-man roster that they’ll bring with them to San Francisco for Wednesday’s season opener, and with several bubble roster spots recently solidified, all that’s left is bookkeeping on the margins.

One of those moves was to figure out what to do with infielder Jorbit Vivas, who was out of minor-league options and either had to be rostered, DFA’d, or traded. A very deep Yankees bench made it so that the first option was off the table, so GM Brian Cashman worked the phones, and it appears he has found a partner. Per Andrew Golden of the Baltimore Banner, Vivas is heading to the Washington Nationals in exchange for right-handed pitching prospect Sean Paul Liñan.

The Washington Nationals are acquiring INF Jorbit Vivas from the New York Yankees and sending pitching prospect Sean Paul Liñan back to New York, per sources.

Vivas debuted and played 29 games for New York last season.

— Andrew Golden (@andrewcgolden) March 22, 2026

What’s interesting about this trade is that both of these players were originally signed out of South America by the Los Angeles Dodgers. For Vivas, who was signed back in July 2017, he showed enough promise to have his contract selected by the Dodgers in November 2021 while he was still in High-A. The 5-foot-9 infielder’s bat slowed down after that, but he was still considered a decent prospect through the end of the 2023 campaign, when he and relief pitcher Victor González were traded to the Yankees for former first-round pick Trey Sweeney (now of the Tigers).

González had a fairly forgettable stint with the 2024 Yankees, but Vivas would spend the majority of the year with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (aside from a cameo in the bigs that did not involve any in-game appearances), eventually making his MLB debut in 2025 due to injuries to DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton, and Jazz Chisholm Jr., playing both second and third base while LeMahieu, Chisholm, and later Oswaldo Cabrera hit the shelf.

For a guy who had just 66 plate appearances and a putrid .516 OPS in 29 games, he still had two memorable moments in pinstripes, one good and one bad. The good was his hitting his first major-league home run in a 1-0 win against the Texas Rangers back in May, which earned him the honor of being mentioned in a witty Pinstripe Alley headline.

The bad was, unfortunately, him being on the wrong side of one of the best throws you’ll ever see from Ronald Acuña Jr. in July, which saw the former MVP hose Vivas tagging for third and not sliding. This clip will be replayed long after Vivas is done playing professional baseball and I think he’d rather never see it again.

Vivas was at least serviceable minor league depth, but the Dodgers’ decision to start his clock two years before he was traded to New York eventually reared its head, leading to him departing the organization just after his 25th birthday. He’ll now join a Nationals organization that will offer him a roster spot as he slides into a competition for reps with José Tena, Brady House, and Nasim Nuñez.

There’s reason to be intrigued by Liñan, who MLB Pipeline ranked as the Nationals’ No. 27 prospect. Acquired from LA for Alex Call at the deadline, he spent much of the last two months on the injured list after a very strong campaign with High-A Great Lakes, which saw him post a 2.65 ERA with 39 strikeouts to just 14 walks in 37.1 innings. A high point was on April 25th, when he fanned 11 in a single outing:

Liñan’s strikeout stuff flashed significantly more in Single-A and rookie ball, but with him entering his age-21 season, there’s reason to believe he can get back to the strikeout machine he was.

As for his offerings, he tosses a low-90s fastball and mid-80s slider that Pipeline believes limit his ceiling, but he offers “a legitimate claim for the best changeup in Minor League Baseball.” Pipeline describes it as a screwball-like pitch that registered a whiff rate of 60 percent and looked a lot like the deadly Airbender we got familiar with last year with Devin Williams. Lucas Apostoleris of Baseball Prospectus echoed the enthusiasm around the changeup:

We’ve seen players with outlier pitches be optimized to the fullest extent under Matt Blake and Sam Briend’s pitching development, so to get a player like Liñan with such a great offering who’s young enough to mold into something for an infielder who was going to get DFA’d is savvy business.

And here we are! The last day of (conventional) spring training, as the Brewers will take on the Cubs this afternoon before heading to Milwaukee to take on the Reds for a pair of exhibition games on Monday and Tuesday. Then, it’s Opening Day this Thursday, as the White Sox visit Milwaukee for the opening weekend.

Chad Patrick will make his last start of the spring this afternoon, as he’s set to enter the season in the rotation. After a solid rookie season in 2025, he’ll look to repeat that performance in year two. As was the case with Robert Gasser yesterday, Patrick enters this one with some less-than-ideal numbers in the spring, pitching to a 9.72 ERA with nine runs allowed over 8 1/3 innings, striking out nine. Six of those nine runs came in his last appearance against the mighty Dodgers, when he lasted 3 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and four walks. Peter Strzelecki is also slated to pitch behind Patrick.

Opposite Patrick will be another pitcher coming off a solid rookie season in Cade Horton. Horton sports a 5.91 ERA with 14 strikeouts over 10 2/3 innings this spring. The Brewers’ lineup against Horton features a lot of minor leaguers as the major leaguers travel to Milwaukee. That includes Dylan O’Rae, Jeferson Quero, and Mike Boeve in the top-third of the order, followed by Marco Dinges, Eric Brown Jr., and Jacob Hurtubise. Dasan Brown, Juan Baez, and Luis Castillo round out the lineup.

First pitch in this one is at 2:05 p.m. CT. It’ll be available to watch on Brewers.TV and nationally on ESPN Unlimited.

Catch today’s Cactus League finale for FREE on https://t.co/6ldviURCa7

📺: https://t.co/eycfmE2vgm#ThisIsMyCrewpic.twitter.com/OltNn688to

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) March 22, 2026

Spending the afternoon at @SloanParkMesa!

Watch the game live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/OZ3rBGFmDl

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 22, 2026

Javier’s results in spring have been solid, but his peripherals don’t back it up.

Astros SP Cristian Javier just finished his final outing of the spring. His stat line was solid:

5 innings, 1 earned run, 4 hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 1 solo HR. Threw 40 of his 70 pitches for strikes.

You’d think he had just shown he is ready for the regular season. However, there are a couple of issues with that line of thought:

1. He is still facing lineups with a lot of weak hitters.
2. His velocity on his fastball and sinker are not only below par, but fall as the game goes on.

Now, every pitcher will face a lot of lineups that have backups and minor leaguers in them, and that is the far lesser of the two concerns.

The main issue is that Javier, now nearly two years removed from Tommy John surgery, still has not recovered his velocity. To make matters worse, his velocity falls even further as the game goes on.

While he has gotten away with low velocities in spring, when the regular season starts and you have to face quality lineups every start, those velocities will not hold up.

Much as we saw last year with Lance McCullers Jr. as he struggled with his velocity last season, MLB caliber hitters will wait you out, sit on a pitch and punish you when they get it if they have no fear of your ability to beat them with a fastball.

Javier, like McCullers, has tremendous breaking stuff. The impact of that stuff will be negated if there is no fastball to get quick outs with.

While Javier’s stat line today was strong, his velos were not, and they progressively got worse.

Here’s a breakdown of the velocity of Javier’s four-seams/sinkers by inning today (per MLB.com):

1st: 91.7, 91.8, 92.1, 92.6, 93.2, 92.9, 92.4, 92 – Avg 92.3 MPH

2nd: 90.6, 91.6, 91.3, 91.1, 91.3, 90.7, 91.2, 91.2 – Avg 91.1 MPH

3rd: 92, 90.4, 92.1, 91.6, 90.2, 88.9, 89.4, 90.6, 90.5, 91.3 – Avg 90.7 MPH

4th: 92, 91.4, 90.9, 90.7 – Avg 91.3 MPH

5th: 91, 90.1, 89.8, 89.4, 91.4, 89.9, 89.7, 90.1 – Avg 90.2 MPH

For the whole game, he averaged 91.1 MPH. He gave up an absolute rocket HR on a pitch 91.6 upper middle zone to Jordan Walker, who blasted it at 111.3 MPH and 413 FT to CF. Javier loves to live high in the zone. When you get caught at those velos high in the zone, the ball is going to fly very far.

He had a high mark of 93.2 in the 1st, and a low mark of 88.9 in the 3rd.

His final 11 four-seamers & sinkers maxed at 91.4 MPH. Those are not velocities that are going to translate to long term success at the MLB level for a righthanded pitcher.

While dealing with low and inconsistent velocity last season, Javier posted a career high 4.62 ERA in 8 starts after returning from Tommy John surgery. An offseason to continue strengthening his arm and refining his mechanics was supposed to help him regenerate his prior velocity. So far, he looks very much the same as he did last season.

The Astros entered this season expecting to count on Javier to be one of their top three starters. Mike Burrows and Tatsuya Imai will now take those places behind Hunter Brown.

What can the Astros count on Javier for? Javier has always been a bulldog on the mound. He will battle and fight with every pitch.

Over 162 games, if he can’t regain his velocity and maintain it, is the bulldog in him going to be enough?

The Washington Nationals made a late trade right before the season. Paul Toboni traded 21 year old pitching prospect Sean Paul Linan to the Yankees in exchange for infielder Jorbit Vivas. This move will bolster the Nationals infield depth. Vivas will be on the 40-man roster, so the Nats will have to make a corresponding move.

The Washington Nationals are acquiring INF Jorbit Vivas from the New York Yankees and sending pitching prospect Sean Paul Liñan back to New York, per sources.

Vivas debuted and played 29 games for New York last season.

— Andrew Golden (@andrewcgolden) March 22, 2026

This is an interesting little trade that came out of left field. Linan just joined the Nats organization in July in a deal that sent Alex Call to the Dodgers. However, Toboni must not have loved what he saw. I am a bit surprised they traded him for an infielder with no options, who has a lot of overlapping skills with Jose Tena.

I would not be surprised if this move could mark the end for Tena. Vivas is an infielder who mainly plays second and third base. He is also out of options, so he will have to be on the big league roster. Clearly, Toboni prefers Vivas over Tena or maybe even Nasim Nunez.

While Vivas struggled in his first taste of big league action in 2025, he did show some intriguing traits. He only went 9/56, but showed solid contact skills and a good approach. There is not much power in his game, but he can go deep every once in a while. 

Nats have traded for Jorbit Vivas, Yankees get Sean Paul Linan in return

I like what Toboni got back here

pic.twitter.com/rdMKv5NlrZ

— Kev (@klwoodjr) March 22, 2026

Vivas will have to hit a decent amount in the MLB because he is a fringy runner and an average defender. Honestly, I do not really know if he is a huge upgrade over Tena and I probably would have kept Linan. However, there is a reason Toboni has the job and not me.

Linan is an intriguing pitching prospect, but there are reasons to be bearish about him. He has a phenomenal changeup that is one of the best pitches in the minors. However, he is a bit of a one trick pony. His fastball is pretty ordinary and his breaking balls are fringy. Linan was able to dominate A ball with his changeup, but how far will that one weapon take him?

sean paul liñan showing off the changeup‼️ pic.twitter.com/aQOV4ndL1D

— Nationals Player Development (@Nats_PlayerDev) March 9, 2026

Clearly, Toboni was not a Linan believer given this return. After this move, I wonder if the Nats are done. I would not be surprised if they tried to see if they could get an arm for Jose Tena. The 24 year old should have at least a bit of value. Some team would probably want to give him a shot as a utility guy.

This is a bit of a weird move, but it is not a massive one by any means. Toboni must value Vivas’ contact and plate discipline a lot. Having worked for the Red Sox for many years, Toboni is likely to have seen a lot of this Yankees prospect. Vivas has a solid track record in the minors and is now likely to get some run in the big leagues with the Nats.