Category: Sports News

Chase DeLauter was a last minute scratch in yesterday’s Spring Training game against the Texas Rangers. All reports are saying the scratch was out of an abundance of caution when DeLauter reported lower body soreness following the heavy on-field activity to open camp. DeLauter was already not scheduled to play today.

Yesterday also saw Steven Kwan playing center field. Unfortunately the game was not televised or broadcasted anywhere so there is nothing to really report on his performance.

José is already looking to be in great form, having hit two home runs so far this Spring. He technically hit three, but the umps called on a ground rule double, proving they too need Spring Training to get warmed up.

Off the field, José continues to be as great as he is on the field. José teamed up with Franklin Sports to release his own line of limited edition batting gloves. In addition to releasing his own design, José is donating 75 pairs of batting gloves to the Cleveland RBI baseball and softball teams.

Around the League

The ABS challenge system is in full display at Spring Training. Multiple major league players are testing their eye by utilizing the system previously only reserved for the minor leagues. There has been some entertaining results, including Matt Olson challenging a Paul Skenes pitch that was originally ruled a strike and overturned to a ball.

LGFT CC Sabathia’s number will be retired by the New York Yankees this September.

Sources say that Michael Conforto has agreed to a minor-league deal. Terms were unavailable at press time. Tyler Austin isn’t going to be available for a while, and per Maddie Lee, Jonathan Long is also nursing an injury. That tweet is in The Feed. Some kinda roster jenga would seem to be in order. We await clarity.

The Cubs are going to host the first HBCU game. “The matchup features a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) game between Prairie View A&M University and Alabama A&M University.“ More.

And then.

Lotta former Cubs on that Rockies squad, and they were apparently bent on getting even. Q (two scoreless innings), Willi Castro, Nicky Lopez, enjoy the moral victory. There won’t be many real ones this year. Jameson Taillon and Caleb Thielbar got roughed up but they’ll be back to fix whatever their issues were. Thielbar right now has a 33.75 ERA in .1 innings of work.

The Cubs scored a few runs of their own. But that was too many gopher balls. Poor little guys.

*means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.

• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Shota Imanaga’s velocity in first start of spring promising for Cubs.‘‘We’ll take, like, 94, 95,’’ pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. More from Patrick Mooney{$}.
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Ben Brown has a new new-third-pitch. “… while he’s still optionable, and while there’s still a chance he could break out as a starter, the Cubs want to leave that on the table.”
• Matthew Trueblood (North Side Baseball*): Buy stock in Cubs reliever Ryan Rolison while you still can. “… a harder-throwing Rolison could be a strong third southpaw for the pen…“
• Steve Adams (MLB Trade Rumors*): Cubs’ Tyler Austin out “months” following knee surgery. “For now, the well-traveled veteran’s MLB comeback will be on hold.“
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): How PCA is adjusting to life as a Chicago superstar — on and off the field. “The sky’s the limit for him. I feel like he can do anything on a baseball field,” Cubs star Alex Bregman said.
• Maddie Lee (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong riles up Dodgers fans, an indication of his celebrity status. Dodgers fans’ reactions added fuel to the blaze.

Food For Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series. We will not wittingly publish A. I. – driven articles or clickbait, and insist on unimpeachable sources.

Meet the new battery, same as the old battery.

William Contreras is locked in as the Brewers’ starter, ready for his fourth season behind the plate in Milwaukee. And after speculation throughout the fall and winter about who the backup catcher would be, whether that would be one of a slim group of free agents, a young prospect on the rise, or some other sort of acquisition, the Brewers seemingly ended that discussion by bringing back 33-year-old Gary Sánchez.

Could there be other options involved? Maybe so. Let’s check it out. For reference, here’s last year’s catcher preview.

William Contreras

To say that William Contreras’ 2025 was a disappointment would be a bit bold. Via the measure of WAR, Contreras was still the second-best catcher in the National League and the second-best position player on the Brewers. A 111 OPS+ was a step back (it was 124 in 2023 and 130 in 2024), but that’s still good production for a player who rates pretty well as a defensive catcher.

My level of concern about Contreras’ offensive game is low. There was concern last year about a fractured finger that seemed to be a long-term issue, but he reportedly got that fixed this offseason. That was blamed in part for some of Contreras’ issues driving the ball last year, and it’s true; at the All-Star Break, Contreras was hitting just .245/.351/.347 with six homers through 90 games. But he came back from the break rejuvenated, and from then until the end of the season, he hit .281/.361/.472 with 11 homers in 60 games — that batting line is nearly identical to the .281/.365/.466 line he had in 2024, when he won his second straight Silver Slugger and finished fifth in MVP voting.

This recovery bears out not just in the surface-level stats but in the Statcast data, too. Prior to the All-Star break, Contreras’ average exit velocity was 89.8 mph. After the break, it was 93 mph. A 93 average exit velocity, over the course of the full season last year, would’ve been tied for 14th in the majors.

Entering his age-28 season, Contreras should again be among the best catchers in the league. Before the 2025 season, I wondered if Contreras could work his way into the top three of the MVP discussion in 2026, and I still think there’s reason to ask that question. If the Brewers are as good as we think they can be — which would apparently be a surprise to the awards-voting media yet again — their best player is likely to get some examination for MVP, even if a pitching-again Shohei Ohtani seems destined for his fifth award. That player might be Brice Turang or Jackson Chourio, but there’s a very good chance that it’s Contreras. Also on his side here are the old-timey “narrative” elements: with the loss of Willy Adames before last season and Freddy Peralta before this one, Contreras likely takes the mantle as the obvious leader of this team, non-Christian-Yelich division.

Here’s a question: Should we start to consider William Contreras as the best catcher in franchise history? That title almost certainly belongs to Jonathan Lucroy, who caught for the Brewers from 2010 until he was sent to the Rangers at the 2016 trade deadline. The answer to this question might depend on your views on Baseball Reference’s version of catcher WAR versus FanGraphs’ version; via BRef, Lucroy earned 17.2 WAR in six-and-a-half-ish seasons. But he was also an early hero of the pitch-framing revolution, which factors into FanGraphs’ version of WAR, and that paints Lucroy as a superstar, giving him almost 35 WAR over that six-plus-year stretch.

So, maybe you don’t think Contreras can catch Lucroy if he doesn’t sign an extension. But Contreras has earned 15 fWAR and 12.4 bWAR through three seasons with the Brewers, and while Lucroy at his best was about as good an offensive player as Contreras has been, Contreras has done it more consistently. Contreras is already the second-best catcher in team history, by my estimation, despite the high profiles of Hall-of-Famer Ted Simmons and No. 1 overall pick B.J. Surhoff; a strong season in 2026 could make us at least ask the question as it relates to Lucroy.

Gary Sánchez

It’s hard for me to believe that Gary Sánchez is only 33. If you’d have asked me earlier this offseason, I probably would’ve guessed like 37. He’s in his 12th year in the majors! It feels like it’s been a long time.

As mentioned at the top, Sánchez served as Contreras’ backup in 2024. That season was a mixed bag for Sánchez: he ended up doing a lot of work as the designated hitter, and while he did hit 11 home runs, it was a disappointing season in light of what he’d done in 2023, when he hit 19 homers in just 72 games with the Padres.

Sánchez left the Brewers after 2024 and signed with the Baltimore Orioles for last season, but things went off the rails quickly; he struggled badly out of the gate, got hurt, came back in June, and went crazy, with a .353/.411/.686 batting line, five homers and 20 RBI in his first 14 games back, then went 0 for his next 10, got hurt again, and didn’t play again for the rest of the season. He finished the season with just 29 games played.

Sánchez hasn’t played 100 games in a season since 2022 in Minnesota, and he hasn’t had an OPS+ above 100 in a season in which he played 100 games since 2019. Sánchez can still get into a baseball — his 93.3 average exit velocity in 2025, while in a tiny sample, would’ve ranked tied for ninth in the league, and even in his poorer seasons over the last several years, he’s had pretty solid Statcast numbers. The Sánchez of the last few years has had a walk percentage of 8.2%, which is fine — it was a little higher earlier in his career, so we shouldn’t worry about Sánchez as a free swinger.

The Brewers have seemingly prioritized offense over defense the last few years with their backup catchers, which is a bit of a “zag” from traditional norms; but Sánchez, Eric Haase, and Danny Jansen are all — to some degree — offensive options. (Jansen has traditionally been a good defensive catcher, but the numbers over the last few years aren’t as good.) Sánchez is not likely to be a great asset behind the plate, but the Brewers aren’t going to ask him to catch all that much — in the scenario in which Contreras were to get injured for any length of time, and the Brewers needed a long-term backup, Jeferson Quero would likely figure to take a large amount of the playing time.

Sánchez on defense should be good enough to not really harm the team, and the team doesn’t have him around for defense, really; they have him as a veteran presence to work well with all their young pitchers and to occasionally hit a baseball very far. He can do both of those things.

Jeferson Quero

Speaking of Quero!

The Brewers’ 23-year-old catcher was, as we all know, a consensus top-40 prospect prior to the 2024 season, then injured his throwing shoulder on the first day of the season and missed basically a year and a half. He made it back in the second half of last season and performed reasonably well at Triple-A Nashville for 58 games.

But there is some real concern over that throwing arm: by all accounts, both quantitative and otherwise, Quero is not throwing nearly as well as he was before the injury. That is a big deal: Quero’s arm was touted as perhaps his strongest tool, the thing that made him special as a defensive catcher, and the reason he was in the top 40 on prospect lists.

Part of me wonders if a catcher in 2026 should be able to become a top-40 prospect based almost solely on the strength of their arm, so if it is the case that Quero is now far less heralded as a prospect because of concerns over the arm, maybe he was too high to begin with. But even if he isn’t going to be Pudge Rodríguez back there, there’s still a future for Quero with the Brewers. Maybe he won’t become a star, but he projects as a guy who can be about league-average offensively, and pre-injury scouting reports also praise his receiving and rapport with pitchers.

There is perhaps less confidence that the Brewers have their long-term, post-Contreras catcher in Quero, but he should still be able to be a solid player. If Contreras or Gary Sánchez spend any extended amount of time on the injured list this year, it’s likely that we’ll get a look at Quero in the big leagues.

Reese McGuire

For a couple of weeks, it looked like the 2025 Cub, who was signed to a minor league deal with an invite to big-league camp, would start the season as the Brewers’ backup catcher. But Sánchez’s signing likely means that only a spring-training injury to either of the more-established options will give McGuire a shot.

McGuire isn’t a good hitter, but he can hit a homer every now and then, and he has a good defensive reputation. It was somewhat surprising that he wasn’t able to find a major-league deal this offseason, and I’d be surprised if there isn’t at least some demand for him somewhere in the league at the end of spring training, assuming he doesn’t make the Brewers.

It is not clear whether there are opt-outs — which are pretty common for veterans on minor league contracts — in McGuire’s minor-league deal. So there is a chance that even if he doesn’t make the Brewers’ 40-man roster, he could go to Triple-A Nashville as insurance for Contreras and/or Sánchez. But the Brewers will certainly want Quero to be getting reps there, so if McGuire has an end-of-spring-training opt-out, I’d expect him to use it if, as expected, he doesn’t make the team.

Marco Dinges

Marco Dinges isn’t going to play for the Brewers this year, but I just wanted to add him to the end of this post. Dinges, who hasn’t played above High-A, has some work to do defensively, but in 2025, he hit .300/.416/.514 with 13 homers in 77 games across two levels — a 161 wRC+. He’s an extremely patient hitter with real power. If he can fine-tune his defense and gain more experience as a catcher in 2026, it’s not out of the question that he could vault himself ahead of Quero as the presumed “catcher of the future,” in much the same way Lucroy once vaulted past the more highly touted Ángel Salomé.

It is far, far, far too early to make any proclamations about the San Francisco Giants, positive or negative. It’s far, far, far too early to make any proclamations about any of their players, save for things like “Logan Webb is awesome,” and “Jung Hoo Lee is cool” and “Does Christian Koss have a book club and if so how can I join.”

But so far, things have looked excellent for the position player acquisitions that Buster Posey and Zack Minasian made this offseason. Second Baseman Luis Arráez has hit 3-6 with a double, and generally played decent defense. Center fielder Harrison Bader has hit 4-9 with a double, a walk, and a home run so impressive that it caused property damage.

Things haven’t been quite as pretty on the pitching front. Reliever Sam Hentges has dealt with an injury setback, and is unlikely to be available for Opening Day. Starter Tyler Mahle is sick, and we haven’t seen him pitch yet. And starter Adrian Houser made his spring debut on Wednesday and gave up four baserunners, including a home run, in two innings, with no strikeouts. On the other hand, many of the NRI relievers, like Caleb Kilian and Michael Fulmer, have pitched well.

Again: it’s too early. Far, far, far too early. It will be too early this time next month, too, and even this time in April. Bader and Arráez might end up having awful seasons while Mahle and Houser make 30 starts each and garner Cy Young votes.

But while it’s many months too early to judge these players, it’s never too early to predict them. So … which offseason signing will look best when the season is over?

I don’t mean the player who will increase the win total the most, per se. More the player who we’ll get to the end of the season and say, “Yeah, Posey and Minasian were cooking with that one.”

For me, it’s a non-roster player: reliever Gregory Santos. I’ve been a big believer in Santos for years, and was sad when the Giants got rid of him due to roster logistics. He was one of the best relievers in baseball in 2023, and it’s not like he fell off the last two years — he was just injured. And those injuries weren’t even to his arm, so there’s a strong reason to believe that he’ll bounce back this year if he can stay healthy. We’ve already seen it, as he breezed past 100 mph in his preseason debut.

And if he does pitch well, the Giants will have him under team control for two more seasons after this one.

So that’s my pick. What’s yours?

The 2026 Yankees are defined, at least so far, by continuity: the organization opted not to make a major splash this winter, with all but two members of last year’s ALDS roster returning for this year’s campaign. Even in such an inactive offseason, though, a number of players find themselves in new uniforms this season. While no truly big-ticket players have departed this winter, there has still been enough turnover for us to take our annual look throughout the league to check out old friends in their new threads.

Luke Weaver

Arguably the biggest departure of the winter was Luke Weaver. A former starting pitcher who reinvented himself as a dynamic reliever and became a fan favorite both for his fun personality and his strong performance as the closer during the Yankees’ trip to the World Series in 2024, Weaver signed a two-year, $22 million deal to join former Yankees closer Clay Holmes in Queens.

Devin Williams

Of course, Weaver wasn’t the only former Yankees closer to make the trip across town this winter. Two weeks prior to Weaver’s signing, Devin Williams inked his own three-year, $51 million contract with the Mets. While very few Yankees fans will lament Williams’ departure, as he never quite got into a groove with the Bombers, this does continue a rather strange trend in recent years of the Mets targeting former Yankees in free agency.

Jonathan Loáisiga

The longest-tenured Yankee to depart this winter, Jonathan Loáisiga joined the Arizona Diamondbacks on a minor league deal after his team option was declined in November. Johnny Lasagna looks to bounce back after struggling in his return from Tommy John surgery.

Ian Hamilton

Ian Hamilton joined the Atlanta Braves organization on a minor league deal after being non-tendered in November. He spent three years with the Yankees, starting with an elite 2023, a solid 2024, and a lackluster 2025.

Mark Leiter Jr.

Acquired from the Chicago Cubs at the 2024 trade deadline, Mark Leiter Jr. was left off the postseason roster in 2024, then added as an injury replacement, and got critical outs as the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Guardians to punch their ticket to their first World Series since 2009. Unfortunately, that would be the highlight of his career in pinstripes. Due to his inconsistency, the Bombers opted to non-tender him this past winter, and he inked a deal with the Athletics.

Scott Effross

Sensing a theme, here? The sixth Yankee reliever to depart in free agency this year, Scott Effross was supposed to be a dominant reliever with several years of team control when the Yankees acquired him from the Cubs at the 2022 trade deadline. Unfortunately, the injury bug got him, and he wound up making just 27 appearances across four seasons in pinstripes. Looking to revamp the bullpen, the Yankees non-tendered him in the winter, and he found himself in Detroit on a minor league deal.

Austin Slater

The only non-reliever to depart this winter, Austin Slater was acquired at the trade deadline last year to give the Yankees some pop against lefties. Unfortunately, injuries limited him to just 14 appearances, and while the Yankees had some interest in bringing him back, he opted for a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers, where he is competing for the fourth outfield spot.

Former Prospects

Several Yankees prospects departed this winter, most of them as a result of minor trades. These include Dillon Lewis, Dylan Jasso, and Brendan Jones, who were traded to the Marlins for Ryan Weathers, and T.J. Rumfield, who is now a Rockie.

It was nice to see a healthy dose of Phillies regulars in the game yesterday. It’s hard to stay tuned into spring training games, especially this early, but seeing some of the players you recognize helps. Well at least it will until most of them leave for the World Baseball Classic next week.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Zack Wheeler discusses his surgery and recovery and doesn’t see why there’s any reason why he won’t be back to his old self this season. ($)
• There aren’t many position battles for the Phillies this camp, but there’s two spots up for grabs in the back of the bullpen and the robust competition showcases the Phillies new reliever depth. ($)
• You won’t have to wait much longer to get a look at Andrew Painter, as he is scheduled to make his spring debut this Sunday.

MLB news:

• Rangers shortstop Sebastian Walcott, the number five prospect in all of baseball, will be out 5-6 months after undergoing elbow surgery.
• Dodgers postseason secret weapon Roki Sasaki made his first appearance of 2026, and it did not go well.
• The family of Tyler Skaggs speaks for the first time after their contentious court battle against the Los Angeles Angels ended when the family agreed to a settlement. ($)

Hello, friends.

Today marks exactly one month until Orioles Opening Day! The team will be playing exhibition games from now through March 23 to get ready for that. After yesterday’s 4-3 victory over the Rays, the Orioles are now 3-2-1 in Grapefruit League action. Awaiting today is a 1:05 game against the Tigers that will be broadcast on MASN. Dean Kremer is lined up as today’s starter. A day farther out, Shane Baz will get into his first organized spring game as Friday’s starting pitcher.

Yesterday’s win saw three scoreless innings from Trevor Rogers, who’s yet to allow a run in spring action. For anyone who was looking for a reason to believe that he’ll be able to pick up where he left off at the end of last season, that’s really not a bad thing to latch onto. It’s less outlandish of a belief now that we’ve seen him do what he did last year.

Another early spring standout is Tyler O’Neill. There’s a guy who was not exactly showing us success last year. It’s early and it doesn’t matter yet, and staying healthy might be his biggest issue rather than performance anyway. Still, O’Neill seems to be taking good at-bats and getting good results early on. One path to a better team in 2026 is to have last winter’s big signing start to get that contract out from being a waste.

If you’d already given up prospect Vance Honeycutt, the 2024 first rounder, as a bust, you might not have noticed that he’s gotten a pair of spring training homers, including one yesterday. He stunk in 2025, there’s no getting around that, and same as any of these other guys, it doesn’t matter yet. Still, it has to be nice for him after a tough year to get a positive early vibe from 2026. It will take a lot more homering in real games for this to connect into anything. I like the start.

With a few players leaving camp to participate in the World Baseball Classic – including O’Neill, who’ll be joining Team Canada – there’s going to be a bit more room for prospects to get playing time this year. If Honeycutt or others are able to take advantage of that, good for them.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

More notes from Orioles 4-3 win over Rays (School of Roch)
Roch Kubatko runs through more of the stuff from yesterday’s game. It wasn’t all positive, with Andrew Kittredge having a bit of a clunker.

Orioles believe bullpen’s a strength: “I think we’re going to surprise some people” (Baltimore Baseball)
Gotta love a dose of spring training optimism.

Pete Alonso broke this comedian’s son’s heart, and now wants him to be an Orioles fan (Orioles.com)
This is about the son of John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight and a Mets fan, now getting a personal appeal from the Polar Bear to change fandoms with him. I’ve watched Oliver’s show and I think he’s absolutely ready to experience Orioles fandom.

Taylor Ward learned to embrace change. Then he got traded. (The Baltimore Sun)
I keep forgetting that the Orioles traded for Taylor Ward. I hope he doesn’t make me wish I could forget when the season happens. Although that’s also up to Grayson Rodriguez, who the O’s traded to the Angels.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Nothing of particular note has happened on this day in Orioles history. Unless there’s bad news, that probably won’t be changing today.

There is one lone former Oriole with a birthday today. Happy 49th birthday to 2001-02 pitcher Josh Towers, who had a 5.05 ERA in 29 games across his two seasons with the team.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: playwright/poet Christopher Marlowe (1564), author Victor Hugo (1802), blue jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss (1829), cereal creator John Harvey Kellogg (1852), chemical maker Herbert Henry Dow (1866), animator Tex Avery (1908), musician Fats Domino (1928), and musician Johnny Cash (1932).

On this day in history…

In 1616, the Catholic Church officially banned Galileo Galilei from teaching that the Earth orbits the sun.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the island of Elba, where he had been exiled following his defeat a year prior.

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation that established Grand Canyon National Park. Exactly a decade later, President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation establishing Grand Teton National Park.

A random Orioles trivia question

I received a random book of Orioles trivia for Christmas. I’ll ask a question each time it’s my turn in this space until I run out of questions or I forget. I’m skipping stupid questions; we’re already on question 48 today. The book gives multiple choice answers but that would be too easy for us, wouldn’t it? Here’s today’s question:

Which pitcher’s 15 wins led the 2005 Orioles?

If you are answering the question early in the day, please be considerate and place your guess behind spoiler text so that others arriving later can still make a fresh guess. Thank you!

The answer to Sunday’s question: which year did the B&O Warehouse open? 1904!

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on February 26. Have a safe Thursday.