Category: Sports News

Yoshinobu Yamamoto had one very good inning and one bumpy frame in his 2026 spring training debut on Saturday against the Angels in Tempe. But the news from the Dodgers’ Cactus League opener is that Yamamoto will make one more start in Arizona before leaving to join Team Japan in preparation for the World Baseball Classic.

Yamamoto is slated to pitch for Japan for a second straight WBC, with camp opening in Tokyo next weekend. The Dodgers right-hander told reporters after his start on Saturday that he’ll pitch once more for the Dodgers before departing for Japan.

Friday, February 27 has the Dodgers in Scottsdale to play the San Francisco Giants.

As for the game on Saturday in Tempe against the Angels, it was a tale of two innings for Yamamoto.

After a perfect first inning with two strikeouts, the Dodgers scored six runs in the top of the second. Yamamoto was less sharp in the bottom of the second, giving up a double and two singles. Including an error by Teoscar Hernández in left, two runs were charged to Yamamoto’s ledger, one earned. Yamamoto was pulled with two outs in the frame, at 30 total pitches on his day, right in the expected range.

Given that Yamamoto was first out of the gate for the Dodgers, and with opening day not until March 26, there’s room for him to make at least five starts this spring, counting his work in the World Baseball Classic, to build up toward the regular season.

This was a much more interesting, and entertaining, baseball game than yesterday’s Grapefruit League kickoff. The Yankees saw one of their top pitching prospects strut his stuff, the top position player prospect hit a bomb, and the Captain look awfully locked in in during his first taste of spring ball. A proper thumping came in the eighth inning, where a bunch of Yankee farmhands all got their A-swings off at once. Overall, New York brushed the Detroit Tigers aside on Saturday afternoon, with 20-3 your final score.

From a stuff perspective, it’s easy to see why people are so excited about Curtis Lagrange. He deals easy 99 with repeatable mechanics, with a changeup and slider that both look big-league ready when they’re really working. He notched a 50-percent whiff rate with the change, but interestingly flipped his main secondary offering. Twenty-six percent of his pitches were changeups the first time through, and 19 percent sliders, only to up slider usage to 32 percent the second time. I feel like the Yankees want more data on the secondary stuff and that will be a conscious approach the rest of Lagrange’s spring.

If there’s one thing for Lagrange to work on, it’s command in the zone, not surprising for a player who ended last year in Double-A. He was hit hard more than once, giving up a pair of singles in the first at more than 100 mph exit velo, a bomb of a home run to Corey Julks that came on a hanging changeup, and another long fly ball to the track off the bat of old friend Gleyber Torres. The stuff was very impressive, and now the next step is sanding down some of those rough edges in the zone.

While we’re talking about prospects, have you heard of Spencer Jones?

Perhaps nobody in the entire Yankee system needs to impress in camp the way Jones does. The outfield at the MLB level is crowded, but the 24 year old is kind of in a make-or-break season. To start spring with a home run that loud is a really good sign, and hopefully Jones can keep it up. With Aaron Judge 10 days away from joining Team USA at the World Baseball Classic, there should be plenty of spring reps for Spencer to show off.

Oh, speaking of Aaron Judge:

On an intellectual level, I don’t care at all about Judge’s spring. I want him to be completely healthy for Opening Day, at which point I fully expect him to be at worst one of the three best players in the game. But then I watch him hit a bomb to deep center field and I start to drool a little bit and hope that Aaron Boone lets Judge face some kid getting his first taste of camp.

Oh, and then the Captain came up again in the fourth:

Spring stats don’t matter but he is likely the finest hitter you’ll ever see.

The Tigers clawed a run back in the seventh, with Yankee reliever Drake Fellows loading the bases on two walks and an infield single. A passed ball clunked off catcher Payton Henry’s glove, allowing the third Detroit run of the game. Fortunately, a man named Tyler Hardman got the run back:

Now up 13-3, Tigers manager AJ Hinch opted to bring Woo-Suk Go into the game, and immediately paid for the decision. Rodrick Arias, himself trying to recover some prospect sheen, promptly told a 93-mph fastball to go away:

Another three-run home run came off the bat of Jackson Castillo, pushing the Yanks to a nice, even 20.

George Lombard Jr. looked solid at shortstop and worked two walks, the latter coming with the bases loaded and driving in a run, to round up a pretty good day for the org’s top prospects. The Yankees will welcome the crosstown — at least, normally crosstown — Mets to Steinbrenner Field tomorrow afternoon in more Grapefruit League play, with Luis Gil getting his first start of the spring.

Box Score

Baseball is back and the Washington Nationals have come out on top not once, but twice. The team had a split squad double header today, where half the group went to Jupiter to face the Cardinals, while the rest of the team stayed in West Palm Beach to play the Astros. Both teams won, with the Nats edging the Astros 2-1 and beating the Cardinals 6-2.

It was an impressive start to the Paul Toboni and Blake Butera era. The pitching was mostly solid and the boys were able to get enough timely hits to get the job done. There are still things to clean up, especially on the defensive side of the ball, but they were good enough to win today. Also, these mistakes are only natural in the first games of Spring Training.

The Astros game was the one that was televised, so I was following that much more closely. It was a hotly contested game, where the Nats were let off the hook a few times by the Astros inability to hit with runners in scoring position. While there were some defensive miscues, there was also some brilliance. In the top of the 1st inning, prospect Andrew Pinckney made an outstanding throw to gun down a runner.

We were able to see the whole package with Pinckney today. As we saw, Pinckney’s arm is a major asset. Baseball America gave his arm a rare 80 grade. They noted that out of the 22 Triple-A outfield throws that were at least 100 mph, Pinckney made 8 of them. After seeing the rocket he unleashed today, that is easy to believe.

His skillset at the plate was also on display. In his first at bat, Pinckney looked overmatched and struck out. Those ugly strikeouts will always be a part of his game, it is all about limiting them. However, in his second plate appearance, he hit a 114 MPH rocket for a double in the gap. Pinckney has a 4th outfielder skillset. He has big power, elite speed, good defense and an elite arm, but has whiff concerns. 

Speaking of elite power, we saw that from Jorgelys Mota this afternoon. His home run gave the Nats a lead they never relinquished. The 20 year old got all of that ball as well, hitting it 434 feet and 115 MPH. Power has never been an issue for Mota, his big concerns come from his hit tool and propensity to chase. Maybe the new development team can unlock his potential and help him get to the next level.

Mota has not fully broken out yet, and has holes in his game, but Baseball America still has him as the Nats 25th ranked prospect. He showed why he was put on the top 30 with his monster blast today. Mota is an intimidating presence in the box and is likely to start this season at High-A.

While the young guys were the story, another player who looked good was CJ Abrams. He went 1 for 2 with a walk today. His hit was a double he ripped down the line. Abrams looked very composed in the box and was seeing pitches well. His bases loaded walk also drove in a run. 

On the mound, it was a mixed bag. While the Nats only allowed one run, they did walk 11 batters. However, I thought PJ Poulin and Paxton Schultz looked sharp. Jake Eder also had his moments, but was inconsistent.

The winning pitcher Seth Shuman got bailed out by his defense right away. Minor league free agent signing Leandro Pineda robbed a home run with a fantastic catch. I can’t say I had heard of him until today, but it was a good way to make a first impression.

Holden Powell survived three walks to close the door, and the Nats got their 2-1 win. It was not their only curly W of the day though. Over in Jupiter, the Nats defeated the Cardinals 6-2.

Maxwell Romero’s three run homer was the decider in that one. Harry Ford also had a solid first game in the organization, with a walk and an RBI base hit. The other piece of the Jose A. Ferrer package Isaac Lyon also fired two scoreless innings. Marquis Grissom Jr. was also sharp in his two innings of work.

Overall, you can’t ask for a much better first day of Spring Training contests. The Nats got two wins and some of the young guys impressed. Hopefully the Nats can build on that and have a strong spring. Who knows, maybe they can surprise people this season, you never know. The boys are back in action tomorrow at 1:10 against the Marlins.

135 days since they were eliminated by the once and future World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the beta version of the 2026 Philadelphia Phillies took the field for the first time in a 3-0 Spring Training-opening loss to the 2025 World Series runner-up Toronto Blue Jays.

Aside from a couple costly pitches from some borderline bullpen contributors and an overall weak showing at the plate, there were some positive takeaways in addition to the obvious “nobody got hurt” that goes for every Spring Training exhibition.

One of the team’s biggest question marks heading into the season is whether Justin Crawford is ready to not only make the leap to the majors but to be a starting centerfielder and lineup contributor on a roster with playoff aspirations. The left-handed hitting Crawford led off the game against Blue Jays’ lefty, Eric Lauer, with an encouraging six-pitch at-bat that resulted in a hard-hit fly ball double to left-center. A pitch earlier, Crawford also hit a fly ball down the right field line that ended up just foul but had home run distance.

Crawford got his second hit of the spring in the fifth inning, a two-out line single up the middle, and displayed his speed in the field by running in to snag a hard liner off the bat of Vlad Guerrero, Jr. to end the third inning.

The only blemish on Crawford’s day was his pitch clock violation strikeout in the top of the third, but even that came at the end of a five-pitch at bat.

Most of the team’s major offensive contributors were held out of today’s game and the ones the weren’t didn’t have much to write home about in their first spring action. Adolis Garcia, Edmundo Sosa, Otto Kemp and Rafael Marchan each got three plate appearances in, going a collective 0 for 10 with a walk each from Sosa and Kemp.

Non-roster invitee, Bryse Wilson, got the start on the mound and faced what appears will be Toronto’s entire opening day lineup. Wilson went two scoreless innings, albeit with three hits and a walk allowed and benefitted from a pair of double plays. The 28 year old Wilson has 163 major league appearances, 57 of which were starts, so he could be getting a look as a spot starter/long reliever at the end of the bullpen.

Zach McCambley pitched a scoreless third inning and allowed one walk with a strikeout. McCambley is a 26 year old right-handed reliever who the Phillies selected in the Rule 5 Draft, so he will need to make quite the impression to break camp with the team and must stay on the roster all season or be forfeit back to the Marlins.

Max Lazar pitched a scoreless fourth before Seth Johnson came on in the fifth and surrendered the first run of the afternoon, a solo shot to Daulton Varsho. Nolan Hoffman pitched the sixth, allowing four hits including a two-run homer by Sean Keys, though he did record three strikeouts.

After wholesale substitutions in the sixth inning, second baseman, Liover Peguero drew a leadoff walk and left fielder, Pedro Leon, reached on a fielders choice, getting all the way around to third via a steal and a wild pitch. Leon would fail to make it home as Carson DeMartini struck out to end the frame. DeMartini also collected an error in the previous frame on a dropped foul ball, though it didn’t end up costing his team any runs. Leon reached base again in the bottom of the ninth and took second courtesy of defensive indifference.

Andrew Walling pitched a one-hit bottom of the seventh, allowing a leadoff single to Rafael Lantigua, who was with the Phillies last spring and spent the 2025 season in Lehigh Valley. Walling is one of the few left-handed options currently in the organization, along with Kyle Backhus, Tim Mayza or Genesis Cabrera, that the Phillies could turn to if something were to happen to Jose Alvarado or Tanner Banks.

Catcher, Paul McIntosh, led off the top of the eighth inning with a double. McIntosh is likely battling it out with veterans Rene Pinto and Mark Kolozsvary for a spot in the Iron Pigs’ catching tandem alongside Garrett Stubbs.

Andrew Baker pitched the bottom of the eighth, allowing back-to-back two-out walks before getting a little luck from the wind that kept a deep fly ball in the park which was snared by center fielder, Dante Nori, at the warning track. Baker fell off the Phillies’ Top 30 Prospects list this season but projects to end up in Reading or Lehigh Valley to begin the season. Nori (Phillies #13 ranked prospect according to FanGraphs) will play for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic and is projected to start in centerfield for the Reading Phils to begin the season.

A couple of free agent bench candidates also saw some action as Dylan Moore started at second base and Bryan De La Cruz was the designated hitter. Moore was hitless in two ABs while De La Cruz got a single in the second inning.

Look for more members of the 26 man roster to make their debut in Clearwater tomorrow as the Phils host the Pittsburgh Pirates at 1:05pm.

The never-ending quest for depth continues, and on Saturday the Dodgers claimed outfielder Jack Suwinski off waivers from the Pirates.

Suwinski was designated for assignment on Monday when the Pirates signed free agent designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, ending a four-year stint in Pittsburgh for Suwinski. Acquired from the Padres in the Adam Frazier deal at the 2021 trade deadline, Suwinski hit 45 home runs with a combined 106 wRC+ in 2022-23, but was below replacement level in each of the last two seasons, hitting just .169/.271/.297 with a 59 wRC+ in 455 plate appearances in 2024-25.

Suwinski with the Pirates spend a little over half his time in center field, and also mixed in time in left field and right field. By Outs Above Average, Suwinsnki in his career is plus-2 in center, minus-3 in right, and minus-6 in left.

Chalk this one up to picking up a player because he became available, with over four weeks to figure out how to use him. The Dodgers before Suwinski had 17 position players on the 40-man roster, but both Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández won’t be ready for opening day. There’s an open battle in camp for second base, as well as multiple bench spots.

The only other center fielders besides starter Andy Pages on the 40-man roster are Michael Siani, who has an option year remaining, and Hyeseong Kim, who has options but is really an infielder by trade and is in the running to play second base. Suwinski is out of options, having used option years in 2022, 2024, and 2025 with the Pirates.

With two years, 170 days of major league service time, Suwinski was a Super Two this offseason, among the top 22 percent among players with between two and three years of service. He avoided an arbitration hearing in November with a one-year, $1.25 million deal in November.

Kiké Hernández was placed on the 60-day injured list to make room on the roster for Suwinski. Hernández is coming off left elbow surgery in November.

Aaron Judge launched two long home runs and Spencer Jones hit one, too, as the Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 20-3, in their second game of Grapefruit League play on Saturday in Tampa.

New York made up for being shut out in Friday's Grapefruit League opener and finished the day with 18 hits and 11 walks.

Here are the takeaways...

- Judge, getting his first action of the spring, lined out to center in the first inning, before he tattooed a cutter at the knees 420 feet to center (104.5 mph off the bat) for a two-run home run in the third off veteran right-hander Burch Smith.

Judge added another two-run shot in the fourth, taking an up-and-in fastball from long-time minor leaguer Ricky Vanasco and keeping it fair down the left field line. The 92 mph heater went out in a hurry, 106.1 mph off the bat, and 395 feet just inside the foul pole.

- Jones, sporting a bit of a Shohei Ohtani-type toe tap, launched a monster home run with one out in the second. The big lefty took a Keider Montero up-and-in fastball 408 feet (111.7 mph off the bat) for a very Ohtani-like no-doubt homer. He went down swinging on a changeup off the plate to end the third inning, his next time up.

Jones used the Yanks' first challenge as a batter of the spring in the fifth, but the low strike was correctly called as it did clip the bottom of the zone. He went down swinging on the next pitch, chasing a slider outside the zone.

- Carlos Lagrange got the start for the Yanks and allowed a bullet, one-out single to Kevin McGonigle, the No. 2 prospect in all of baseball, in the first and nearly got his head taken off by a liner up the middle off Gleyber Torres' bat. The big Yankee youngster burned in the two fastballs at 100.5 mph and 98.2 mph, but they went for hits at 104.5 mph and 101.7 mph.

The Tigers got on the board after catcher Ali Sánchez couldn’t block a third strike in the dirt, and his throw to third went right past Ryan McMahon, scoring McGonigle. The No. 3 prospect in the NY system finished the inning with a second strikeout, showing off a very live arm.

Lagrange had the changeup working, but he left one up and over the plate to Corey Julks, and he tagged it 387 feet to left field for a solo home run to leadoff the third. After walking the next batter, the right-hander got the next two before issuing a two-out walk, and Aaron Boone was out of the dugout. His final line: 2.2 innings, two runs (one earned) on three hits, two walks, two strikeouts on 53 pitches (32 strikes).

"What I've been pleased with in just his first couple of life outings, and now obviously here, just filling up the strike zone for the most part. That's the next step for him," Boone said on the YES broadcast about Lagrange. "You see all of the stuff, the big fastball, really good changeup – although he gave up the homer on the changeup that he hung today – and then the sweeper. I like that he was in the zone for the most part with all of it."

On the day, Lagrange threw 19 fastballs (99.8 mph average), 11 changeups, his second-best pitch and one highly thought of (91.5 mph average), and 13 sliders, a pitch that was working well to upset the Tigers' timing with five called strikes.

"He's been excellent all camp so far," Boone said of the 6-foot-7 starter. "Really, really good kid, really good makeup. Kinda has developed into a leader coming up through the minor leagues."

- McMahon took a two-strike 97 mph fastball the other way for a ground-rule double into the corner in left with one down in the first inning. The Yanks have encouraged McMahon to have a narrower, less open stance, and it looked pretty good in his first time up. He finished the day 1-for-3 with a strikeout.

- Paul Goldschmidt, with runners on second and third and one out in the first, took a 3-2 fastball at the top of the zone and smacked it into left field to put the Yanks up 2-1. The veteran hit one right on the screws (108.3 mph) for a lineout to left his second time up. He reached on an infield single on another hard-hit ball (107.5 mph) in the fourth to finish the game 2-for-3 with two batted in.

- Jasson Dominguez, who walked his first time up, made a nice play to start the second when he got a good jump on a sharply hit liner to left to record the out. He reached second on a ‘double’ to start the fourth when Julks in left field lost a pop fly while battling a bright sunny sky. He added a sacrifice fly to center in the fourth.

- George Lombard Jr. got a RBI chance in his first at-bat with two on and two in scoring position in the fifth, and the Yanks’ top prospect bounced out to short. 

- Out of the bullpen, David Bednar worked around a one-out walk with a double play ball, needing just 10 pitches for a clean fourth, and Fernando Cruz used six pitches in a 1-2-3 fifth.

- Sanchez got involved with the ABS challenge system in the third inning. He lost on his first attempt when the ball was indeed outside (by 0.8 inches) and was successful on his second with a strike that caught the bottom of the zone. At the plate, the catcher went 1-for-2 on the day with a strikeout.

- The game blew open in the eighth inning after the Tigers' pitchers just lost the plot with four walks and a Roderick Arias grand slam before a few singles and a Jackson Castillo three-run shot in the nine-run inning. 

Highlights

Paul Goldschmidt rips a two-run single 💪 pic.twitter.com/agiuVFKEIk

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 21, 2026

111.7 MPH off the bat from Spencer Jones on this home run 🔥 pic.twitter.com/9TbvVRHWz9

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 21, 2026

ALL RISE.

A 420-foot home run for Aaron Judge! 👨‍⚖️ pic.twitter.com/IW30BmxGlO

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 21, 2026

AARON JUDGE HOMERS AGAIN! 💣 pic.twitter.com/wImikHQKJh

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 21, 2026

What's next

The Yankees host the Mets in Tampa on Sunday with a 1:05 p.m. first pitch. 

Luis Gil is set to start for the Bronx-based club, with Justin Hagenman getting the ball for the boys from Queens.