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Ah, can you hear that? The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowds, the Death Star siren as Cam Schlittler is about to fan yet another batter to end the inning? No, you can’t? Well, neither can I, because once again, it’s Sunday, and that means it’s snowing in New York City.

Fortunately, it’s a Sunday after February 20th, which means that, as Mother Nature covers up the mounds of dirty snow with fresh snow, we can load up the Gotham Sports App, listen to the YES music, and catch some Yankees play baseball. And since it’s Sunday, that also means it’s time for our social media roundup! What have our favorite ballplayers been up to during their busy week of camp? Let’s find out!

Media Day Shenanigans

This year’s media day was historic, as it was the first media day in which Yankees players were allowed to don beards in decades (remember, the Yankees did not end the ban until after media day, which meant we got a year of Austin Wells, Devin Williams, and others appearing on the in-stadium hype videos clean-shaven while donning facial hair). As always, we got a ton of behind-the-scenes videos from the day.

Question of the Day: Yankees Instagram Edition

Everyone’s favorite spring training social media activity, the Question of the Day, is back! We’ve got some fun stuff this week, as the Yankees were asked their go-to hot beverage.

We also got to see a little bit of YES Network-style shenanigans, as the team was challenged to roll a quarter between two forks, draw a circle.

Daily Shenanigans: YES Network Edition

Not to be outdone, the YES Network has posted its share of player shenanigans alongside its typical coverage of spring training. Sometimes, it was a second Question of the Day, as we learned whether the Yankees preferred the aisle or window seat on the airplane, as well as which Winter Olympic events they’re fans of.

Other times, we got to see individual players participate in something, as when Aaron Judge engaged in some art behind the plate.

We also got to see an intense game of Jenga.

Legendary Visitors

As always, some Yankees legends visited spring training this week, and as always, a number of Yankees players took the opportunity to not only learn from some greats, but also take some pictures with the players they watched in their youth.

This includes this great shot of the Yankees starting rotation with Andy Pettitte.

Mic’d Up

Several members of the Yankees were mic’ed up during workouts this week. Fernando Cruz got us started.

Big G took the microphone for media day.

Then, we had Jazz Chisholm Jr., who is always a hoot.

Last, and certainly not least, we got to hear Oswaldo Cabrera on the mic. The Yankees’ part-utilityman, part-human golden retriever missed most of last season due to a gruesome ankle injury, and in many ways, his absence sucked a lot of the energy out of the Yankees clubhouse. Seeing him not only on the field, but back to his old self, is a great sign.

Celebrating Black History Month

This week, the Yankees celebrated Black History Month by remembering the career of Curtis Granderson, who spent four years in the Bronx in the early 2010s.

Miscellaneous Photos & Highlight Reels

As always, spring training is a time where a bunch of pictures and highlight reels get posted to generate hype for the season. Here’s a couple of my favorites:

Some Final Valentine’s Day Posts

We wrap up this week’s post with some final Valentine’s Day posts.

Well today we have Atlanta’s first “home” game of 2026 Spring Training and we are treated to Chris Sale on the mound. Not only is a potential future Hall of Famer on the mound, but the Braves are rolling out what could be most of the Opening Day lineup.

The only member of the likely Opening Day lineup missing is Mike Yastrzemski, who homered in yesterday’s game. It’s February 22nd, so things are very subject to change, but I wouldn’t love batting Baldwin and Olson 2nd and 3rd like that, and would probably prefer swapping Olson with Profar, just to avoid stacking two lefties together like that. I also would probably have Olson in the 2 spot instead of Baldwin, but we’ll see how the lineup develops throughout Spring Training in Walt Weiss’ first season as manager. Today we are mostly hoping for health from everyone, maybe a few fun moments, and perhaps some cool prospect performances later in the game.

You can see both lineups below, as the Twins are leading off Byron Buxton and have former Brave Orlando Arcia starting at shortstop.

You can find today’s game on Gray TV, MLB.tv, or on the radio with 680 AM/93.7FM The Fan. Boy is it nice to have baseball back in our lives. Join us and discuss today’s game in the comments below!

Just over a month ago we learned that the Cincinnati Reds tried, and failed, to sign star shortstop Elly De La Cruz to a contract extension that would have made him “the highest paid Red ever.”

We don’t know if that meant by season. We don’t know if that meant by total dollar value. What we do know, though, is that there was interest from the club itself in forking over millions and millions of dollars to cement a cornerstone of their future – and even though it didn’t materialize with Elly, that could mean there’s money there to make it happen with the rest of the roster.

There’s always the chance that money was only earmarked in a way similar to the pursuit of Kyle Schwarber in free agency this winter, in that it was only ever going to get spent on a unique, franchise-altering player whose presence – both in the lineup and in jersey sales – would generate revenue in ways other players simply would not. Still, with the team’s commitment to developing their own players, we’ve reached the point in that life-cycle where locking down some of their core players to cost-controlled deals may make that as ‘sustainable’ as Nick Krall has preached for the last three plus years.

It’s still the same mentality that led them to sign Hunter Greene years ago, an anchor of their rotation right now and potentially through the 2029 season. Not only do they get him beyond his six seasons of team control through the arbitration process, but they both add on additional years of would-be free agency and now know exactly how much he’ll make each year (instead of leaving that up to the arbitration gods). For a cost-conscious team that typically operates on shoestring budgets, that’s a vital part of the process.

The question becomes where the Reds would turn from Elly at this juncture.

It doesn’t appear it will be to Tyler Stephenson, who’s entering his final season of team control before free agency. The team already inked Jose Trevino to a solid deal to be a part of the catching position for a few more years, and top prospect Alfredo Duno looks poised to mash his way to the big leagues as early as 2027.

On the pitching side, it doesn’t look like it will be Brady Singer, either. Like Stephenson, he’s in his final year of team control before free agency, and the Reds have drafted and developed Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder (and added Brandon Williamson via trade years ago) to help bolster the rotation going forward.

If an extension were to come for a part of their rotation, perhaps it would to Andrew Abbott, who has yet to reach arbitration despite already having 11.7 bWAR and 413.2 IP under his belt. As a somewhat unknown out of the University of Virginia, he only landed a $1.3 million signing bonus back in 2021, so perhaps he’s precisely the kind of player who’d jump at early guaranteed money instead of waiting four more years to fully cash in on a longer term extension. However, signing him after his All-Star season in 2025 might end up begin a case of ‘buying high’ if he’s never able to fully replicate such a stellar season.

The flipside of that, at least in terms of the rotation, would be with Nick Lodolo. He’s a former 1st rounder who banked a $5.4 million signing bonus and is already getting a big raise in his arbitration years, but he’s also a pitcher who still seems like he’s yet to truly have a full breakout season. With only two years of team control left, getting him to take his eyes off a lucrative free agency may be difficult, but he seems like precisely the kind of rare talent who has a season much bigger than he’s ever shown before within, and tying him down now may look like a huge bargain later.

On the position player side, there are endless options, and perhaps their collective trait of still being raw is why none of them are signed long-term. None of them, Elly included, seem to have had a season at all approaching their peak (aside from 30 year old TJ Friedl and, perhaps, Spencer Steer), so it’s hard to know just how much more they can continue to flourish.

Could Noelvi Marte develop into a star? The scouting reports have long suggested as much, but he’s also never played a full year, switched positions twice already, and has a PED suspension on his record.

Matt McLain had a small-sample breakout in 2023 that had a lot of question marks in its peripherals, but a litany of injuries and underperformance has hampered the highly touted former 1st rounder ever since. Sal Stewart, meanwhile, has all the upside in the world on top of an excellent first showing in the big leagues, but if the club is already willing to move him down the defensive spectrum, would they really want to jump at throwing a ton of money at a guy they only see destined to play 1B/DH?

It’s an exercise in mental gymnastics to process all the scenarios, but what’s clear is that this group of Reds that seemed ‘young’ just a season or two ago has now reached the point where all key parties involved are on the cusp of getting more expensive through the arbitration process anyway. And when that happens, the Reds are going to be forced to pick and choose which ones to keep around and which ones to trade away, as it will end up being far too expensive for their tastes to keep the entire band together. Sticking to that plan will require some contracts to be signed, and that’s going to need to happen sooner than later.

Which Red do you think is the best combo of deserving and timely to get the next big contract extension?

Recently signed Nick Castellanos made his first base debut on the first day of spring games and looked like he had been there his whole career. By all reports, he had been doing extensive work at the position since arriving in camp with the San Diego Padres in Arizona. It helps that he claims to enjoy the position as well as all the work he has been doing to get up to speed at his new position.

“I find it fun. Again, I only have four innings. But I love all the work there.” Castellanos was quoted as saying after Friday’s game in MLB.com’s article by AJ Cassavell.

Castellanos has been working with infield instructors Ryan Goins and Nick Punto as well as working on his own during the offseason to get ready for the position.

The projected approach is to have a platoon for first base with a right-handed bat sharing time with left-handed hitting Gavin Sheets, who came up as a first baseman. There will probably be two or three other players getting looks during the spring, with Sung-Mun Song, Miguel Andujar and Ty France all in the loop for time there.

It should be a spot to watch for fans and the coaching staff with multiple players trying to make the roster and break camp with the team. The competition also could favor a more versatile performer.

Pitchers progress

Pitchers working for spots in the rotation appear to be progressing slowly toward their debuts. Manager Craig Stammen highlighted Germán Márquez’s work with pitching coach Ruben Niebla, stating they are working on all aspects of his game while Griffin Canning has thrown batting practice and live BP but has not done infield work yet while recovering from his Achilles surgery.

Joe Musgrove made an appearance on the Friar Territory podcast, detailing his journey back from Tommy John surgery. He acknowledged he is not 100 percent and is willing to slow-play his approach to the new season. His goal is to be ready to be a normal pitcher and complete the whole season, including the postseason.

Reliever Jason Adam has also thrown off the mound with live BP and bullpens. He is not yet doing infield work and states he feels great and believes he will be ready for Opening Day. Stammen has emphasized caution but has not ruled out Adam starting the season on time.

Right-hander Logan Gillaspie was slated to start the first game of the spring but was scratched when his wife went into labor and he left for paternity leave. Stammen detailed a flexible role for Gillaspie this spring. He could start, go in long relief or even in a high-leverage situation. Stammen termed him a “Jack-of-all-trades” pitcher.

Lefty starter Jagger Haynes took the start on Friday, allowing four hits and two runs over two innings. He allowed a home run and had a strikeout. The only pitcher on the day to not allow a hit was new Padre Garrett Hawkins, getting two strikeouts in his o.2 innings pitched.

When Márquez and Canning were added to the roster, outfielder Tirso Ornelas was designated for assignment and pitcher Jhony Brito was placed on the 60-day IL.

Reliever Yuki Matsui threw live BP on Thursday and was pulled when he felt tightness in his adductor muscle. He is officially day-to-day and his involvement in the WBC with Team Japan could be affected.

Tatis may not lead off this season

Fernando Tatis Jr. has stated that he doesn’t care where he bats in the order. Last season he was the primary leadoff hitter and ended up with an .814 OPS with 25 HR and 71 RBI. Tatis and everyone in the organization knows that he is capable of achieving more despite those being good numbers for most players. Leading off last year, with Luis Arraez behind him in the batting order, most likely stole some RBI opportunities away as well as stunting his power opportunities. If Tatis lands at a position other than leading off, run production and power production could be an added benefit of moving him down in the order. Hitting third or fourth also gives the other hitters around him more opportunities. It seems line up construction will be a running experiment this spring.

WBC preparation

Manny Machado and Tatis Jr. will be leaving the team next Sunday to join their WBC team. Xander Bogaerts will also be leaving around the same time. All WBC players will be gone by March 1. Stammen will be putting all of them in the line up more than what you would normally see this time of the year. Getting them reps to get ready for real games and getting teamwork in with their Padres teammates will take precedence.

Powering up

Although the Friars lost their first spring game, non-roster invites Jose Miranda and Padres prospect Romeo Sanabria got the home run totals started, accounting for three of the four runs scored in the game by the Padres. Miranda also hit a solid double and ended up with two RBI.

In Saturday’s game, Miranda went off again, going 3-for-3 with four RBI and another solid double. The third baseman is fighting for a bench job and is making a really good first impression.

Knuckleballer Matt Waldron started Saturday’s game, throwing two innings and allowing one hit and no runs. He was caught by Freddy Fermin and they had no issues. Fermin had an ABS challenge go his way, making three successful challenges for Padres catchers in two games.

The Guardians have added a right-handed bat in free agency. Finally.

Zack Meisel of the Athletic reports that Rhys Hoskins is with the Guardians and has a locker. This post will be updated when we get more information on what he signed for and how long.

Hoskins put up a 109 wRC+ last year for the Brewers but has a career 121 wRC+ and for his career has a 137 wRC+ against LHP. He had his best year defensively at first base last season.

One would assume this will push Kyle Manzardo to more of a full-time role at DH, and it’ll be interesting to follow the effects on David Fry. I would guess Hoskins is here on a major league deal. While there are reasons to guess that Hoskins is more of a league average bat, there is at least potential for him to be a middle of the order threat, something the Guardians’ lineup desparately needed, especially against lefty pitchers.

This is very exciting and helps redeem an offseason that was very disappointing until today as far as enhancing the team’s offense.

After two years of early overseas trips and truncated Cactus League schedules, the Dodgers are back to a full-fledged relatively normal spring training this season, with four and a half weeks of games in preparation for the regular season.

The one small wrench into the plans is the World Baseball Classic, with over a handful of players taking a break mid-camp to play for their countries. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will make one more start for the Dodgers on Friday before heading to Tokyo. Shohei Ohtani will also head to Japan at some point this week.

Besides Ohtani, the other Dodgers position players slated for WBC play are Hyeseong Kim, who will also head overseas for pool play with Korea, and catcher Will Smith for Team USA.

We can look back to 2023 for a similar spring training for the Dodgers, though a more robust contingent that year took part in the WBC. Still, the full spring schedule coupled with some stars taking time away led to loads of playing opportunities for others still in camp. The same holds true this spring for the Dodgers, with now 77 players in big league camp after outfielder Jack Suwinski was claimed off waivers on Saturday.

Looking back to 2023, here were the Dodgers leaders in spring training games played:

• OF Drew Avans 24
• IF Luke Williams 24
• OF James Outman 23
• OF Bradley Zimmer 21
• IF Devin Mann 20 (tied with Ryan Ward and three others)

Of those six players mentioned, only Outman was on the 40-man roster.

Today’s question is which player will lead the Dodgers in games played during 2026 spring training? If you need a refresher on available players, here is the 40-man roster and the list of non-roster invitees.

Good morning, folks…

Shawn MacFarland offers up Three Observations from the Texas Rangers’ win over the Chicago Cubs yesterday.

Kumar Rocker, who started yesterday’s game for Texas, is looking to show the organization this spring what he worked on in the offseason.

Kennedi Landry looks at some of the Rangers’ options for handling the closer role in 2026.

Cody Freeman’s hopes of making the Opening Day roster have taken a blow, as he has a stress fracture in his back that will sideline him for several weeks.

Skip Schumaker has told Justin Foscue that Foscue has a clean slate this spring, after a disappointing 2025 season that saw him passed over repeatedly when the Rangers needed to bring up a position player.

Schumaker is also having players take batting practice on the main field, rather than the back fields.

Brandon Nimmo’s spring regimen has him not playing in spring games for a while.

David Laurila has his Sunday Notes column up at Fangraphs.

The “pitcher with unbelievable stuff, just with no control over where it’s going” is a well known player type in baseball. In fact, the most enduring character from one of the most famous baseball movies — Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn from Major League — is that exact player.

You could say that the Vaughn character drew inspiration from many different players over the years. However, according to the director of the movie, the player who most inspired the pitcher was a Yankee: Ryne Duren. Today happens to be Duren’s birthday, so let’s look back at the original “Wild Thing.”

Rinold George “Ryne” Duren
Born: February 22, 1929 (Cazenovia, WI)
Died: January 6, 2011 (Lake Wales, FL)
Yankees Tenure: 1958-61

Duren was born in Wisconsin in 1929 and grew up working on his family farm. He would credit the manual labor he did in his youth with helping develop his arm muscles. On the baseball field, he tried out for his high school’s baseball team as a pitcher, but poor control led him to hitting and injuring a teammate, as the team opted to use him as a position player instead. In 1945, he came down with rheumatic fever, which left him bed-ridden for several months and also caused problems with his vision.

After high school, he began playing for local teams, and returned to the mound. While he often couldn’t control where the ball was going, he had an absolutely blazing fastball, which led to the St. Louis Browns taking a chance and signing him in 1949.

Even after that signing, it would be several years before Duran saw the mound in a major league game. His aforementioned poor vision caused problems with control and seeing the catcher’s signs in the minors. Over the course of his first two seasons in the minors, he issued 271 walks in 275 innings. Eye doctors encouraged him to give up baseball, but he was too much of a sicko to do so. Instead, Duren began wearing thick, tinted “Coke bottle” glasses, which he would do throughout his career.

Duren never truly would rein in his problems with walks, but his other numbers, especially his strikeouts, eventually became too much to ignore. He got the call up to the big leagues in 1954, joining the Baltimore Orioles — where the Browns had moved to that year. His one appearance that year didn’t go great and the O’s returned him to the minors the following year. While he improved his control somewhat upon going back down, Baltimore ended up dealing him to the Kansas City Athletics.

Upon moving to Kansas City, Duran got a chance back in the big leagues, and started to develop his reputation as the hardest thrower around, and someone you didn’t want to face … just not necessarily because he was really good. He put up a 5.27 ERA in 42.2 innings with KC, while he walked 30 batters and hit two others in that time. Despite that, he would soon find himself on the move again, and to a team higher in the standings.

Back in May, Billy Martin and several other Yankees had been involved in the famed “Copacabana incident.” Martin had the reputation of a troublemaker, and the incident was something of a final straw. At the trade deadline a few weeks after, they sent him to the A’s in a multi-player deal, with Duren among those going the other way.

To start, the Yankees sent Duren back down to the minors, where he impressed. That led to the team bringing him back up for the 1958 season. In his first full season in the bigs, Duren posted a 2.02 ERA in 75.2 innings, while recording a league high 19 saves. While he still issued plenty of walks, that season got him a second-place finish in Rookie of the Year voting, as he helped the Yankees to a World Series title. Duren got off to a bumpy start in said Fall Classic, allowing a walk-off single to the Braves’ Bill Bruton in the opener, but he rebounded to to earn the save in Game 3 with two scoreless frames and then won the win-or-go-home Game 6 back in Milwaukee with 4.2 innings of one-run ball, preserving a 2-2 game into extras before the Yanks scored two in the 10th.

Meanwhile, Duren was also becoming quite the character on and off the mound. His wildness, iffy vision, and trademark glasses have already been mentioned, but it goes beyond that. When called upon, Duren would opt to hop the Yankee Stadium outfield fence instead of open the bullpen door. Upon reaching the mound, he would then often intentionally sail his first warm up pitch way over the catcher’s head, playing up his wildness and trying to strike a little fear into opposing batters.

All of that stuff is pretty amusing, but Duren also had to deal with some issues off the field. Throughout his career, Duren battled alcoholism and related mental health issues. At a later stop in his career, he threatened suicide, only to be talked down by his then-Washington Senators manager Gil Hodges. After finishing his playing career, Duren got sober and spent much of his later life as a speaker and counsilor on addiction issues.

On the mound, Duren fell away after notching a 1.88 ERA in 76.2 innings 1959. He was sub-replacement level for the AL champs in 1960 and the Yankees eventually dealt him away to the expansion team Los Angeles Angels in May 1961. He spent the rest of his career as a journeyman, never quite managing to harness his raw stuff into anything consistent. One bit of trivia about him is that late Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg was named after the pitcher (many kids in the 1980s and ’90s with baseball-loving parents were subsequently named after Sandberg).

Upon his death in 2011, the always quotable Yogi Berra had another one:

“Ryne could throw the heck out of the ball. He threw fear in some hitters. I remember he had several pairs of glasses, but it didn’t seem like he saw good in any of them.”

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

Happy Sunday everybody! Did anybody wake up for the gold medal hockey game this morning? As of compiling these links last night, I’m still uncertain if I’ll make it out of bed in time for the start. Today is set up to be one of the best sports Sundays I can recall ever getting in a February. The hockey game starts before dawn, there’s a full slate of spring training games to choose from, the final round of the Genesis Invitational will be on all day, and there’s ten NBA games on throughout the afternoon.

In Mariners news…

• February 2026 seems fated to be remembered as the month of Kade Anderson. A crowd of people gathered to watch him throw a live BP yesterday that included strikeouts of Julio and Cal.
• Game two of the spring ended in a Mariners loss, but Miles Mastrobuoni had a big day at the plate to add to an already impressive spring resumé.
• On the Giants side of yesterday’s game, the focus was all on Hayden Birdsong and Giants fans were left badly disappointed.

Around the league…

• Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s Spring Training thus far can be defined by lofty expectations. And those expectations appear to extend to his looming free agent negotiations.
• Meanwhile, the Yankees are having a crappy spring! Putting up a real stinker! No, but seriously there’s poop in the clubhouse at George M. Steinbrenner.
• Hall of Famer and Pittsburgh Pirates legend Bill Mazeroski passed away on Friday at the age of 89.
• 2025 late-season call-up Cody Freeman is expected to be out for 4-6 weeks with a stress fracture in his back.

Nick’s pick…

• Truly, unequivocally, without a doubt, the most shameless, pathetic, little-brother energy move I’ve ever seen.

Daniel Duarte was signed rather unceremoniously back in December of 2025, with his signing being discovered on his MLB.com profile page by MLB Trade Rumors. Duarte, however, is one of the more intriguing of the cornucopia of relief options that were brought in by David Stearns this past offseason, due to his past MLB experience and winter ball dominance this year.

The 29 year old righty is no stranger to playing on the biggest stages, despite quietly signing a minor league deal with little fanfare. He’s appeared in 36 Major League games in his career, debuting with the Cincinnati Reds in 2022, after bouncing around the Rangers, Royals and Reds systems prior to his debut, with a brief stint in the Mexican League in between his Reds tenures. He was traded from the Reds to the Twins prior to the 2024 offseason, played in two games for them, underwent season-ending elbow surgery, and missed all of the 2024 and 2025 campaigns. He comes to the Mets with a 3.99 career ERA.

He also has played on the international stage, representing Mexico in the 2020 Olympics and will represent his country in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, which will be a fun side story for Mets fans to keep track of while watching the tournament.

Duarte got put on a few people’s radars after signing his minor league deal due to his performance in the Mexican Winter League. He was untouchable for Caneros de Los Mochis, playing in 25 games, throwing 24 innings, with a 0.00 ERA (not a typo, he did not surrender a single earned run in the entire season — he did surrender an unearned run, don’t sue him). He surrendered only 10 hits and walked just four batters. It was utter dominance.

Now, of course, dominating the Mexican Winter League does not necessarily mean you will be getting big outs against Major League hitters, but the performance definitely put him on the map some. He brings to the Mets a slider heavy arsenal, throwing it 36% of the time. He throws a 95-ish MPH four-seamer, a cutter, and a changeup in descending order of usage. He does not strike anyone out, nor does he walk many hitters; he relies on getting weak contact and forcing ground balls. In his lone long stint in the bigs (2023) he had a 50% ground ball rate, struck out 16.9% of batters, walked 14.7%, had just a 32.6% hard-hit rate, and a 4.3% barrel rate (all per his Baseball Savant page).

In all likelihood, Duarte will not make the Mets Opening Day roster barring some injuries ahead of him, instead pitching important innings for Triple-A Syracuse. However, he comes with an interesting profile and is fresh off dominating in Mexico over the winter, so a strong WBC and Spring performance after that could put him in pole position to be an early season call up when the bullpen roster churn eventually begins to pick up.