WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 18: Isaac Paredes #15 of the Houston Astros poses for a photo during Houston Astros Photo Day at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches on February 18, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Astros (1-5-2) visit Port St. Lucie today to take on the New York Mets (4-3-1) at Clover Park.
RHP Jason Alexander will start for the Astros vs. Mets RHP Clay Holmes.
Today is the third game of six scheduled meetings between the Astros and Mets this Spring. The Astros are 0-1-1 thus far vs. the Mets. After today, their next meeting will not be until Mar. 14 in West Palm Beach. The two clubs will face off in the regular season in a three-game set, Aug. 28-30 at Citi Field.
Today will be the second start of the Spring for RHP Jason Alexander. His previous start was also at Clover Park on Feb. 24. Alexander proved to be a valuable in-season pickup for the Astros in 2025 when claimed off waivers on May 18 after being DFA’d by the Athletics. In his 14 appearances (13 starts) with HOU, he was 4-2 with a 3.66 ERA (29ER/71.1IP) with a save.
Remarkable Run: From July 29 – Sept. 15, the Astros went 9-0 in his nine starts, with Alexander posting a 2.32 ERA in that span. For August, Alexander was 3-0 with a 2.17 ERA in five starts.
Today is Jason Alexander’s 33rd birthday.
TODAY’S POTENTIAL RELIEVERS: LHP Tom Cosgrove, RHP Anthony Maldonado, RHP Christian Roa, RHP Alimber Santa, RHP Kai-Wei Teng, RHP Amos Willingham.
WALK THIS WAY: The Astros have drawn a combined 58 walks in eight games (7.3 per game).
REDDICK RETURNS:Former Astro JoshReddick is scheduled to arrive in camp on Monday to serve as a special instructor. Reddick played in HOU from 2017-2020.
Garland has been battling toe issues that date back to last playoffs, and he has played in just 26 games this season for the Cavaliers. He was currently out with a right big toe sprain and what was termed "left toe injury management." In his limited playing time this season, Garland is averaging 18 points and 6.9 assists per game while shooting 36% from 3-point range.
The Clippers are looking to get Garland healthy and help the point guard return to his 2025 All-Star form when he averaged 20.6 points and 6.5 assists, helping lead the best offense in the NBA last season.
Garland will not play Sunday when the Clippers host the New Orleans Pelicans. Clippers star Kawhi Leonard is not on the team's injury report after missing Los Angeles' Thursday loss to Minnesota after tweaking his ankle.
NORTH PORT, FL - FEBRUARY 20: James Karinchak #00 of the Atlanta Braves poses for a photo during the Atlanta Braves photo day at CoolToday Park on Friday, February 20, 2026 in North Port, Florida. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Well, folks, it is March. That means regular season games happen later this month and we will hopefully have meaningful games for the seven months that follow.
But, there are still almost four weeks of Spring Training games left, which means there is still time for the Atlanta Braves 2026 Opening Day roster to evolve.
Back on Valentine’s Day, we published the first Spring Training roster projection. Now that the Braves have are weeks-deep into the Grapefruit League, there are a few change from the initial projection. Part of that is due to a subtraction and an addition to take into account.
As a reminder, this projection is based on who is on the Braves’ 40-man roster or in camp with the team at this moment in time and assumes that everyone is “healthy” when Opening Day rolls around. All the usual caveats apply related to injuries, acquisitions and the like.
Position Players
Catcher: Drake Baldwin
First base: Matt Olson
Second base: Ozzie Albies
Shortstop: Mauricio Dubón
Third base: Austin Riley
Right field: Ronald Acuña, Jr.
Center field: Micheal Harris II
Left field: Mike Yastrzemski
Designated hitter: Jurickson Profar
Bench: Jonah Heim, Eli White, Jorge Mateo, Kyle Farmer
The only change here is catcher Sandy León as he leaves the initial roster in favor of non-roster invitee Kyle Farmer. Farmer, a local product who went to Marist High School and then UGA, will turn 36 on August 17, and brings nine years of big league experience to the Braves. León will likely head to Triple-A to provide depth but more importantly help develop the pitching staff.
Farmer make the roster thanks to 300 career games at shortstop, 200+ games at second base, more than 160 appearances at third base – and most importantly for the Braves roster construction – 19 games behind the plate. Although he hasn’t caught in a game since making 15 starts in 2019, he would be the team’s third catcher, third shortstop and to slot into the 26th man spot allowing Atlanta to use fleet-footed reserve shortstop Jorge Mateo as a pinch-runner without risking two key defensive positions should something incredibly fluky occur.
Wild Cards: Dominic Smith, Luke Williams, Chadwick Tromp, Nacho Alvarez, Jr., Ben Gamel
Big league veteran Dominic Smith was a late addition to the Braves camp as a depth option at first base. If he sticks with the organization, he will likely be the latest veteran to provide the team some insurance at Triple-A in case Matt Olson were to miss time. It seems unlikely he’ll make the Opening Day roster at this point, but things could change should his bat get hot in the next three weeks.
Nacho Alvarez, Jr. and Chadwick Tromp are both headed to the World Baseball Classic have have been optioned and reassigned from camp, respectively. Both will head to Gwinnett to get regular playing time as the likely first-man-up should the team need an infielder or catcher. Luke Williams can’t be counted out since he can cover shortstop, pinch-run, and has proven to be a highly-effective position-player-pitcher, which might matter since the Braves start the year with 13 consecutive games, but also seems most likley to be a Striper when the season begins.
Outfielder Ben Gamel enters the chat, although he’d likley only make the roster should Atlanta need to replace one of their corner outfielders for Opening Day. He’s another long-time big leaguer who will likley add depth with the Stripers.
Pitchers
Starting pitchers: Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, Joey Wentz
Bullpen: Raisel Iglesias, Robert Suarez, Dylan Lee, Tyler Kinley, Aaron Bummer, Joel Payamps, James Karinchak
Last time, Dylan Dodd was on the roster due to the mistaken believe that he was out of options. Because Dodd does have an option remaining, James Karinchak makes the 26-man roster as it looks like he has returned to the form he had when he was an elite reliever for Cleveland before dealing with injuries. Should Karinchak make the roster, it would be his first big league spot since 2023.
This projection continues to stick with belief that the Braves will open the season with a six-man rotation – more on that below.
Wild Cards: JR Ritchie, Jose Suaréz, Martín Peréz, Hayden Harris, Dylan Dodd
Unfortunately, Hurston Waldrep’s elbow issues will cause him to miss at least the first couple of months of the season, which means JR Ritchie becomes the starting pitcher most likley to make his way on to the Opening Day roster. Ritchie has looked good early in camp and Atlanta could be tempted to bring him north to Atlanta for the regular season – even if the play would be to give him a couple of starts since the Braves won’t have an off-day until 14 days into the season.
Martín Perez and Jose Suaréz could both factor into the sixth-starter/long-man role, but at this point, it seems like only an injury could cause that to happen.
Two weeks into Spring Training and the two pitchers who might be able to force their way on to the Opening Day roster are Dodd and Hayden Harris. Both left-handers have been effective thus far in camp, but Harris and his unusual pitch mix landed on an off-season top reliever prospect list and after a spectacular 2025 season in the minors, has nothing left to prove below the big league level.
Will this new coaching staff believe in Harris enough to give him an opportunity to prove himself in Atlanta to start the season? Time will tell if Harris continues to have a strong camp.
Barring an injury or trade, both Harris and Dodd should be a factor with Atlanta in 2026, but those pesky options may prevent them from seeing Opening Day with the Braves if Atlanta opts to maximize their roster flexibility.
Last thing, neither of these first two projections have included reliever Ian Hamilton who is on the 40-man roster and was highly effective a couple of seasons ago out of the New York Yankees bullpen. That wasn’t an oversight, but he could factor into the Opening Day roster, but as of now, Joel Payamps holds on to the last right-handed reliever spot in the bullpen thanks in part to a $2.5M commitment for 2026.
Things may change again in two weeks, and hopefully if they do, it is only because of outstanding performance and not because of something negative.
The name Tye Kartye may sound like an anagram to you but it sounds like a part of the – you should excuse the expression to me – part of the grand Rangers tool to me.
Here's why:
In 1946, Conn Smythe's fifth place Maple Leafs needed a rebuild and one of the rookies he imported was an unknown left winger Vic Lynn out of Saskatoon.
Teamed with rookie of the year right wing Howie Meeker and young center Ted Kennedy, they comprised a new "Kid Line,"
I see Kartye as the new "Kid Line" with maybe a reformed Matt Rempe rounded it out, Listen up to what The Maven's Seattle Super-Savant, Glenn Dreyfuss, has to say about it:
Tye Kartye burned brightly to start his Seattle Kraken career, but by this season, it had faded to embers. The 24-year-old 4th line forward, placed on waivers Thursday, was claimed by the New York Rangers Friday morning.
No Kraken fan will forget Kartye’s impact during the first round of the 2023 playoffs against the defending champion Colorado Avalanche. Kartye was called up from AHL Coachella Valley as an injury replacement and scored his first NHL goal. He was also a physical wrecking ball with fierce hits that continued into the 2nd round series against the Dallas Stars. Improbably, he scored two more times, giving him three NHL goals before ever playing a regular season game.
That’s Kartye Hockey, Baby
With the Kraken’s Firebirds farm team in 2022-23, he had scored 28 goals and 57 points in 72 games. Tye rose from undrafted 4th liner in the AHL to that league’s rookie of the year .
The Kartye Party continued in Seattle during the 2023-24 season. He played 77 games, scoring 11 goals. But from there, the offensive production dried up. In 63 games last season, he scored six goals. He was on the same pace this season with three goals in 40 games. Recently, more often than not, he was a healthy scratch.
Coach Lane Lambert decided the 4th line chemistry worked better with Ryan Winterton, Jacob Melanson and Ben Meyers in the mix, so Kartye was placed on waivers. To return to the AHL Firebirds, he needed to go unclaimed by all 31 other NHL clubs. However, the Rangers, who have been a dumpster fire this year and will not make the playoffs, decided they could use the physicality and grit Kartye brings. Interestingly, to make room for Kartye, the Blueshirts demoted 2021 1st round pick Brennan Othman to the AHL.
Here in Seattle, the coaching staff knew what they had in Kartye, and decided the re-constituted 4th line was giving the Kraken more of a spark. Tye was the odd man out. Remember, Winterton and Meyers were just signed to new deals that will keep them part of the Kraken organization through the 27-28 season. Melanson, who will be a restricted free agent at year’s end, isn’t going anywhere, either.
Tye finishes his Kraken career with 180 games played, 20 goals and 21 assists, to go along with 101 penalty minutes. Kartye has one year remaining on a two-year deal with an annual cap hit of $1.25 million.
The Rangers likely will be trade deadline sellers, and will need warm bodies to finish out the season. The real question is where Kartye lands, if he lands, in the off-season.
The Brooklyn Nets will look to end a seven-game losing streak as they host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon.
Cleveland blew out Brooklyn the last time these teams played, and I’m taking the visitors to cover again in my Cavaliers vs. Nets predictions.
Let’s break down what bettors can expect from this matchup in my free NBA picks for Sunday, March 1.
Cavaliers vs Nets prediction
Cavaliers vs Nets best bet: Cavaliers -12 (-110)
While the Brooklyn Nets have struggled all season long, their current seven-game losing streak is among their lowest points of the year. They’ve also lost every game against the spread in that span, even failing to cover four times as a 10+ point underdog.
That includes a 112-84 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on February 19. Cleveland will have to play tonight’s game without Donovan Mitchell, and James Harden remains questionable with a thumb injury, but the Cavs should win this one in a blowout regardless. Cleveland has won six straight against Brooklyn, and I’m taking the Cavaliers to cover again tonight.
Cavaliers vs Nets same-game parlay
With Mitchell out and Harden questionable, I’m banking on more production out of Cleveland’s other players today. I’ll take Jarrett Allen to score Over 17.5 points, which he’s done in four of his last five games, while Sam Merrill’s increased playing time will help him get Over 1.5 assists.
Cavaliers vs Nets SGP
Cavaliers -12
Allen Over 17.5 points
Merrill Over 1.5 assists
Our "from downtown" SGP: Bigs deliver the goods
I’m looking for Jarrett Allen to add to his growing number of double-doubles after he’s recorded nine in his last 11 games. I’m also banking on both Merrill and Evan Mobley to hit their PRA totals without Cleveland’s top options at full strength. Finally, let’s throw in a bet on the Over, which has hit in Brooklyn’s last three games and four of Cleveland’s last five.
Cavaliers vs Nets SGP
Jarrett Allen double-double
Evan Mobley Over 26.5 P/R/A
Sam Merrill Over 17.5 P/R/A
Over 222.5
Cavaliers vs Nets odds
Spread: Cavaliers -12 | Nets +12
Moneyline: Cavaliers -600 | Nets +450
Over/Under: Over 222.5 | Under 225.5
Cavaliers vs Nets betting trend to know
Brooklyn is 0-7 ATS in its last seven games overall. Find more NBA betting trends for Cavaliers vs. Nets.
How to watch Cavaliers vs Nets
Location
Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
Date
Sunday, March 1, 2026
Tip-off
3:30 p.m. ET
TV
FDSN Ohio, YES
Cavaliers vs Nets latest injuries
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The Gunners won a local stramash by two corners to one
4 min: A fairly shapeless start, actually. “The best pints are Thursday night.” Hello Ian McCourt, formerly of this parish. “Or about 1.30pm on a Friday.”
2 min: A mid-octane start to the game. No real shape yet, though it’s obvious that Palmer is prowling the left wing today, opposite to his usual beat.
Philadelphia Flyers forward Owen Tippett has come up as a trade candidate this season. Due to this and the 2026 NHL trade deadline rapidly approaching, let's look at three potential landing spots for the Flyers winger if he is officially made available.
Boston Bruins
The Bruins have been connected to Tippett this season, and it makes sense when noting that they need another skilled winger in their top six. With this, they are certainly one of the teams to watch when it comes to Tippett. If the Bruins acquired him, he could fit perfectly on their second line with Casey Mittelstadt and Pavel Zacha.
Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres have a strong chance of snapping their 14-year playoff drought this season and should be aggressive at the deadline. They could use another forward on the right side of 30, so it would make sense if they made a push for Tippett. He would give them another impactful forward for their top nine, which would be a great thing for a Sabres club on the rise.
Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks are another club that have been linked to Tippett in the past. While they are rebuilding, Tippett could still be a strong addition to their roster. With Tippett still being just 27 years old and being locked up until 2031-32, he could be a good long-term fit on the Canucks if they landed him.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 28: Reynaldo Lopez #40 of the Atlanta Braves throws a pitch against the San Diego Padres during the first inning at Petco Park on March 28, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Braves have their first split squad matchup of Spring today, as Reynaldo Lopez and most of the regulars on offense face Drew Rasumussen and the Rays at CoolToday Park and Grant Holmes leads a team of mostly veteran quad-A players plus John Gil at DH against Mick Abel and the Twins. You can see the lineups below.
Reynaldo Lopez’ velocity will be worth monitoring, after it sat low-90s in his first Spring appearance. That Rays game should be fairly fun with a number of regulars and/or real prospects playing for both teams and real major league pitchers starting the game. We should expect to see a number of prospects touch the field today, with the split squad set-up, which is always a fun aspect of Spring Training. It’s also cool to see John Gil getting some more playing time, as he is a guy who had some real prospect buzz coming into Spring Training and has only made the buzz grow louder in his limited playing time.
You can catch the Rays game on Gray TV in-market and the Twins game nationally on MLB Network, or use MLBTV for your preferred viewing experience. Both games start at 1:05 PM ET
Join us and discuss today’s games in the comments below!
It’s been three years now. Three long seasons during which Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj have battled for the role of sixth defenseman with the Montreal Canadiens. During that span, the former has played 152 games, and the latter 165. During the 2023-24 season, Xhekaj had season-ending shoulder surgery, but since it occurred in April, it cost him only four games.
Needless to say, the Habs have a big enough sample size to know what both are made of, their strength and their weaknesses, but whichever one of the two is dressed seems to make little difference to Martin St-Louis. This past week, Xhekaj played against the New York Islanders while Struble took on the Washington Capitals. The former saw 11:58 of ice time, all at even strength; the latter saw 11:08 of action and sat through special teams, even when Mike Matheson was in the box killing a penalty, St-Louis preferring to send out Lane Hutson to kill the penalty.
Xhekaj landed three hits against the Islanders, while Struble landed one against the Caps. The free agent signing was held off the scoresheet and only has two points in 51 games. The Northeastern alumnus registered an assist on Cole Caufield’s second goal of the game and has nine points, all assists, in 40 games.
The 6-foot-4 and 240-pound blueliner has 104 penalty minutes and leads the team in hits with 138. The 6-foot and 207-pound rearguard has 36 penalty minutes and is sixth on the team in hits with 74.
In other words, Xhekaj brings more physicality, and Struble brings more offence to the table. While Xhekaj averages 11:21 in ice time this season, and Struble averages 13:59, he has lost a lot of ice time of late, which is slowly but surely driving his average down, and can only lead to one conclusion: the bench boss doesn’t really trust either.
While spreading the workload between five defensemen in the regular season can be done, it gets trickier in the playoffs, where you can end up playing much longer games with continuous overtime. If you overwork your top guys, you risk wearing them out, and tired players become less effective; it’s human nature.
If the Canadiens are calling around the NHL and enquiring about the asking price for various defensemen, such as Rasmus Ristolainen, that’s probably why, but there are no perfect defensemen. Especially when it comes to depth, bottom-pairing blueliners, you eventually must learn to live with the consequences of their shortcomings, and given how playoff hockey is played, St-Louis would do well to learn to cope with Xhekaj’s defensive shortcomings. Of course, they might be easier to cope with if goaltending improved. Even if the Habs’ brass goes out and gets a depth defenseman on the trade market, they won’t play like top-pairing defensemen.
Maxence Lacroix put Palace ahead before being sent off after conceding the penalty from which Bruno Fernandes equalised, then Benjamin Sesko headed the winner
We will, of course, be updating you on this afternoon’s other early games: Brighton v Forest and Fulham v Spurs, but here’s Carrick.
So where is the game? Well, United will have to adjust a little, given they’re starting with a centre-forward; with Palace likely to defend deep and centrally, a reference-point will probably be a help. I’d expect Mbeumo to step inside on to his left foot and try and pick him out with crosses to the back post, because if he times it, he’s almost unbeatable in the air. Otherwise, I’d expect them to play into Bruno, who’ll slip passes down the sides of the outside centre-backs, with the two wide players looking to hit the space behind the wing-backs.
This will be the second half of the weekend back-to-back following Saturday's 3-2 shootout loss to the Rangers. The Penguins had a 2-0 lead early in the second period and played 25 really strong minutes until the Rangers took it to them for the last 35 minutes of regulation.
The Rangers fought back to tie the game early in the third period before winning in a shootout. It wasn't a good performance by the Penguins, and they'll look to bounce back against a very good Golden Knights team.
The Golden Knights come into this game in first place in the Pacific Division with a 28-17-14 record, good for 70 points. They lost their last game on Friday against the Washington Capitals and have lost six of their last 10 overall.
Despite their recent slump, this is still a very talented team led by star forward Jack Eichel. Eichel has 21 goals and 68 points in 51 games this season and is one of the best centers in the world.
Mark Stone and Mitch Marner have also been great for the Golden Knights this year. Stone has 21 goals and 60 points in 42 games, while Marner has 16 goals and 59 points in 58 games. They're both great offensively, but are especially great in their own zone.
Tomáš Hertl, Pavel Dorofeyev, and Ivan Barbashev are also threats to score from anywhere on the ice, so the Penguins will have to really make sure that they defend well in this one.
The Knights' biggest area of weakness is their goaltending. They have played four goaltenders this year and have a team save percentage of .882.
Penguins head coach Dan Muse confirmed that Arturs Silovs will start in goal for the Penguins after Stuart Skinner started on Saturday. Time will tell if there will be any other lineup changes.
For reference, here were the lines from Saturday's game:
As the second half began, a banner appeared in the Stretford End that read: “MUFC proudly colonised by immigrants.” If this was a riposte to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s assertion that these shores have been overrun by those from overseas (for which the co-owner half-heartedly apologised), Manchester United needed their own reply to a listless opening period that left them trailing to Maxence Lacroix’s early header.
Eleven minutes after the restart, they did. First came Lacroix’s sending-off, issued by Chris Kavanagh after a pitchside monitor review for yanking over Matheus Cunha. The contact started before the 18-yard line but it continued into the penalty area, so the referee followed up awarding a spot-kick by showing his red card. Fernandes calmly beat Dean Henderson to the left of the Crystal Palace No 1, who guessed wrong.
Stephen Curry has sat out the last 10 Golden State games recovering from what the team has termed "runner's knee." The Warriors are 4-6 without him, and he's going to miss "a little more" time, he said Saturday during the Warriors' loss to the Lakers.
Here is what he told ABC's Malika Andrews during the Warriors' home loss to the Lakers on Sunday, via Anthony Slater at ESPN.
"It's going to be a little longer. Right now, with this one, it's about each day, can you stack good days? I've done that. Hopefully, they can unleash me on the court soon and hopefully, get back sooner than later...
"This is a weird one. It's kind of unpredictable how it'll heal."
Curry said his focus was on remaining in the best shape possible so his return to play is easier when the time comes.
The Warriors also remain without Jimmy Butler, who tore his ACL and is out for the season.
Without their two best shot creators, the Warriors have had a bottom-10 offense in the NBA over the last 10 games. Golden State sits as the No. 8 seed in the West and has a 2.5-game lead over Portland to hold on to that easier path through the play-in to the playoffs.
In other Warriors news, they gave forward Gui Santos a three-year, $15 million contract extension. That contract has a player option in the final year, Shams Charania of ESPN reports (he also had the dollar figure).
Santos was in the final year of his contract, making $2.2 million and would have been a restricted free agent after the season. He has become a trusted part of Steve Kerr's rotation since Jimmy Butler went down, averaging 6.8 points per game and shooting 38.4% from 3-point range.
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 17: Brady House #55 of the Washington Nationals bats against the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park on September 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Now that the calendar has turned to March, we are heading into the meat of the Spring Training schedule. However, I wanted to shout out three players who have really impressed me so far this spring. The three players I have been most impressed with have been Brady House, Riley Cornelio and Nasim Nunez.
All three had different things to prove this spring. For House, he has the third base job locked up, but after a poor offensive rookie year, Nats fans wanted to see more life with the bat. So far, that is exactly what we have gotten from Brady House. He is absolutely smoking the ball and has four extra base hits.
In his first game of the spring, House made a statement, hitting two homers, including one off of Sandy Alcantara. He has continued to swing a hot bat in his first few games, going 5/11. House is consistently hitting the ball over 100 MPH, even when he is getting out. Yesterday, he hit a double that was 111 MPH off the bat.
Brady House has hit more Home Runs than singles this Spring.
Brady House is a flawed hitter, but he has tremendous raw power to all fields. The approach is questionable, but House has the ability to slug his way out of some of those concerns. House has been consistently hitting line drives and flyballs, which I love to see. He will always strike out a decent bit and doesn’t take a ton of walks, but his quality of contact has looked outstanding.
House can be one of those hitters who has the ability to sustain high BABIP numbers because he hits the ball so hard and at good angles to get hits. He will need to show at least 20-25 home run power to be a productive hitter, but the signs of that are there so far this spring. After last season, I was a bit bearish about House, but it looks like he may have taken a leap.
The lone pitcher I will discuss today is Riley Cornelio. I wrote a piece about him a few days ago where I went in depth. However, I wanted to talk a little more about the 25 year old pitcher. His stuff looked absolutely outstanding in his first outing of the spring.
The velocity was better than ever, averaging over 96 MPH. Cornelio’s signature slider was also very sharp. That led to two dominant innings where he struck out three. Cornelio also lit up stuff models. His 110 stuff+ rating is in the top 20 of all pitchers who have tossed at least 20 pitches this spring.
That raw stuff makes Cornelio a very interesting prospect for me. He is unlikely to make the team out of camp, but if he keeps throwing the ball like this, he will have a shot. At this time last year, we did not think Brad Lord would make the team, but he gave the team no choice.
I think Cornelio could do the same thing. He had a breakout season in the minors last year and looks like he took another step. I can’t wait to see him pitch again and I am really rooting for the former 7th round pick.
The last player I want to discuss is Nasim Nunez. Going into camp, he was the favorite to win a bench role. It seems like he has a roster spot locked up after a strong start. Now, the only question is how much will Nasim Nunez play.
Last September, Nunez showed much improved power. For most of his career, Nunez was a defensive specialist who could not provide much with the bat. However, it seems like something has clicked. He is driving the ball with authority on a consistent basis.
Nunez’s bat speed improved a lot last season, and it looks like he has kept those gains. He is hitting .300 with a .962 OPS so far this spring. The quality of contact impresses me more than the raw numbers though. Nunez is driving the ball to the pull side and that is leading to extra base hits.
Nasim Nunez’s trademark defense is still there as well. He is such a joy to watch at shortstop. His actions are incredibly smooth and he has such a great arm, especially for a smaller guy. Watching Nunez at short vs CJ Abrams is really jarring because it is clear how much better Nunez is defensively. He has already made some really nice plays this spring.
Nasim Nuñez backhand stop into a double play.
That glove work is ridiculous. Smooth does not even cover it.
At this point, Nunez will absolutely be on the roster. However, I want him to be playing on a fairly regular basis. I would also love to see the Nats play Nunez at shortstop and CJ Abrams at second base. You could also put Luis Garcia Jr. at first base on those days as well. This should be an alignment the Nats turn to at least occasionally.
After last season, I was still skeptical about Nunez as a hitter, and I still have questions. However, it looks like the improvements he made are sticking. If that is the case, Nunez can be an incredibly valuable player. Even as an average or slightly below average hitter, Nunez has the glove to bring value to the team.
It is still early in spring, but Brady House, Riley Cornelio and Nasim Nunez have really impressed me. Hopefully they can sustain this level of success through the spring and into the regular season. If they can be real contributors, it would really help the Nats outlook. I do not want to overreact, but I like what I am seeing from those three players.
TAMPA, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 26: Nacho Alvarez Jr. #24 of the Atlanta Braves reacts after hitting a two-RBI double in the third inning against the New York Yankees during a Grapefruit League spring training game at George M. Steinbrenner Field on February 26, 2026 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) | Getty Images
This morning, Atlanta Braves formally announce that infielder Nacho Alvarez, Jr. and reliever Hunter Stratton have been optioned to Triple-A and that non-roster invitees catcher Chadwick Tromp and reliever Javy Guerra have been reassigned to the minor league camp. Alvarez, Jr.’s option appeared on the team’s transaction page yesterday.
For Alvarez, Jr., Tromp and Guerra, this isn’t surprising as all three players will be playing in the World Baseball Classic for Mexico, Netherlands and Panama, respectively, and all three were likely to start the year in the minors baring an injury to those above them on the team’s depth chart.
Stratton, who pitched in 12 games out of the bullpen for Atlanta, also figured to start the year in Triple-A. He has pitched in parts of three seasons in the big leagues, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to joining Atlanta during the 2025 season.
