Category: Sports News

After two weeks of incredible baseball, the World Baseball Classic comes down to one game, with the United States taking on Venezuela at LoanDepot Park in Miami on Tuesday, March 17.

Team USA, looking for its first WBC triumph since 2017, got to the final by beating the Dominican Republic 2-1, and Venezuela, which defeated reigning champion Japan in the quarterfinals, punched its ticket to the final with a come-from-behind 4-2 triumph over Italy.

Venezuela, which is making its first-ever appearance in the championship game, is led by Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. and three-time batting champion Luis Arraez.

Here is how to watch the WBC final.

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

One of the bigger storylines in the Nats fanbase is whether Dylan Crews should make the team. Even a month ago, that would have sounded a bit crazy, considering Crews seemed to have a starting job locked up. I still think he will make the team and play a lot, but his leash is getting tighter.

This spring has been a real struggle for Crews. He is 3/28 with 10 strikeouts so far. Frankly, this looks a lot like it did when he was struggling last year. The former number 2 pick looks like he is second guessing himself and caught in between at the plate. That has led to ugly results and even uglier at bats.

This begs the question, should Dylan Crews start the season at Triple-A? I do not think it will happen, but it is not an idea I would be opposed to. Crews never truly mastered the Triple-A or Double-A levels. After he got promoted from A ball in 2023, he hit a wall in Double-A, posting a .595 OPS in 20 games. Most attributed that to Crews being tired after a long college season and a pro debut.

In 2024, he got better in Double-A, but did not truly dominate the level. He hit .274 and posted a .789 OPS. Not bad, but you would like to see more from a guy who was one of the best college hitters of the 21st century. The Nats saw enough to promote him to AAA though. Like in Double-A, Crews was solid but not spectacular. He hit .265 and posted a .795 OPS. Crews did not exactly take the league by storm.

However, that was enough for him to get called up to the big leagues at the end of 2024. Crews showed flashes, but his .218 average and .641 OPS were not great. Despite that, he was given a spot in the starting lineup heading into 2025. Crews struggled mightily out of the gate and just as he was heating up, he got hurt. It was a disappointing year, but he showed some flashes and the hope was that the new regime could help him take the next step.

This spring, Crews has looked as lost as ever. It has led a lot of Nats fans to re-examine his path and wonder if some time in AAA might not be the worst thing. The fact he never truly dominated in the high minors should have been a bit more of a red flag to Nats fans. However, his college pedigree was so good that most of us chose to ignore his deficiencies. 

Paul Toboni and Blake Butera have stressed that this is a fresh start for everyone. Most have assumed that would be a positive for Crews, but it is a double edged sword. If he is not performing, this new regime should be willing to send him down. They were not the ones who picked him second overall, so they do not have the same level of attachment to him. I think that should mean he is not a lock to make the team.

However, I would still be surprised if he is not on the Opening Day roster. The new regime seems to want to try to fix him at the MLB level. However, given the fact he did not dominate AAA when he was there, some time in the minors would not hurt.

Wanting Crews to start the season in the minors is not a Spring Training overreaction, it is a justified reading of the situation. I can see the case for keeping him in the big leagues too, but do not let anyone call you crazy for thinking Dylan Crews could use more time in AAA.

Since he reached the upper minors, Crews has not been the same guy that took college baseball by storm. I still do not really know what happened here. Crews was supposed to be one of the safest draft prospects in some time. Now, his career is at a serious crossroads.

It has been three years since his junior season at LSU now. We have seen his college teammate Paul Skenes take the league by storm, but Crews has not taken the next step. At the time of the draft, Crews and Skenes were seen as similar levels of prospect. It is crazy to see how both of their careers have gone so far.

In 2009, the Nats took a premier pitching prospect first, while the Mariners took a polished college bat second. Of course, the Nats got Stephen Strasburg and the Mariners got Dustin Ackley. Crews still has time to avoid being a Dustin Ackley style flop, but the trajectory is concerning for the 24 year old. 

The fact he never dominated the minors might be even scarier than his big league struggles. You cannot fall back on Crews dominating AAA as a reason to keep him in the big leagues because he never did. At this point, we are really clinging on to his performances at LSU. Those were so dominant that you should keep some faith in him, but it is getting scary.

Of course, these Spring Training games do not count, but I do not love what I am seeing. Paul Toboni is going to have a real choice to make here. Is it better for Dylan Crews to stay in the big leagues and learn from a new big league staff, or should he get the opportunity to truly dominate AAA and gain some confidence. 

I think they will choose the former option, but Crews will be on a tighter leash. If he looks like he does this spring once the real games start, a trip to Rochester will be imminent. The story of Crews’ career so far is one step forward, two steps back. Whenever it feels like he is getting momentum, he either gets hurt or starts struggling again. Dylan Crews’ pro career has not gone how just about anyone has expected. I am officially worried.

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The 2025 season was something of a success for the Cincinnati Reds, at least by the modern standards set by the franchise and its current ownership group.

The club managed to coax future Hall of Fame manager Terry Francona out of his temporary hiatus and into their dugout. The team on the field put together the most cromulent set of starting pitchers since their 2012 NL Central title. As the race for the final playoff spot in the National League intensified, they managed to get the job done, sneaking into the postseason with a final regular season record of 83-79.

Their faint championship hopes faded immediately at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers, eventual World Series champs, but the reality is that 2025 featured more good news than bad. Still, they finished a distant 3rd in their own division.

The Milwaukee Brewers paced all of Major League Baseball with their 97 regular season victories, and the Chicago Cubs surged into the playoffs with 92. The Reds, who made the playoffs slightly ahead of the New York Mets, finished 14 games back of their division leaders, while the Mets finished only 13 games back in their own NL Central.

Cincinnati, to its credit, went out and signed slugger Eugenio Suárez over the winter to bolster their offense, and they are banking on improvements across the board from their emerging corps of position players. Hunter Greene is once again sidelined for quite awhile, though, and it’s not as if the Brewers and Cubs haven’t made their own moves to get better this winter, too. The Pittsburgh Pirates, too, are even looming after an offseason of spending that’s unprecedented for that club.

That begs the question – just how high in the NL Central standings can the Reds finish in 2026? Have they done enough to climb the ladder to the top, or is the ladder simply not tall enough?

Let us know where you think the Reds can finish this season!

The 2025 Boston Red Sox were the third team in the AL East to make the postseason with an 89-73 record. They had the fourth-best record in the American League and lost in the Wild Card round to the Yankees. It was the Red Sox first playoff appearance since 2021 and just their second since they won the World Series in 2018. They had a three-season non-winning streak prior to 2025, and I certainly wasn’t happy to see that streak end.

The 2025 Red Sox were good enough to make the playoffs, but they had plenty of room to improve. Their bullpen was one of the best in baseball, but their starting rotation was middle of the pack. Their offense was top-10 by most measures. They have made a lot of changes to improve and make up for players they lost, especially in the starting rotation.

Additions & Subtractions

The 2025 Red Sox starting rotation had a combined fWAR of 11.7, with half of that coming from ace pitcher Garrett Crochet. Their #2 starter was Brayan Bello, who is a fine pitcher but not a number two. So the Red Sox went out and got two more starters to boost their rotation.

First,they traded for Sonny Gray. Gray is 36 years old and starting to show his age. He had a 4.28 ERA in 32 starts with the Cardinals last year, but the Red Sox are obviously hoping Gray has enough in the tank to be a solid contributor. In December, they traded for Johan Oviedo, who comes from the Pirates and slots in at the back of the rotation.

Their biggest move came in January, when they signed Ranger Suárez to a five-year, $130 million contract. This one hurt the Orioles on multiple fronts. Not only did their division rivals sign one of the best pitchers on the market this offseason, but Suárez is a pitcher the Orioles are believed to have pursued. After the signing, Jon Heyman reported that the Orioles offered him $125M. Ouch.

Lucas Giolito had a solid 2025 season with the Red Sox, but is currently still a free agent. That’s strange to me, but he isn’t a Red Sock any longer. With the changes, the Red Sox rotation currently stands as Crochet, Suárez, Gray, Bello, and Oviedo.

The Red Sox didn’t make many changes to the bullpen, though they recently added former Oriole Danny Coulombe. Their bullpen will continue to be headlined by closer Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock. If we’re lucky, this will be the year that the 38-year-old Chapman gets bad and goes away forever.

On offense, the Red Sox look to improve first base with Willson Contreras, acquired from the Cardinals. They had something of a revolving door at first base last year, including Nathaniel Lowe, who left as a free agent and signed with the Reds.

Their biggest offensive loss is Alex Bregman, who left Boston for the Chicago Cubs. In turn, the Red Sox traded for Caleb Durbin, who had a solid rookie season with Milwaukee in 2025.

2025 rookie Marcelo Mayer will slot in at second base. Trevor Story will continue to man shortstop and the outfield will be manned with returning players Jarren Duran, Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, and Ceddanne Rafaela. Anthony could end up being the best hitter on the team.

Projections

• PECOTA: 82-80 (4th in AL East)
• FanGraphs: 89-73 (3rd in AL East)

That’s a pretty big difference in the two projection systems. The Red Sox made a lot of changes this offseason. Their starting rotation has been overhauled and their offense has several key changes. PECOTA thinks that will lose them seven wins from last year and FanGraphs has them holding steady. It’ s interesting that even with all their changes, these projections don’t expect any improvement.

In recent history, the Red Sox have been contenders or have been terrible. Middle of the road isn’t really a thing for them. Given that, I won’t be surprised no matter what happens with them.

Baseball careers rarely follow a straight line. Some players spend years bouncing not only between the majors and the minors, but between teams and even leagues. Others remain in the game long after their playing days end as coaches, broadcasters, or front office executives. Some players never make it to the big leagues and fade from memory. Others are fortunate enough to reach the majors and then find another adventure that keeps them fulfilled.

Tim Lollar is one of those latter fortunate fellas. The former Yankees southpaw celebrates his 70th birthday today.

William Timothy Lollar
Born: March 17, 1956 (Poplar Bluff, MO)
Yankees tenure: 1980

Tim Lollar was a Show-Me State standout athlete at Farmington High School in the 1970s, excelling in baseball, football, basketball, and golf. After graduating, Lollar accepted a baseball scholarship to Mineral Area College in nearby Park Hills, where he played for two seasons before transferring to the University of Arkansas.

In Fayetteville during the late 1970s, Lollar developed into a dominant left-handed pitcher and among the most accomplished players in Razorbacks history. His success at Arkansas came during an era when the Razorbacks were building a reputation as one of the strongest baseball programs in the country. Under legendary head coach Norm DeBriyn, Arkansas developed a steady pipeline of major-league talent, and Lollar quickly established himself as one of the program’s brightest stars.

During his time in Fayetteville, Lollar showed the kind of versatility that made him particularly appealing to professional scouts. Not only could he dominate on the mound with a powerful left arm, but he also contributed at the plate. His talent earned him All-American honors in 1978, becoming the first player in Razorbacks history to receive the distinction.

Lollar’s well-rounded skill set made him one of the most intriguing players available from the 1978 amateur pool. For a franchise like the Yankees, which was constantly looking to restock its pitching depth during the late 1970s, Lollar represented exactly the kind of high-upside arm worth investing in.

His success on the hill in Fayetteville eventually led to the Yankees selecting him fourth round in the 1978 MLB Draft. At the time, New York was one of baseball’s premier franchises, fresh off back-to-back World Series championships in 1977 and 1978. Breaking into the big leagues with those expectations hanging over the organization was no small task for a young pitcher.

Lollar reached the majors in 1980 and made his debut in pinstripes as part of a Yankees pitching staff trying to help fight off the defending champion Orioles in a loaded American League East. His first career game on June 28, 1980, was part of a wild 11-10 slugfest between New York and Cleveland, and Lollar actually outpitched fellow standour relievers Ron Davis and Goose Gossage, allowing just one run on two his in two innings of work.

Although his time in New York was brief, the rookie left-hander showed flashes of the talent that had made him such a standout in college. Across 14 appearances for the Yankees during the 1980 season, Lollar went 1–0 with a 3.34 ERA (119 ERA+) while making one start and picking up two saves as a reliever. The start coincided with his first career victory, six innings of two-hit, one-run work against the Tigers in Game 162. For a first-year pitcher adjusting to the major leagues — and doing so in the Boogie Down Bronx — it was a respectable beginning to his professional career and enough to help New York take the AL East with 103 wins to Baltimore’s 100.

The Yankees didn’t use Lollar in the postseason, which turned out to be a quick three-and-out ALCS sweep at the hands of the same Royals team that they’d handled three times during the late-1970s playoffs. He pitched in the Puerto Rican Winter League and reported to camp in great shape in 1981. But he never made it to the regular season. The free-wheeling Yanks traded him to the Padres just over a week before Opening Day, on March 31st.

Lollar spent the most significant portion of his career there, pitching four seasons in San Diego from 1981 through 1984, including their first-ever pennant-winning season in ’84 — though his two postseason starts were not ones to remember. His best season was actually ’82, when he went 16-9 with a 3.13 ERA (111 ERA+) and 3.4 rWAR while tossing two shutouts.

In December 1984, Lollar was part of a big trade that sent 1983 AL Cy Young Award winner LaMarr Hoyt to San Diego with Lollar among the names heading back to the White Sox — including their future Rookie of the Year, three-time All-Star, and fiery 2005 World Series champion manager, Ozzie Guillén. Lollar would not remain on the South Side nearly as long as Ozzie, as he was dealt again in July, changing his Sox to Red.

Lollar remained in Boston through the 1986 season, and after being left off the playoff roster, he tried to catch on with the Tigers and Cardinals on minor-league deals in 1987. His Triple-A ERA was 5.87 in 19 outings though, so at age 31, that spelled the end. Lollar closed out a seven-year major league career that included 199 appearances, a 47–52 record, and a 4.27 ERA. He also hit eight home runs in 231 at-bats — a notable total for a pitcher even during the era when pitchers still hit.

While he never developed into a frontline ace, Lollar carved out the kind of career many pitchers aspire to — that of a reliable big-league arm capable of filling multiple roles on a pitching staff. His willingness to move between starting and relief duties helped him remain valuable throughout the 1980s as teams increasingly relied on pitching depth.

Yet the most unusual chapter of Lollar’s professional life began after he hung up his baseball cleats and put on a different kind of spikes.

Following his retirement from baseball in 1989, Lollar stepped away from the sport entirely and pursued a completely new career path. Rather than remaining in baseball as a coach or instructor, he turned his focus toward another lifelong passion: golf.

Lollar eventually became a PGA professional, building a second career within the golf industry as both an instructor and club professional. The transition from pitching on major league mounds to working on the golf course may seem unusual, but for Lollar it represented an opportunity to reinvent himself after baseball.

His journey illustrates something many professional athletes eventually discover: life after sports often requires starting over and finding a new competitive outlet. For Lollar, that meant trading the pitching mound for the fairway.

Today, Lollar’s baseball career remains a fascinating footnote in Yankees history — a rookie season in the Bronx that launched nearly a decade in the major leagues, including a stop to become one of the 251 players to play both for the Yankees and Red Sox.

From small-town Missouri to the University of Arkansas, to Yankee Stadium and eventually the PGA, Tim Lollar’s career path proves that sometimes the most interesting journeys are the ones that take a few unexpected turns.

Happy birthday, William Timothy Lollar — and Woo Pig!

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.