Category: Sports News

The Cubs met the Yankees in an Arizona spring game for the first time in 75 years and left the visitors wishing they hadn’t bothered.

In front of a full house at Sloan Park that included many Yankees fans, the Cubs exploded with three home runs in an 18-hit attack that defeated the visitors 15-6.

The Yankees scored first, off Shōta Imanaga in the first inning, though Imanaga struck out both Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger.

The Cubs matched that in the first. Nico Hoerner and Michael Busch led off with singles, but Alex Bregman hit into a double play with Hoerner taking third. But after that, Ian Happ walked and Carson Kelly singled in Nico.

The Cubs exploded with six runs in the third. Hoerner led off with a single and Busch followed with a home run, his first of the spring. Three pitches later, Bregman homered, his third. One out later, Carson Kelly doubled and went to third on a single by Michael Conforto. Dansby Swanson struck out, but Matt Shaw followed that with a three-run homer, giving the Cubs a 7-1 lead.

Three more Cubs runs crossed the plate in the fourth. Nico singled and went to second on a ground out by Busch. Bregman doubled in Nico to make it 8-1, then Happ walked. After Kelly struck out, Conforto tripled in a pair of runs and it was 10-1.

Most of this was off a Yankees pitcher named Carlos Lagrange, and I’m sure you can find some sort of movie script that has a guy like that as the anti-hero. (Though it’s pronounced “La-GRAN-hay” and not as it’s spelled.)

Imanaga allowed one more run to the Yankees in a good five-inning outing in which he threw 81 pitches (54 strikes). He struck out five, and here’s more on his outing [VIDEO].

Best of all, Imanaga did not allow a home run in this outing. He will likely start Saturday or Sunday against the Nationals.

As for the bullpen: Daniel Palencia threw a 1-2-3 sixth in what is likely his final tune-up before Opening Day. Phil Maton allowed a solo home run to Spencer Jones in his only inning, the seventh. Hunter Harvey threw a scoreless eighth. Jacob Webb served up two homers, one to Jones, his second of the game, and wound up being replaced with two out having thrown 20 pitches. Hopefully, Webb’s results beginning Thursday will be better. Minor leaguer Zac Leigh finished things up.

The Cubs put together another crooked-number inning, scoring five in the sixth. Conforto doubled in one of those runs.

Conforto had a big day as the DH, going 3-for-4 with a single, double and triple and had four RBI. Personally, I’d put Conforto in right field on Opening Day, not Matt Shaw. But that’s just me.

And ICYMI, Seiya Suzuki will in fact miss the opener:

Seiya Suzuki (knee) will open the season on the injured list, Cubs manager Craig Counsell confirmed. The club also informed pitcher Ben Brown that he will make the Opening Day roster. Javier Assad will be optioned to Triple A and start the season in the Iowa rotation.

— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 23, 2026

It’ll be interesting to see how Craig Counsell deploys Ben Brown in relief. I’ve always said I thought Brown was better suited to relief, with his somewhat limited repertoire and the ability to throw 98 miles per hour. He could do multi-inning relief, or possibly be a useful setup man.

The Cubs will wrap the spring schedule Tuesday with another game against the Yankees at Sloan Park. Don’t expect any of the Yankee regulars to play as they have likely departed for San Francisco for the MLB season opener on Wednesday. Cubs regulars, if they play, probably won’t play more than four innings or so. Edward Cabrera will start for the Cubs and Gerrit Cole will go for the Yankees, so that’ll be interesting. Game time is 2:05 p.m. CT. No TV Tuesday and the radio broadcast will be via the Yankees flagship WFAN 660.

The Yankees fell to the Chicago Cubs, 15-6, on Monday afternoon at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz. 

Here are the takeaways...

-- After an impressive spring, Carlos Lagrange had a tough Monday, allowing eight runs on nine hits across 2.2 IP. He struck out four and walked one on 66 pitches (38 strikes).

The 22-year-old let up two straight hits in the bottom of the first inning and nearly got out of the jam thanks to a double play. However, he surrendered a two-out knock to Carson Kelly that tied the game up at 1-1. Lagrange bounced back and struck out the side in the second inning, but couldn't maintain the momentum in the third. 

The righty let up back-to-back home runs -- a two-run homer to Michael Busch and a solo shot to Alex Bregman that put Chicago up 4-1. He struck out Ian Happ following a mound visit, but then allowed a double to Kelly. The results didn't change when he came back out to pitch the fourth inning, allowing a single, an RBI-double, and a walk before getting pulled again.

-- Will Brian came in for relief in the third inning and things didn't get better for the Yanks. Brian let up a single to Michael Conforto, and after a strikeout, gave up a three-run blast to Matt Shaw that made it a 7-1 game. Cade Winquest later entered for Lagrange in the fourth, allowing a two-run triple to Conforto before getting a flyout to end the frame.

-- New York took a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Shota Imanaga thanks to some two-out hitting as Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had back-to-back singles, with Chisholm driving in Paul Goldschmidt from second base. The Yanks had another scoring chance in the third inning after Goldschmidt was hit by a pitch and Aaron Judge singled, but the 3-5 hitters went down in order.

-- Goldschmidt and Judge continued to provide the offense, as the first baseman doubled and the reigning AL MVP singled in the top of the fifth inning. Cody Bellinger drove in Goldschmidt on a sac-fly to make it a 10-2 game.

-- Yerry De los Santos allowed three runs on five hits in the sixth inning as the Cubs scored five runs overall in the frame to push the lead to 15-2.

-- Spencer Jones hit a solo home run off veteran Phil Maton in the top of the seventh inning. The slugging prospect blasted another HR in the ninth, this time a two-run shot to give him six home runs this spring. Max Schuemann joined in on the fun and went back-to-back with Jones, hitting a solo homer to cut the Cubs' lead to 15-6.

What's next

The Yankees will stay in Mesa, Ariz. for their final spring training game against the Chicago Cubs at 3:05 p.m. on Tuesday.

After that, Max Fried will take on Logan Webb and the San Francisco Giants to open the 2026 regular season on Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. 

The Cincinnati Reds got bogus news early in spring camp when Hunter Greene needed elbow surgery to remove bone spurs, setting back their ace until the All Star break in July. Aside from that doozy, though, things had mostly been OK on the injury front (aside from Caleb Ferguson’s oblique issue).

As the heat ramped up down in the desert, though, a plague of blisters descended upon Goodyear. Yesterday we found out Nick Lodolo had one (that was bad enough to need popping), and that came on the heels of Brady Singer dealing with one, too – not the kind of news you want on the eve of Opening Day when things had already been seemingly set with the pitching staff.

As things stand, though, it appears Singer dodged any blistering that was bad enough to set him back, and he’ll get the ball tonight in Milwaukee as the Reds face off against the Brewers in a pre-season exhibition game at American Family Field.

(It’s Miller Park. It’ll always be Miller Park.)

Cincinnati has effectively set their Opening Day roster, so there aren’t really any position battles still ongoing in camp. That said, there are still a handful of non-roster players who made the trip with the big league club, as each of Michael Chavis, Garrett Hampson, Hector Rodriguez, Tejay Antone, and Michael Toglia are available off the bench tonight.

Doug Gray of Redleg Nation once again was kind enough to relay the travel roster on Bluesky, which features a conscious decision by manager Terry Francona to let Ke’Bryan Hayes DH for the night from the #2 spot in the lineup.

If you’d like a reminder of how old you are, I’ll point out that lefty Aaron Ashby is on the mound for the Brewers tonight, and the Reds have put together a lineup featuring TJ Friedl (in LF) and an entire fleet of right-handed hitters behind him to counter. Ashby, of course, is the nephew of longtime big league righty Andy Ashby, who last pitched two years after Joey Votto’s professional career begin in the Reds system.

Sal Stewart will start at 2B, Dane Myers gets CF for the night, and Eugenio Suarez will man the hot corner with a glove for a turn.

First pitch is slated for 7:40 PM ET, and to answer your question…no, you cannot watch it on television. 700 WLW will have the radio feed, however.

You just don’t want to read too much into spring training results. The ball flies in the desert air, pitchers are building up arm strength and sometimes even working on secondary pitches they haven’t mastered, the adrenaline isn’t pumping like it will be on Friday.

Then again, when a pitcher comes to camp showing the exact weaknesses that have plagued him prior, it can be informative. Such was the fate of the talented-but-wild Jack Perkins who came into camp with the question of “Will he be put into the rotation or maybe slotted in as the closer?” The answer, as it turns out, is “No.” Perkins has been optioned to AAA to continue working on throwing more strikes.

Still standing, and presumed to be in the A’s rotation when camp breaks, is another highly talented, but also raw, RHP in Luis Morales. Now 23, Morales got a taste of the big leagues in 2025 and generally acquitted himself well putting up a solid 3.14 ERA albeit it with less gushing underlying metrics (4.42 xERA, 4.54 xFIP).

Morales has a plus fastball and a wicked slider, but not always the ability to throw them where he wants to. This leads both to high walk totals and also centered pitches that can get whacked around. The hope, of course, is that with experience Morales can throw more and more quality strikes and harness the terrific arm he brings to the mound.

So far so bad.

Morales got knocked around again today, mostly thanks to a bases clearing double that followed 3 walks to load the bases. His final line today? 2.1 IP, 1 hit, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 K. To get just 8 outs, Morales threw 61 pitches of which only 34 were strikes.

This only continues a trend from throughout the Cactus League. Here’s where Morales’ numbers stand at the end of spring training:

2-2, 7.58 ERA, 19 IP, 21 hits, 16 ER (3 HR), 14 BB, 17 K. For those of you scoring at home that BB/9 IP rate is 6.63.

Here’s where if the A’s had “too many starting pitchers” (a baseball oxymoron) they would probably send Morales to join Perkins at AAA to start the season. But with the only alternatives being JT Ginn, who faded terribly the second half of spring training, and Luis Medina, who has returned from Tommy John surgery electric and wild as ever (7.1 IP, 9 BB), it appears that Morales’ spot is safe and that he will most likely face the Toronto Blue Jays or Atlanta Braves on the first road trip.

Watching Kade Morris carve up the #1 farm system yesterday, he looked far more ready to toss 6 quality big league innings than Morales currently does. Morris threw just 56 pitches in his 4 innings, 37 for strikes (that’s 2/3).

Without question Morales has big time talent and stuff — there’s no question you would want him in your organization over any of the alternatives that could make starts in April. But whether that means he’s going to be at all effective in the big leagues now? You wonder.

Hopefully the natural talent wins out, but far more electric arms have been taken to the cleaners because they couldn’t find the strike zone or couldn’t stay out of the middle of it. Count me as one fan who will watching anxiously as he (presumably) toes the rubber in Atlanta. He doesn’t look ready to me — but ready or not here he comes.

This is not something that I would categorize as a surprise, but at least we have confirmation of what the St. Louis Cardinals Opening Day roster will look like in its final form. MLB Trade Rumors has confirmed that JJ Wetherholt, José Fermín, Thomas Saggese and Nathan Church will all head to St. Louis with the Cardinals while Nelson Velázquez will be sent to Triple A Memphis.

This is the video that the St. Louis Cardinals just dropped on social media as a tease of the JJ Wetherholt promotion.

Going into the 2026 campaign, the San Diego Padres are seeking to stabilize their starting rotation. Joe Musgrove and Griffin Canning will open the season on the injured list, while Yu Darvish’s elbow surgery will cause him to miss the entire 2026 campaign.

In the meantime, the Padres will start Nick Pivetta on Opening Day and patiently wait for Michael King to return to form. If so, he will become the staff’s No. 1 starter. A young pitcher has the opportunity to prove his place in the rotation until Musgrove is ready to come back. 

Vasquez could save Padres from starting pitching woes

Randy Vasquez has positioned himself to exceed everyone’s 2026 expectations with an outstanding Spring Training. It was enough to impress Friars first-year manager Craig Stammen to move Vasquez up in the rotation order. And if he continues to dominate opposing lineups, it will be tough to take the young right-hander out of the third starter’s role. 

Vasquez has shown several flashes of success during his time in San Diego. Coming off a 3.84 ERA last season, he came into camp throwing with newfound velocity. His four-seam fastball gained nearly three miles per hour after throwing it at 93.5 MPH in 2025. 

Often, Vasquez was hitting 96 MPH, as he posted 8.2 innings of shutout baseball in early Cactus League contests. The third-year pitcher allowed only two hits and struck out eight batters. His strikeout rate was above 30%, as the hitter’s chase rate was nearly 40% in Arizona. It was higher than his career rate.

Spring Training does not answer all the questions

However, Vasquez did struggle in the later stages of Spring Training. Granted, pitchers are refining and simplifying their pitching repertoire. Vasquez was working to improve the effectiveness of his sweeper and curveball, the latter of which ranked in the 98th percentile for spin rate last season.

However, it might be time for Vasquez to phase out the cutter, as the pitch was continually getting pounded by hitters. You cannot ignore that his ERA rose to 4.86 at the tail end of the spring schedule. 

Nevertheless, Vasquez was a standout performer, as he had an impressive 1.04 WHIP and a 15-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 18.1 innings pitched. 

To have a breakout season, Vasquez must continue to pitch with the confidence he found in Peoria, Ariz. It is time to translate potential into wins this season. 

If you have been watching the Nationals at all this spring, you would know that the offense has struggled. When you look at the box scores, most of the players OPS numbers begin with a 4, 5 or 6. The Nats hit just .194 with a .592 OPS this spring. As the team heads into the season, how concerned should we be?

Personally, I am moderately concerned, but not totally panicked yet. It is a bit alarming to see the struggles of guys like Dylan Crews and James Wood, but again, it is still Spring Training. The new regime is teaching these players a lot of new things, and clearly, it has been easier for the pitchers to translate those teachings into the game. 

The pitching staff is the reason the Nats still finished this spring with a record above .500. The Nats were 29th in scoring this spring, averaging 3.5 runs per game. However, they only allowed 3.7 per game, which was 4th. The slate is clean when the regular season begins, but I would not be surprised if the pitchers were ahead of the hitters early on.

Nats drop the exhibition finale, 2-0. They scored 1 run yesterday in Baltimore. They finished the spring with 3.5 runs scored per game (29th out of 30 clubs). The pitching staff, though, only gave up 3.7 runs per game (4th out of 30 clubs).

— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) March 23, 2026

It is a lot easier for a pitcher to add a pitch or tweak their mechanics than it is for a hitter to change things up. Pitching has become so scientific, while hitting is still more of an art. Some changes that sound good on paper could have adverse effects. Even if they do, it could sometimes be worth it to stick with those tweaks for a while to see if things click. Clearly, the transition to a new style of hitting has not been smooth so far. 

For years, the Nats have been at or near the top of the league in ground ball rate, and that is something the new regime wants to change. However, trying to lift the ball comes with some tradeoffs like more pop ups and a bit more whiff. Finding a balance will be important for this team. This new regime also seems willing to experiment until they find the right combination.

One thing that Blake Butera said that I found interesting was that he thinks the offense will improve as they see guys more. He talked about how it can be tough to “fly blind” when you keep seeing different pitchers in Spring Training. Hopefully the Nats will be able to make those sorts of adjustments.

Blake Butera noted concerns with the offense, but said he believes they’ll benefit from having more info on pitchers and more at-bats off starters during the season.

For me: This means I’ll be keeping an eye on how well they adjust in-game. Wasn’t a strength for WSH last year. https://t.co/CJb91cvJikpic.twitter.com/RHZWUmvY8C

— Spencer Nusbaum (@spencernusbaum_) March 23, 2026

This struggling Nats offense will be challenged right off the bat with series against the Cubs, Phillies and Dodgers. The Phillies and Dodgers in particular have very strong staffs that will happily feast on a lineup trying to find an identity. Now that Spring Training is over, it is time to lock in. Maybe some hitters should go back to what works best for them, at least in the short term. The two exhibitions against the O’s were not pretty offensively. The Nats better be ready because they will be challenged by some high end arms to start the season.

A couple weeks ago I talked about the Nats offensive concerns. I attributed a lot of the struggles to guys just getting going, but as we enter the regular season, I am a little worried. The Nats offense last year was not great by any means, but they showed some promise, especially in the first half. It has been really ugly so far this spring.

There have been a lot of positives for the Nats this spring but the offense has not been one of them. Should we be worried? https://t.co/f6vr4OBmK0

— federalbaseball (@federalbaseball) March 15, 2026

I would not be surprised if the trend of the pitching being better than the hitting continues into the season. Obviously the gap will not be as extreme, but I believe the pitchers will be ahead of the hitters. They seem to have responded to the new coaching better.

Hopefully this is all Spring Training noise and the offense can start the year hot. However, I do not think the bad offense is totally fluky. There are some real growing pains here. I hope things start to click as Matt Borgschutle gets more time with the guys because it has not been pretty so far.

It’s official. Nick Pivetta will start for the San Diego Padres this Thursday. They’ll put up their best fight on Opening Day against fearsome lefty Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers as they seek to return to the postseason for the third year in a row.

Pivetta will be the fourth starting pitcher in as many years to take the mound for San Diego’s Opening Day. 

The unicorn year

Pivetta will pitch on March 26 for the Friars after having the best season of his career last year. Pivetta and Padres fans were waiting for manager Craig Stammen to announce the Opening Day starter. If Pivetta can retain anything from last year, the starting rotation will be a lot closer to elite than it is now.

There’s obviously upside, tremendously so, but it’s shaky. Pivetta has never had an ERA below 4.00 until last year’s 2.87 mark. Michael King and Joe Musgrove are coming back from injury, and the back end of the rotation looks a little messy. 

Pivetta was a workhorse last year. He pitched 181 ⅔ innings and almost topped 200 strikeouts across 31 starts. 

The Padres desperately needed him then and they may need him even more now.

Concerning news out of camp

A few weeks ago, Pivetta missed a start in Spring Training due to arm fatigue. Immediately questions of depth sprang up and San Diego fans everywhere lost their collective minds. 

But then he started against the Cleveland Guardians with his fastball sitting around 94-96 mph and all was well again. 

The hope is that even if Pivetta isn’t as much of a surprise ace pitcher as he turned out to be last season, he’ll still be serviceable and eat innings this season. There’s plenty of underlying metrics to suggest the turnaround he had will continue to be the case, but nothing will be sure until it’s proved on the mound this season.

However Pivetta’s season shakes out, the Friar Faithful can be excited to watch him duel it out against one of the best pitchers on the planet this Thursday. He has the stuff to dominate this Tigers lineup. And this Padres lineup has the ability to take Skubal out.

With Opening Day finally here, one thing’s certain: we’ll all be cheering for a San Diego win Thursday.