Category: Sports News

While the news broke a couple days ago, the Nats made the signing of Zack Littell official. We also got the terms of the deal, which are quite interesting. The base of the contract is a one-year $7 million deal. However, with incentives and a mutual option, Littell is likely to make much more than that.

If you include the $4 million buyout, the least Littell could make is $11 million dollars. By 2020’s Nats standards, $11 million is a big investment. Heading into the offseason, Littell likely expected to make more on a multi-year deal. However, he had to settle for this offer as Opening Day loomed. 

The incentives are based off of innings pitched. They start at 100 innings, and continue to climb as he throws more. Littell is a workhorse who threw 186.2 innings last year, so these incentives are quite attainable. It may not be what he was looking for after posting a sub-4 ERA in over 185 innings, but this is still a solid deal for Littell.

He was actually in the locker room this morning, so I got the chance to talk to him for a bit. While he signed late in the offseason, Littell is confident he will be ready for Opening Day. He said that he has been throwing live sessions to hitters and building up as he normally would in a season. Littell told me he and the Nats will “map out” the next steps, but he feels like he is right on schedule. 

Interestingly, Littell said that his agent and Paul Toboni have a great relationship and had been talking throughout the offseason. It seems like Toboni waited for the price tag to come down and struck when the market got to where he wanted it. Littell said the Nats were always “hanging around and checking in” throughout the process.

Speaking of relationships, Littell mentioned that he has some ties to the Nats new staff. He did not really know any of the players, but his days with the Rays created ties with the Nats staff, which has a lot of connections to Tampa. Michael Johns, the Nats bench coach is one guy he mentioned. He was the first base coach for the Rays while Littell was there.

Obviously manager Blake Butera was with the Rays, but he and Littell did not interact much. Butera was working on the minor league side of things, while Littell was a big league pitcher. He said that they would see each other around every once in a while, but nothing beyond that.

However, he said that Butera was well regarded in the Rays clubhouse. Littell said that guys who played for Butera loved him and he never heard a bad word about the new Nats skipper. He also worked with Simon Mathews while he was with the Reds, and he said he was excited to reconnect with him.

After the season he had, Littell probably thought he would get a bigger deal than this, but he seemed excited to be on board. Littell brings a combination of reliability and production that the Nats needed badly. This surprise late addition really raises the floor of the Nats rotation.

The Nats needed to open up a 40-man roster spot to make this move, and did so by DFA’ing Richard Lovelady. While Lovelady had his moments this spring, his control was hit or miss. Hopefully he passes through waivers because Lovelady is a useful depth arm.

Lovelady is no stranger to the waiver wire. This is the fifth time Lovelady has been DFA’d in the last 12 months. He is the epitome of a guy who sticks on the back end of a 40-man roster.

Overall, this Littell pickup is very exciting by Nats free agent standards. Hopefully Littell has a solid season and either becomes a trade chip, or someone the Nats can keep around longer term. At just 30 years old, he could be a useful middle to back of the rotation arm for years to come.

Over the last few days, the Mets made their first roster cuts of spring training, cutting five players from major league camp. Jack Wenninger, the only one of the five not on the 40-Man Roster, was reassigned to minor-league camp, while the four players on the 40 were optioned to Triple-A. Those four players are Jonah Tong, Nick Morabito, Dylan Ross, and Jonathan Pintaro. The Mets are now down to 63 players in major league camp.

These moves are not a referendum on the individual performances, but rather an opportunity to both get them set up for their seasons in Triple-A and also to allow the Mets to have more opportunity to evaluate players who are more on the bubble for a roster spot. All of these players will possibly and perhaps are even likely to appear in further major league spring training games, and the move to minors camp is more just to start the process of shaping the Opening Day roster.

Ross, the first cut, happened back on March 6 without a single pitch tossed in a spring game. Morabito appeared in five games, collecting two hits in 11 plate appearances with a walk, a double, two RBIs, and two stolen bases. This all aligns with the type of player he’s been thus far.

Tong made one start in spring thus far, going two and a third innings, striking out two, allowing three earned runs on a home run and two other hits while walking one and hitting another batter. The line doesn’t look fantastic, but his stuff looked good until he tired in the third inning and gave up the dinger.

Pintaro made two relief appearances for the Mets, going four innings of one-run ball, striking out and walking four apiece. He also allowed four hits.

Wenniger, one of the next batch of starting pitching prospects a little behind the Tong/Nolan McLean/Christian Scott class, appeared in three games, tossing six and two-thirds innings. His control was a little off, allowing seven walks, but he struck out ten and gave up two earned runs on six hits.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see at least two of three, if not all five, of these players get some big league appearances in 2026.

There are two weeks of exhibition games remaining before things turn real for the Dodgers, on March 26 at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks. We have a pretty good general idea of the roster, with a few choices remaining.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto will likely pitch for Japan this Saturday, then once more for the Dodgers in preparation for the regular season. Tyler Glasnow went 2 2/3 innings last Wednesday and starts on Tuesday against the Diamondbacks, possibly this time around the first Dodgers pitcher to last into the fourth inning.

Shohei Ohtani is doing his pitching work on the side while away at the World Baseball Classic, and he’s kind of in his own category, outside the realm of normal starting pitcher progression.

Roki Sasaki is a work in progress, Justin Wrobleski has been sharp in his three games thus far, and Emmet Sheehan is back on the beam after sidelined by illness earlier in camp. River Ryan has looked effective as well in his return from Tommy John surgery.

We know and can acknowledge that opening day is only a snapshot of a short period of a season that lasts over six months, and that several pitchers will be used throughout the year. But for our purposes today, let’s focus on the early part of the season. The Dodgers host the Diamondbacks for three games, take Sunday, March 29 off, then finish the homestand with three games against the Cleveland Guardians from March 30-April 2.

Today’s question is which Dodgers pitchers will start the first five games of the regular season?

We had a lot of great games Monday but not many upsets.

Tonight, we will have a game thread for the three evening games, which are: Israel/Netherlands, Canada/Puerto Rico and Italy/USA. The thread will post at 5:30 p.m. CT.

Pool A (San Juan):

Colombia 4, Panama 3

Colombia scored four runs in the sixth inning and hung on to beat Panama 4-3.

This game was a pitcher’s duel to start. Panama’s Paolo Espino, who pitched for Panama in the very first World Baseball Classic all the way back in 2006, made his very last start before retirement a good one. Espino threw 4.1 innings and allowed just one hit and no runs. He struck out four and walked no one.

Here are some Espino highlights [VIDEO].

The problem for Espino and Panama was that Colombia’s Adrian Almeida, who pitched in the minors for the Mets and Angels and is in the Mexican League now, was even better. Almeida allowed just one baserunner of over four innings and that was a hit by pitch.

The game was still scoreless in the top of the sixth when Colombia got to Panama reliever Miguel Gómez, who pitched in the Nationals system last year. After Mariners top prospect Michael Arroyo walked and Harold Ramírez singled, Gómez was summoned from the pen and walked the bases loaded.

After a sacrifice fly by the A’s Jordan Diaz, Reynaldo Rodríguez, who has been in the Mexican League since leaving the Twins minor league system in 2016, singled home two [VIDEO].

Rays minor leaguer Daniel Vellojin would single home the fourth run of the sixth inning with one out.

Panama was without a hit until the Yankees’ José Caballero drove one over the left field wall. [VIDEO]

That’s where things stayed until Panama rallied in the eighth inning off former Cubs’ farmhand Yapson Gómez. Dodgers minor leaguer José Ramos, Edmundo Sosa and the Cubs’ Christian Bethancourt hit three-straight two-out singles. Here’s Bethancourt’s single that made it 4-3 [VIDEO].

But that was all there was in this game. Well, not all as tempers boiled when Panama’s Jonathan Arauz got into a scuffle with his manager José Mayorga.

Miguel Amaya was 0 for 2 in this game and was pulled for a pinch runner after he was hit by pitch.

Christian Bethancourt was 1 for 4 with the RBI.

Panama and Colombia both finish pool play at 1-3.

Puerto Rico 4, Cuba 1

Puerto Rico clinches a spot in the single-elimination rounds with a 4-1 win over Cuba.

Puerto Rico loaded the bases in the bottom of the second inning off of former Rangers minor leaguer Julio Robaina. That brought up Martín Maldonado and he emptied the bases in a hurry with a three-run double down the left field line. [VIDEO]

Puerto Rico added on another run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Cortes.

Cuba managed only two hits off of five Puerto Rico pitchers, led by Yankees Triple-A player Elmer Rodríguez. But one of the hitswas this double in the sixth inning by longtime NPB player Alfredo Despaigne. It came off former Phillies pitcher Yacksel Ríos and scored one run. [VIDEO]

Cuba can still advance to the elimination round with a win over Canada on Wednesday. In fact, the winner of that game will go on to the quarterfinals.

Pool B (Houston):

Great Britain 8, Brazil 1

Great Britain avoids finishing last in the group and having to qualify for the next WBC with an 8-1 win over Brazil. Brazil, on the other hand, is relegated down to the qualifying groups.

Both British starter Brendon Beck, a 2021 second-round pick of the Yankees, and Brazilian starter Enzo Sawayama, who plays in the industrial leagues in Japan, held the other team scoreless through four innings.

Brazil actually scored first in this game when catcher Gabriel Do Carmo, who plays in the French (!) League, doubled in a run off of Rays minor leaguer Gary Gill Hill. [VIDEO]

Unfortunately for Brazil, that lead was short-lived as Marlins minor leaguer Ian Lewis Jr. led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run [VIDEO].

Gotta love that stupid palace guard hat they have to wear when they hit a home run. It’s one of the cute touches that makes the WBC cool.

Later in the fifth inning, Harry Ford Jr. singled home Trayce Thompson [VIDEO] for the lead.

The third British run that inning came on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. groundout.

Unfortunately, that Do Carmo RBI double would be the only hit that Brazil would get in this game and Great Britain scored in every inning from the fifth on. Cardinals Triple-A player Matt Koperniak had a two-run single in the seventh and Chisholm had another two-run single in the eighth.

Cubs minor leaguer BJ Murray Jr. went 1 for 4 with a double and a run scored for Great Britain.

United States 5, Mexico 3

What was shaping up to be a Team USA romp after they scored five runs in the third inning turned into a tight contest, but the USA hung on for a 5-3 win.

Paul Skenes started for Team USA and he dominated, as Paul Skenes is known to do. Skenes allowed just one hit and one walk over four innings while striking out seven. [VIDEO]

Skenes got some help from this outfield assist from Aaron Judge. [VIDEO]

Judge put Team USA up 2-0 in the bottom of the third with this home run off of former Braves pitcher Jesus Cruz. [VIDEO]

Later in the third, Roman Anthony made it 5-0 on this three-run home run off Cruz. [VIDEO]

But Skenes exited after four innings. Garrett Cleveninger threw one inning before Matthew Boyd entered the game in the sixth. I have some advice for Craig Counsell: Don’t let Boyd pitch against Jarren Duran.

First, Duran hit this home run off of Boyd in the sixth. [VIDEO]

Boyd gave up a second run in the sixth inning but it’s hard to blame him after this bad hop single off the bat of the A’s Joey Meneses. [VIDEO]

Boyd retired Mexico in order in the seventh inning, but he had to face Duran again in the eighth. And Duran went deep again. [VIDEO]

Boyd finished with a line of three runs on five hits over 2.1 innings. He struck out three and walked no one.

But that’s all Mexico would get. And Team USA pitchers benefitted from two great defensive plays by shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. [VIDEO]

Alex Bregman was 0 for 3 with a walk.

Pete Crow-Armstrong did not play in this game.

Mexico can still advance to the next round with a win over Italy.

Pool C (Tokyo):

Japan 9, Czechia 0

This result should not be a surprise to anyone. Japan is a potential winner of this tournament and Czechia is really just beginning its baseball history.

Surprisingly, then, the Czechs kept Japan scoreless through seven innings. But Czechia could manage only two hits through eight, and then Japan’s offense went to work, scoring all nine of their runs.

The two big blows were home runs. Ukyo Shuto hit a three-run homer [VIDEO].

Shuto is an outfielder for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.

Later that inning, Munetaka Murakami, who will play this year for the White Sox, hit a grand slam [VIDEO].

Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki did not play in this game.

Samurai Japan completes pool play undefeated at 4-0. They’ll face the runner-up from Pool D in Miami in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Pool D (Miami):

Dominican Republic 10, Israel 1

The Dominican Republic had no problem clinching a trip to the single-elimination rounds with a 10-1 win over Israel.

The Dominican Republic took the lead in the second inning. Guardians minor leaguer Ryan Prager retired the side in order in the first, but he walked three batters in the second inning to load the bases. Then he walked Geraldo Perdomo to force in a run and make it 1-0.

Prager did not walk Fernando Tatis Jr. He probably wishes he had. Here’s the grand slam in English, Spanish and Japanese. [VIDEO]

Oneil Cruz made it 6-0 with a home run in the fourth. [VIDEO]

Team Israel didn’t fold at that point and Spencer Horwitz connected off Brayan Bello in the bottom of the fourth. [VIDEO]

But unfortunately for Israel, that was the only hit they’d get off Bello over five innings. Bello struck out seven. [VIDEO]

Tatis would hit a two-run single in the seventh inning, giving him six RBI on the game.

Venezuela 4, Nicaragua 0

Seven Venezuela pitchers scattered seven hits and they made their five hits count for four runs as Venezuela beat Nicaragua 4-0 and clinched a spot in the quarterfinals.

Venezuela took an early lead when Ronald Acuña Jr. walked to lead off the game. Acuña then stole second base, went to third on a bad throw to second and scored on a Jackson Chourio sacrifice fly.

Acuña then made it 2-0 in the third inning with this solo home run. [VIDEO]

Acuña then made it 3-0 with an RBI single in the fifth. [VIDEO]

Venezuela got their fourth and final run on a sacrifice fly by Wilyer Abreu in the sixth inning.

Last January’s premiere signing out of Venezuela, Bautista entered the system with high praise amongst scouts familiar with his game. Lauded as perhaps the highest ceiling player in the entire class, Bautista lay claim to potentially plus power, 70-grade run times, and a howitzer of an arm in the outfield. The only real thing missing from his game, however, is perhaps the most important tool of them all: bat-to-ball. Though the surface numbers aren’t necessarily jumping off the page after his first stint in the DSL, defining success is crucial when evaluating a player as young and unpolished as he is. Thanks to his immense skillset and nearly limitless potential, we’ve put him in a tier above our previous entries, marking the first of what is a healthy “middle” tier of prospect found in the Seattle system.

Bautista is a pure ceiling play as a prospect. The tools, while outrageously loud at times, are unrefined and need fine tuning to be maximized in game. Posting a slash line of .223/.326/.404 in his debut season, Yorger had a solid, if unspectacular start to his professional career. He managed to pop seven homers across ~200 PA and stole ten bags without getting caught, but a strikeout rate just a hair under 30% is a wart that’s hard to overlook right now, particularly with his relatively average walk rates. It’s not unheard of to see a player struggle with contact in the DSL and find success down the road (Lazaro Montes struck out over 33% of the time in his first season in the DSL), but it’s definitely an uphill battle. The tools are great to have, but if he can’t make enough contact to get to them, they’re something of a moot point.

A year one with a high strikeout rate was to be expected from the tooled up outfielder. Though it would have been great to see it lower than 30%, the then 17 year old was never going to be a contact machine in his first taste of pro ball and fell into line with what was generally expected. He didn’t make a huge leap offensively, but his performance mirroring the scouting consensus makes sense for a player brand new to professional development programs and keeps him in the picture prospect-wise. Whether he makes it stateside this year or takes another season in the DSL, some positive progression toward contact is a major box he’ll need to check in 2026. It’s impossible to call an age 18 season “make or break”, but if the hit tool stalls and looks roughly the same as it did last year, adjustments to his pedigree as a prospect are inevitable.

Keep an eye on the DSL this season; If Yorger hangs around for another season (I’d wager he’d start in the ACL, but it’s probably pretty close to a toss up), he’d join newcomers Gregory Pio and Juan Rijo in what could be the most fleshed-out lineup the DSL team has had in years.

Steve Howe was an extraordinary pitcher. Featuring a bowling-ball sinker that he could locate with pinpoint control, his arm talent and tenacity distinguished him from the competition at every stage of his baseball life. He accomplished things on the field that should form the foundation of a proud legacy. Unfortunately, Howe never got the chance to cement that legacy as the cycle of addiction consumed his life.

Steven Roy Howe
Born: March 10, 1958 (Pontiac, MI)
Died: April 28, 2006 (Coachella, CA)
Yankees Tenure: 1991-96

Steve Howe grew up in Michigan, where he was a standout at Clarkston High School before starring as a Michigan Wolverine. The talented left-hander was selected by longtime Dodgers GM Al Campanis in the first round of the 1979 MLB Draft, jumping straight to Double-A and spending just a single year there before making it to the Show. Howe was an immediate sensation as a rookie, posting a 2.66 ERA in 84.2 innings as the team’s closer while allowing just a single home run. “The kid’s got ice water in his veins,” raved a giddy Campanis of his new phenom. When asked if Howe was deserving of Rookie of the Year honors, his Hall of Fame manager, Tommy Lasorda, retorted: “Rookie of the Year? How about MVP?”

Howe did indeed take home the 1980 NL Rookie of the Year Award and followed up on his success in the years to come. In 1981, he made four scoreless relief appearances in the first two rounds of the playoffs to help the Dodgers to the pennant and was on the mound when his team defeated the Yankees in the Bronx for the title.

It was not until after the 1982 season that the cracks in this young superstar’s facade began to show. Howe entered himself into a substance abuse treatment center at his wife’s urging and, though he would be ready for the start of the following season, by May of 1983 he was back in rehab after no-showing for a game. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn (along with the Dodgers) fined Howe $54,000 for his use of cocaine, beginning a cycle of punishment and redemption that would continue for more than a decade. Howe returned in June and pitched at an elite level through September, when he missed a team flight, was fined another $54,000, and entered back into rehab. That following November, Howe tested positive for cocaine, at which point Kuhn suspended him for all of 1984.

This suspension began what would be a seven-year wilderness period for Howe. He cycled in and out of baseball, with brief stints with the Twins in 1985 and the Rangers in 1987. He spent time with the Single-A San Jose Bees and in Independent ball, as well as agreeing to terms with the Seibu Lions in Japan before the NPB vetoed the deal due to his history of drug use.

It wasn’t until 1991 that Howe would get another shot at a comeback. His agent arranged a tryout for Yankees GM Gene Michael, who offered him a spring training invite the next day. “He’s getting a chance because he’s good,” the matter-of-fact Michael, always a stickler for talent, told the press. “There’s always a need for left-handed pitching.” For his part, Howe espoused that he was leaving his troubles behind him. “That’s in the past,” he said of his drug abuse. “I am recovering today, and I have two years of sobriety. Believe me, if you went through what I’ve gone through, you’d want to forget, too.”

For a former Rookie of the Year, world champion, and All-Star, Howe’s introduction to pinstripes was ignominious. He initially had to wear the uniform of another non-roster invitee, Van Snider, and donned a pair of Don Mattingly’s cleats while waiting for his own equipment. But his golden left arm quickly jumped him back up the food chain. “I haven’t forgotten how to pitch,” Howe said. “I haven’t lost my competitive edge. That’s the key. You take those two things and put them with a 90-mile-an-hour fastball, and that’s success.”

That success would, indeed, come. Howe allowed just one unearned run through 18 innings with Triple-A Columbus before Michael called him up on May 10th. “They tell me he’s throwing as good as he can throw,” the GM said. “He’s as ready as he can be.” The next day, at the age of 33, the reliever cleared a hurdle that would have been unthinkable just months before, making his first big-league appearance since 1987 in a scoreless ninth “I made it,” he declared afterwards. “If I don’t pitch another inning, I got back.”

Howe recorded a 1.68 ERA in 48.1 innings that year and, in a full-circle stat line reminiscent of his halcyon rookie campaign, allowed just a single long ball. Having gone through hell and back, Howe established himself once again as one of the game’s top bullpen arms.

Alas, that December he was arrested by Montana police in a sting operation while purchasing cocaine. Despite protestations that he was coerced—and the fact that he continued to pitch at a high level through early June while the legal proceeding played out—he eventually pleaded guilty and was banned from baseball indefinitely by commissioner Fay Vincent.

It was Howe’s seventh suspension from baseball and, just as many had celebrated his redemption arc upon returning to baseball, the New York press reveled in the chance to beat him while he was down. “Seven-Time Loser” read the back page of one paper. Chris Russo of the newly minted “Mike and the Mad Dog” talk radio show repeatedly called for the suspension to be made permanent.

The banishment would be lifted before the 1993 season, in part because Howe’s manager went to bat for him. “I had to ask myself: how are you going to feel if two or three years from now Steve Howe ends up dead somewhere and you had an opportunity to help him, and you didn’t?” asked Buck Showalter. “I couldn’t live with that.”

Howe would stick with the Yankees for the next four seasons, showing intermittent flashes of his former dominance and avoiding an eighth suspension. His organization aided in his recovery, even giving him a job selling tickets in early 1995 while players were locked out due to a labor dispute so that he could continue to comply with the terms of his probation. After he pitched to a 6.35 ERA in 17 innings during the 1996 season, the Yankees released the 38-year-old. In some ways, being forced into retirement due to age and declining performance was a triumphantly extraordinary outcome for Howe in its ordinariness.

In 2006, Howe died at the age of 48 in a single-car crash. An autopsy revealed he had methamphetamine in his system at the time of the accident. It was a sad end for a man who had worked so hard for so long to keep his life on track. Perhaps that is Howe’s greatest legacy — a man who, despite scorn, ridicule, and ostracism, never stopped trying to live up to his potential, both as a ballplayer and as a person.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.