Category: Baseball

Going into spring of 2026 with less uncertainty than last season, the San Diego Padres still had some questions that needed answering as well as competition for holes that needed filling.

As opposed to previous seasons, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller was able to sign multiple players that could fill those roles. None of them were over-the-hill players and most had recent success in the big leagues.

There were also some minor league invites that were in camp that needed to show what they were capable of. First baseman Romeo Sanabria started off strong and was leading all prospects in all offensive categories through the first four weeks of camp. He played solid defense at first and made loud contact with his hits. He was sent to minor league camp when it opened in earnest and has had fewer appearances since, while playing more regularly on the back fields.

Best minor league sign

Minor league signee Jase Bowen, who was with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization since being signed out of the 2019 draft, played in Triple-A most of last season but was allowed to leave as a free agent. He signed with the Padres 20 days after his free agency began. Bowen played in 25 games with 54 at-bats this spring. He hit .296/.333/.630 with a .963 OPS. His six doubles, four home runs and 11 RBI with 7-of-8 stolen bases shows off his offensive skills and speed. He is able to play all three outfield spots with a plus-arm.

Best offensive Padre

Catcher Freddie Fermin played in 15 games and had 38 at-bats while hitting .395/.425/.632 with a 1.057 OPS. He had three doubles, two home runs and 11 RBI, even attempting a stolen base but was thrown out. This will be his first season as the primary catcher, and he has shown both good contact skills as well as power this spring.

Best bench bat

Infielders Jose Miranda and Ty France were competing for the same job. With utility player Sung-Mun Song starting the season on the IL, France won the job with the Padres out of spring camp.

France finished with 19 games played with 49 at-bats with four doubles, two home runs and 12 RBI. He had a .306/.352/.510 line and .862 OPS. He plays first base, third base and can sub for Jake Cronenworth at second.

Miranda has played in 22 games and had 46 at-bats with four doubles, two home runs, nine RBI and a .304/.385/.522 line with a .907 OPS. He can also play both infield corners and left field but is a natural third baseman. Miranda has options and will start the season with Triple-A El Paso. 

Miranda and Bowen would likely be the first call-ups in case of injury.

Best starting pitcher

While Randy Vasquez has been great and shown tremendous improvement this camp, Walker Buehler has stepped up and shown that he is ready for the rotation and a roster spot.

In four games started and 15 innings pitched, Buehler has a 6.60 ERA and a 2-1 record. He walked five with 16 strikeouts and allowed four home runs. Until his last start, he had allowed no homers and had a 3.09 ERA. With his last appearance, he allowed seven earned runs with those four homers.

With his seven-pitch mix, he has used his 92-94 mph fastball effectively and pitched backward at times. No one knew what to expect from Buehler, who has had Tommy John surgery twice and lost a lot of velocity on his fastball. He seems to finally be healthy and able to pitch in the big leagues.

Vasquez finished with the best ERA of all the starters at 4.91 but the results in spring mean nothing. The need to work on many different aspects of pitching overrules the desire to compete and these numbers are roundly ignored within the organization.

Ironically, the one pitcher not officially named to the rotation has the best strikeout number. Germán Márquez tops the team with 23 Ks while Michael King finishes a distant second with 17 Ks.

Best bullpen pitcher

Lefty Kyle Hart has quietly pitched himself into a valuable place in the Padres organization. Whether he starts with the big-league club or not, Hart has shown how effective he can be in a swing role with the team.

In 14 innings pitched over eight appearances, Hart has a 0.64 ERA with three walks and 15 strikeouts. He came to the Padres in 2025 as a starter after three seasons with the KBO. He has been more effective as a reliever but still has six pitches in his arsenal and can go multiple innings, open a game or be a spot starter. He also has options available and could go to Triple-A so other arms could be called up as a fresh replacement during the season.

Best prospect performance

Sanabria has reportedly worked hard during the offseason to improve his conditioning, but his hitting has been what has stood out this spring. Sanabria played a lot of games to begin Spring Training and was optioned to minor league camp when it opened. He has continued to make spot appearances on the major league side and finished his major league camp appearances with eye-opening numbers.

In 20 games and 24 at-bats, Sanabria had three doubles, three home runs and 15 RBI for a .333/.385/.833 line and 1.218 OPS. His 15 RBI led all players on the Padres. In his last spring game, he hit a grand slam to increase his numbers above Bowen, France and Fermin.

With the spring camp coming to a close and Opening Day just around the corner, final roster decisions are coming soon. The major league roster has to be set the morning of the first game on Thursday. The minor league season begins Friday for Triple-A El Paso.

New York Mets prospect Carson Benge, 23, has made quite the impression this spring. Despite amounting a .583 OPS in just 24 games in Triple-A a season ago, the 2024 draftee has turned his fortune around quickly, earning a spot on the Mets' 2026 Opening Day roster, per Mets manager Carlos Mendoza.

"He earned it…we are all excited to watch this kid play"

Carlos Mendoza on Carson Benge making the Mets' Opening Day roster
pic.twitter.com/gMc4PtNF48

— Milb Central (@milb_central) March 23, 2026

Benge enters the 2026 season as the Mets' No. 2 prospect (No. 16 overall) and the No. 5 overall outfield prospect, per MLB.com. And those numbers reflect just how dominant Benge has been this spring.

Benge slashed .366/.435/.874 across 41 at-bats this spring, including five runs and five RBI. Those numbers also do not include the games he played against international teams as they prepared for the World Baseball Classic. Benge hit his only home run of the spring in a game against Israel on March 4.

LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman is batting fifth for the Dodgers on Monday night in the Freeway Series against the Angels, with left-hander Reid Detmers starting on the mound. The last time Freeman was listed lower than fourth in a major league lineup was nearly a decade ago.

April 25, 2016 was the last time Freeman hit this low in the lineup. He batted sixth that night for the Atlanta Braves against the Boston Red Sox, and got two hits, including a double. In four years with the Dodgers, all of Freeman’s starts have come batting second (250 starts), third (331 starts), or fourth (61 starts).

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he might deploy Freeman hitting one spot lower with a left-handed starter on the mound.

“A lot of times when I put together a lineup, I’m trying to make it more difficult for the opposing manager to navigate,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers did a little bit of this late in the 2024 season and postseason, and throughout 2025 as well, with Freeman starting 61 times batting cleanup instead of his usual third, usually with either Teoscar Hernández or Will Smith inserted before Freeman. The idea was that if an opposing manager wants to keep their southpaw starter in the game to face both Shohei Ohtani and Freeman, say, a third time through the order, they’d first have to go through two right-handed batters to do so.

One year ago this week, Roberts called this the “Teoscar tax,” and Hernández that very day came to collect with a three-run home run off Tarik Skubal to beat the Detroit Tigers in the home opener.

Now with Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers have two dynamic left-handers at the top of the order, followed by Mookie Betts. It’s a testament to the incredible depth of the lineup that usually one of Hernández or Max Muncy is batting seventh, and now moving Freeman down a spot means him hitting fifth instead of fourth. That’s the mark of a strong lineup.

Muncy is not starting on Monday against the Angels, with Santiago Espinal at third base.

“Having the ability to sandwich Will between Mookie and Freddie, and having Espinal in the seven spot to potentially have Muncy be able to hit, it just poses threats, and not to have right- or left-handed runs,” Roberts said. “That makes our lineup tougher to navigate.”

The battle for the Pirates fifth starter spot has been solved, and it was won by a familiar face.

Manager Don Kelly joined the SportsNet Pittsburgh broadcast on Sunday as the Pirates faced the Red Sox.

Kelly confirmed that Carmen Mlodzinski will begin the season in the Pirates rotation.

Mlodzinski beat out left-hander Hunter Barco and righty free-agent signings Jose Urquidy and Mike Clevinger.

He will start Sunday’s series finale against the New York Mets on March 28.

Barco and Urquidy have both made the Opening Day club, but will begin the year in the bullpen. Clevinger was outrighted to the minor leagues on Sunday. 

Mlodzinski pitched well in four spring training outings (three starts). He allowed four earned runs over 12.1 innings with 14 strikeouts compared to two walks.

The 27-year-old righty delivered five innings of two-run ball in his final spring start against the Orioles on March 14, closing with a 2.92 ERA.

Urquidy allowed 11 earned runs in 10 spring training innings after being considered the favorite to land the spot. 

Primarily a reliever during his three-year career (2023-25), Mlodzinski enters the season in the rotation for the first time. 

In 34 games (12 starts) last year, Mlodzinski earned a 3.55 ERA, a 1.30 WHIP, struck out 89, and walked 27 over 89 innings. 

Mlodzinski was one of the Pirates best relievers and was a little surprising to see the team attempt to make him a starter again. 

In 22 relief appearances, Mlodzinski totaled a 2.15 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and .235 opponent batting average in 50.1 innings.

The former 31st overall pick in the 2020 draft made 12 starts. It didn’t go nearly as well, registering a 4.99 ERA, .293 opponent average, 1.52 WHIP, 85 hits, 16 walks, and 36 strikeouts spanning 48.2 total frames. 

Mlodzinski was frequently removed from outings before facing the lineup a third time around. Opponents hit only .150 in the first and .239 in the second innings, but .326 and .404 in the third and fourth innings, respectively.

The Pirates are going to give Mlodzinski another chance to prove himself in the rotation after an impressive spring. 

Pittsburgh begins 2026 in New York as Paul Skenes takes the mound facing the Mets on Thursday at 1:15 p.m. on NBC and Peacock.

The Dodgers close out their exhibition schedule with one more Freeway Series game against the Angels at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Shohei Ohtani starts the final game of spring training, his second game on the mound this spring. He struck out four in 4 1/3 scoreless innings last Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants at Camelback Ranch, allowing one hit, two walks, and a hit batter.

Tuesday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Angels
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 5:10 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA, Fan Duel Sports Network West (Angels), MLB Network (out of market)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

One final look at who will be on the Opening Day Roster on March 26.

As the Houston Astros prepare for their final two exhibition games of spring with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, we take on final look at projecting the Opening Day Roster.

Starting Pitching:

1. Hunter Brown
2. Mike Burrows
3. Cristian Javier
4. Tatsuya Imai
5. Lance McCullers Jr.

The Astros announced they would begin the season with a 5-man rotation. They have also previously stated their intention to keep SP Tatsuya Imai on his traditional NPB schedule of pitching every sixth day in his first season in MLB. The Astros have 2 off days before they begin a stretch of 13 games in a row on April 10.

Imai in the 4 spot allows the team to keep his scheduled starts outside of a normal MLB rotation schedule before they need to add a sixth starter.

The team announced earlier today that SP Spencer Arrighetti had been optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land, indicating he will be the 6th starter. Having Arrighetti pitch in Sugar Land the first few weeks of the season allows the team to continue building his stamina, getting him closer to being able to throw 90-100 pitches and getting him on schedule for when they intend to have him pitch once that 13 straight game stretch April 10 starts.

The Bullpen:

1. Bryan Abreu – CL
2. Bryan King
3. A.J. Blubaugh
4. Steven Okert
5. Enyel De Los Santos
6. Ryan Weiss
7. Christian Roa
8. Roddery Munoz

I have Munoz making the roster over Kai-Wei Teng because Munoz was a Rule V pick and they have to keep him on the active roster all year or offer him back to the team they selected him from (Reds) and Teng still has options.

This gives the Astros a chance to continue to look at Munoz before ultimately making a decision on him that can cause them to lose him entirely. Munoz struggled his last two appearances after a strong run, and I think the Astros want more time to look at him, so I think he will get some run as a low leverage reliever.

Christian Roa has been tremendous in spring and has earned a look in the pen to start the season, when the Astros are going to have a full 8-man pen and while Josh Hader and Bennett Sousa are on the IL. In 9.2 IP, Roa allowed one run (a solo HR) on a total of 5 hits and struck out 13 without walking a batter (he did hit 2 batters). Every team loves pen guys who don’t hand out free passes.

Teng loses out partly because he has options and partly because of the wildness he displayed in spring (6 walks in 10.2 IP). Demoting Teng lets the Astros continue to fine tune a pitcher that has the kind of stuff they like. I wouldn’t expect Teng would be down long.

If for some reason Enyel De Los Santos is deemed not to be ready for Opening Day, Teng would take that spot. De Los Santos has guaranteed money, so he will be in the pen if he’s up to speed.

Starting Lineup:

1. Jeremy Pena – SS
2. Yordan Alvarez – LF
3. Jose Altuve – 2B
4. Carlos Correa – 3B
5. Isaac Paredes – DH
6. Christian Walker – 1B
7. Yainer Diaz – C
8. Cam Smith – RF
9. Jake Meyers – CF

Jeremy Pena continues to make progress and if there is not risk of re-injury to his finger, I think it’s plausible he’s starting the season on the Opening Day roster. If he starts on IL, he will have to miss the first 10 games, and if the Astros think he will only need a day or two, I don’t think he gets IL’ed.

Games that Pena cannot play, Carlos Correa will play SS and Isaac Paredes will move to 3B, with Yordan Alvarez likely in the DH spot and one of the younger OFs in left.

The team will look to find ways to get Paredes in the lineup as much as they can, as they really like his offensive profile. Walker needs to be productive or he could find himself losing playing time, as it’s clear team prefers Paredes bat to Walker’s.

They won’t just bench Walker (unless disaster strikes) but they will ensure Paredes plays.

I can see Cam Smith leapfrogging Yainer Diaz in the lineup as well if Cam starts hot and Yainer struggles.

Bench Roles:

Backup catcher: Christian Vazquez.

The Astros didn’t sign Vazquez to stash him in the minors. I also don’t believe Vazquez would have signed if he expected to be in the minors.

Astros made it clear they have heavy reservation about Cesar Salazar being able to hit enough at the MLB level. They wanted the experience and leadership of Vazquez.

Backup SS/IF – Nick Allen.

The Astros got Allen because of his tremendous glove. Allen can play top level defensive shortstop and second base. He would be a long term play in case of significant injury. He will also see time as a late inning defensive replacement.

Backup OF: Joey Loperfido.

This presumes that Yordan Alvarez is going to see more time in LF than the Astros are letting on, and I believe it is reasonable to expect Alvarez to at least play LF twice a week on average. That number could rise depending on how the team figures out getting Paredes ABs, which is a priority for them.

Loperfido had a tremendous spring and can play all three OF spots well defensively. He’s also a left-handed bat, which the team sorely needs to help balance the lineup.

Final Bench Spot: Brice Matthews.

Matthews has shown he can play more than just 2B. Like Cam Smith a year ago, his tremendous speed and athleticism has seen him take to the OF with relative ease.

While he has had minimal time in LF, it does seem the Astros are fine with playing him there (they did play Altuve there last year after all).

Matthews has performed well offensively at Triple-A Sugar Land (.260 AG, .371 OBP, .830 OPS 17 HR 41 SB in 419 AB at AAA in 2025) and while his bat may not be fully ready for MLB just yet, his speed on the bases and extra base potential as well as his positional flexibility will earn him a look early in the season.

Zach Cole’s propensity for striking out really burned his chances of starting the season with the big league club. He hits the ball very hard, generates terrific exit velos, but the swing-and-miss is highly concerning and he can clearly do with more ABs at Triple-A (Cole only has 51 career AB at AAA). Cole will be back once he gets his swing right.

Matthews can act as the RH side of a platoon with Loperfido in the early part of the season, which should see the Astros face at least 4 LH starters early. His basestealing ability can also make him a late inning weapon on the basepaths.

I am interested to see if Matthews can get any run in CF is Meyers is poor at the plate. Meyers hit .152 with a .389 OPS in spring, while Matthews hit .250 with a .400 OBP and .817 OPS as well as 8 SB. Matthews has far more upside than Meyers offensively, much more power, and his speed translates on the bases much better.

I think it is likely that the Astros continue to work on finding a taker for Meyers so they can make Matthews the new CF before the trade deadline. Matthews has the chance to be a dynamic player with league leading SB totals. Cole getting his swing right at AAA would also encourage the Astros to find a taker for Meyers.

While Meyers is a terrific defensive player, his offensive limitations are significant and he is highly likely to regress closer to his norms this season at the plate.

With cacti and canyons behind them for another spring, the Texas Rangers begin their annual tune-up back in Arlington with a two-day exhibition slate against their Surprise roommates from KC.

LHP MacKenzie Gore will take the mound in home whites for the first time for Texas opposite RHP Michael Wacha for the Royals.

You can catch the telecast locally on CW33 or nationally out of market on MLB Network, listen to the radio broadcast via 105.3 The Fan, or you can follow along on Gameday. First pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.

Go Rangers!

The Mariners lost the final game of spring training to their complex-mates the Padres today, 10-3, but that is not important. Here’s what’s important:

Luis Castillo strong in final appearance of spring

Castillo went five innings and gave up just one run on four hits with five strikeouts. He got the Padres hitters to put the ball on the ground a bunch for easy outs, got whiffs on his four-seamer, and threw 51 of his 76 pitches for strikes. It was a comfortingly familiar performance from Castillo that it’s not hard to imagine him repeating at T-Mobile Park in about a week.

Cal and Julio team up for an early run

As much fun as the WBC was, seeing Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez combine to knock in a run in the first inning reminded us all of how much we didn’t get to see that this spring. Brendan Donovan, who is allergic to not getting on base, was hit by a pitch to start the game, then moved to third on a Raleigh double (114 off the bat!). Julio followed that up with a hard-hit (106 mph) single of his own to knock in Donovan. Unfortunately, Cal was left standing on third as the next three hitters all made outs, which is an issue I very much hope gets left in Peoria – too many times this spring it’s felt like the Mariners failed to add on when they had good opportunities to do so. One final note on Donovan: he ends spring as the Mariners hits leader, with 19. Cole Young, who didn’t play this game, ends up the leader for home runs, with six, and the RBI leader, with 18, just as we all predicted.

Randy Arozarena continues to heat up

The Mariners got their second run of the game off actual-starter Germán Márquez, who thought he could sneak an elevated fastball past Randy Arozarena. That was just his second homer of the spring, with his first coming five days ago in the game against the Brewers. Arozarena has been historically somewhat of a streaky player, so hopefully he’s headed back to Seattle on one of his heaters.

Leo Rivas: likely Opening Day shortstop

Leo Rivas made another start at shortstop today and it feels like that’s what the Mariners will be rolling out on Opening Day. There’s been no official update on J.P. Crawford’s status but he still wasn’t playing catch yesterday, per Daniel Kramer, so it feels like Rivas is being primed for an Opening Day start. It would be the first Opening Day start of Rivas’s career and his first time being on an Opening Day roster, so make sure to pack an extra tissue or two if you’re headed to the game.

Brash continues to search for command

It’s not Matt Brash’s fault there were two errors committed behind him in the infield that led to a run scoring, but there were some yellow flags in his performance beyond that. Brash, whose start to spring was slowed by a dental issue, still doesn’t quite seem like he’s got his command dialed in; the sinker and slider were both all over the place today, and he got lucky with some pitches that wound up way too much on the plate, including an inning-ending run-saving double play on a slider that came off the bat of Ethan Salas at 105 mph. The box score will tell you that Brash threw just nine of his 18 pitches for strikes; I will tell you that just because a Padres hitter swung doesn’t necessarily mean the pitch was a strike. Anyway, color me lightly concerned over Brash’s readiness for the regular season. I feel like that color is yellow.

Vargas sharp again

At the opposite end of the command spectrum we have Carlos Vargas, which is a weird sentence to type considering his history of wandering command. But Vargas again set down his assigned hitters 1-2-3, although he did have to battle with the lone major leaguer of the crew, fighting Ramón Laureano for eight pitches before getting him to go after an elevated sinker for a strikeout. I am still baffled as to why Vargas insists on throwing just the sinker-slider combo and essentially abandoning his cutter, a pitch I always thought was a good weapon for weak contact, but maybe the Mariners are having him edit his arsenal to try to tame the command issues. It doesn’t feel like the leash on Vargas is particularly long considering all the good depth they have squirreled away in Tacoma, but for now it seems pretty clear he’s been given a spot in the bullpen – and having José Ferrer around to slide Vargas into lower-leverage spots is definitely improvement.

But wait, Kate, if Castillo only gave up one run and Brash only gave up one run and Vargas went 1-2-3, how did the Padres win 10-3?

I feel very badly for Casey Hintz for getting saddled with the eighth inning in this one. Hintz was a 2025 draftee out of Arizona in the 16th round and from what I hear, the team likes him and thinks he’ll be a quick mover. Unfortunately being a polished collegiate who is also a recent draftee sometimes means you get thrown into situations like these, playing one of your early professional games in front of the biggest crowd you’ve ever been in front of with a shaky infield behind you and sometimes an outing just goes sideways, which is what happened to Hintz. He’ll bounce back. (The other fistful of runs was given up by Reese Lumpkin, who I am sorry to say I don’t know anything about other than he was signed as an UDFA this past July.)

A final thank you

If you’ve been reading these spring training recaps and participating in game threads, thank you so much. Spring training is always a tough one to talk about seriously with the radio-only delayed games and the parade of NRIs and the ridiculous desert conditions coloring performances, but this year was particularly rough with the wave of regulars out for the WBC and the general lack of position battles and the kind of spicy spring storylines that generate conversation. So if this is your first or your thirtieth spring training game of the year, thanks for being along for the ride.

Cactus League play has wrapped up, so the Royals begin their seemingly-annual exhibition trip to Dallas to play the Rangers at Globe Life in advance of Opening Day. It’s not spring training, it’s not the regular season, it’s…baseball purgatory I guess. I’ve heard you don’t want to be flying around Atlanta right now anyway. Huge lines.

For this exhibition game, the Royals will start Michael Wacha. We all know this guy and what he’s done.

The Rangers will start Mackenzie Gore, who is still somehow just 27 years old. I feel like he’s been talked about forever. He is on his third MLB team in his fifth season, and it’s the first with the Rangers, who gave up a ton of prospects to get him. Gore’s a good pitcher but has generally been worse than Michael Wacha the past few years. He’s just younger.

The game starts at 7:05pm US Central time. You can watch the game on MLB Network, though possibly only out-of-market. I’m a little confused as to what’s listed on MLB Gameday, which says “MLBN, MLBN (out of network)”. If you happen to live in the Rangers viewing area, you can watch on CW33. You can listen on 96.5 the Fan or the Royals Radio Network.

Lineups:

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Orioles fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

Last week, I asked you to think about how many games the Orioles will win this season. The majority of people who responded see the team ending up in a win range that will get them back into the postseason after missing out last year. For this week, the question is more specific. How far do you think that the Orioles will get?

Much to the ongoing disappointment of Orioles fans, the team has not won a postseason game in more than a decade now. Neither the 101-61 AL East champions from 2023 or the 91-71 wild card team from 2024 proved to have enough juice to snap this streak. Then last year’s ongoing failure happened and they didn’t even get a third bite at the apple. Sheesh.

The team already has some challenges to contend with before the 2026 season has even begun with early spring injuries to Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg. It’s still unclear when or even if Westburg will be able to play this year. There are also things that look to be going much better for the Orioles, with a starting rotation that’s heavily revamped compared to the mess of last season. If you believe in some bounce-backs and some strong years from younger players, it’s not hard to picture better things.

Vote in the survey above and let us know what you feel in the comments below. Results will be posted later in the week.

As the St. Louis Cardinals make their way toward Busch Stadium for Opening Day Thursday, they make a stop in Springfield for a game against the minor league Cardinals at Hammons Field starting at 6:05pm. According to the Cardinals, it will be Dustin May pitching for the big league Cardinals while Brycen Mautz will start for the baby birds.

St. Louis Cardinals starting lineup:

1. JJ Wetherholt (L) 2B
2. Masyn Winn (R) SS
3. Alec Burleson (L) 1B
4. Thomas Saggese (R) 3B
5. Jordan Walker (R) RF
6. Yohel Pozo (R) DH
7. Nathan Church (L) LF
8. Pedro Pagés (R) C
9. Victor Scott II (L) CF

Springfield Cardinals starting lineup:

1. Bryan Torres (L) 2B
2. César Prieto (L) SS
3. Joshua Báez (R) CF
4. Nelson Velázquez (R) RF
5. Jimmy Crooks (L) C
6. Blaze Jordan (R) 3B
7. Leo Bernal (S) 1B
8. Colton Ledbetter (L) LF
9. Bligh Madris (L) DH

MESA, Ariz. — Carlos Lagrange received the news Thursday that he was being reassigned to Yankees minor league camp, but there was still a reward to come for a standout camp.

The club’s top pitching prospect boarded the cross-country charter with the team from Tampa on Sunday for a chance to make one more start against the Cubs on Monday afternoon. It was a small taste of big league life, giving the 22-year-old right-hander a glimpse of what is to come if and when he gets the call to the majors later this season.

“It leaves you wanting more,” Lagrange said through an interpreter. “It gives you hunger to keep on working harder to get to it.”

That reward, though, also came with some reality that was still the case even as he dominated lineups in the Grapefruit League earlier this spring: He is not yet a finished product. Facing the toughest lineup he has seen all spring — essentially the Opening Day Cubs lineup — Lagrange came back to earth for a day. His strike throwing was not as sharp as it was earlier in camp and it led to him getting tagged for eight runs on nine hits across 2 ²/₃ innings, raising his spring ERA from 0.66 to 4.96.

“It was tough, but it was pretty good, because I threw versus big league hitters,” Lagrange said. “There’s a big difference between big league hitters and minor league hitters. … It jumps out that they know how to look for a pitch and be ready to attack in different counts. Falling [behind] doesn’t help when you’re facing those guys.”

Of course, the results this time of year still do not matter, and the rough ending should not tarnish what was otherwise a terrific spring for Lagrange, showing the Yankees he may be closer to the big leagues than they thought entering camp, despite never having pitched above Double-A.

That will change later this week, as Lagrange is set to open the season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, another test for him as he races toward the big leagues.

“I think it’s all been valuable [this spring],” manager Aaron Boone said. “But more than anything, he’s kept his head down as far as continuing to get better. That’s the biggest thing, just seeing what he did last year, feel like he’s grown over the winter and into spring training here. Real excited about where he’s at.”

After giving up a run in the first inning on a bloop single, Lagrange responded by striking out the side in the second — on a changeup to Dansby Swanson and on sliders to Matt Shaw and Dylan Carlson, generating some silly-looking swings. It reinforced that Lagrange has more than just a triple-digit fastball, as the secondary stuff is what may allow him to remain a starter long term.

“The off-speed’s what makes him special,” Boone said. “His fastball’s great. It’s 100, 102. But his secondaries are what make him potentially so good. What’s been exciting is just his consistency in this six weeks that we’ve seen of the strike throwing. So if he continues that, he’ll be impacting us before long.”

The Cubs came back around to punish Lagrange in the third, with Michael Busch (on a hanging slider) and Alex Bregman (on a 100 mph fastball above the zone) crushing back-to-back home runs.

But Monday’s experience can serve as an additional lesson for Lagrange to put in his back pocket as he heads for Triple-A. What he showed this spring caught the attention of everyone with the Yankees, from the front office to coaches to even established veterans like Gerrit Cole and Max Fried, who both said they had never seen anything like Lagrange’s consistent triple-digit velocity — Cole even calling it “silly.”

Now, as Lagrange heads out of sight, it is up to him to make sure he is not out of mind.

“I wanted to feel that I could compete, face guys and challenge guys and throw pitches in the strike zone and be aggressive attacking the zone,” Lagrange said of his spring overall. “I think I was able to do that. You get confidence from doing that and competing with those guys on the field. Really good experience for me.”

The big, magic word for the White Sox this year is supposed to be “momentum.”

Momentum works both ways, folks.

To demonstrate without using video of a Russian dissident making the poor decision to stand by a an upper-story window, let us select this afternoon’s Cactus League finale.

The Sacramento or wherever they’re playing this year A’s tried as hard as they could to hand the game to the White Sox early. Starting pitcher Luis Morales walked the bases loaded in the first and then hung a sinker that Lenyn Sosa hammered for a three-run double. Reliever JJ Goss then gave up four runs in the fourth on a slew of hits, the key being a two-run double by Chase Meidroth.

Voila! White Sox up, 7-0! What could possibly go wrong, especially given the A’s pulled all their starters after two innings so they’d have plenty of time to pack for the flight home, inserting minor-leaguers?

Plenty, it turned out.

Anthony Kay, who had been having a good spring, didn’t exactly coast through the first three innings. But still, he had given up no runs until the small matters of a sac fly and then a grand slam by the mighty Drew Swift made it 7-5 after four. On one of those spring leave-the-game-but-come-back things, Kay then walked the first two batters in the fifth, both of whom scored when Morris Austin came in and couldn’t get much of anyone out. Morris then added two more runs on his own tab.

Make it 9-7, A’s, after five.

Sosa, who presumably would like to get some regular playing time when the games count, knocked in another run with a double in the sixth to make it 9-8. Grant Taylor, who has had a rough spring, gave up a run in the bottom of the eighth that turned out to be crucial, because a Darren Baker RBI single in the ninth could then only cut the A’s lead to 10-9.

If this game set momentum into the season for the White Sox, then look forward to lots of pure slop. Sox pitchers walked seven and hit three batters while giving up 12 hits. The batters were handed their own seven walks and went 6-for-14 with runners in scoring position, but still left 12 on base.

Ah, well, the good news is that as awful as this game was, it doesn’t matter, just gives the White Sox a 15-16-1 spring record no one will remember even a few weeks from now. The bad news is, games that matter begin in Milwaukee Thursday afternoon, and nothing is pointing the momentum arrow upward.

Oh, yeah … normally we’d include some videos from the game. Turns out nobody shot any. Good decision.

The Houston Astros announced today that they have optioned SP Spencer Arrighetti to Triple-A Sugar Land.

This move would seem to indicate that Arrighetti will be the sixth starter for the team when they move to the expanded rotation in mid-April.

Having Arrighetti pitch in the starting rotation for the Space Cowboys will allow the Astros to keep him stretched out so that he is ready to go 90-100 pitches when he is recalled and they go to the 6-man rotation. They can also make sure he stays on schedule for when they intend to pitch him in the rotation.

Both of those would be much harder to do with him in the Astros bullpen.

The Astros begin a stretch of 13 straight games on April 10.

The final price for the most recent piece of Shohei Ohtani memorabilia didn’t just climb, it skyrocketed like a baseball leaving off the bat of the Dodgers two-way sensation. 

The jersey he wore during the 2026 World Baseball Classic for Team Japan on March 6 at the Tokyo Dome—his home soil, his stage—sold for a staggering $1,500,010 via MLB auctions on Sunday night, the highest price ever paid for an Ohtani jersey.

That night against Chinese Taipei, Ohtani didn’t simply play. He detonated—launching a grand slam, driving in five runs, and turning a WBC game into something closer to a national celebration.

The jersey absorbed it all: the roar of the Tokyo fans, the flash of cameras, the weight of expectation in a country that sees him as both athlete and a god-like figure. 

Collectors felt it too.

Over seven days, 298 bids poured in, each one chasing something bigger than ownership—chasing proximity to greatness.

By the time the hammer fell, the price had dwarfed his 2023 WBC jersey, which sold for just over $126,000.

Ironically, that 2023 WBC jersey was worn during the title game that saw Ohtani strike out his then-teammate Mike Trout to win the crown for Team Japan. To this day, it is still one of the most iconic moments in WBC history. 

Japan’s 2026 run ended earlier than expected, bounced in the quarterfinals by eventual-champion Venezuela. The jersey becomes something else because of that—less a trophy, more a relic of brilliance in a fleeting moment early in the tournament. 

Ohtani memorabilia is a hot commodity in the sports collectibles market.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

His Logoman baseball card recently fetched $3 million. Another dual MVP card with Aaron Judge sold for $2.16 million. His historic 50-50 home run ball from the 2024 season sold for $4.39 million. His 2025 NLCS Game 4 Home Run: A ball from Ohtani’s historic 3-homer, 10-strikeout game in the 2025 NLCS sold for $270,000, and that was just one ball. Together, all three could have sold for over a million dollars. 

Back in Los Angeles, the Dodgers open their season Thursday at Dodger Stadium. Ohtani will step into the batter’s box again, under brighter lights, chasing new moments and a three-peat.

Somewhere, tucked behind glass, a jersey waits—worth $1.5 million.

Still not as valuable as what will probably come next.