Category: Sports News

Meet the Mets

The Mets got their first win of spring yesterday against the Yankees, by a 6-4 margin. Jared Young, Luis Torrens, and Hayden Senger all hit solo home runs, and JT Schwartz provided the lion’s share of the offense with a three-run home run in the eighth inning. Justin Hagenman looked good in his 2.1 innings, giving up just one run on two hits, with three walks and three strikeouts. Mets’ top prospect Carson Benge had his spring training debut, but he blanked with an 0 for 3 final line.

After his departure from the Mets, Brandon Nimmo opened up about his leadership style, how the trade transpired, and his future with the Rangers.

Buster Olney ranked the top 10 third basemen in the league, and new Met Bo Bichette has made the cut.

John Harper investigated rookie Met sensation Nolan McLean and what gives him an edge.

Around the National League East

Marlins middle infielder Graham Pauley has been shut down from all baseball activities due to forearm tightness.

Around Major League Baseball

The Twins dodged a bullet, with Joe Ryan’s MRI only revealing inflammation.

Rhys Hoskins has joined the Cleveland Guardians, signing a minor league contract with an invite to major league spring training.

Angels players have taken notice of Arte Moreno claiming that their fans don’t prioritize winning, and have met with the new director of MLBPA.

Michael Conforto has signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs.

ABS is here, and Jayson Stark broke down what fans need to know about the so-called “robot umps” this season.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Thomas Henderson examined Daniel Duarte and his quest to make it back to the major leagues by way of the Mets bullpen.

Linus Lawrence considered whether Ben Rortvedt might make his way to the Mets major league roster in the form of positional insurance.

Chris McShane welcomed back Nate Lavender after the Rays returned him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft last season.

This Date in Mets History

The infamous former Met Bobby Bonilla is celebrating his birthday today, turning 63 years old.

The Cactus League Brewers are back in action and looking to get off the schneid this afternoon after losing both games in split-squad action yesterday. They’ll travel to Peoria to take on the San Diego Padres.

Today’s lineup features a balance of regulars and minor leaguers, as Jackson Chourio, Joey Ortiz, Andrew Vaughn, and Gary Sánchez make up the top of the lineup but Jett Williams, Luis Lara, and Eddys Leonard — who has not appeared in a Cactus League game yet — bring up the rear. In the middle are two guys likely to figure into the Brewers’ plans as bench players this season, Brandon Lockridge and David Hamilton. The Padres also have a couple of established big leaguers at the top of their lineup, most notably Fernando Tatís Jr., who will bat third as the designated hitter.

Plenty of guys in the major league bullpen conversation will appear today, as Easton McGee is today’s listed starting pitcher with Abner Uribe, Craig Yoho, Drew Rom, and Jacob Waguespack scheduled to follow. Lefty JP Sears will be the first pitcher out for the Padres.

First pitch is slated for 2:10 p.m. CT and this one will be televised for free on Brewers TV and the Brewers Radio Network, including 620 WTMJ in the Milwaukee area.

As noted in the post above, today’s game is available for free on brewers.tv, and it’ll also be shown on MLB Network for those out of market. You can also hear it on the Brewers Radio Network.

Detroit Tigers vs. Minnesota Twins

Time/Place: 1:05 p.m., Joker Marchant Stadium – Lakeland, FL
SB Nation Site: Twinkie Town
Media: Tigers Radio Network

Darryl Strawberry believes that Pete Alonso will come to "regret" leaving the Mets for the Baltimore Orioles this offseason.

Strawberry said he was “really shocked” that the man who broke his all-time home run record with the franchise traded Queens for Charm City.

“Pete could have broken all the records and could have been on top of every offensive category for this organization and then sometimes when you don’t see that and realize how important that is, one day he is going to wake up just like I did and regret you didn’t stick where you are at,” Strawberry said, via The New York Post’s Mike Puma.

Strawberry added that Alonso “deserved all the credit” for what he accomplished during his seven seasons with the Mets, but questioned his decision to go to the Orioles.

“I just don’t leave New York to go to Baltimore,” Strawberry said. “Don’t get me wrong, I am not getting on Baltimore. But I am saying, this is New York, come on. Baltimore is a good place, but it’s not New York.”

Alonso opted out of the second year of the two-year deal he signed with the Mets the previous offseason after the final game of the 2025 season and hit the open market for the second time in as many winters, but this time he ended up signing elsewhere.

Strawberry believes that it was a “combination” of the club and player not working hard to get a deal done: “I think they both could have fought harder in that situation,” he said, via Puma.

“The biggest mistake I saw was after they lost in Miami he opted out,” Strawberry said of the final game of the regular season that saw New York eliminated from postseason contention. “I think if he just waited and said, ‘OK, I’ll stay at that, but give me a four-year deal, something like that, they could have worked it out.’”

After the game, Alonso said from the clubhouse in Miami that he would be foregoing the final year of the deal and leaving $24 million on the table in the hopes of securing a longer-term deal after a stellar regular season.

“Playing for this organization and this city, they've continued to believe in me. And I’ve loved playing here,” Alonso said at the time. “There's some great guys in this clubhouse, there’s some great people on the staff. Every single day, it's been a pleasure coming to work and putting on the orange and blue.

“For me, I've really appreciated it and have been nothing but full of gratitude every single day. Nothing is guaranteed, but we'll see what happens – I've loved being a Met. Hopefully, they've appreciated me the same."

It has been reported that the Mets did not offer Alonso a deal. The first baseman signed a five-year, $155 million contract with Baltimore 73 days after the end of the regular season.

Monday notes…

• FORMER CUBS IN ROYALS CAMP: Jose Cuas, Eli Morgan and Hector Neris.
• SEE YA, SEIYA: According to this Tribune article, on Sunday Seiya Suzuki played in his final Cactus League game before departing to join Samurai Japan for the World Baseball Classic, where he’ll play center field. Depending on how far Japan goes (and they won last time), Suzuki should be back for the last few Spring Training games.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Royals lineup:

Ben Brown will start for the Cubs. Other Cubs pitchers scheduled today: Javier Assad, Porter Hodge, Ryan Rolison and Collin Snider.

Seth Lugo will start for the Royals. Other Royals pitchers scheduled today: Luinder Avila, former Cubs prospect Alex Lange, former Cub Jose Cuas and Eric Cerantola.

No TV today. There will be a radio broadcast on the Royals flagship station, 96.5 The Fan.

MLB.com Gameday

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Royals site Royals Review. If you do go there to interact with Royals fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

As we have done in the past, we’ll have a first pitch thread at five minutes to game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time. For today, that will be 2 p.m. CT and 3:30 p.m. CT.

These threads will not post individually onto the front page; instead, you can find links to them in the box marked ”Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page. There will also be a StoryStream on the front page with all the game thread links, as well as the recap after the game is over. The pitcher photos and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

For years, league wide fastball usage has been on the decline, as after decades of being used over 60% of the time by pitchers, it dropped below 50% in 2022, and even lower to 47% by 2023. The biggest proprietor of the change in fastball usage has been the introduction of Statcast to Major League Baseball, as in 2015, the first year of Statcast’s usage, all 30 MLB teams threw fastballs over 50% of the time, and now just 7 MLB teams remain who throw fastballs over 50% of the time.

Under Davey Martinez and his coaching staff, the Nationals were one of the last teams holding onto the fastball, being in the top 2 in fastball usage each of the last 4 seasons. While the higher heater usage than most certainly wasn’t the sole reason for the pitching staffs bad results over the last few years, it showed the lack in forward thinking the organization had, sticking to tradition and ignoring trends that could have had benefits for them.

With Blake Butera and his staff running the show, we knew things were going to look different in 2026, but not the full extent, as Butera, POBO Paul Toboni, and pitching coach Simon Mathews were all coming from organizations which ranked between 10th and 20th in fastball usage in 2026.

Would the club overcorrect and throw fastballs at a much lower rate in 2026, or would they stick to the status quo and cut down the teams fastball usage only a little? Although we’re just 3 games into Spring Training, I believe we have our answer.

So far, the Nationals have used 24 different pitchers in Spring Training over the course of 3 games. Of those 24 pitchers, only 5 of them have used their fastball as their primary pitch, those pitchers being Gus Varland, Zach Penrod, Tucker Biven, Sandy Gaston, and Erik Tolman. Compare this to the 2025 Nats’ pitching staff, where of the 25 pitchers to throw at least 10 innings in the big leagues last season, ALL of them threw their fastball as their primary pitch.

Perhaps the most notable example of a pitcher moving away from their fastball this spring has been Mitchell Parker, who, in a 43 pitch outing yesterday, threw his fastball just 27.9% of the time, well below his 55% usage rate in 2025. Instead, he favored his slider and curveball much more, throwing both pitches 30.2% of the time. The results: 2 scoreless innings with 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, and plenty of soft contact.

Of the 5 pitchers who did throw their fastball primarily in their outings, they all had one thing in common; they throw it really hard. Varland, Gaston, and Tolman all sat above 95 with their heaters in their outings, with Penrod and Biven not too far behind at just below 95. While there are more variables that make a fastball good than its velocity, it’s still clear that the new coaching staffs focus is having its pitchers focus on their strengths on the mound, even if it means using an unorthodox pitch the most often.

Spring Training is a time for players to tinker with new approaches and ideas since the results won’t count against them, so I wouldn’t expect the number of Nationals pitcher who throw a heater primarily to remain this low in the regular season, but it’s still new and exciting to see the coaching staff having the pitchers trying something new with their approach. Hopefully, this new approach will help some pitchers, such as Mitchell Parker, have newfound success in 2026.

The St. Louis Cardinals take on the Miami Marlins for game 3 of Spring Training at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium starting at 12:05pm Monday, February 23. According to MLB.com, Michael McGreevy will take the mound for the Cardinals while Eury Pérez will start for the Marlins.

The Phillies kicked off the start of their season over the weekend with games against the Toronto Blue Jays and Pittsburgh Pirates. Many of the names competing for the final few spots in the bullpen and bench played and look to make good impressions for the rest of camp.

The first two games of spring training will not tell you much how the season is going to go. It would take some scenarios no one wants to imagine for Bryse Wilson to start on opening day or for Trevor Richards to pitch in high leverage but there are still things to take note of.

Justin Crawford’s swing

Here is a Justin Crawford swing on February 23 of last year:

And now here is a Justin Crawford swing from February 21 of this year:

I’m not a swing expert but there are two easy things to notice. His hands are a bit lower in the second clip and it’s helping him get to a more compact swing. The second thing is that his lower half is more in sync with his upper half, which might help him access more power either of the gap to gap variety or homers.

For most of Justin Crawford’s professional career, it often looked like the bat was swinging him and there were big questions about how he was going to cut down on the groundballs he hit. Matt Winkelman took a deeper look into Crawford’s season in AAA and found his groundball rate dropped over six percent from July to August that can be tied to swing adjustments he made.

Crawford is betting on those swing adjustments as he looks to solidify himself as the Phillies center fielder for 2026.

A Pair of Velocity Bumps

One pitcher fighting to make the final 26 who caught attention this weekend was left-hander Kyle Backhus. He throws from a funky, dropped-sidearm slot with over 7 feet of extension. He pitched 25.1 innings for a depleted Arizona Diamondbacks pitching staff last year. He excelled against left-handed hitters but got barreled against righties.

It seems like his strong first impression to start camp translated to Sunday’s outing. Backhus’s sinker was up a tick from 91.0 mph last season to 91.9, and he flashed 94. Any extra velocity to help him against right-handed hitters would be huge for his chances of making one of the final two bullpen spots.

The Phillies spent most of their offseason looking to bolster their right-handed reliever depth. They swapped Matt Strahm for Jonathan Bowlan and signed Brad Keller. They signed Zach Pop to a major league deal, added three right-handed arms to their 40-man roster from other organizations, and signed another 3 arms that have extensive major league experience to minor league deals.

But their only external left-handed reliever adds this off-season were the aforementioned Backhus and Génesis Cabrera on a minor league deal. With José Alvarado and Tanner Banks as the only lefties out of the bullpen on the major league roster, there is room for Backhus to make the club with a good spring.

Seth Johnson was granted a fourth minor league option this off-season and showed some flashes in 12.2 innings last season. He struck out over 31% of hitters he faced at the big league level in 2025 with a slider that generated a whiff rate north of 40%.

Johnson flashed 99 mph and sat 98.3 against the Blue Jays on Saturday. He threw noticeably more fastballs that outing, probably to work on something, because it’s February but it’s still worth paying attention to.

Among 40-man pitchers with minor league options that are expected to pitch in AAA and the majors this season, Johnson flashes the most upside because of his velocity and ability to generate whiffs. The problem with him is that he does not throw enough early count strikes and has to throw more four-seam fastballs because of it.