Category: Sports News

Kazuma Okamoto is a 29-year-old, right-handed hitting corner infielder from Gojo, Japan. He’s played 11 seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball. The Jays signed him to a four-year, $60 million contract (Ben Clemens at FanGraphs figured him to sign four years and $72 million).

Not that it means much, but he’s shown a nice sense of humour (he is serious and manly) and sense of fun in the few days he’s been at the Jays spring camp.

Rogers hopes to grow the Blue Jays’ brand in Japan. We are going to Japan next month. I’m going to bring a bunch of Blue Jays caps with me. Every holiday, I end up trading a Jays cap for something

Career he’s hit .277/.361/.521, with 248 home runs. Last year, he was limited to 69 games with the Yomiuri Giants because of an elbow sprain, but he hit .327/.416/.598 with 15 home runs. FanGraphs notes that he has the second-most homers in NPB since 2019.

He’s lowered his strikeout rate the last two seasons (15.9% in 2024, 11.3% last year). And there is a note that he’s hitting better against fastballs the last couple of years. He’s a pull hitter.

There are questions about his defense at third. FanGraphs says this:

Okamoto can show you nimble lower body stability and has feel for bouncing off the dirt and spinning into accurate throws, but he lacks range and struggles making plays to his glove side.

Baseball America likes his defense more:

In the field, Okamoto is an above-average defender at third base, and he’s won multiple NPB Gold Glove equivalents. He’s a plus-plus defender at first base and offers his signing team defensive versatility.

With Vlad at first, third is Kazuma’s spot. I am interested in seeing his defense this spring. I’m guessing he’ll move to first on Vlad’s DH days.

How will he hit? I’d like to think he’ll be around 25 home runs, maybe a .250ish average, .340-.350 OBP.

Steamer? They have him playing 130 games, 22 home runs, a .251/.323/.446 batting line with a 2.3 fWAR.

One of the best days of the year is here! Spring training has officially opened, the Yankees kicking off their Grapefruit League exhibition series with a trip to Sarasota to take on the Orioles. The offseason may have been “brutal”’ and “frustrating”’ at times as Aaron Judge put it, but baseball is back and we can finally look forward to the season. Let’s take a look at the players who will be suiting up for both division rivals.

Elmer Rodríguez takes the mound as the Yankees’ top ranked pitching prospect according to several publications. The 22-year-old righty vaulted his way to becoming a consensus Top-100 Prospect in baseball after being named Baseball America’s New York Yankees Minor League Player of the Year. In 26 starts between Double-A and Triple-A, Rodriguez went 11-8 with a 2.58 ERA across 150 innings, finishing with the second-most strikeouts (176) in the minors behind the Mets’ Jonah Tong. He has a chance to impact the big-league club season, and gets his first true audition this afternoon.

Trevor Rogers was one of the biggest stories for the Orioles last season, going from a Triple-A demotion following his 2024 Trade Deadline move from Miami to one of the most effective pitchers in baseball when he was one the mound in 2025. Among starters with at least 100 innings, Rogers was second only to Nathan Eovaldi with a 1.81 ERA, also placing in the top-ten league-wide in FIP (2.82) and home runs per nine (0.49). He made a pair of starts against the Yankees last year, pitching six shutout frames of one-hit ball in their first encounter before getting tagged for six runs across three innings a week later. The 28-year-old southpaw leads with a four-seamer that sits 93, backed up by a pair of nasty breaking balls, his slider and sweeper both inducing whiff rates in excess of 37-percent. In 18 starts, Rogers went 9-3 with a 1.81 ERA (223 ERA+), 2.82 FIP, 103 strikeouts, and 3.3 fWAR across 109.2 innings.

For those disappointed not to see Aaron Judge’s name in the Yankees lineup, the captain generally has not travelled to away games during spring training. We will at least get to see four major leaguers start, with Austin Wells, José Caballero, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Amed Rosario making up the top four of the batting order. The rest of the lineup consists of non-roster invitees: Ernesto Martinez Jr., Marco Luciano, Duke Ellis, Kenedy Corona, and Ali Sánchez

The Orioles meanwhile go with a starting nine that could very well resemble their Opening Day lineup. Gunnar Henderson bats leadoff while Pete Alonso takes his first competitive swings in an Orioles uniform after his big money move from Queens to Baltimore in free agency. The rest of their expected infield has taken a hit, however, with both Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg absent after suffering a broken hamate and partially torn UCL, respectively.

How to watch

Location: Ed Smith Stadium — Sarasota, FL

First pitch: 1:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: Gotham Sports App, MASN, MLB Network (out-of-market only)

Radio broadcast: WBAL 1090 AM (Orioles broadcast)

Online stream: Gotham Sports App

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The injury bug continues to bite Jordan Westburg and the Orioles.

The talented, yet oft-injured third baseman has been diagnosed with a partial ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) tear in his right elbow, Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias told reporters Friday.

He is set to receive a platelet-rich plasma (PR) injection Friday, but will miss all of April with the injury and his timeline is uncertain, according to MLB.com.

This injury is a tough blow for both the player and the team, and it’s possible the situation could worsen should the PRP injections not work and Westerburg has to undergo surgery.

The 2020 first-round pick is productive when healthy, but staying on the field has been an issue.

He appeared in just 68 games in his rookie season in 2023, 107 in his second season in 2024 after suffering a fractured right hand and 85 this past season while battling multiple injuries during a disaster campaign for the Orioles that resulted in a last-place 75-87 finish.

Westburg had been dealing with a tweaked right oblique in camp he suffered in January, which left him “physically unable to participate” in camp before this reveal.

“Right now, he’s physically unable to participate,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said Thursday, according to MLB.com. “He’s getting evaluated by a medical team, and also outside people, to make sure we have a plan in place and see what’s going on with Jordan and get him going.”

Westburg, when healthy, has slashed .264/.312/.456 with 38 homers and 127 RBIs in his career, producing 18 long balls and 63 RBIs in his 107-game season in 2024.

This injury now leaves the Orioles without half of their projected starting infield, with Jackson Holliday already sidelined with a broken right hamate bone.

Coby Mayo stands to potentially benefit from Westburg’s absence, per MLB.com.

The Orioles had an aggressive offseason to rebound from their 2025 flop, adding Pete Alonso, Taylor Ward and Chris Bassitt, among other moves.

The long wait is almost over. After an active offseason for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Spring Training is getting ready to kick off games this coming weekend, with the Grapefruit League getting rolling on Saturday afternoon. The Bucs will play 31 Spring Training games, running all the way up until March 23. They will play 16 home games and 15 away and open up on Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles.

This is all in leadup to the regular season Opening Day, when the Bucs take on the New York Mets at Citifield on March 26 at 1:00pm eastern. They have their home opener on April 3, taking on the Orioles once again, with a 4:00pm eastern start.

The Bucs will again play live on Pittsburgh Sports Net, and they are set to televise 15 of Pittsburgh’s preseason games, including 9 home broadcasts and 6 away.  You’ll also be able to catch the Buccos on 93.7 The Fan, 100.1 FM, AM 1020 KDKA as well as the Sports Net Pittsburgh app, SNP 360.

Here’s the Pittsburgh Pirates 2026 MLB Spring Training Schedule:

Hope springs eternal this time of year, particularly if you’re a hitter in the hot, dry air of Arizona. The Royals typically perform pretty well in the Cactus League, which means absolutely nothing since the games don’t count. But you can be excused for getting a teensy bit excited about a player who seemed to figure things out in spring training. Hope is a good thing, after all!

I am usually quite dismissive of guys launching bombs in Arizona. But I couldn’t help but get a bit excited about Peter O’Brien in 2017. I had liked O’Brien as a college player at Miami, and when the Royals picked him up, I thought there was a chance he could help the team. Then he got to Surprise and started launching bombs. He smacked seven home runs – the only players in all of baseball who hit more that spring training were Greg Bird and Bryce Harper. Could O’Brien be our Bryce Harper? No. O’Brien was sent to the minors and hit .162 with three home runs in 27 games before being released.

The next year, it was Frank “The Tank” Schwindel. He tied for the most spring training home runs in baseball with seven (Salvador Perez and Jorge Soler each hit six, giving Royals fans visions of a Murderer’s Row). His line of .366/.381/.976 wasn’t enough to make the team, so he hit 24 home runs for Omaha. He made the Opening Day roster the next year, but lasted just six games before it was back to the minors. He would find some limited success in 2021, hitting 14 home runs with the Cubs.

Hunter Dozier had a terrific 2019 season, and although his pandemic-shortened 2020 season had mixed results, he was rewarded with a four-year, $25 million deal in February of 2021. That seemed to be a potential steal when he destroyed Cactus League pitching that year, smashing five home runs with a line of .289/.373/.733. But it proved to be fool’s gold as he posted a career-worst OPS+ of 76 that year, part of a rapid decline that turned that contract into a dud.

Ruben Gotay, Mike Jacobs, and Kila Kaaihue are some other Cactus League MVPs. Who was your favorite performer in Royals spring training?

Dalton Rushing got his first taste of the major leagues last season, and all of its ups and downs. Now, he heads into potentially his first full season in the majors.

As the backup to Will Smith, it’d be tough for anyone to find a rhythm at the plate playing once or twice per week behind the plate. That proved true for Rushing last year, hitting just .204/.258/.324 with a 37.4-percent strikeout rate in 155 plate appearances. His highest strikeout rate in the minors was only 21.5 percent, in Triple-A Oklahoma City before his call-up in 2025.

Dalton Rushing as a professional

• 2022: Class-A (all but two games), 134 PA, 213 wRC+
• 2023: High-A, 381 PA, 147 wRC+
• 2024: Double-A & Triple-A, 503 PA, 146 wRC+
• 2025: Triple-A, 149 PA, 143 wRC+
• 2025: MLB, 155 PA, 62 wRC+

Rushing’s calling card has always been his bat, and he found time in the minors to get more reps at the plate by playing first base, designated hitter, and sometimes left field in addition to catching. Now on the Dodgers, he joins a depth chart with those positions suitably filled, with Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman plus Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández in the corners.

Katie Woo at The Athletic on Friday wrote about some spring storylines, including a bit about Rushing’s role:

Rushing is in line to be the backup catcher behind Will Smith again, but Roberts would like to find ways to get Rushing more at-bats. That could mean using Rushing at first base on days when Freeman needs a spell. The outfield, Roberts said, will not be an option for Rushing.

Ohtani started 317 of 324 games at designated hitter the last two seasons, and while Freeman has been an ironman for most of his career, his last two seasons have proven more challenging. Freeman started 147 games in 2024, and 145 games in 2025.

That still leaves some time at first base for Rushing to at least occasionally play. Last season he played eight games and 28 total innings at the position with the Dodgers, but his lone start at first came in the final weekend of the season, the day after the team clinched the division.

Today’s question is how many non-catcher starts will Dalton Rushing make in 2026?

News came out today that California prep prospect Jared Gridlinger is set to reclassify and move from the 2027 MLB Draft into the 2026 MLB Draft. Gridlinger ranked as high as No. 3 overall and No. 1 prep player in the 2027 class, and adds another premium talent into what is already a strong draft class. This move comes after the deadline to make the move, though Gridlinger was able to secure a waiver from MLB to give him access.

To give you a little more background on Gridlinger, he will be just 17 years and two months old at the time of the 2026 MLB Draft, making him especially young for the draft. As a player he is one of the most legit two-way prospects we have seen at the top of the draft since Brendan McKay back in 2017. He’s a 6’3”, 185-pound lefty at just 16-years-old presently, but is seen as a projectable pitcher with a fastball already up to 96 MPH and potentially both a plus slider and change. That goes with plenty of power and a feel for taking good at bats as a hitter. If his name sounds familiar, that would be because he is the younger brother of Tennessee freshman catcher Jared Gridlinger – a name you may remember leading up to the 2025 MLB Draft.

This impacts the Braves in a big way as it adds another premium talent to a loaded 2026 class that sees them pick twice in the first round and five times in the first 112 picks. While Gridlinger is the type of prospect capable of going in the Top 10 and pushing another guy, such as a Cam Flukey or AJ Gracia, down to the Braves at No. 9, it is more likely that as of today he has that impact with pick No. 26 instead. That is because scouts and front offices will have to play a little bit of catch up on him, and he has a long list of proven college players to push past to go Top 10.

Gridlinger is also a player who could appeal to the Braves themselves. They have taken their share of two-way guys from the likes of Austin Riley, Michael Harris, Owen Murphy, and even Cam Caminiti, and also their analytics models do like picking players who are young for the class. When you factor in that he is an arm with top of the rotation potential, or a premium bat, it’s hard to picture the Braves not at least tracking him closely.

Is the game on TV?

Yes! This is one that NESN never misses. Check it out at 1:05 PM.

What’s the lineup?

What should we watch for?

From an on-field perspective, the most interesting thing here is Kristian Campbell in centerfield, by far. But that’s not what today is about. Today is about looking away from the snow that’s still outside your window and drowning in the sounds of baseball. It’s back.