For a team with as many established veteran players as the Phillies have, there were only a handful of roster battles taking place in Clearwater this spring.

Some of those battles are coming into sharper focus now.

The Phillies announced utility infielder/outfielder Dylan Moore triggered the player opt-out in his contract Thursday morning, which gives the team 48 hours to either add him to the 40-man roster, or release him, making him a free agent on Saturday.

There seems little doubt another team would snap him up if the Phils chose not to add him, and the move by Moore was expected. Moore is 7-for-31 this spring (.226 AVG), with just one extra base hit. But he’s shown good plate discipline and can play all over the field. The Phils currently have 39 players on the 40-man roster, so there would be room to add Moore if need be.

However, spring stalwart Bryan de la Cruz is battling Moore for that final bench spot and has had a fantastic spring. He leads the Phils with 12 hits in 37 ABs (.324) with a homer and a double, and is coming off a Dominican Winter League in which he took home MVP honors. But he is limited to a corner outfield spot, whereas Moore can play anywhere.

The smart money is for the Phillies to add Moore to the 40-man roster. Like Moore, de la Cruz also has an opt-out clause, but not until later this summer, presumably July. By sending de la Cruz to AAA to get regular at-bats, they can punt that decision and add Moore, keeping both players in the fold.

In terms of the bullpen, we know a few more names who won’t make the team out of Clearwater.

Right-handed reliever Seth Johnson is the most notable name here. He was on the outside looking in at a bullpen spot, with left-hander Kyle Backhus all but assuring himself of a spot in the Opening Day bullpen. Should Orion Kerkering be on the 26-man roster when the team breaks camp, there would be room for one more reliever. Johnson, who didn’t give up many runs this spring (1.86 ERA), walked seven in 9.2 innings. He’ll continue to get more seasoning as he makes the transition from starter to reliever for the Iron Pigs.

Zach Pop and Chase Shugart are already on the 40-man roster and would appear to have the best chances of landing one of the final bullpen spots, and both could make the team if Kerkering is not ready for Opening Day.

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Spring training is a chaotic endeavor, particularly when betting. There are fewer markets available, and picking a moneyline winner can be stressful, especially when a team throws out a less-than-stellar bullpen to throw the whole wager in the bin.

I'm looking at a variety of moneyline MLB picks for my spring training predictions today, highlighting a favorite, a slight underdog, and a bit of a long shot on Thursday, March 19.

Spring Training predictions for March 19

Pick	Odds
Red Sox moneyline	-140
Astros moneyline	+115
Rockies moneyline	+150

Pick #1: Red Sox moneyline

With the exception of Roman Anthony not being in the lineup, the Boston Red Sox batting order looks close to what the Opening Day edition will be. 

Like Anthony, Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton won't be in the starting nine in the wake of the World Baseball Classic. They mostly cancel each other out, leaving Boston as the better offense from top to bottom.

Twins starter Mick Abel has been sharp this spring (1.35 ERA, 0.75 WHIP), and may seem the better choice over Brayan Bello (9.72 ERA, 1.68 WHIP), but the Red Sox righty has been a bit unlucky, as evidenced by an unsustainable .440 BABIP and his 3.55 FIP. He also allowed just one run and one hit in five innings at the WBC.

I want a better number than +120 on Minnesota if I'm taking the underdog here.

Pick #2: Astros moneyline

If Juan Soto isn't back in the New York Mets lineup tonight, then I'll feel even better about this.

Kodai Senga is an electric starter, but his struggles to stay on the field have limited him over the last calendar year. He's also thrown just 5 2/3 innings this spring, so New York is slow-playing the right-hander. He may not be in this game very long.

I'll take the plus money on the Houston Astros. This line may even tighten up if Soto doesn't play, so it's worth a sprinkle now.

Pick #3: Rockies moneyline

The Colorado Rockies are the long shots of the day. It makes sense. San Francisco Giants right-hander Logan Webb is excellent. However, he also traditionally pitches to contact, and is prone to giving up runs in bunches when his defense can't make the plays behind him.

This also isn't at Coors Field, so I'm less concerned about Tomoyuki Sagano getting lit up by San Francisco's suspect lineup.

I like the value on +150 more than anything else here, but I'm also encouraged by several of Colorado's young hitters. 

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

You’ve already seen Jefferson Rojas and Pedro Ramirez play for the Cubs this Spring Training. Both have hit well and Ramirez, in particular, has flashed some glove at third base, shortstop and second base.

In 14 MLB spring games this year, Ramirez is batting .357/.429/.607 (10-for-28) with a double, two home runs, 11 RBI and five stolen bases. Rojas, in 18 MLB spring games, is batting .227/.277/.523 (10-for-44) with four doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI.

Ramirez was added to the 40-man roster last November, and even though he’s not quite 22 (turns 22 on April 1), it’s not impossible that we might see him at Wrigley Field this year.

The two will lead a roster of top Cubs prospects against top Padres prospects in a game this Saturday at Sloan Park. Game time is 8:05 p.m. CT and the game will be televised via Marquee Sports Network. There will be a game thread here Saturday both for this game and the MLB Cubs vs. Mariners game at Peoria, scheduled for 8:10 p.m. CT.

Other top Cubs prospects on the Spring Breakout roster:

• Catcher Owen Ayers, who had a good showing in the Arizona Fall League
• Jonathon Long, who has returned from an early spring injury and is playing well again
• Brett Bateman, a speedy outfielder who is 8-for-18 with three steals in MLB spring games
• James Triantos, the team’s No. 10 ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline

Here’s the complete Cubs Spring Breakout roster. The article has some more information about the game, the players, and how they were selected for this game.

There will be other Spring Breakout games in both Florida and Arizona beginning today. Here’s the entire Spring Breakout schedule, along with more information.

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Tommy Kahnle and, like most relievers in their mid-to-late 30s, he comes from all over the league. As one of the rare baseball players to grow up in upstate New York, Kahnle settled for Division II baseball in college before being selected by the Yankees in the 2010 amateur draft. But he made his big league debut with the Rockies, who swiped him from the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft, and has since spent 11 years in the majors, dividing his time between Colorado, the South Side of Chicago, the Bronx, Chavez Ravine, the Bronx again, and Detroit. The Sox signed him to a minor league deal yesterday

Is he any good?

Kahnle was a big part of those Yankee super-bullpens of recent vintage, which is probably where you know him from. In fact, for the entire stretch between 2016 and 2024, Kahnle’s 3.11 ERA ranked 28th amongst relievers who threw at least 250 innings. He was a flat-out solid and dependable late-inning option for years, heavily relying on one of the game’s best changeups, which darts down and in on the arm-side. Earlier in his career he complemented that change with a fastball that approached 100 MPH, but that’s now down to the mid-90s.

Kahnle has battled injuries recently. From 2020 through 2023, he made just 14 appearances, missing significant time to both Tommy John surgery and subsequent forearm issues, and he then missed the first two months of the 2024 season with shoulder inflammation.

2025 was an up-and-down season for Kahnle in Detroit. He was outstanding for the first three months of the year, posting a 1.77 ERA in 35.1 innings pitched. But then he gave up five earned runs without recording a single out in his first appearance in July and looked cooked for the rest of the season, yielding 32 hits and 22 walks over 27.1 innings en route to an ugly 7.90 ERA. He made 32 appearances from July through the end of the season and gave up at least 1 run in 12 of them.

Tl;dr, just give me his 2025 stats.

63 IP, 51 H, 31 BB, 8 HR, 4.43 ERA

Show me a cool highlight.

Remember when I wrote that Kahnle relied heavily on his changeup? Well he once threw 61 of them in a row in 2024 playoffs while allowing just 2 earned runs over 8.2 innings.

Here’s a video of the first 56 of those:

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Celebrating the fact that he now gets to join a bullpen with Garrett Whitlock, who, like him, is another quality reliever the Yankees lost in the Rule 5 draft. Lol, losers!

What’s his role on the 2026 Red Sox?

He’s signed to a minor league deal, but I fully expect him to be in the big league bullpen as soon as they deem him ready. He’ll start in a middle-innings role and whether he stays there will depend on whether he can figure out what went wrong in the second half of 2025.

Discuss the Cleveland Guardians’ Spring Breakout game below! Here is the starting lineup for the Guardians’ prospects:

Kahlil Watson CF

Cooper Ingle C

Ralphy Velazquez 1B

Milan Tolentino 3B

Angel Genao SS

Alfonsin Rosario RF

Jaison Chourio LF

Wuilfedo Antunez DH

Dauri Fernandez 2B

Yorman Gomez SP

Okay, so we’ve got to talk about Didier Fuentes. I think everybody here knows by now that spring training results should usually be taken with a grain of salt. The level of competition can vary from “everyday big league starter” to “ Guy who is really hoping to make it to Double-A this season” and then you also don’t know if the other player is working on something specific instead of going full tilt, themselves, so it’s not like there’s anything concrete that can be gleaned from spring training game results.

With that being said, holy smokes — Didier Fuentes has been on a tear. The Atlanta Braves are clearly very high on the guy as in their desperation during last season’s pitching injury debacle, he got the call-up to the bigs during his Age-20 start and made four starts during that span. Granted, they were four starts that ranged from “okay” to “disastrous” which showed that he clearly wasn’t ready for the big leagues at that point in time.

So now, his excellent performance during spring training (as noticed by Matt Powers in an article from earlier today) begs the question: Is he ready now? On its face, the answer to that question is still “No” but we’re officially in the territory of that answer being “Probably not” rather than “Absolutely not!” A lot of that has to do with the fact that Fuentes has reportedly taken leaps and bounds in development since the 2025 season ended. MLB.com Braves beat writer Mark Bowman talked with Braves pitching coach Jeremy Hefner last week about Fuentes and he did mention that while Fuentes is still a work in progress, things are starting to come together:

“He has three above-average pitches,” Braves pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said. “The changeup is still coming in terms of location, but the shape is really good. He’s taken to this harder slider, and the fastball is real, obviously.”

The fastball is most certainly real — last season during his brief stint in the bigs, Fuentes averaged 96-mph with his four-seamer. That’s still above average for righties but not particularly eye-popping or anything like that. However, he’s been sitting at 97 here in spring training and as that linked article above mentioned, he reached 99 on the gun while striking out Yankees OF Cody Bellinger. Part of that may have been that Fuentes was amped up to be facing one of his favorite childhood teams in the Yankees and one of his favorite childhood players in Cody Bellinger but then you fast forward to Wednesday’s action and Fuentes was still sitting in the 97-mph range against Philadelphia’s organizational depth.

Still, even if the guys that Fuentes was facing at CoolToday Park weren’t exactly the formidable nine that you’ll expect to face on a typical night at Citizens Bank Park, it’s still impressive to look at his stuff on display. Plus, he did get to face guys like Bellinger, Trent Grisham, Randal Grichuk and Ryan McMahon during his start against the Yankees so he did show that he could get it doe against guys who have done it before in the bigs. That’s what makes it a bit impressive that Fuentes’ line so far in spring training has been 9 IP, 0 hits, 0 walks, 1 hit-by-pitch, 17 strikeouts. Yes, you read that correctly: Fuentes has essentially pitched a complete no-hitter so far during spring training and has been dominant while doing so. Sheesh!

Like I mentioned earlier, a strong performance like this doesn’t guarantee that Fuentes will be breaking camp as part of the Opening Day rotation for the Braves. I’d imagine that the organization still wants him to get some seasoning in the minors before eventually calling him up for some more big league action. While I’m still very skeptical that he’ll make the Opening Day roster, I’m pretty certain that we’ll be seeing Fuentes again at some point down the road if needed in a spot start situation. I also have more faith now than last season that Fuentes would be able to pitch his way into sticking around.

So as far as right now is concerned, the minors better get ready to deal with this guy since he looks like he’s going to mow down hitters at that level here in 2026. Whether that’ll translate into big league success this year remains to be seen. Still, if you’re excited about seeing Didier Fuentes pitch soon, you’ve got very good reason to feel that way since he’s absolutely giving us fans a glimpse of what the future may hold for him as a starter for this Braves ballclub.