We’ve officially wrapped up our countdown of our list of the Mets’ top twenty-five prospects going into the 2026 season. We hope you enjoyed it, and that it was as educational to everyone reading as it was enjoyable for us putting it together. We encourage everyone to use the comment section to submit questions about the state of the Mets’ farm system, our 2026 list, our individual lists, or anything else you have questions about. We’ll do our best to answer everyone!
Here, then, is the full list, complete with links to each player’s write-up:
As always, a special thanks goes out to our friends at Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America, FanGraphs, and the countless others who have contributed to our collective knowledge of the Mets’ farm system through first-hand information or secondary sources. Another thanks goes out to the various photographers who have graciously allowed Amazin’ Avenue to use their shots over the years.
Last but certainly not least, the Amazin’ Avenue minor league team thanks our amazing community for their continued passion and enthusiasm. None of this would be possible—or needed—without your continued support.
Make no mistake about it, Monday’s blowout loss in Portland was an unfortunate ending to Philadelphia’s five-game West Coast trip that started off with convincing wins against the Clippers and Warriors. A few days prior to the loss on Monday was a loss in Los Angeles against the Lakers which happened to coincide with an NBA Trade Deadline that did not please Sixers fans.
By now, you all know what happened as the Sixers ducked the tax again and subtracted a young player in Jared McCain and were unable to flip the draft capital they acquired for McCain for a different player.
Fast forward to Wednesday night, and Philly is set to return home to Xfinity Mobile Arena and welcome in the hated New York Knicks. In recent seasons, Knicks games in Philadelphia have seen an avalanche of New Yorkers make the short trip down the Jersey Turnpike and across the bridge. There’s a good chance Wednesday night is no different — but it should be.
New York sits third in the Eastern Conference, a half game behind the Boston Celtics. In seventh place in the East, and just below the play-in tournament cut line, is the Orlando Magic with a record of 28-24. That’s right, only five games in the loss column separated the second-place teams from the seventh-place team in the conference and Philadelphia is included in this jumble. As for the first-place team in the East, that would be the Detroit Pistons, a franchise that has not won a playoff round since 2008.
Nothing against Detroit, but I don’t think anyone would fear the Pistons in a postseason series. Of course, this landscape of the Eastern Conference was part of the argument behind a more aggressive trade deadline from Daryl Morey and his staff. It seems like a wide-open conference and if you’re the Sixers, why not go for it or at least push a few more chips into the middle of the table in a season many would probably call an overachieving one so far?
I understand the fan fatigue that’s probably existed in Sixers country lately. Countless early exits in the postseason followed by a disastrous 2024-25 season had a lot of fans tuned out at the start of this season and based on how tickets have been selling on the secondary market, it doesn’t seem like much has changed despite the team’s solid first half. Toss in a disappointing trade deadline and what do you have left to hang your head on?
However, if you were a fan arguing for additions instead of subtractions at last week’s trade deadline, you were doing so because you believed in this year’s roster at least a little bit. Part of you allowed yourself to enjoy some of the younger blood on the team and frankly, McCain had been having an underwhelming season anyway. Morey said he believes the team sold high on McCain and maybe he’s right.
So why not get behind a team that’s been overachieving so far this season? Joel Embiid has played at a higher level than most people would have anticipated. Tyrese Maxey has raised his level to become an All-Star starter. VJ Edgecombe has come right in and been an instant contributor as a rookie. Are they destined for the NBA Finals? Probably not. But sooner or later the invasion of Knicks fans at Xfinity Mobile Arena has to stop.
Sep 26, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Brandon Sproat (40) delivers a pitch against the Miami Marlins during the first inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Milwaukee’s pitching development staff has a reputation around the league as a “pitching lab.” As an organization, the Brewers have done a great job of developing pitchers with talent who were either unheralded or underperformed previously. In 2024, Tobias Myers turned into arguably the Brewers’ best starting pitcher. In 2025, Quinn Priester didn’t lose a game for literal months on end.
In 2026, I think recent acquisition Brandon Sproat is the best bet to follow this pattern.
Coming out of the University of Florida, Sproat was regarded — per Baseball America — “as an athletic righthander with arm speed who emphasized his fastball and changeup,” although his “shaky control induced reliever risk.” Despite the “risk,” he was drafted in the second round of the 2024 draft by the Mets and initially looked to be an amazing find. Sproat breezed through the lower minors and arrived in Triple-A before the end of his first professional season.
Unfortunately, he hit a wall there. The right-hander started seven games in 2024 for the Syracuse Mets, posting a 7.53 ERA. His peripherals weren’t great, either. Sproat allowed 2.2 home runs and 11.3 hits per nine innings, both more than double his average in Double-A. He allowed an opponent slugging percentage of .574. Sproat struck out 11 batters per nine innings in both High-A and Double-A, but that number dipped all the way down to 6.59 in Triple-A. Through his first 22 starts with Syracuse (seven in 2024 and 15 in 2025), Sproat sported a pretty brutal 6.45 ERA.
And then, just like that, he figured things out. Starting in July 2025, Sproat started shoving like he had been in the lower minors. Through his last 11 starts in 2025, he recorded a 2.44 ERA while striking out batters a whopping 30% of the time.
Sproat was rewarded for his efforts with a September call-up, making his major-league debut just before his 25th birthday. He didn’t pitch incredibly well during his four appearances with the Mets but didn’t embarrass himself either. I’m inclined to agree with Baseball America, which said in their scouting report on Sproat that he “has all the ingredients to be a No. 4 starter or better, and he’s ready to assume that role in 2026.” He has talent to spare, with four pitches (a mid-80s sweeper, a high-70s curveball, a slider, and a 94-96 mph sinker) that all have the potential to be plus pitches at the major league level.
So, how can the Brewers’ pitching lab get the most out of Sproat?
Sproat has always been talented, but his success down the stretch came as a result of developing a more effective pitch mix. Milwaukee has had a ton of success with modifying and developing pitch selection, and Sproat has as much to work with as any pitcher the Brewers have had in recent years.
Sproat has used a combination of six different pitches — a sweeper, curveball, changeup, slider, fastball, and sinker — since becoming a member of the Mets organization. Below is his pitch chart over his first four career starts. As shown below, Sproat threw his sinker nearly twice as often as any other pitch. He deployed his sweeper, curveball, fastball, and changeup at roughly equal rates while barely using his slider. It’s an extremely limited sample size, but it does show us what the Mets thought an ideal pitch mix would be for Sproat.
His sinker was hit harder than any other pitch during his four starts in New York, even after accounting for higher volume. Sproat gave up a hit on nine of the 99, or 9.1%, of the sinkers that he threw, with three of those hits going for extra bases. His changeup (43 pitches, two hits) and sweeper (55 pitches, one hit) were each used less frequently than his sinker but proved very effective when utilized. Brewer Fanatic’s Jake McKibbin showed that the sinker and sweeper were ineffective against lefties, describing them as pretty much “neutralized.”
Sproat was only throwing his fastball 32% of the time, even in July. He gets solid velocity on his fastball, which can occasionally touch triple digits, but due to below-average shape (a lack of induced vertical break) his fastball hasn’t exactly been a put-out pitch thus far. Baseball America called it “pedestrian.”
The weird thing is that Sproat’s pitch chart with the Mets is almost the exact opposite of what it had been a year prior. Per a 2024 scouting report, Sproat’s best pitches were his fastball and his slider, the two pitches he threw the least as a Met. The fact that he only threw his four seamer 14% of the time in the big leagues probably doesn’t even mean it’s not a good pitch — it just means that without a good shape, it can’t be heavily featured without giving up hard contact. His fastball numbers were good as a Met, which may have because Sproat was reportedly able to slightly alter its shape sometime around… July.
Maybe the fastball is best as an ancillary offering, but I think Milwaukee sees a legitimate plus fastball waiting to be unlocked. Here’s former Brewer Josh Hader on the team’s pitching lab:
“With (pitching coaches) digging more into the lab, they’re starting to learn how pitches should spin to get optimal drop or movement. That’s one of the things we’ve been looking into with TrackMan, seeing how your ball rotates.”
Pretty much every scouting report on Sproat mentions that his fastball has a lot of potential but could use some work to induce further vertical break. That is exactly what the Brewers do. I’d bet that the Brewers will play with Sproat’s fastball until they find the right shape. Trevor Megill and Nick Mears both got hit around before arriving in Milwaukee, but both thrived once they leaned on their fastballs.
In a world where the Brewers are able to unlock his fastball, his ceiling seems to suddenly raise. Even if he doesn’t throw his fastball more than 30-35% of the time, he also has a few other pitches that are worth utilizing.
One of the reasons Sproat improved in July, per Baseball America, was that he began to throw changeups a lot more. His changeup recorded a 26% swinging-strike rate and a 71% groundball rate, with Baseball America noting that the pitch was “paramount” to his recent success. After his fastball, his changeup was his second-most used pitch against left-handed hitters in Triple-A. His curveball — which had a 41% whiff rate and a 32% chase rate in July — was the third-most frequently used.
For the sake of argument, let’s say the Brewers can’t get the sweeper and sinker — a pitch the Mets clearly believed in — to play better against left-handed hitters. If the Brewers can unlock his fastball, he’d have four pitches (fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup) that should all play well against lefties.
Can Sproat be the next Brewers pitching success story? Answer that for yourself. Sproat is an extremely talented prospect, but he’s still figuring out how to pitch to his strengths and fully harness his stuff. He couldn’t have come to a better organization.
Villanova and Notre Dame are finalizing an agreement to open the 2026-27 season with a men’s and women’s basketball doubleheader in Rome, according to multiple reports on Tuesday, Feb. 10.
The games would take place on Nov. 1, one day before the official start date of the season, but the NCAA reportedly gave the schools special clearance.
Given the circumstances, it’s easy to understand why.
Pope Leo XIV is a Villanova alum, having graduated from the university in 1977 with a degree in mathematics (back when he was known as Robert Prevost). He’s also a native of Chicago, which is a relatively short trip from Notre Dame’s South Bend, Indiana campus and is home to a significant number of Fighting Irish fans. Both universities are Catholic schools.
According to CBS Sports, which first reported news of the planned doubleheader, the Pope’s involvement in the event is unclear.
The game will be played at the 3,500-seat Palazzetto dello Sport and will air on Fox, according to CBS. The games will lead into the network’s NFL coverage that Sunday.
It will mark the second time in the past four seasons that Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team has opened a season on European soil. In Nov. 2023, the Fighting Irish lost to eventual national champion South Carolina 100-71 in a game played in Paris.
Villanova and Notre Dame were both in the Big East from 1995-2013, but haven’t met regularly since the Fighting Irish left for the ACC for non-football sports after the 2012-13 season. The two schools haven’t squared off in men’s basketball since 2016 and haven’t played each other in women’s basketball since 2018.
Notre Dame’s women’s basketball is among the most decorated programs in the sport’s history, with two national championships and five Final Four appearances. The Fighting Irish are struggling this season, though, with a 15-9 record.
On the men’s side, Villanova has been one of the most accomplished programs of the past 50 years, with three national championships, including titles in 2016 and 2018 under then-coach Jay Wright. After three tumultuous seasons after Wright’s surprise retirement in 2022, the Wildcats are 19-5 under first-year head coach Kevin Willard.
The Miami Heat head to the Big Easy tonight to face the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center, with tip-off at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Zion Williamson has thrived as a passer lately, and my Heat vs. Pelicans predictions will focus on his ability to facilitate the rock.
Find out more in my NBA picks for Wednesday, February 11.
Heat vs Pelicans prediction
Heat vs Pelicans best bet: Zion Williamson Over 3.5 assists (-115)
Zion Williamson has an eye for picking a pass for a big man,averaging 3.5 dimes per night.
The former first overall pick had six dimes on Monday against the Sacramento Kings, marking the fourth time in his last six appearances he cashed the Over on assists.
While Zion had just two dimes earlier this season against the Miami Heat, Miami is allowing 4.4 assists per contest to power forwards.
Heat vs Pelicans same-game parlay
Kasparas Jakucionis has eclipsed his rebound total in three straight, grabbing three boards in each game. He’s also hit the Over in rebounds in four consecutive road contests.
Miami has won three straight against the Pelicans, and its last road game was a huge 132-101 victory over the Washington Wizards.
Jaime Jaquez has dished out Over 4.5 dimes in three straight outings, and the UCLA product is averaging 4.7 assists this season.
Heat vs Pelicans SGP
Kasparas Jakucionis Over 3.5 rebounds
Heat moneyline
Jaime Jaquez Over 4.5 assists
Our "from downtown" SGP: Threes brigade
Herb Jones has cashed the Over in triples in two of his last four, while Trey Murphy III has been on fire from 3-point land — cashing his Over in three in a row.
Saddiq Bey has also hit two or more treys in three of five, and there should be plenty of shots tonight with Miami ranked No. 1 in pace.
Heat vs Pelicans SGP
Zion Williamson Over 3.5 assists
Herbert Jones Over 1.5 threes
Trey Murphy III Over 3.5 threes
Saddiq Bey Over 1.5 threes
Heat vs Pelicans odds
Spread: Heat +1 (-115) | Pelicans -1 (-105)
Moneyline: Heat -105 | Pelicans -115
Over/Under: Over 231.5 | Under 231.5
Heat vs Pelicans betting trend to know
The Miami Heat have hit the first-quarter moneyline in 31 of their last 45 away games (+23.80 Units / 42% ROI). Find more NBA betting trends for Heat vs. Pelicans.
How to watch Heat vs Pelicans
Location
Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
Date
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Tip-off
8:00 p.m. ET
TV
FDSN Sun, GCSEN
Heat vs Pelicans latest injuries
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PITTSBURGH, PA - AUGUST 08: Chase Burns #26 of the Cincinnati Red pitches during the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on Friday, August 8, 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joshua Veon/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Nick Martinez was a starting pitcher for the 2025 Cincinnati Reds right up until he wasn’t. He’d start on Tuesday. He’d then start on Friday. Then, he’d take two weeks off and be a reliever every other day, sometimes for two, three innings at a time.
Martinez, who finalized a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday, was precisely the kind of malleable arm that made juggling the rest of the Reds rotation easy. After all, getting more than five arms to be ready only once every fifth day requires a kind of mathematic precision with roster planning and scheduling, and having someone who can do it on their own abbreviated schedule served as a major Band-Aid for manager Terry Francona and head pitching monk Derek Johnson along the way.
So, how will the Reds navigate that issue in 2026?
Complicating the process will be the inevitable innings limits on just about every single candidate for the job. Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, and Julian Aguiar are each coming off almost completely lost 2025 seasons, and none of them is going to be tasked with getting 30 starts and 180 innings even if they simply refuse to allow hits and runs all year. Chase Burns, meanwhile, threw just 109.1 IP across four levels in 2026 after throwing just 100.0 at Wake Forest the year before, and the Reds clearly operated with innings limits in mind for him last year as they used him in the bullpen down the stretch to keep him available.
Four arms who will need some form of kid gloves all year, and four arms you’d love to still have ready and able for a playoff run come September. How, though, do you use them enough from April through August to get them to that point, though?
Will the Reds send Burns, perhaps, to the bullpen to begin the year, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon opined in his first stab at the Opening Day roster? Would the Reds consider piggy-backing two of these guys from the start?
Is it possible they’d be willing to, say, put Rhett Lowder in the rotation and tell him he’s got 15 starts and they’re shutting him down in July? Might they drag their feet on getting Williamson and Aguiar going in the minors, as both are coming off Tommy John surgeries?
Would they even consider going to a six-man rotation at any given point, or would that throw off the regularity enjoyed by the rest of the starters?
All of this, of course, assumes the health and progress of each of the four arms who are ‘known’ quantities in the rotation in Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, and Brady Singer. The best case scenario, obviously, is the four names I talked about earlier only having one opening in the rotation available to them. Complications will surely arise, though, and the Reds have enviable depth to be able to address them when they do…provided they can find a way to keep that many talented, deserving arms ready and able to go at any point this season.
It’s almost enough to make you wish Martinez was still around.
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 27: Jackson Holliday #7 of the Baltimore Orioles takes the field prior to the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, September 27, 2025 in New York, New York. (Photo by Michael Mooney/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
The first big question to be answered in every spring training is this: Who got hurt before reporting to camp? Mike Elias’s first media availability with local reporters answered the question on Wednesday morning. It’s not a great report this year. The big news is that Jackson Holliday suffered a broken hamate bone while taking live batting practice on February 6. Additionally, Jordan Westburg has been dealing with some oblique soreness for about three weeks, although for the time being Elias claims Westburg will be ready for Opening Day.
The February 5 acquisition of Blaze Alexander from the Diamondbacks has a bit more of a clear rationale now that we know Westburg has the oblique issue. The team needed to firm up its infield depth if there was any kind of question mark for any of its key players.
This need for depth only became more apparent the very next day with Holliday’s broken hamate bone. According to Elias, Holliday will be having surgery that will remove the hamate tomorrow. If Holliday is able to recover on a typical timeline, it might be Opening Day before he’s even ready to resume baseball activities, and then he’ll need to start building up like he would have done in spring training from that point.
Hamate injuries are notorious for continuing to sap power for some time even after the player is able to play, so we can probably already rule out a big power breakout for Holliday in 2026. He’ll likely be back off the IL at some point in May, even if the full strength doesn’t come back right away. Alexander is going to get a good chance to get some playing time early in the season.
One piece of good news from Elias’s conference is that there were no major pitching injuries. If anything, this news turned out better than expected, as Elias said that Zach Eflin is a full go to start out in spring training. I had been assuming he might be a few weeks behind in his routine after last year’s back surgery. With apologies to Colin Selby, the fact that he has shoulder inflammation and will be hitting the injured list is not a major shakeup to anyone’s imagined Orioles roster. This does still create a roster opening, since Selby was in the projected bullpen especially after Kade Strowd was included in that Arizona trade. It’s not immediately clear who will fill that spot.
Elias also addressed the topic of pitchers who could have gone either way as a starting pitcher or a reliever. For camp, Tyler Wells will be preparing with a starting pitcher’s workload. Chayce McDermott is headed for the bullpen. Neither of these are too surprising, so it’s more notable that they’ve been confirmed by Elias.
Wells doesn’t have a clear path to the Opening Day rotation in my eyes unless someone ahead of him gets hurt. I think he’s the #6 guy around, so the team does need him to be ready for that workload if it becomes necessary due to anything that happens with another player in camp. I’m not going to pretend that I think McDermott might be anything or that it would be a good news if we ever see him on the big league roster for any length of time.
The next step is to get everybody through spring training with as few injuries as possible. The offseason injury report was pretty good in spring training last year and the Orioles still ended up with a whole bunch of problems by the time Opening Day rolled around and afterwards.
Ice hockey may have a reputation for fights breaking out in the US and Canada's National Hockey League (NHL), but that behaviour is prohibited in international games.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) state in their rulebook that fighting is "not part of international ice hockey's DNA".
This includes Winter Olympic ice hockey games.
Players who do get involved in fights could face penalties or be ejected from the game.
When suspensions are issued, they can be carried over from one IIHF event to another.
For instance, should a player be suspended in the gold medal match at the Winter Olympics, it would carry over to the next IIHF tournament.
However, fighting in the NHL is a regular aspect of the matches, for which both sides can be given a far less harsh punishment of up to a five-minute penalty for individual players.
At the 2026 Winter Olympics, there are 12 men's teams and 10 women's. Great Britain failed to qualify for the Games with either team.
But for the first time since 2014, we will see NHL players from the United States and Canada in action at an Olympics.
What are the Olympic ice hockey rules?
Each team fields six players on the ice, made up of five skaters and a goalkeeper.
The players are continually rotated from a game-day squad of 22 players.
There are three 20 minute periods during the game, where each side will aim to hit a puck into the back of the net.
Should scores be tied, there is a period of overtime, lasting between five and 20 minutes, depending on the stage of the tournament.
Crucially, skaters are reduced from five to three for both teams during overtime.
Whoever scores first in this period wins - and if it is still a tie, the match goes to a penalty shootout, apart from in the gold medal match where the winner must be decided through open play.
This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.
While the NHL has been on pause since February 6, the men’s Olympic tournament is only kicking off in Milano on Wednesday with two games in Group B. The first game will feature Slovakia and Finland, while the second will pit Sweden and Italy. In other words, one Montreal Canadiens will make his tournament debut.
Oliver Kapanen is part of the Finnish team, but he was the thirteenth forward when the team trained on Tuesday, and it has now been confirmed that he’ll be a healthy scratch when the Finns take on the Slovaks today.
Meanwhile, Juraj Slafkovsky will be playing for Slovakia and is expected to play a major role for his country. Back in 2022, his dominant MVP performance at the Olympics helped Slovakia win the bronze medal and spectacularly launched his career, making him the Canadiens’ first-overall pick at the draft held in Montreal. In seven games in Beijing, he scored seven goals, including a pair in the bronze medal game, to lead the tournament in scoring.
The 21-year-old is fully aware that this tournament will be different from his first Olympic appearance since the NHL players are there this time around, but he still wants to make a difference:
I just want to give my best performance. I'll look to help my team and to be the best version of myself. Hopefully, I can help the team win a few games.
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Skating on the first line alongside former Hab Tomas Tatar and former NHLer Adam Ruzicka, Slafkovsky should face the opponents’ first line and first defensive pairing, which should prove to be a big challenge in this best-on-best competition.
The Canadiens’ winger will also play on his country’s first power play unit with Tatar, St. Louis Blues’ Dalibor Dvorsky, Libor Hudacek, who plays in Czechia, and New Jersey Devils defenseman Simon Nemec.
Team Slovakia only includes seven NHLers, while Finland only has one non-NHL player on its roster, which makes the Finns the favourite on paper to win today’s tilt, but the game is played on the ice and not on paper.
Jerry Dipoto, executive vice president of the Seattle Mariners, speaks during the GeekWire Sports Tech Summit in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Thursday, June 22, 2017. The event brings together dozens of leading thinkers in data science, sports marketing, virtual reality, wearables and more. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Pitchers and catchers are reporting, and so are public projection systems. Baseball Prospectus has released their 2026 projections from PECOTA, with a glowing 93.6-win aggregated projection for the Seattle Mariners that is the best in the American League by a sizable margin. Not only is Seattle projected to repeat as AL West champions, but they hold the highest playoff odds and World Series odds of any club in the AL, and are second in all totals only to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It’s a ringing endorsement for Seattle, who boast an above-average lineup and pitching staff, bolstered significantly by their willingness to add Brendan Donovan to the fold. Between Donovan, 5-win projections for both Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez, and each of Seattle’s five presumed rotation members projecting from average to All-Star caliber, PECOTA tells us plenty we know already. What is helpful however, is how these M’s contrast to the rest of the league.
The AL West features three genuine contenders, with both Lone Star State clubs checking in as near-coin flips for a playoff spot. They remain a tier below Seattle, however, with Houston around an 86 win pace and Texas at 84. Striking distance, to be sure, but set in such a way to be Seattle’s to lose. Only the Cubs above their thrifty compatriots and the Dodgers above their mortal competitors feature a greater gap between the 1st and 2nd place clubs in their divisions in terms of projected wins as the AL West.
The crowded AL East is its own worst enemy, with all five clubs set at a >.500 pace, albeit more comfortably for the Yankees and Blue Jays than their compatriots. There’s plucky promise from the Kansas City Royals in PECOTA’s eyes as well, with the AL Central continuing to remain the second division of the sport’s highest level.
On the heels of a near dead heat projection by ZiPS in late January, prior to Seattle’s acquisition of Donovan, Seattle has now a formidable expectation of superiority from the major public projections, with FanGraphs presently showing Seattle around an 87-88 win club that’s 6-7 wins ahead of their Texan competition. On the day of triumphant celebration in downtown Seattle for one SoDo club, there’s reason to think more high-level play impends on the corner of Occidental.
After smacking the Lakers last night, 136-108, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs (37-16) look to extend their five-game winning streak tonight when they take the court in San Francisco against the injury-ravaged Golden State Warriors (29-25).
With their win last night, San Antonio pulled to within 3.5 games of Oklahoma City for the top spot in the Western Conference. Wembanyama scored 40 in 26 minutes in the win. He was the only starter to score in double figures as the Spurs jumped out to a massive, 29-point lead at halftime.
The Warriors have won two of their last three but are just 4-6 in their last ten games. Steve Kerr’s lineup has been patchwork of late to say the least as the team deals with a multitude of injuries including possibly their two most impactful players, Jimmy Butler (knee) and Stephen Curry (knee). Kristaps Porzingis (Achilles) has not dressed for Golden State since arriving at the NBA Trade Deadline from Atlanta.
The Warriors have knocked off the Spurs in their only two previous meetings this season. Both games were in San Antonio. Golden State won 125-120 on November 12 and 109-108 on November 14. Stephen Curry scored a combined 95 points in the two games. These teams will conclude their season series April 1 in San Francisco.
We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on how to catch tipoff, odds courtesy of DraftKings recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.
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Game Details and How to Watch Live: Spurs at Warriors
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Time: 10PM EST
Site: Chase Center
City: San Francisco, CA
Network/Streaming: ESPN
Rotoworld has you covered with all the latest NBA Player News for all 30 teams. Check out the feed page right here on NBC Sports for headlines, injuries and transactions where you can filter by league, team, positions and news type!
Game Odds: Spurs at Warriors
The latest odds as of Wednesday courtesy of DraftKings:
Moneyline: San Antonio Spurs (-250), Golden State Warriors (+205)
Spread: Spurs -7.5
Total: 220.5 points
This game opened Spurs -5.5 with the Total set at 216.5.
Be sure to check out DraftKings for all the latest game odds & player props for every matchup this week on the NBA schedule!
Expected Starting Lineups: Spurs at Warriors
San Antonio Spurs
PG De’Aaron Fox
SG Stephon Castle
SF Devin Vassell
PF Julian Champagnie
C Victor Wembanyama
Golden State Warriors
PG Pat Spencer
SG De’Anthony Melton
SF Moses Moody
PF Gui Santos
C Draymond Green
Injury Report: Spurs at Warriors
San Antonio Spurs
Stephon Castle (pelvic) is listed as questionable for tonight’s game
Lindy Waters III (knee) is listed as questionable for tonight’s game
David Jones Garcia (ankle) has been declared OUT for tonight’s game
Golden State Warriors
Stephon Curry (knee) has been declared OUT of tonight’s game
Seth Curry (back) has been declared OUT of tonight’s game
De’Anthony Melton (glute) is listed as questionable for tonight’s gam
Will Richard (knee) is listed as questionable for tonight’s game
L.J. Cryer (hamstring) has been declared OUT of tonight’s game
Kristaps Porzingis (Achilles) has been declared OUT of tonight’s game
Important stats, trends and insights: Spurs at Warriors
The Spurs are 17-10 on the road this season
The Warriors are 18-9 at home this season
The Spurs are 28-23-2 ATS this season / 14-13 ATS on the road
The Warriors are 24-29-1 ATS this season / 13-13-1 ATS at home
The OVER has cashed in 22 of the Spurs’ 54 games this season (22-32)
The OVER has cashed in 30 of the Warriors’ 54 games this season (30-24) / 18-9 at home
Pat Spencer is averaging 16 points in his last 4 games after averaging 2.2PPG in all of January
Moses Moody has averaged 20 points over his last 2 games
Dylan Harper scored 15 points and tallied 6 assists last night against the Lakers
Julian Champagnie has pulled down just 2 rebounds in each of his last 2 games
Rotoworld Best Bet
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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the NBA calendar based on data points like recent performance, head-to-head player matchups, trends information and projected game totals.
Once the model is finished running, we put its projections next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.
Here are the best bets our model is projecting for tonight’s Spurs and Warriors’ game:
Moneyline: Rotoworld Bet is staying away from a play on the Moneyline
Spread: Rotoworld Bet is leaning towards a play on the Spurs -7.5 ATS
Total: Rotoworld Bet is recommending a play on the Game Total OVER 220.5
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Jan 28, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) walks on the court before the game against the San Antonio Spurs at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Shortly after the Houston Rockets traded for Kevin Durant, I offered my opinion on how the Rockets who are a part of the NBA’s top 75 should be ranked. To the surprise of many, before KD played a single game in a Rockets uniform, I ranked him 2nd behind only the G.O.A.T Hakeem Olajuwon. Just five months later, Kevin Durant serendipitously invited Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon to the “Boardroom” aka his internet series / podcast, in order to give the greatest player in Rockets history his flowers and to pick his brain a bit about the game of basketball.
The first thing that jumps out immediately when you watch this conversation between two NBA legends, is the reverence they hold for one another. Kevin opens the conversation immediately pouring over the 2x NBA Finals MVP and all-time blocks leader.
“Man, it’s just a true honor to be in your presence… you’re like a beacon, you’re a legend. What you brought not just to sports… but the world in general. Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the greatest basketball players to ever walk this earth.” For Dream, the feeling was mutual. “It’s an honor for me, someone of your caliber in today’s game… to appreciate my talents… that means a lot to me.”
Kevin took the opportunity to ask Hakeem about his start in basketball which Dream would not possibly have been able to explain in just the 20-25 minutes they spoke in this interview, but Dream was able to share with him about how his competitiveness began with the sport of soccer and eventually in high school, due to the fact that he was a foot taller than everyone else his age, he was introduced to basketball.
Hakeem was able regale stories of the legendary open runs at Houston’s Fonde Center where he learned the game from fellow Rockets legend Moses Malone. He was able to talk about the joy of playing in back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances, back-to-back NCAA Title games, and heartbreak of losing both of those title games. The talked about the alternate universe where Dream could have played with Clyde Drexler and Michael Jordan in Houston. They talked about Dream’s early success with the Rockets, the challenge of the lean years in-between before getting to the Golden Era of Rockets basketball with back-to-back championships.
The refreshing part of the conversation was that when Kevin asked Dream how he felt about the state of the game today, Hakeem had absolutely nothing negative to say. He highlighted the differences in their eras, but there was no weird energy toward this generation of players from Hakeem. In fact, at moments, Hakeem seems to express some envy over the open style of play today that closer resembles how he used to play in those runs at the Fonde Center. One of the coolest parts of the episode is seeing Dream and KD in the gym working on Hakeem’s patented spin move and breaking down the minute details of moves they both make look like second nature.
Probably my favorite part of the interview came near the end. Kevin began to speak on his current time here in H-Town. “I’m loving being here with the Rockets… every time I go in the arena, and I see the retired jerseys, it makes me go harder. I feel like if I put in enough work maybe I can be up there with y’all one day. For Rockets fans, we would love to see that as well, because if KD finds his jersey in the rafters at Toyota Center when it’s all said and done, that means that the Rockets will have accomplished big things while the Slim Reaper donned Rockets red.
All in all my TDS faithful, we are so fortunate to be fans of a team that can boast having been the home of 12 of the NBA’s to 75 players in the history of the league, none better that Kevin Durant and Hakeem Olajuwon. Both players have represented the city and the franchise with the utmost grace, and in the case of our G.O.A.T. Hakeem, with the utmost humility. It should make us proud to see our favorites on the big stage bringing even more pride to and already pride rich city and franchise.
(To learn even more about Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon’s journey, check out my interview with Mirin Fader, who wrote Hakeem’s latest biography “Dream – The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon”)
New arrivals York and Toulouse see a return to a 14-team format that includes former champions Bradford Bulls
Thirty years on from Super League’s debut night in Paris, British rugby league’s premier competition returns on Thursday evening with a bang – and if you look closely enough, there are more themes tying that inaugural season of summer rugby to the 2026 edition than separate it.
Just like in 1996, this year’s season begins with a new structure and new feel. After more than a decade running as a 12-team competition, we are back to 14 this year following the elevation of debutants York Knights and the returning Toulouse Olympique, with Bradford Bulls – more on them shortly – replacing Salford Red Devils after their financial problems finally caught up with them.
PECOTA has the Cubs at about a 90-72 record, which is pretty close to the 92-70 from 2025. (Personally, I think they’re better than that.)
The Brewers are next at approximately 80-82. PECOTA has underestimated the Brewers many times in recent years. Personally, I think the Brewers are better than that, though they have traded away a couple of key players (Freddy Peralta, Caleb Durbin) from last year’s 97-win team.
The Pirates, who have made some noise through free-agent signings (Marcell Ozuna, Ryan O’Hearn), are listed next at 79-83. That might be a bit too optimistic, in my view.
The Reds made the postseason last year with an 83-79 record and proceeded to get swept by the Dodgers in the wild-card round. PECOTA also has them at about 79-83. The Reds should be better than that. That pitching rotation can be scary.
The Cardinals are in full rebuild mode after trading away Sonny Gray, Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras. PECOTA has them as a 96-loss team. The Cardinals haven’t lost that many games since 1913 (!), when they lost 99. This could be a 100-loss Cardinals team.
Adbert Alzolay | // Photo: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
When the Mets inked Adbert Alzolay to a two-year minor league deal ahead of the 2025 season, it was always with an eye toward the 2026 season. The right-handed reliever had undergone Tommy John surgery late in the 2024 season, and while pitchers sometimes return within a year, the Mets didn’t have him pitch in any minor league games last year.
Alzolay did, however, pitch four innings in the Venezuelan Winter League after the conclusion of the 2025 season, and he’s coming into spring training as a fully healthy pitcher. And given the fact that he’s out of options, he figures to have a leg up on some of his competition in spring training.
Having made the Baseball Prospectus 101 ahead of the 2018 season, Alzolay made his major league debut with the Cubs in 2019. He made a handful appearances that year and a few more in the abbreviated 2020 season before making 29 appearances, 21 of them starts, in 2021. In total, he had a 4.58 ERA and a 4.68 FIP through his first 159.1 innings at the major league level.
A right lat injury derailed the vast majority of Alzolay’s 2022 season, but when he made it back to the mound in September, the Cubs used him as a multi-inning reliever. His 2023 season was undoubtedly the best of his career thus far, as he was healthy and finished the year with a 2.67 ERA and a 3.02 FIP in 64.0 innings of work.
Things didn’t go smoothly in 2024, though. Alzolay struggled mightily through 17.1 innings to start the year, and by mid-May, he had made his final major league appearance of the season because of the elbow injury. And he made just three minor league appearances on a rehab assignment in July of that year before ultimately requiring the aforementioned Tommy John surgery that August.
The hope here is that Alzolay can return to his 2023 form, as that’s the only season for which he was both healthy and working exclusively as a reliever. His strikeout rate was solid if unspectacular, but his walk rate was fantastic at just 5.1 percent. For reference, the major league average for relievers that year was 9.5 percent.
While the Mets didn’t retain Brooks Raley for the entirety of his rehab from Tommy John surgery, they did sign him to a one-year deal with a team option as he was in the final stages of that recovery process. They’ll be thrilled if Alzolay returns to form anywhere near as well as Raley did last year, and if he looks anywhere near that good by the end of the Grapefruit League schedule, you have to figure he’ll be on the Mets’ roster come Opening Day.
As for projections, all of the systems published at FanGraphs have Alzolay throwing forty-something innings this year with an ERA in the vicinity of four. Even that would be a success given what’s happened over the past two years, but a higher-percentile outcome would be a big win for the Mets.
What do you expect to see from Alzolay this year? Jump into the comments to chat about it, or register for an account if you’re new to the comment section!
