Category: Sports News

The first game of the spring for the Dodgers is finally here on Saturday afternoon, with a bus ride to Tempe to face the Angels at Diablo Stadium.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the start for the Cactus League lid-lifter (hat tip to Bill Plunkett), making what will be his only start before leaving next week to join Japan for the World Baseball Classic. Shohei Ohtani will start at designated hitter in his earliest game action in spring since joining the Dodgers.

José Soriano will start on the mound for the Angels, who according to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register “will have almost their entire projected everyday lineup when they face the Dodgers in the first Cactus League exhibition game on Saturday,” though Mike Trout is not expected to start.

Saturday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Angels
• Ballpark: Tempe Diablo Stadium
• Time: 12:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (simulcast), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

Observations from Yankees’ spring training on Friday:

Touch base

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was on base twice in the 2-0 loss to the Orioles, roping a single off tough lefty Trevor Rogers and later drawing a walk.

Doesn’t compute

Austin Wells challenged a pitch in the fourth inning, trying to get a ball turned into a strike for his pitcher, Jake Bird.

But the ABS system showed Bird’s curveball was, in fact, well below the zone, as the Yankees lost a challenge.

Caught my eye

Center fielder Kenedy Corona provided the web gem of the day, diving into the gap to make a grab and rob Pete Alonso of extra bases.

The non-roster invitee won a minor league Gold Glove in 2023.

Tomorrow’s schedule

Top pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange will start the Yankees’ Grapefruit League home opener against the Tigers, with Aaron Judge among the regulars expected to be in the lineup.

Observations from Mets’ spring training on Thursday:

Old school

There was no ABS during Friday’s live batting practice at-bat between Juan Soto and Nolan McLean.

When there was a questionable call, Soto suggested a game of Rock Paper Scissors.

Soto won the contest, which led to a 10-pitch battle between the two that featured nothing but fastballs and ended in a Soto groundout.

Heads up

Ben Rortvedt, who battled plenty of injuries during his two years with the Yankees, managed to hit his head — twice — on a camera attached to the net right behind home plate during an at-bat in live batting practice.

Fortunately, he escaped unscathed as he looks to stick with the Mets after joining the organization last week.

Caught my eye

Brett Baty is dealing with right hamstring discomfort, but he’s been able to get in some work at first base as he looks to gain more versatility.

He’s looked fairly comfortable there in early drills.

Saturday’s schedule

It’s the Mets’ Grapefruit League opener against Miami at Clover Park at 1:10 p.m.

Lefty Brandon Waddell is set to get the start for the Mets, with at least several regulars expected to be in the lineup.

SARASOTA, Fla. — In case there was any doubt left that Pete Alonso has moved on from the Mets and embraced his new home, he was in the middle of an interview — after staying in his spring debut with the Orioles an extra inning so he could crush a home run — when he stopped in his tracks.

John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” the song played during the seventh-inning stretch of every game at Camden Yards, came on the speakers at Ed Smith Stadium.

“I really love this song,” a grinning Alonso said. “This is going to be really fun this year.”

No, the slugging first baseman is not in Queens anymore.

Alonso is still wearing orange (a slightly different shade) and beating up on the Yankees (albeit this time in a game that did not count), but he looked right at home in an Orioles uniform as he delighted his new fans by doing what he does best: crushing baseballs.

“I feel honored to wear it,” Alonso said during the Orioles’ 2-0 win over the Yankees. “I feel great in it. I feel like I look good in it. It’s fantastic, I honestly couldn’t feel any better.”

Alonso, who signed a five-year, $155 million contract with the Orioles in December to end his long tenure with the Mets, received an ovation from the crowd of 7,886 before each at-bat.

Most of the Orioles regulars exited the Grapefruit League opener after the fifth inning, but Alonso wanted to stay in one more frame so he could take another at-bat. He had been robbed of extra bases in his second at-bat, on a diving grab by center fielder Kenedy Corona, but made the third one worth it.

He saw a curveball over the plate from non-roster right-hander Bradley Hanner and clobbered it 107.2 mph over the left-field fence. 

It offered a reminder of the challenge the Yankees will be facing twice as often this season than when Alonso was with the Mets, though he still did plenty of damage then — clubbing 11 home runs in 32 career games in the Subway Series.

“I feel like he’s done some damage against us — he’s hurt us,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “He’s gotten some big hits against us, some big homers against us. So hopefully we can do a better job of slowing him down a little bit. But he’s a huge presence in a lineup, and a guy that’s been incredibly durable, too. He’s a guy that goes to the post all the time. To have that 40-homer guy in the middle, night in and night out, lengthens their lineup.

“And it’s a lineup over there that has a chance to be really good.”

The Orioles-Yankees rivalry is a little different than Mets-Yankees, but Alonso said he was looking forward to it.

“It’s always fun because Yankee Stadium, it’s a really great place to play, fun place to hit,” he said. “Obviously they have really good teams. When you play against good teams, it makes for good competition. 

“For me, I’m looking forward to this next chapter. It’s going to be really exciting going to war with this team that we got here. I’m really excited.”

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Yankees ace Gerrit Cole crossed off another milestone in his recovery from Tommy John surgery in the spring of 2025. For the first time since going under the knife, the 35-year-old righty faced hitters, and it went as well as one could have expected. The 2023 AL Cy Young threw an inning and about 20 pitches, facing hitters such as Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge, and Jasson Dominguez. He struck out the center fielder, induced Judge to hit a grounder to second, and allowed hard contact to the Martian to round out the day.

Cole’s fastball sat in the 95-96 mph range, awfully encouraging at this time of the year. He won’t be ready for the start of the season, but should be back once he is fully stretched out, probably around late April.

Brendan Kuty on X: Everybody in attendance was impressed with Cole’s live batting practice session, his first after blowing up his elbow last spring. One of them, of course, was Yankees captain Aaron Judge.

“It looked like the old 45 that I’ve seen for years,” Judge said about his teammate. With his fastball sitting in the mid-90s and touching 96 mph, it’s a matter of making sure Cole’s command is on point and his breaking stuff rebounds all the way back after surgery, plus stretching out to a full starter’s workload. That could take a few weeks, but things are trending in the right direction. Can Cole and Judge lead the Yankees to the promised land?

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: The Yankees had their spring training debut on Friday afternoon at Ed Smith Stadium, losing 2-0 to the Baltimore Orioles. A Pete Alonso two-run shot versus Bradley Hanner was the difference between the two teams. Prospect Elmer Rodríguez stole the show for the Yankees, touching 97 mph on the radar gun and tossing three scoreless frames. He conceded just three hits and no walks, striking out one. He looked in control for most of the afternoon, and his stuff was crisp.

“It felt good,” Rodríguez told Hoch. “That first inning, my adrenaline was high in the moment, but I was able to use it and channel it, and use it to my advantage.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr., Amed Rosario, Austin Wells, and José Caballero played on Friday, and Jake Bird contributed a scoreless frame in relief. Carson Coleman struck out the side in the seventh.

SARASOTA, Fla. — Right after securing a 30-30 season last September, Jazz Chisholm Jr. was already talking about wanting to reach 40-40.

Five months later, entering a vital contract year, the Yankees star is already jumping ahead to talk of a 50-50 season, which has only been done once in the history of the game, by Shohei Ohtani.

Give Chisholm this: He is never going to set his sights too low, or too boring.

“I’m not going to say nothing that I don’t think I can do,” he said after getting on base twice in his spring debut, a 2-0 loss to the Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium. “I’m always going to speak positive into the atmosphere. I’m never going to tell myself or tell anybody that, ‘Oh, I’m just going to have a year where I hit 10 home runs and hit .250.’ Who does that sound like? A loser. That’s a loser.

“I’m going to go shoot for the stars and if I miss, I’m going to end up on the moon.”

The Yankees would certainly take the moon, with Chisholm coming off a season in which he hit 31 home runs and stole 31 bases despite missing a month with an oblique injury and not attempting a steal for another month while he played through a groin issue.

Chisholm is heading into his final year under club control, and while hundreds of millions of dollars could be waiting on the other side of it, he is planning on using the pressure of such a big season to his advantage.

“I think that brings out the best in me,” he said. “The contract year is even better for me. I like pressure. I like going out there and having to play for something, having to go and do it. Go win games and make it meaningful every day. That’s what baseball’s supposed to be about. You play for people, you play for your family, you play for your friends at home and you play for the team you’re wearing every time you go out there. And also, you play for yourself.

“At the end of the day, when you’re going out there and doing all that, how can you not get pumped up and excited and enjoy the ride? It’s just like a roller coaster. If you don’t enjoy the ride, it’s going to suck. But when you enjoy the ride, it’s one of the best rides of your life.”

Chisholm also added that he will be playing this season for his best friend growing up, who died unexpectedly last year.

“That’s what I’m really playing this year for is my best friend, that he is not going to get to see me go into free agency,” he said. “He’s not going to get to see me sign the long-term deal we’ve been talking about since I was kid. He’s not going to be able to see a lot of things that I do and it sucks. I wish he was here. I still miss him to this day. So yeah, that’s who I play for.”

Jake Bird threw a scoreless inning of relief, allowing only an infield single that he quickly erased on a double play.

According to the latest Depth Charts projections from FanGraphs, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani is forecasted to lead all of Major League Baseball in 2026 with 48 home runs, 119 RBIs, 129 runs scored and a thunderous .599 slugging percentage. 

His projected .983 OPS trails only one hitter in the model. In other words, the machines and algorithms are predicting dominance.

Again.

How will Shohei Ohtani amaze us this year? pic.twitter.com/XWXku6VnIx

— MLB (@MLB) February 21, 2026

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Ohtani already finished among MLB’s elite offensive leaders last season, pacing the league in runs scored, and finishing second in slugging percentage behind only Aaron Judge. His 55 home runs were two more than Judge, but he finished third behind Cal Raleigh (60) and Kyle Schwarber (56).

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts — who has guided Los Angeles to back-to-back World Series titles, and multiple pennants — doesn’t mince words when discussing his generational talent. He has called Ohtani “the best player that’s ever played this game.” Hyperbole? Maybe. But the résumé keeps stacking.

The betting markets agree. Ohtani currently sits atop National League MVP odds at -125, and if his arm cooperates, Cy Young whispers won’t be far behind. Imagine a season where 45-plus homers meets 180 strikeouts on the mound. That isn’t fantasy baseball. That’s the Ohtani proposition.

In Los Angeles, expectations don’t scare anyone. They fuel October dreams. And if the projections hold, 2026 won’t just be another MVP chase — it could be baseball history unfolding in real time.

PORT ST. LUCIE — There wasn’t much good to take from Devin Williams’ lone season with the Yankees, a season in which he lost the closer job twice and hardly resembled the dominant reliever he’d been for most of his career in Milwaukee. 

But as Williams settles into his new home with the Mets, he believes at least one good thing from last year follows him to Queens. 

“Mental toughness,’’ Williams said following the team’s workout Friday at Clover Park. “I wasn’t executing and I was getting bad results. It got pretty tough there, but I got through it and was throwing the ball really well by the end of the year.” 

Williams is hoping the fact he finished the regular season with nine straight scoreless appearances, mostly setting up closer David Bednar, and four more in the playoffs, proves that he was able to put his 2025 struggles behind him. 

“Probably that last stretch of games, that was me, that’s my standard,’’ Williams said. “I was executing the way I need to.’’ 

And now he’s back closing games, with Edwin Díaz having left for the Dodgers shortly after Williams signed with the Mets. 

He said he’s ready for the challenge. 

“You’re gonna fail,’’ Williams said. “[Stuff] got really bad for a little bit last year, but I’m still me. I’m still the same guy. I’m still really good at this game.” 

“He’s been a guy,” Carlos Mendoza said of Williams’ status as one of the top closers in the game. “Last year wasn’t easy for him at the beginning and he made some adjustments.” 

Last year’s experience may end up helping him going forward. “You’re always going to have adversity,’’ Williams said. “That was the toughest it’s been for me in the big leagues.” 

But he noted it wasn’t the lowest point of his career, instead pointing to 2018, when he was still in the lower level of the minors with the Brewers, coming off Tommy John surgery and had a terrible season. 

“There were times I was ready to quit in ’18,’’ Williams said. “I came back from [surgery] and I was terrible and wanted to go home. Every day wasn’t good. But I got through that, got to the big leagues [in 2019] and the rest is history.” 

Just as he hopes 2025 is history for him, too. 

It will take some time before Brett Baty gets some reps in right field, where he will be in the mix for playing time once his balky right hamstring fully heals. 

Mendoza said Friday that they are focused on getting Baty reps in the infield — where he has been working at first base — before getting him in the outfield. 

But Mendoza is confident Baty will be able to make the transition for one main reason. “The athleticism,’’ the manager said. 

And he pointed to what Baty was able to do last year as a reason, as Baty moved from third base to second without much of an issue. 

“We didn’t know which way it was gonna go when we asked him to play second base,’’ Mendoza said. “It’s not an easy position, especially when you’re used to playing on the left side and a corner position.” 

Baty “made that transition easily,’’ according to Mendoza. 

Baty played some outfield in the minors, most recently starting games there in 2022 with Double-A Binghamton. 

“He’s familiar with the outfield,” Mendoza said. “Now we’ve got to get him reads with angles. He enjoys being that type of player and he takes it personally.”

Spring Training is officially upon us! The wintry woes of the offseason are behind us as San Diego Padres faced off against the Seattle Mariners at their shared complex in Peoria, Ariz. for the first game of the year. Baseball is back!

While a great deal of prospects got plenty of use today, and will continue to get looked at this preseason. One in particular, Jagger Haynes, held his ground and did a fantastic job facing a (mostly MLB-starting) Seattle lineup. 

Play-by-play of today’s game

Across two innings, Haynes allowed two singles in the first, and a single and home run in the second. Admittedly, that line doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. But there’s more nuance to the situation than just that line.

To start the game, Haynes allowed a single from the leadoff hitter, Luke Raley. After that he got Mariners superstar Cal Raleigh to fly out before giving up another single to Julio Rodríguez. With two on and two outs, he induced a double play from Josh Naylor to end the inning.

When he came back in the second, he made quick work of his first two batters. Randy Arozarena lined out and J.P Crawford struck out. Haynes then got Dominic Canzone to hit a fly ball where an easy catch could have ended the inning, but left fielder Nick Schnell lost the ball in the sun and was unable to complete the inning-ending catch. 

Due to that error, Haynes had to continue pitching and now had Canzone on first base. He immediately gave up a home run to Michael Arroyo before getting Colt Emerson to fly out to right field to end it.

It’s hard to speak to how difficult it is to regroup mentally after an error like that, but for Haynes to immediately end the inning after giving up a two-run home run (to a batter he wasn’t even supposed to face) was an indicator of the mental fortitude Haynes has.

Haynes’ minors career

Across his last three years in the San Diego organization, he has spent time in three different levels of the minors, owning a 4.33 ERA with a 1.40 WHIP. Again, the numbers aren’t inspiring, but his ability to come back from Tommy John surgery in 2021, especially after a long rehabilitation process, is. 

After being drafted in 2020, Haynes lost out on the ‘21 and ‘22 season and had to wait to pitch for the organization until the 2023 season. But since joining the Friars at the minor league level, he has shown himself to be a worthwhile prospect.

Obviously, today’s game is a small sample size, it’s only two innings after all. But the stuff that Haynes put on display showed he is beginning to make a case to join the major league roster in the next few years (maybe even getting a call up later this year in the dog days of summer). Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see what the season has in store for Haynes in the Padres’ organization.