Category: Sports News

The Yankees announced that infielder George Lombard Jr., who has had flashes of excellence this spring, has been reassigned to minor league camp.

The 20-year-old Lombard was never expected to make the team out of spring training, so this is very much an anticipated move. 

Ranked as the top overall prospect in the Yankees’ system, Lombard has never played higher than Double-A ball, meaning his Major League debut is still likely a bit down the road. 

But that didn’t stop the former first-round pick from showing flashes of what he can do whenever that time comes around. While he hit just .185 in 27 at-bats, Lombard’s biggest moment came when he blasted a leadoff home run against Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet. 

Lombard also held his own defensively, playing short stop, second, and third base. 

The Yankees do have a bit of question mark at shortstop, with Anthony Volpe recovering from offseason surgery and not expected to return until after Opening Day, but for now, Lombard will continue to get at-bats and play every day in the minors.

It was a slog for Mets left-hander Sean Manaeaon Thursday against the Cardinals.

He allowed three runs on six hits while walking one and striking out four in 2.2 innings -- needing 56 pitches to get that far.

Spring training results should always be taken with a grain of salt, but the most notable thing for Manaea was that his velocity continued to be down.

Manaea topped out at 90.4 mph with his fastball, but it sat mostly around 88 mph, which is similar to where it was during his first Grapefruit League start.

It was an injury-riddled season for Manaea in 2025, with him missing significant time due to an oblique injury and then pitching through a loose body in his left elbow -- an ailment he did not require surgery for during the offseason.

Last season, Manaea's fastball averaged 91.7 mph.

Manaea's two-seamer averaged 92.4 mph in 2024, while his four-seamer that season averaged 92.2 mph.

So, is there concern regarding where his velocity is at with Opening Day in two weeks?

"It is what it is," Manaea said after his performance on Thursday. "I feel healthy, I feel good. To me, I'm not concerned about anything."

Manaea added that he doesn't have "any explanation" for the velo dip, but noted that he thinks "adrenaline will definitely play a role" once the regular season starts.

Asked where he wanted his velocity to be, Manaea said he'd like it to be around 92-93 mph.

Speaking after the game, Carlos Mendoza weighed in on the velocity issue.

"I'm not concerned, as long as he keeps telling us that he's healthy," Mendoza explained. "That's what he keeps telling us: 'I feel great.' Look, it might take a while for the velo to come back. That's why he's tinkering with the cutter, the changeup is good, the sweeper.

"He went through a lot last year. And now, it's refining the mechanics, the arm slot. There's a lot going on, but I thought overall he got better the second and third inning. But again, it's gonna come down to him feeling good. It might take a few weeks, it might take a month. Who knows? But again, he's feeling good."

Manaea tossed just 60.2 innings last season while posting a 5.64 ERA and 1.22 WHIP.

He threw a career-high 181.2 innings for the Mets in 2024, during a season when he dropped his arm angle midway through and was largely dominant over the last three months.

As things currently stand, the Mets appear poised to enter the season with a six-man rotation that includes Freddy Peralta, Nolan McLean, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Kodai Senga, and Manaea.

New York's starting pitching depth includes Christian Scott and Jonah Tong, while Tobias Myers -- who has starting experience -- has been staying stretched out.

The Mets dropped their road game in Jupiter to the Cardinals this afternoon, as Sean Manaea gave up three runs in two-and-two-thirds innings of work. With a lineup featuring many projected Opening Day starters, the Mets only had five hits on the day.

• The highlight of the game was undoubtedly Jorge Polanco’s solo home run, as it gave the Mets their only run of the afternoon. He went 1-for-3 on the day.
• Perhaps more importantly, Luis Robert Jr. made his Mets spring training debut, played center field, and went 1-for-3 at the plate.
• Jacob Reimer hit a single in his lone plate appearance after getting into the game.
• Tyrone Taylor went 1-for-2 with a double to continue his strong spring.
• A pitcher named Aaron Rozek finished the third for Manaea and gave up a hit before getting an out in his brief appearance.
• Craig Kimbrel and Luke Weaver each threw a scoreless inning in relief, and Tobias Myers finished the game for the Mets with two scoreless innings, two strikeouts, no walks, and just one hit allowed while facing the minimum over those two frames.

The Mets are in split-squad mode tomorrow, as they’ll send a team to face the Nationals in West Palm Beach at 6:05 PM EDT while fielding a team at home to host the Marlins for a game at 6:10 PM EDT. The former will not be televised, but the latter will be on WPIX.

With the news yesterday that Bryce Miller’s timeline will be delayed by at least a week, today’s Emerson Hancock start against the Cubs takes on a bit more significance. Hancock has looked sharp this spring, showcasing an improved sweeper and holding his velocity well; today he’ll be tasked to do so as a starter instead of piggybacking off Kade Anderson, who will get tomorrow’s start against the Dodgers (which will be televised on SNLA). Hancock is slated to throw around four innings/50 pitches, similar to the other starters.

Lineups:

Also scheduled to pitch for Seattle: Alex Hoppe, Troy Taylor, Josh Simpson, Casey Legumina.

Don’t get your hopes up of seeing an old friend at third base: that is Jefferson Rojas, who spent most of 2025 at High-A South Bend. Trade acquisition Edward Cabrera gets the start on the mound for the North Siders, who today named former Mariner and Seattle-area native Matt Boyd as their Opening Day starter.

Injury updates:

Yesterday Bryce Miller reported tightness while throwing his bullpen session and his bullpen was immediately cut short. Dan Wilson says that from what he understands with imaging on Miller, things actually look better, and gave his young pitcher credit for having the maturity to say something and also seek advice from teammates who have undergone a similar injury, all of whom told him not to push it.

Today’s game information:

Game time: 1:05 PT

TV: No

Radio: 710 AM Seattle Sports (delayed to 7 PM PT); live on Gameday, Seattle Sports app

Roster moves

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves and have 40 players in camp.

Reassigned to Minor League camp:

• RHP Isaiah Campbell
• RHP Shawn Dubin
• RHP Thomas Hatch
• RHP Bryce Jarvis
• C Matt O’Neill
• OF Oscar Mercado
• OF Kristian Robinson

No major surprises here. The best known name is probably Jarvis, who has appeared 67 times for the D-backs over the past three seasons. However, he was designated for assignment in December, and subsequently taken off the 40-man roster.

After Taylor Clarke, pitchers likely to appear include LHP Brandyn Garcia, RHP Drey Jameson, RHP Juan Morillo, RHP Shawn Dubin and RHP John Curtiss. All except Dubin, who was on the reassigned list above, are still potentially contending for a spot in the bullpen. Garcia is the most likely: he and Morillo have each tossed four scoreless innings this spring. But Brandyn has the advantage of being a southpaw, something in perilously short supply for the Diamondbacks. I’ll get an updated Opening Day roster prediction written up, and likely posted tomorrow night.

No broadcast again today, but things improve over the weekend, with three consecutive Dbacks.TV games.

Today the Texas Rangers have yet another hated American League West opponent in for a Cactus League contest with the Athletics of Northern California arriving to Surprise.

RHP Jack Leiter is next to take the mound for Texas while the Ranger bats will face RHP J.T. Ginn of the Athletics.

The A’s have a radio feed but you can also follow along on Gameday. First pitch from Surprise Stadium is scheduled for 3:05 pm CT.

Go Rangers!

In 2019, a 16-year-old Jasson Domínguez became a multi-millionaire, coming to terms on a $5.2 million signing bonus with America’s most iconic franchise. In the just under seven years since, he’s encountered a lot, from losing a year of development due to COVID-19 to his minor-league breakout and rapid MLB debut to Tommy John surgery to losing opportunities in his true rookie year of 2025 due to the emergence of Trent Grisham.

Entering 2026, the now-23-year-old Domínguez is likely ticketed for Triple-A to continue developing, but he’s still got a chance to prove he belongs on the major-league roster. After a rare home run from the right side on Tuesday against the Phillies, the Martian flipped back to his strong side and replayed a highlight from the first at-bat of his MLB career in September 2023, blasting a long home run off Justin Verlander to get the Yankees started in an eventual 4-3 win over the Tigers in an untelevised game in Lakeland.

Nestled away in front of zero cameras in Lakeland, the Yankees got a quick start off of their longtime foe Verlander, facing the Bombers in a Detroit uniform for the first time in 3,561 days. After the 43-year-old froze Ben Rice to start the game, he coughed up back-to-back home runs to Domínguez and Escarra. The Martian’s blast was especially notable, going 431 feet to deep right-center field.

Will Warren sat down the Tigers 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the first, allowing the home run parade to continue off of Verlander in the second. Non-roster invite Seth Brown gave us a preview of what we’ll see in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season, showing off his great pop with his first home run of the spring to make it 3-0 Yanks.

Warren struck out a pair in the home half, blowing a 1-2 fastball past Spencer Torkelson at the top of the zone and dialing it up to 95 to get Zach McKinstry swinging to end the second. He continued rolling in the third, only being threatened by a long fly out by Javier Báez before inducing a pair of groundouts, retiring the first nine in order.

Verlander appeared like he was beginning to settle down after allowing three early home runs, but he got into another jam in the fourth. Spencer Jones tapped a ball through the right side and hustled out a double with one out before both Brown and Max Schuemann drew walks to load the bases and chase the future Hall of Famer. Brant Hurter came on in an unenviable situation, but struck out both George Lombard Jr. and Yanquiel Fernández to get out of trouble.

The Tigers’ lineup flipped over in the fourth, but they still had no answer for Warren, who had now tossed four perfect innings on just 41 pitches. Hurter stayed on for Detroit in the fifth and did the same to the top of the Yankees’ order, striking out Rice in a 1-2-3 frame.

After retiring his 13th consecutive batter to start the game, Warren finally faltered and gave up a single to Dillon Dingler and a home run to McKinstry to cut the Yankees’ lead to 3-2. Veteran Kenley Jansen, whom I just learned today is a Tiger, pitched the sixth for Detroit and worked around a two-out error to put up another zero, striking out DeJong and Jones in the process.

Still working extremely efficiently, Warren closed out a rare spring training quality start, tossing six solid innings on just 64 pitches. He only had two strikeouts and once again surrendered his only damage against lefties, but he was able to manage contact effectively, which will be valuable for a guy without overwhelming velocity.

Cade Winquest got the ball in the seventh in relief of Warren, looking to string together some good outings with less than two weeks left before the Yankees have to make a Rule 5 decision. It didn’t start well, as he plunked Hunter Dobbins on 0-2 to lead off the inning. He wasn’t fazed, though, inducing a pair of groundballs from Torkelson and Dingler to get the three outs he needed to end the inning while sitting 96 on his fastball.

After loading the bases and forcing Verlander out of the game in the fourth, the Tigers retired 14 of the next 15 Yankees, with the only baserunner being the sixth-inning error. Angel Chivilli pitched the eighth for the Yankees and got into trouble, allowing a double to Brett Callahan and an infield single to Max Anderson, neither hit harder than 88 mph, to put runners on the corners with one out.

He jumped ahead of Jude Warwick 1-2 with a changeup he chased in the dirt, but he doubled up on the pitch, and the Tigers’ prospect reached down and skied it to right field for a game-tying sacrifice fly. Chivilli jumped ahead of Bennett Lee and struck him out with a changeup, but the game was now tied at three.

Miguel Palma broke a 15-batter streak by Tigers pitching in the ninth with a leadoff walk against Johan Simon. 2025 draft pick Kaeden Kent upped the pressure by battling back from 0-2 to line a single to right field. Nick Torres chased a slider in the dirt for the first out, but the ball got away and allowed the go-ahead run to get to third with one out. Coby Morales struck out, Jace Avina got plunked to load the bases, and the Tigers made a pitching change.

Logan Berrier, who predominantly pitched for Low-A Lakeland in 2025, faced Josh Moylan, who plays first base for High-A Hudson Valley, with the bases loaded and two outs in a tie game in the ninth inning. Moylan jumped ahead 3-0, fell back into a full count, and drew a go-ahead seven-pitch walk. Braden Shewmake also jumped ahead 3-1 right after, but hit a hard groundball right to the second baseman to end the inning.

Nursing a 4-3 lead, Bradley Hanner was tasked with closing this one out. He struck out Corey Julks, induced a soft lineout from Samuel Gil, and ended the game with an Andrew Jenkins groundout.

The Yankees will stay on the road and travel to CoolToday Park in North Port, Florida, to take on the Atlanta Braves on Friday at 1:05 pm. Ryan Weathers will look to bounce back in his third spring start against Didier Fuentes. The game will be televised on MLB Network and the Gotham Sports App.

Box Score