Category: Sports News

The players in competition for the final spot in the rotation are not going to make the decision easy on the San Diego Padres front office and manager Craig Stammen. German Marquez started the game against the Chicago Cubs for the Padres, who won the game 3-0, and he completed three innings without allowing a run. Marquez did allow two hits, but that was it. He also finished with three strikeouts. Marco Gonzales followed Marquez with three scoreless innings of his own. Gonzales allowed three hits and a walk, but he recorded five strikeouts. Both of these performances followed Walker Buehler the day before after he had a strong outing, and after the last two games all three pitchers along with JP Sears seem to have every intention of making things as difficult as possible for the San Diego decision makers.

Padres News:

• The 2026 Spring Breakout is coming in the near future and the Padres, despite their abysmal preseason minor league rankings, will have plays such as Kruz Schoolcraft and Ethan Salas competing. Schoolcraft and Salas join other highly outed prospects from around MLB in the third annual prospect showcase.

• Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Wandy Peralta all left the Peoria Sports Complex to join the Dominican Republic for the WBC. The Dominican Republic joins the US and Japan as the favorites to win the global competition and Thomas Conroy of Gaslamp Ball believes this may be the year the D.R. finishes at the top.

• Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribuneprovided notes surrounding multiple Padres players. He learned Sung-Mun Song is considered day-to-day with an oblique injury and Nick Pivetta is also being given time off due to arm fatigue. On a positive injury note, Acee reported reliver Jason Adam continues his progression and has a chance to be on the roster on Opening Day.

• Ramon Laureano came to the Padres at the 2025 trade deadline and part of the appeal for San Diego was the team option for 2026. Laureano solidified a position of need and if he can replicate what he did in the second half of last year he could have a career year.

WBC News:

• Aaron Judge homered in his first WBC at-bat and helped the US dominate Brazil. Byron Buxton was hit on the elbow and left the game, but reports after the game were he will be “fine.”

• Machado flashed some leather and Junior Caminero homered to lead the Dominican Republic over Nicaragua.

• Mexico knocked off Great Britain in the WBC opener for both teams.

• Edwin Diaz looked sharp in his return to the WBC in Puerto Rico’s win over Columbia.

• Venezuela knocked off Netherlands in the first WBC game for both teams.

Baseball News:

• Freddy Peralta has made it known that he is willing to sign an extension with the New York Mets and prefers it to be a long-term extension.

• The Texas Rangers signed Andrew McCutchen to a minor league deal.

The World Baseball Classic ramped up into their pool play schedule yesterday, so let’s do a quick recap of what happened.

Japan 13, Chinese Taipei 0 (7 innings)

Listen, we’re all here for the Shohei Ohtani show in the WBC, so of course Shohei Ohtani crushed a grand slam in the second inning.

Bases loaded
Shohei Ohtani at the plate

What else did you expect? 🦄 pic.twitter.com/bfN2qheoRV

— MLB (@MLB) March 6, 2026

That was basically all she wrote for the game. I’m not sure if anyone in this pool can win a game against Samurai Japan.

Cuba 3, Panama 1

In a game that had some good pitching in it, Cuba was led by home runs from Yoelkis Guibert and Yoan Moncada to secure the victory over the Panamanian squad. I thought for sure that this was going to go Panama’s way considering the roster differences, but Cuba does just know how to win on an international stage.

Venezuela 6, Netherlands 2

Led by former Phillies pitcher Ranger Suarez, the Venezuelans picked up a pretty important win for them in a pool that has several teams that have a shot at moving on to the knockout stage. Suarez was good in only two innings of work, but it was the lineup that is pretty deep that did some damage. Luis Arraez picked up two RBI on a single and bases loaded walk while Willson Contreras delivered the big blow with a two-run single that basically ended the game.

Mexico 8, Great Britain 2

This was a fairly close game going into the eighth inning, where it was tied at one. That was until the pitching depth that the English lack showed when they surrendered seven runs in the final two innings to seal the deal. Gary Gill Hill, Tristan Beck and Graham Spraker – all affiliated with MLB clubs – just could not keep Mexico’s offense down for the entirety of the game.

Puerto Rico 5, Colombia 0

A game that showed the interesting pitching limits the WBC is played under, Puerto Rico rode a big fifth inning to take a game in their home stadium in San Juan.

Colombia had Jose Quintana on the mound to begin the game and he was very effective for three innings. However, he was removed after only 30 pitches, where the pitcher who succeeded him, Adrian Almeida, was charged with five runs allowed in that fifth inning that doomed Colombia. Why they pulled Quintana could have had something to do with his now being available after a single day’s rest, but that’s still a strange move to make that ended up costing them.

Dominican Republic 12, Nicaragua 3

You know, I watched a lot of this game next to the United States one (thank you, YouTube TV). I really thought Nicaragua was going to pull this one off once they had a lead and at least a share of a tie through five innings. But as we watched, I told my son, “it’s going to come down to pitching and Nicaragua just doesn’t have the octane to beat DR, I don’t think.”

Then Junior Caminero came up and hit a baseball that went about 200 miles per hour and about 20 feet off the ground for a backbreaker.

IT'S GONE 😤

JUNIOR CAMINERO IS AN ELECTRIC FACTORY ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/SCOYIV7yg4

— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 7, 2026

This Dominican team might be legit.

United States 15, Brazil 5

This shouldn’t have been this close.

Seventeen walks allowed by Brazil, to be expected of course, was just too much to overcome. Aaron Judge hit a titanic shot in the first inning to give the U.S. a lead they never gave back.

AARON JUDGE GOES YARD 🇺🇸 #WorldBaseballClassicpic.twitter.com/rHI5uO5p6m

— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 7, 2026

However, this game was 8-5 going into the ninth inning. That simply can’t happen if the U.S. wants to win anything in this tournament. Better clean it up.

Hey, Manny Ramirez’s kid hit two home runs. And Jose Contreras’ kid, a 17 year old kid still in high school, got Judge to ground into a double play. We’re all officially old!

Chinese Taipei 14, Czechia 0 (7 innings)

Taipei gets on the board with a win here, using a grand slam from Stuart Fairchild to power them to a mercy rule victory. I think the Czechia story is officially over.

How did the Phillies do?

Edmundo Sosa: 1-4, single
Bryce Harper: 1-5, single, R, RBI, walk, strikeout
Kyle Schwarber: 2-4, two singles, 2 R, 2 walks

Cubs catcher Moisés Ballesteros made three ABS challenges in Friday night’s 3-0 Cubs loss to the Padres, and got all of them right.

As you know, Ballesteros has previously been known as a catcher who’s probably better off as a DH. It appears, to me at least, that being good at ABS challenges is a useful skill. So… maybe Ballesteros will see some catching time during the regular season. He’s getting opportunities now because Miguel Amaya is off at the World Baseball Classic.

I’ll get to the challenges shortly. Ben Brown, who started this game, struggled. He allowed three hits, walked three, hit two batters and was charged with all three Padres runs. That’s… not good. Brown will get more starting chances this spring. His future could be in the bullpen… or at Triple-A Iowa being stretched out to start. As always, we await developments.

Here’s video of two of the three successful Ballesteros challenges. First, in the bottom of the third [VIDEO].

Here’s another, in the bottom of the fourth [VIDEO].

Good work by Ballesteros on both of those.

Cubs relievers combined for 5.1 shutout innings in this game, allowing three hits, two walks and striking out five. The only one of those relievers likely to make the Opening Day roster was Jacob Webb. Also in this group were Collin Snider, Ethan Roberts, Ryan Rolison and minor leaguer Charlie Barnes.

The offense didn’t do much. Ballesteros had two hits, raising his spring BA to .372, and Matt Shaw also had a pair of hits. The Cubs also drew three walks and left nine on base, going 0-for-8 with RISP.

And that’s the tale of the first night game of the spring.

The Cubs will face the A’s at Sloan Park Saturday afternoon. Shōta Imanaga will start for the Cubs, and hopefully will keep the ball in the yard this time. Mason Barnett starts for the A’s. Game time is 2:05 p.m. CT. No TV today, but there will be a radio broadcast via WSCR/The Score.

That spring training results mean little, yes. That the A’s are having a terrific spring training so far because no one has gotten majorly hurt, yes. But there must be some significance in some of the play on the field, no? The answer to that is an emphatic and resounding maybe.

What we’ve seen so far that could be meaningful unless it isn’t:

Max Muncy

Two things stand out with regard to Muncy so far in spring training. One is that it really does appear that 3B is his job to lose. He is tied for the team lead with 21 at bats and has been frequently a starter at 3B.

The other is that true to his profile, the bat seems to be ahead of the glove. There are many aspects of Muncy’s hitting to like so far, from how hard he is hitting the ball to his 4 walks in 25 PAs, helping him to a .286/.400/.524 line so far. But he continues to throw erratically and to play 3B very much like someone still learning on the job — or someone for whom defense just doesn’t come naturally.

It looks like 3B is not a position where the A’s are going to emphasize defense first, most likely handing Muncy the keys and trusting that his bat will be good enough to overcome shakiness with the glove — and also hoping Nick Kurtz can save many of Muncy’s low and wide throws.

Luis Morales & Jack Perkins

Morales and Perkins have in common that their stuff plays and their upside is significant, but they are also wild cards with regard to how ready they are to be consistent at the big league level.

So far both have shown that up-and-down combo with Morales giving up a 6-spot in one start, then pitching great his last time out until he ran out of gas in the 4th and walked 2 before exiting, and Perkins flashing good stuff but having trouble throwing enough strikes.

It’s fair to say that the A’s fortunes in 2026 will rest largely on the shoulders — that is arms — of their young pitchers and so far the group has generally looked raw. These are also tiny samples early in spring training, so they barely count for anything other than reinforcing what we already know.

The exception has been Gage Jump, who has arguably been the best of the bunch and might have accelerated his ETA from mid-season to more like May. And we haven’t yet seen Jacob Lopez, whose continued success would be pivotal to enhancing the A’s rotation.

Tyler Soderstrom

Again, spring results are not terribly meaningful even if 9 for 20 with 2 HR is a mighty nice way to begin the year. What might be meaningful, though, is that these are Soderstrom’s first 20 at bats since signing an extension and if nothing else, it’s fair to say he has not come out pressing or trying to do too much as we may have seen with Lawrence Butler.

It’s great that the A’s scored 4 players in the top 100 recently suggested by MLB Rank, but how was Soderstrom not one of them? He is poised to make that list look silly.

Leo De Vries

Who knows how quickly the 19 year old wunderkid will reach the big leagues? Once thought to be positioned for a call up maybe late in 2026, De Vries is proving that he may be even closer than that. He has been anything but over matched by his elders, 7 for 19 to start the Cactus League.

Granted 6 of the 7 hits are singles but no one really questions his power or whether he can spray doubles from line to line. He has consistently been patient and gotten into hitter’s counts and just seems to have that natural feel for the pace of the game, the strike zone, you name it.

De Vries isn’t on the cusp of the big leagues as a teenager because his ST batting average is .368, but he is on the cusp based on how well matched he looks so far on both sides of the ball playing against big leaguers.

Overall Pitching

If spring training stats are meaningless in general then spring training team ERA is even more so. You have the desert air and wind playing tricks with fly balls, A ball scrubs tossing the last 3 innings, so many reasons why results just don’t tell you a whole lot, especially on a team level.

That being said, the A’s pitching was a weakness in 2025 and their team ERA so far in the Cactus League — whether it’s meaningful or not — stands at 6.51. You can take solace that one of the 4 teams worse in MLB happens to be Seattle (7.68), more proof that spring training team stats don’t mean squat. But what you can’t do is celebrate that A’s pitchers so far are having a ton of success.

So there are some observations about things that mostly don’t matter or are utterly misleading, which is what happens when fans are forced to write about the team they love at a time when the players are just getting stretched out physically and working on their craft without much concern about the results.

In other words, it’s time to fully panic and at the same time reserve your post-season tickets.

Dominic Smith is in the driver’s seat to make the Opening Day roster. The subtractions of Ha-Seong Kim and Jurickson Profar make it all but a certainty. Mark Bowman feels that Smith is your designated hitter versus right handed pitching coming out of the gate. It’s difficult to argue that point, so I’m going to get used to this idea and dig deeper to see what he can bring. I may have more of a deep dive soon, but the first thing that caught my eye were Dominic’s comps from Baseball Savant. The Braves’ former catcher’s 2019 season was listed there.

There are some parallels between the two. Travis had a .745 OPS in 2019 versus .750 for Smith’s 2025 season. Travis had 2.79 strikeouts per walk and Smith was at 2.65. Smith had a 111 wRC+ against Travis’s 100. So you don’t have to squint too hard on the overall numbers. But after that, the numbers diverge.

Dominic’s splits make the case for his contribution as a Braves. He had a 119 wRC+ versus righties last season and a 100 wRC+ for his career. So as long as that’s all the Braves are asking him to do, it will be fine. I think I would rather have 2019 Travis d’Arnaud to start this season. This would allow decent hitting from the catcher spot and allow Baldwin to play as a DH more. But for now, Dominic Smith with his similar numbers from the DH spot should be fine.

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

Baseball is nearly in full swing as spring training has played out for a few weeks now, and players are getting their legs underneath them. The Yankees have lots of players looking to catch the attention of coaches throughout camp, as this is the biggest spotlight they’ll get before the minor league season begins and top prospects get to work on a path to the majors. There’s a number of promising arms that the Yankees have in the pipeline, and they’ve taken centerstage as the B teams hit the road for a number of these exhibitions. So naturally, we wanted to know which ones have caught your eye.

Overwhelmingly, the star of the staff thus far by your vote has been Carlos Lagrange. The soon-to-be 23-year-old has been flashing consistent 100-mph heaters, even topping out at 103 mph on the radar during his two spring training games, and that’s building a lot of confidence from some of the leaders of the clubhouse that this kid could be something special in the near future. Both Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole have commented on how impressed they are with Lagrange’s stuff and the potential he has to be a top of the rotation type of arm, and after a season in which Lagrange jumped up to Double-A and posted a 3.22 ERA with 104 strikeouts in just 78.1 innings at that level there’s a lot to be excited about with him.

Elmer Rodriguez came in a distant second here, but there’s plenty of enthusiasm for his potential as well. Ranked in the back-half of the top 100 prospect lists for major outlets like Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and Baseball Prospectus (and slightly higher ranked than Lagrange is on average between the three), Rodriguez was acquired from Boston for catcher Carlos Narvaez last year and shot through the system. He pitched to a sub-3 ERA at both High-A and Double-A across 145 innings, even getting a taste of Triple-A Scranton to end his year.

Ben Hess comes in third here, and that’s reasonable given how much farther down the line Hess is compared to the other two in terms of development — Hess has just one professional season under his belt — but there’s a good amount of results already showing to generate some excitement. Hess debuted in High-A, and already made it up to Double-A in the middle of the year while continuing to put up zeroes. The organization has a heaping of pitching talent working their way up the farm system now, and soon enough fans will be able to see some of them break through instead of just envisioning how they might fit.

We also had a secondary topic on hand, with the news that the Yankees were retiring CC Sabathia’s No. 52 jersey and putting it up in Monument Park for the rest of time. The majority of you found this a fitting honor for the now-Hall of Famer who went into Cooperstown with a Yankee cap on, as Sabathia arrived in New York and immediately anchored the pitching staff as the ace of a World Series championship team. CC wound up achieving incredible milestones at the end of his career, including his 3,000th strikeout and 250th career win in his final season, and that combined with his dominant first four seasons as a Yankee combined with his ability to retool himself in his latter years on top of just being the central figure of the clubhouse throughout his tenure in the Bronx gave him more than enough of a resume to earn his Monument Park plaque. Sabathia knows and appreciates the weight of the enshrinement well, calling the Yankees’ decision “one of the greatest honors of my life.”

Touching on some MLB-wide topics, the ABS system was introduced at the MLB level for the first time back in last year’s All-Star Game and now it’s gotten a wider look at it makes its spring debut, and it’s drawn rave reviews. Applicable only by the catcher, pitcher, or batter, the challenge calls are quick enough to not interrupt the flow of the game too much and lessen the severity of an umpire having an off-night — so long as you still have your challenges.

Teams have been gung-ho about utilizing the feature thus far, challenging early and often, which often leads to them running out of challenges if they reach for questionable ones. Austin Wells went on a spree of challenging calls that didn’t wind up overturned early in spring, but the Yankees at large have been pretty successful at nailing their spots otherwise. Whether it’ll assist offenses more than pitching remains to be seen, but the weight of keeping a rally alive by a batter successfully challenging a call might feel more significant than a pitcher getting themselves out of one via similar means and thus create the feeling that it aids batters more. It does detract from a catcher’s ability to frame the ball and “steal” strikes as often, especially if teams retain their challenges for later innings when an important at-bat hinges on the correct call, which is purely a benefit for hitters. We’ve all seen the umpire who manages to miss a strike straight down the middle here and there though, so pitchers will undoubtedly be pushing the button for themselves as well.

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These survey results are sponsored by FanDuel.

The polls have closed and the votes are in! At Bucs Dugout, we polled how excited Pittsburgh Pirates fans were for the regular season after the team’s hot start to Spring Training. 82% of those who voted said that they are more excited than normal for the regular season after the Buccos dominated Grapefruit League play.

The Pirates as of Friday have a 10-4 record in Spring Training, and fans have a lot to be excited about ahead of the regular season. The story of the Pirates’ offseason of course has been how differently they’ve approached building their lineup. Signing All-Star slugger Ryan O’Hearn was a sign of good faith that the Buccos were looking to get serious. The organization also made a monster trade that saw All-Star Brandon Lowe and prospect Jake Mangum come over from Tampa Bay. Very quickly they completely transformed the lineup, and then kept adding when they signed Marcel Ozuna to be the team’s designated hitter.

The emergence of Konnor Griffin as the top prospect in baseball has dominated headlines, and to this point, he has absolutely looked like a future star in Major League Baseball. Other prospects like Jhostynxon Garcia, Braxton Ashcraft and Esmerlyn Valdez have also been turning heads in camp and have their own share of highlight moments.

Pittsburgh’s pitching rotation is what will get butts in seats this season, as they are projected to be one of the best in baseball. Paul Skenes is the reigning National League Cy Young winner and is primed to have another strong season. Bubba Chandler is still one of the most exciting pitching prospects in baseball, while Mitch Keller will provide the veteran leadership to keep the group on track.

FanDuel Sports Network has the Pirates at -520 odds to win 70 games in 2026. Pittsburgh won 71 games in 2025.

There’s a lot of reasons for Pirates fans to be more excited than usual for the upcoming season, and there should be no shortage of fireworks going off at PNC Park this year.

Brandon Valenzuela is a 25-year-old switch-hitting catcher born in Hermosillo, Mexico (he has a good role model as a Mexican-born catcher in Kirk). The Blue Jays picked him up from the Padres in trade for Will Wagner. MLB.com has Valenzuela as #24 on their Jays top 30 prospect list. He was added to the Jays’ 40-man last November.

The Padres signed him as a 16-year-old in 2017 for a $100,000 signing bonus. He has all three options left.

Last year, splitting time between Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A Buffalo, he hit .224/.309/.383 with 15 home runs. As a switch-hitter, he’s been pretty even on each side (last year a .725 OPS vs. LHP and .680 vs. RHP). He struck out a lot (24.0% of the time) but then walked a fair bit (10.9%). He has a bit of pop.

But offense isn’t what has put on prospect lists. His defense is what has him on the edge of a major league job. Last year, he threw out 34% of baserunners. He’s said to good at blocking balls in the dirt and that he calls a good game.

Baseball America says:

The switch-hitting Valenzuela is a glove-first catcher without a lot of offensive upside. Valenzuela’s righthanded swing is better than his lefthanded swing, leading to average results against lefthanded pitching. He shows below-average contact skills with an advanced approach that should lead to at least an average walk rate. There will be a fair amount of strikeouts as Valenzuela is a well below-average contact hitter against righthanded pitching. He hit 15 home runs in 2025 and shows fringe-average game power. To Valenzuela’s credit he has average exit velocity data with lofty launch angles. Behind the plate he’s a plus defender with an above-average arm that keeps runners in check

He’s having a good spring, with 4 hits and 3 walks, in 12 at-bats, and, to my eyes, has looked good behind the plate.

If Tyler Heineman hits like he did last year (and he’s also a good defensive catcher) and stays healthy, we won’t see much of Valenzuela, but if Heineman goes back to hitting the way he has in the past, well, the team is still likely to stay with the catcher they know. Then, catchers do tend to hit the IL at some point during a season, and Brandon would be next in line. Ali Sánchez got into 20 MLB games last year.

Valenzuela is nine years younger than Heineman. All things being equal, I’d rather have Valenzuela on the major league team than Heineman, but Tyler would likely either retire or look for a job with another team if the Jays wanted to send him down. Valenzuela pretty much has to do whatever the Jays tell him to.

Heineman didn’t get his first MLB at-bat until he was 28. And, before the age of 30, Heineman only played 20 games. If Brandon doesn’t get any major league time this year, he’s got lots of time to ‘make it’.

Steamer figures he’ll play 8 games this season, hitting .201/.272/.315 with 1 home run.