Shohei Ohtani left his Dodgers teammates to be with Team Japan as it prepares for the World Baseball Classic. JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images
Just before Samurai Japan took on the Chunichi Dragons in a WBC tuneup at Vantelin Dome Nagoya, Ohtani stepped into the box for some batting practice and ripped ball after ball after ball into the seats.
The thousands in attendance — including fellow baseball players — all paused what they were doing to watch the show, and video captured from inside the venue shows nearly everyone was stunned.
In fact, some on the field even pulled out their phones to document the four-time MVP’s session at the dish.
At points, several on the Dragons roster let out audible gasps seeing how far Ohtani was putting baseballs.
Shohei Ohtani’s batting practice left onlookers stunned in Japan on Friday. Chunichi Dragons
When Ohtani wrapped his time at the dish, he received an applause usually reserved for a Home Run Derby contestant.
Ohtani will officially take the field for Team Japan in the WBC when his team kicks off its tournament run on March 6 against Chinese Taipei.
While he isn’t scheduled to pitch in the event while trying to preserve his arm for the 2026 MLB season, it’s clear there will be more than a few fans tuned in to watch his at-bats.
Feb 17, 2026; Surprise, AZ, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher MacKenzie Gore during media day at Surprise Sports Complex. Mandatory Credit: Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images | Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images
Today the Texas Rangers are back to playing only one spring training game. That game will be played from Camelback Ranch in Glendale, AZ where the Rangers will take on the Chicago White Sox.
LHP MacKenzie Gore is set to take the mound for Texas opposite RHP Erick Fedde for Chicago.
Today’s Lineups
RANGERS
WHITE SOX
Evan Carter – CF
Miguel Vargas – 3B
Jake Burger – 1B
Kyle Teel – C
Josh Smith – 2B
Colson Montgomery – SS
Michael Helman – LF
Austin Hays – RF
Alejandro Osuna – RF
Andrew Benintendi – LF
Cameron Cauley – SS
LaMonte Wade – 1B
Jose Herrera – C
Sam Antonacci – 2B
Rafe Perich – DH
Brooks Baldwin – CF
Luke Hanson – 3B
Dustin Harris – DH
MacKenzie Gore – LHP
Erick Fedde – RHP
Chicago has a radio and video feed for this one, otherwise you’ll have to follow along on Gameday. First pitch from Camelback Ranch is scheduled for 2:05 pm CT.
Erik Fedde’s first shot at staying out of street clothes in 2026 comes today vs. Texas. | (Photo by Rayni Shiring/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The White Sox have three split-squad game days this spring, including the Prospect Breakout game vs. the Dodgers. And, lucky you, today is the first! There no Munetaka Murakami today for the Sox — or for any time in the near future, as he has departed to join Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.
Leading off at 2:05 p.m. CT is the Camelback Ranch game, hosting Texas:
Old friend and apparent heir apparent to the No. 5 starter spot, Erik Fedde, gets his first look of the spring. The impressive Sam Antonacci gets another start, in the 6-spot, continuing to get a long early look from the Sox.
The game is on White Sox radio (WMVP-AM 1000) and also on something called CWS Video. I presumed that meant a webcast, but at the moment I’m not certain that’s so. But still THIS is the game with actual White Sox broadcast coverage, in some form.
Over in Phoenix, Sean Burke takes the ball for the second time this spring, hoping to stay perfect through his two or three frames:
Slugging star shortstop Tanner Murray takes the 6-spot in this one, as the two lineups for today are equally strong (or weak, depending on your take). This ballgame is a Cactus League ghost on the White Sox side, with only Gameday and Brewers radio to confirm its existence.
Phoenix, AZ - February 17, 2026: Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (18) at the 2026 Dodgers spring training at Camelback Ranch, Phoenix, AZ on February 17, 2026. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The Dodgers look to make it a 7-0 start this spring, as they are on the road to take on the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium. Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes his final spring start against left-hander Robbie Ray.
Feb 26, 2026; Dunedin, Florida, USA; Fans wait for autographs while holding baseballs before the game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Florida Marlins during spring training at TD Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images | Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images
Last Thursday, I put up an open thread, saying that I was going to do so every Thursday so we could have a place to talk about whatever was on our minds. And then, Yesterday, I totally forgot about that.
So this week, it is a Friday Open Thread.
You can discuss anything you like (barring, you know, politics and religion). It doesn’t have to be baseball, but it can be if you like.
At the moment, the thing on my mind is: There are a lot of places on this planet where, if you go to bed and it is +10 C, you will not not wake up to 5 inches of snow on your driveway the next morning. Why do I live in one of those latter places?????
Nimmala started 2025 on fire with High-A Vancouver, hitting nearly .290 and looking like he was ready to take the next step. But as the season wore on, the hot start simmered, and he struggled to maintain that early production over the final two-thirds of the year. Now 20, he enters 2026 with a chance to find more consistency and build on his flashes of promise. Double-A is next, and if he can carry his early-season form across a full campaign, Nimmala could begin to establish himself as a reliable everyday shortstop.
Arjun is 20 this year. I don’t know critical season? It would be great if he blew the doors off of the season and forced the Jays to put him active roster next year. But I don’t think the Jays will give up on him if he has a terrible year.
I don’t know, it is a critical season for Yariel Rodriguez. I guess it depends if you call him a prospect or not. Now Yariel is making a lot of money, so this season is critical for his baseball career, if not his bank account.
Ricky Tiedemann? He’s number 5 on FanGraphs list of top Blue Jays prospects, but he’s 23 now and coming off Tommy John surgery. I’m going to discount the soreness they told us about the other day. He’s just off Tommy John, there is going to be soreness. But, if he’s going to have the MLB career we thought he was going to have, he’s going to have to get it on track again.
If you want a non-baseball topic? What are you watching? I’m watching West Wing (again). I watch it every two or three years. I like the writing and the acting. I like the idea of smart people talking about big decisions. I like the idea that the people who make the big decisions care about the people those decisions are going to effect.
SURPRISE, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 23: Seth Lugo #67 of the Kansas City Royals pitches during the first inning of a spring training game against the Chicago Cubs at Surprise Stadium on February 23, 2026 in Surprise, Arizona. (Photo by Mike Christy/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Hello and welcome to week two of Spring Training. I was going to write up a separate “perfectly reasonable reactions” post as I usually do at this time of Spring Training but there’s just too much going on this year, so I’m going to hit you with some bullet points here, instead:
Josh Rojas has already socked a couple of dingers, and while it seems unlikely he’ll make the roster, if he keeps it up, he positions himself to get an early chance somewhere this year.
Helcris Olivárez seems to be making a case to join the roster as a left-handed reliever. He’s already appeared three times after signing as a minor league free agent, and the book on him was that he had big stuff, but he couldn’t get it near the strike zone; he’s been keeping it near the strike zone so far this spring. He might not make the Opening Day roster but he figures to be among the guys rotating between Omaha and KC if he can keep this up.
Jac Caglianone continues to terrorize the Cactus League. launching a mammoth home run one day and a 120.2 MPH double yesterday. Once again, he seems to have little to prove anywhere except at the big league regular season level and he seems destined to get another shot, this year. Let’s hope it goes better the second time.
Carter Jensen is holding up his end of the Carter and Cags duo with a 1.222 OPS so far including a two-run bomb yesterday. Yesterday was really fun for fans of the non-existent western mystery series that the two seem to have come from, as there were two separate innings where they each collected a solid hit and an RBI.
Finally, Michael Massey entered the spring battling for a roster spot but as good as he has looked early, he might now be fighting for India’s starting job at second base. We’ve talked a lot about how India might bounce back this year, but it’s worth remembering that Massey isn’t without his prior big league success, either.
Anyway, here is today’s lineup:
I’m probably wrong, but this is the first time I remember EVER seeing Bobby hitting leadoff. Maybe Quatraro wasn’t blowing smoke when he suggested the shortstop might be leading off for the team this year. It may only be a trial to see how Bobby feels about doing it in practice and he may decide that, no, he really does hate it. But it’s interesting to at least consider it. Batting Isaac Collins fourth probably means nothing, but it’s also very interesting as a lot of the discussions around the Royals have been about how Maikel Garcia can’t lead off because Collins and India, the other two primarily considered candidates, can’t hit in the middle, and he can.
Bailey Falter is getting the start for today, but here are the other pitchers the Royals have included in their game roster and could pitch:
Nick Mears
Hector Neris
Dennis Colleran Jr
Oscar Rayo
Daniel Lynch IV
Carlos Estévez
Andrew Pérez
Aaron Sanchez
Steven Zobac
Hunter Patteson
Rayo, Pérez, and Patteson are probably the guys who only pitch if someone can’t get out of their inning before they hit a limit. Everyone will be keeping a close eye on Estévez’s velocity as it was way down in his first Spring appearance, but that’s hardly the first time that’s been true of the closer, including last year when he ended up doing just fine for himself.
Today’s game can be heard online at royals.com or through the At Bat app. It’s also available on the radio on 1660 AM in Kansas City.
No. 1 was a two-year, $40 million contract with the Diamondbacks. No. 2, at least on paper, seemed better.
When it came down to the Padres and Diamondbacks for Merrill Kelly this offseason, he said he chose Arizona due to California’s tax laws. Getty Images
It was a three-year, fully guaranteed deal with the Padres that appeared to have a similar average annual value.
Kelly, though, chose the former — and during a sitdown interview with Foul Territory’s Scott Braun and A.J. Pierzynski this week, he explained the decision was almost entirely due to the Golden State’s tax system.
“I don’t think it’s any secret on how much money you get taken out of your pocket when you go to California,” the 37-year-old right-hander said.
There were, of course, other factors that pulled Kelly toward Arizona. He went to high school at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale and played collegiately at Arizona State.
Merrill Kelly reveals he had a three-year offer from the Padres on the table.
And, the father of two young kids has called the Phoenix area home while logging innings for the Snakes in each of the past seven seasons.
“Coming back here,” he admitted, “it was always the priority.”
But after Pierzynski jokingly told him he was “the first person ever that’s been offered a bunch of money to go live in San Diego and said no,” Kelly made it crystal clear that giving away a significant portion of his income to a state government was ultimately a dealbreaker for him.
“I love San Diego,” Kelly said. “It’s just, like I said, they take too much money out of my pocket, man. The taxes over there are a different level.
“We had my numbers guy run the numbers, and it just made more sense to come home.”
Merrill Kelly has logged innings for the Diamondbacks in each of the last seven seasons. Allan Henry-Imagn ImagesDiamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly throwing a pitch during a game at Yankee Stadium. Bill Kostroun/New York Post
If he had opted for the Padres’ offer, Kelly was likely staring down a state income tax in the ballpark of 13 percent. A far more palatable 2.5 percent state income tax rate was part of his Diamondbacks deal.
“It worked out best for us because that was honestly our second choice,” Kelly said. “It was between here and San Diego going into the offseason. San Diego was really the only place that, if we did go somewhere, that was probably high on our list if we weren’t in Arizona. It’s like, ‘All right, let’s just hop over and take a short, six-hour drive to San Diego.’
“But, yeah, the desert is home. I guess we’re not ocean people.”
The Padres — who told The California Post on Friday, when asked for a statement on Kelly’s remarks that they “do not comment on contract negotiations” — could have certainly used the pitcher’s arm on their roster this season.
In 184 innings last year (split between the Diamondbacks and Rangers following a trade at the MLB’s summer deadline), he boasted a 12-9 record with a 3.52 ERA and 167 strikeouts.
Baseball Reference projects him to own a 10-7 record with a. 3.79 ERA and 145 strikeouts in 2026, though Kelly did confirm this week the start of his season will be delayed due to a back injury.
The Padres will now head into ’26 with a starting rotation anchored by Michael King, Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta — and a big wonder of what if California’s tax laws were just a little less strenuous.
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PEORIA, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 24: Lazaro Montes #99 of the Seattle Mariners rounds third en route to scoring during the fifth inning of the spring training game against the Chicago White Sox at Peoria Stadium on February 24, 2026 in Peoria, Arizona. (Photo by Mike Christy/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Happy Friday! We’ve got a whopping seven games of Mariners Spring Training under our collective belts and it’s high time to foolishly prognosticate! Here are some prompts:
What is your favorite Spring Training story line that is emerging so far?
What player’s performance has surprised you so far? Who hasn’t thrilled you yet?
What player is your pick to unexpectedly make the Opening Day lineup out of camp, both position player and pitcher?
Who will lead the team in Spring Training dingers?
Who willl lead the team in Spring Training hits?
Are you going to any Spring Training games or have you been there already?
Sound off in the comments, make some BOLD and outlandish predictions, and let’s get ready for another 3 weeks of practice baseball.
Peoria, AZ - February 22: Sung-Mun Song #24 of the San Diego Padres bats against the Los Angeles Dodgers during a spring training game on February 22, 2026 in Peoria, AZ. (Photo by K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune via Getty Images)
San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies, February 27, 2026, 12:10 p.m. PST
Watch: None
Location: Salt River Fields at Talking Stick – Scottsdale, AZ
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GB community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!
SCOTTSDALE, AZ - FEBRUARY 21: Pitcher Tanner Gordon throws a strike during game two of the 2026 Colorado Rockies spring training at Salt River Field at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 21, 2026. The Colorado Rockies took on the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) | Denver Post via Getty Images
The Colorado Rockies’ offense continues to sizzle as they defeated the San Francisco Giants yesterday 11-3. The team is staying aggressive at the plate and on the bases, and pitching from the regulars hasn’t been too shabby either. Having defeated one National League West opponent, the boys in purple turn their sights on another as they take on the San Diego Padres.
Tanner Gordon makes his second start in spring training, having tossed a scoreless inning with three strikeouts his last time out. The Rockies are taking it slow with some of their pitchers, but Gordon should be primed to throw two innings depending on how things go. He has proven quite capable of throwing strikes, something the new coaching staff values, and is continuing his work on developing pitches. Look for him to mix in the new two-seam fastball he is working on. He’ll have the chance try it out against a Padres lineup full of regulars.
The Padres will send out Randy Vásquez for his second start in spring training as well. Vásquez tossed two scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his last time out, allowing just one hit while striking out one and walking one. Baseball Savant recorded Vásquez throwing seven different types of pitches last season, which could be beneficial for the Rockies to see up close and personal in spring training as they try to model that kind of pitcher. Vásquez made 28 appearances last year, including 26 starts, posting a 3.84 ERA over 133 2/3 innings. Walks have been a bit of an issue in his young career at the big league level.
TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 10: Yordan Alvarez #44 of the Houston Astros celebrates on first base during the game between the Houston Astros and the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Wednesday, September 10, 2025 in TorontoOntario, Canada. (Photo by Michael Chisholm/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
The team has made no significant new investment into an offense that was 21st in MLB last season.
While there has been an obvious and understandable focus on pitching this offseason for the Houston Astros after being devastated by pitching injuries in 2025, it shouldn’t be ignored that this was not a good offensive team last season.
Injuries certainly played a part in that as well, as did underperformance from the expected norm from several players. So far, there seems to be a sense of expectation from the team and players that they will be healthier this season (because they can’t possibly be less healthy than last season, right?) and therefore more productive.
Jose Altuve expressed as much with Robert Flores and Cliff Floyd on MLB Network:
"We'll have Carlos [Correa] from day one, we'll have Yordan Alvarez healthy. We'll be good this year."
Is that enough to make this offense a legitimate threat again, or are there too many players who are slowing down or unproven to count on?
Last season Altuve pulled the ball more than ever. He also went up the middle less than ever. He played through a foot injury in September that hampered him as well. About 2 weeks ago, Chandler Rome of The Athletic spoke with Altuve, who said he found a flaw in his stance and intends to change it for this season and therefore he expects his production to return to previous levels.
Which Altuve performs this season is a big question for the Astros. Will he return to the high average, high on-base, high OPS player he was as recently as 2023, or is Father Time finally slowing down the Astros future Hall of Fame 2B and will he look more like the player who posted full season career lows in both average on on-base in 2025?
Jeremy Pena had a career year in 2025. Are those numbers going to be the new normal? Pena explained the changes he made that led to his breakout success:
Jeremy Peña put up career-high numbers in AVG, OBP, SLG and OPS in 2025!
The @astros shortstop discussed the team's motivation after missing the Postseason, adjustments that led to his offensive breakout and more.
Pena significantly outperformed his career metrics in AVG, OBP, SLG and OPS last season. Maintaining that improvement means he’s a perennial all-star. Regressing to the norm means he won’t be leading off very long and he will be back at the bottom of the order. It’s a big swing.
A healthy Yordan Alvarez is of course one of the biggest additions to the lineup. Alvarez played only 48 games last season, and 29 of those were essentially with a broken hand.
In the 19 games (18 starts) Yordan made when he returned from the hand fracture, he slashed .369/.462/.569. Those are numbers that make pitchers terrified.
A healthy Yordan is the one true elite bat in the lineup, a .300 hitter with a .400 OBP and a .950+ OPS. 30+ HR power and the ability to hit righties and lefties equally well, he’s a hitter with almost no weakness (other than injury).
Which Carlos Correa do the Astros get this season? Correa was clearly rejuvenated by returning to Houston last season, and he is both happy and excited to be back with Houston.
"I never thought it would be possible to come back. When we made it happen, we were very happy."
Correa played 144 games last season. He has played at least 135 games in 4 of the last 5 seasons. Correa has also had wild fluctuations in his performance.
In this snippet of Correa’s performance from baseballreference.com, Correa has put together some very strong seasons and a couple of clunkers as well. The production clearly ramped up last season once he returned to Houston, but expecting more than 18-20 HR from Correa may be expecting too much. If Correa can maintain the high average and on-base, and deliver doubles and clutch hits, that could be exactly what this offense – which has struggled in clutch situations the past couple of seasons – may need. It also fits in line with the Astros new focus on patience at the plate, drawing walks, and making opposing pitchers work.
Isaac Paredes is another interesting case. He was in the midst of arguably his best season before tearing his hamstring. He heroically tried to play through it at the end of the season to help the Astros in their playoff push, but it was plainly clear he was significantly compromised and his performance showed that.
Can Paredes match the career-high level of production he showed pre-injury last season? It’s a tall ask, because it’s a tall ask to expect any player to maintain a career-high level of performance. He’s also 27 years old, and it’s quite possible his best baseball is still to come.
How will Paredes fare early in the season returning from a very significant hamstring injury for which he did not have surgery? How will he handle playing multiple positions, including one that he hasn’t played in a long time? Paredes swing is practically designed for the Crawford Boxes, yet his home/road splits are not nearly what you’d expect:
Paredes was far more productive than I think people realize on the road last season. That bodes well for his ability to maintain his level of production. I am far more concerned with how well equipped he is to play physically following a significant injury and if the mental toll of constantly moving around the diamond (something new to him) has an adverse impact on his production.
Christian Walker came to Houston with people having high expectations. While he’s never been a high average or high on-base hitter, he has always been a strong power hitter and he was the winner of three straight Gold Gloves coming to the Astros. Then things went very sideways early on.
An oblique injury March 5 sidelined him for the rest of Spring Training, though he returned for Opening Day. Walker got off to a terrible start, but had a much better second half. However a further examination of that tells a somewhat different story.
As you can see from Walker’s splits on baseballreference.com, Walker performed much better in the second half than the first, giving hope for a 2026 resurgence.
However, when you break it down by month, Walker really only hit for any kind of average and on-base in July. While his power surged in August/September, his average and on-base were still below career norms in those months.
Walker turns 35 in a month. Is a rebound coming? It very well could be, but maybe it’s not as big a rebound as his gross second half numbers suggest and more closely related to his last two months of the season?
Will Yainer Diaz ever fulfill his offensive promise? Yainer has not shown any progression at the plate in terms of plate discipline. He still swings at everything, and while he doesn’t strike out a ton, the soft contact he makes rolling over pitches he should be laying off leads to a lot of easy groundball outs and a lot of double plays.
Yainer led the league in GIDP in 2024 with 22, and has bounced into 47 double plays in 3 seasons.
The power he displayed his rookie season hasn’t translated, mainly because he gives away too many AB swinging at pitches he should be laying off. His walk rate is atrocious, walking only 20 times in 567 PA last season. Diaz has 56 career walks in 1572 PA. That’s about 3.5% of his PA, just hideous.
The fact Yainer’s plate discipline has remained non-existent is very troubling for his production. It’s not just the batting average that’s dropped. His OPS has plummeted. With the Astros newfound focus on selectivity at the plate, Diaz is the one player who could most benefit from a change in approach. Simply being more selective in what he swings at could have a profound impact on his production, allowing him to square up more balls and generate more extra base hits.
Yainer could be a player with a nice uptick this season if he can embrace and execute the team’s new offensive philosophy and be more patient and selective. Or he can continue to be what he has become, which is a mediocre hitter whose power is the only saving grace in his offensive game – provided of course he hits the ball in the air.
Jake Meyers is also coming off a career year, at least for average and on-base. Meyers completely sacrificed any and all power for more contact, and with his speed it’s not necessarily a bad approach. He is also the most volatile player in the lineup as far as expected production.
With more thanks to our friends at baseballreference.com, Meyers produced at a rate he never approached in regards to average and on-base. His walk rate increased, he stole more bases (especially in regards to number of PA and number of SB), his hit rate exploded. Despite the total lack of any HR power, his SLG was still right in line with where it had been the previous two seasons, further underlying that for him, focusing more on contact was 100% the right move.
There are a couple of things that still should concern you about Meyers. This is the biggest one:
Those home/road splits are fantastically wild. Jake couldn’t hit at home to save his life last season, yet he was an absolute road warrior. His performance on the road last season is flabbergasting, considering his previous levels of production overall and his home production. Everything is better when he gets out of Houston. AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, walk rate, SB rate, K rate – it’s like he becomes a totally different player.
The second concern is sustainability. How much of last year was a super hot streak and how much was a real change?
Meyers didn’t start the season well, but hit about .330 for 9 weeks from May through the first week of July when he suffered a calf injury that cost him 2 months of the season. Upon returning, he was absolutely awful, but it cannot be ruled out he was still not 100% during those final 15 games.
If Meyers can take his new approach of forget the HRs, make contact, draw walks, steal bases and continue it even close to his May-July production, he is a weapon at the bottom of the order. A player with that offensive profile in the 9 spot gives the team the ‘double leadoff’ look when the lineup turns over, and gives Pena/Yordan/Altuve more opportunities to drive in runs.
Teams that have good offenses get production at the bottom of the order. There is no set in stone dynamic for how that production comes. It doesn’t have to be HRs. Keeping the lineup churning works too, and sometimes it works better.
There is entirely too much unknown with Cam Smith or Zach Cole, but if either player (hopefully both) can be league average, it’s a huge boost for the bottom of the lineup. Cole is likely more advanced on the power profile right now, but both could be 20 HR, 20 SB players with regular playing time and league average production. Those are very strong profiles at the bottom of the order for two guys likely to bat between 7-9 in the lineup.
So what does this team’s production look like over the course of the season? How many players match or exceed expectation, how many fall below?
To me, it’s more than just health. It’s the progression of several players (Diaz, Meyers, Smith, Cole) as much as the health of others (Alvarez, Altuve, Pena, Correa, Paredes) even though it’s the bigger names that have the health and it’s the younger, supporting names that need to make the most progression. They can’t have the big guys at the top surrounded by easy outs at the bottom.
Do you think being healthy is the single biggest key for the offense to get back into the top-10 in runs scored?
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 23: Jeffrey Springs #59 of the Athletics pitches in the top of the first inning against the Houston Astros at Sutter Health Park on September 23, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Athletics nabbed their first win of the 2026 season yesterday in a 7-3 win over the Rangers. They scored more runs in the first few frames alone than they had in the previous four games combined, so maybe the bats are finally starting to wake up. Who’s ready for the second win now?
The A’s have left-hander Jeffrey Springs set to make his spring debut this afternoon, looking to get the 33-year-old ramped up for his second season in the Green & Gold. Springs bounced back from a horrid April to be one of the Athletics’ more consistent starters for the majority of the season and the club will be hoping he can skip that part and just get right into his groove from the get-go. That starts today.
The starting lineup this afternoon for our Athletics looks like this:
Shortstop Jacob Wilson is batting leadoff this afternoon, a spot he’ll hopefully see plenty of this coming season. There’s plenty of speculation that manager Mark Kotsay will make Nick Kurtz the leadoff man in 2026 but Wilson seems like much more of your prototypical leadoff guy.
We’ll also continue to see the third base battle play out this afternoon as Max Muncy and Darell Hernaiz are both in the lineup this afternoon, with Muncy at the hot corner and Hernaiz at second base. If position alignment is an indication of where the A’s are leaning then Muncy is looking like the option at third base to open the season. On the other hand, the team needs a backup at shortstop so Hernaiz might be playing himself into a job one way or another thanks to his versatility.
The Royals will be going with a left-hander in Bailey Falter to begin today’s game, though of course we can only expect to see him for so long before KC begins dipping into their other options.
Time for the second win of this spring. Let’s go A’s!
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Randal Grichuk’s quest to make the Yankees should begin Saturday.
The veteran outfielder, after agreeing to a minor league deal with the Yankees, arrived in Tampa on Thursday night and was undergoing a physical on Friday that, if it goes well, will allow Grichuk to start working out with the club Saturday.
The Yankees were in need of a fourth outfielder who could help them against left-handers, which Grichuk has done well for most of his career, giving him a chance to win a bench job.
Randal Grichuk, here with the Royals last season, will compete for a Yankees roster spot this spring. Getty Images
The 34-year-old right-handed batter is a career .268 hitter against lefties with a .819 OPS, and while those numbers took a dip last year, the Yankees are banking on his track record as a productive platoon hitter.
“He’s kind of settled into that role here now in the last few years – in ’23 and ’24, and even the first part of ’25, he was killing lefties,” manager Aaron Boone said Friday at Hammond Stadium. “I think he struggled a little bit when he got traded to Kansas City at the deadline last year. But we think he has a chance to be a factor for us. So, we’ll see. There’s no guarantees there. There’s competition for that last couple spots on the roster.
“We definitely want to see what Randal looks like and what he’s capable of, because at his best, I think there’s a real opportunity for a role there.”
If Grichuk shows enough to make the team, it could allow the Yankees to start him in left field against tough lefties, a scenario in which Cody Bellinger would shift to center field and Trent Grisham to the bench.
Before adding Grichuk, the Yankees’ top options to serve as a fourth outfielder were all left-handed hitters – or in Jasson Domínguez’s case, a switch-hitter who was much more productive from the left side.
Additionally, the Houston Astros won the sweepstakes for the heavily sought out Japanese sensation, Tatsuya Imai, a right-handed pitcher who has drawn comparisons to 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Imai joined the Astros on a three-year, $54 million deal.
Cincinnati Reds third baseman Sal Stewart (27) rounds the bases to third base in the ninth inning of a Cactus League game between the Cincinnati Reds and Kansas City Royals, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Ariz. | Frank Bowen IV/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Cincinnati Reds continue their quest to play only in Goodyear Ballpark on Friday, as they’ll take the field at their home stadium for the fifth time through six Cactus League games played so far this spring.
When they do so, they’ll be up against a former teammate, too. Brent Suter will lead the charge for the Los Angeles Angels on the day, and with a lefty on the mound manager Terry Francona has tweaked his lineup to account for it.
Noelvi Marte, whose struggles against southpaws last season have been noted publicly by Francona already this spring, will bat leadoff to presumably give him the chance of maybe getting a pair of PA against southpaws out of his day. Of note also is that Sal Stewart will start at 2B on the day as his work all around the infield gets put further to the test, while Rece Hinds will spend at least part of the day manning CF.
Rhett Lowder will start for Cincinnati for the second time in this Cactus League campaign. He fired a pair of innings in his first outing, and I’d expect the Reds to ask him to get through 3.0 IP today (assuming he’s cruising along efficiently). Though with Julian Aguiar and Jose Franco both starters who are listed on the above roster for the day, there’s plenty of long relief available should that not be the case.
First pitch is once again slated for 3:05 PM ET, and – you guessed it – it’s not televised anywhere. To follow along with the action you’ll need to tune into 700 WLW’s coverage, or at least track down where said coverage is being streamed should you not have access to an old-timey AM radio.
