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The Captain is back! Aaron Judge has returned to Yankees camp after taking Team USA agonizingly close to winning the WBC, ultimately falling to Venezuela in the final. He rejoins in time for one of their final five spring tune-ups, the Yankees rolling out something close to their Opening Day lineup tonight against the Orioles.

Luis Gil makes his sixth start of what has been an up-and-down spring for the 27-year-old rotation hopeful. He looked decent enough in his first four outings, allowing four runs (three earned) in 11.1 innings (2.38 ERA), albeit while still not looking like his 2024 self in terms of stuff. He then got shelled for seven runs on three home runs in three innings last time out against the Tigers. He and Ryan Weathers have looked the shakiest of the Yankees’ starters this spring, though the team recently locked Weathers into the rotation to start the year. In 11 starts after returning from a lat injury last year, Gil went 4-1 with a 3.32 ERA (123 ERA+), 4.63 FIP, and 41 strikeouts in 57 innings.

Zach Eflin re-signed with the Orioles in December after missing the final two months of last season due to lower back surgery. He had a 5.93 ERA prior to the procedure and looked a shadow of the Rays righty who quickly excelled for the Orioles post-deadline in 2024. Things were going well for him last Sunday against the Yankees, with a pair of strikeouts in each of the first two scoreless frames, but rain brought a premature end to that game shortly thereafter.

I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot of today’s Yankees lineup to start the regular season with most if not all of their starters in. Giancarlo Stanton has been tearing the cover off the baseball this spring and can hopefully carry that momentum into the start of the season. Ryan McMahon continues to get reps at short meaning Oswaldo Cabrera starts at third, while the only change from the projected Opening Day lineup (aside from José Caballero at the six with McMahon at third) sees J.C. Escarra replace Austin Wells behind the plate this evening.

The Orioles lineup meanwhile is missing several of its regulars, Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg out with injury and Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman on the bench. Offseason acquisitions Taylor Ward and Pete Alonso bat leadoff and third, respectively. Top prospects Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo have been raking this spring and look to have forced their way into the Opening Day lineup conversation.

How to watch

Location: George M. Steinbrenner Field — Tampa, FL

First pitch: 6:35 pm ET

TV broadcast: Gotham Sports App

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660 AM, WBAL 1090 AM

Online stream: Gotham Sports App

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Orioles fans, you’re getting a double dose of O’s baseball tonight. And it’s not a doubleheader or a split-squad game with a break in between; these two games will be happening simultaneously. You can watch one on MASN while listening to the other on the radio, if you think you can handle such Orioles overstimulation.

The 6:05 game, airing on MASN, is the annual Spring Breakout that pits a team of Orioles prospects against those of another club, in this case the Red Sox. And it’s a pretty exciting lineup if you’re an O’s prospect follower:

CF Enrique Bradfield Jr.
LF Nate George
1B Ike Irish
DH Wehiwa Aloy
RF Reed Trimble
2B Aron Estrada
C Creed Willems
3B Colin Yeaman
SS Griff O’Ferrall

RHP Trey Gibson

That’s a lineup that includes six of the Orioles’ top 10 MLB Pipeline prospects (George, Gibson, Irish, Aloy, Estrada, Bradfield). And 10 other prospects in the Orioles’ top 30 are also on the roster and could appear later in the game.

And don’t forget the Orioles’ top two prospects, Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers, who will be playing in the Birds’ Grapefruit League game tonight. That one starts at 6:35 and will be on WBAL Radio (and a Yankees TV broadcast on YES, if you have access). A few of the Orioles’ regulars have the night off, including Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman, but guys like Pete Alonso, Taylor Ward, and Coby Mayo are in the lineup.

Zach Eflin makes the start after his Sunday outing ended after two innings due to rain. He’s facing more or less the primary Yankees starting lineup — including Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton — so this’ll be his toughest test of spring training. It remains to be seen whether the O’s will include Eflin on the Opening Day roster or put him on the injured list to continue building up.

Orioles lineup:

LF Taylor Ward
C Samuel Basallo
1B Pete Alonso
3B Coby Mayo
CF Dylan Beavers
RF Leody Taveras
DH Bryan Ramos
2B Luis Vázquez
SS José Barrero

RHP Zach Eflin

The Milwaukee Brewers continue to push through the final few days of Cactus League play as they take on the Diamondbacks. This game was originally scheduled for the afternoon, but given the sweltering 100+ degree heat in Arizona right now, both teams agreed to move first pitch to 8:10 PM CT when the temperature should be a little cooler.

The Brewers will have Jacob Misiorowski on the mound making his final start of Cactus League play. Misiorowski has just been named the Opening Day starter for the Crew as Brandon Woodruff won’t quite be ready for the first game of the season. Following Misiorowski will be Logan Henderson, who was optioned to Triple-A yesterday. On the mound for Arizona will be Zac Gallen.

In the lineup for the Brewers will be most of the regular starters. They’ve made most of their position player cuts and the top minor leaguers are all in the Spring Breakout game today. Jackson Chourio and William Contreras are back in the lineup after returning victorious from the WBC. Christian Yelich, Jake Bauers, and Sal Frelick follow them.

One last tune-up for Jacob Misiorowski. The game can be heard as a webcast on Brewers.com

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Major League Baseball has announced that Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, the two Cleveland Guardians pitchers at the center of a pitch-fixing scandal, have been placed on unpaid leave.

The players have been on paid leave since July.

Key Takeaways

• MLB has placed Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz on unpaid leave.
  
  
• Both players were previously on paid leave and face federal charges tied to alleged pitch fixing.
  
  
• Prosecutors allege the pitchers accepted bribes to influence bets, with the trial set to begin at some point later this year.

“As the legal proceedings involving Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz continue to move forward, MLB and the MLBPA have agreed that both players will remain on non-disciplinary leave from the Club without pay until further notice,” MLB said in a statement released Friday. 

Clase, 28, and Ortiz, 27, did not pitch the second half of last season and were indicted on federal charges in early November. Trial is set for May 5, but is anticipated to be delayed until the fall. 

“This agreement is not an admission of any wrongdoing by Clase or Ortiz,” read the statement. “MLB has been closely monitoring the matter since alerting federal law enforcement at the outset of its investigation and will have no further comment until its investigation has been completed.”

The accusations

The pitchers were charged with manipulating performances in multiple games, with Clase accused of fixing at least 48 MLB games over two seasons, which included postseason games, a February ESPN report unveiled.

Both are accused of having received thousands of dollars in bribes to help a pair of anonymous gamblers in the Dominican Republic win nearly $500,000 in bets, with the bets centering around microbetting lines on factors such as pitch velocity or whether they would be a strike. 

Ortiz, through his attorney, claims to have played a much smaller part in comparison to Clase, with the hopes that his case would be viewed separately given the “markedly different levels of culpability.”

“With 26 months of alleged criminal conduct by Mr. Clase – including suspect pitches during 48 games, dozens of communications with (a bettor), cash transfers and coordination of illegal wagers, (Ortiz could receive an unfair trial).”

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

We got a night game again and seven days from now, we’ll be gearing up to see the Atlanta Braves playing in a game that actually counts. As far as tonight goes, there’s still a few more tune-ups to go before we can get rocking and rolling again.

Ronald Acuña Jr. is officially back in the lineup after his title-winning excursion into the World Baseball Classic. Naturally he’ll be hitting leadoff and the lineup following him resembles something extremely close to what we’ll likely see on Opening Day at Truist Park.

Here is that lineup for the Braves, by the way. Bryce Elder was initially scheduled to start this one but now José Suarez is listed as the starter. I’m sure we’ll learn more later about whether or not Elder will be coming in later of if he got his work done on the back fields:

Here’s how the Pirates are lining up for this one:

First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. ET and you’ll be able to catch it on Braves Vision, so this might be a good time to go sign up for Braves.TV if you haven’t already. Even if you haven’t, the game will also be on Gray TV so check your local listings. If all else fails (or you just want the old-school option) then tune in to 103.7 FM in the Atlanta area for the radio feed.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Atlanta Braves, March 20, 2026, 6:05 p.m. ET

Location: CoolToday Park, Venice, FL

How to Listen: KDKA-FM 93.7

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road against the Atlanta Braves, where they will try and pick up another win in Spring Training.

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The Mets made three roster moves following Friday afternoon's Grapefruit League game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Right-hander Austin Warren was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, and righties Kevin Herget and Robert Stock have been reassigned to minor league camp.

Warren, 30, was claimed off waivers before last year and appeared in five games with the Mets last season, allowing one run on five hits over 9.1 innings with nine strikeouts and four walks. He is on the 40-man roster.

Herget, 34, made six appearances with the Mets last season, allowing five runs (four earned) in 12 innings. He re-signed on a minor-league deal in December.

Stock, 36, pitched in 19 games (15 starts) last year for Triple-A Worcester (Boston Red Sox organization) and carried a 3.92 ERA for his 85 innings of work. Like Herget, he is in his second stint with the Mets and signed a minor league deal late last year.

With those moves, the Mets are down to 39 players at big league camp.

New York has three games left to play in spring training, including a split-squad game on Saturday. 

After breaking camp, the Mets will open the regular season in Queens against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, March 26.

Introduction

This short article finishes my effort to articulate some of the observations I made during my visit to Spring Training, 2026. I saved what I think is the best for last.

Sidebar: Where I work out, one of the guys that runs the place is an avid Cardinal fan. So I have someone to talk ball with each day. He keeps MiLB.tv on one of the screens in the weight room and for whatever reason, they’ve been playing Memphis 2025 games the last few weeks. So, I’ve had opportunity to watch, pitch-by-pitch, last year’s Memphis rotation. Weiss. Taylor. Bedell. Cornwall. Et. al. Oh, my! What a struggle they encountered. This article is written in that context.

Short Topic of the Day

The pitching, particularly of the starting variety.

Each spring, I work to get a look at the key pitchers in the organization as they ply their trade. My first hope is just that they are throwing free and easy. And participating in activities such as PFP. Health is such a key determinant. I don’t worry a lot about command or velocity unless it is way off norms. It’s too early to expect sharpness, and particularly on the MiLB side, pretty much all pitchers struggle with command. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be MiLB. Someone would remove the “i”.

In past years in camp, it could be hard to track down pitchers because it seemed so hit-and-miss without knowing who was going to throw, or where or when. Who I saw was pretty random. Be there all the time and hope was the strategy for getting good coverage. Plus, over the years, the Cardinals have progressively made it more difficult for fans to access and watch the areas pitchers work in. I intend to follow up on why, but I suspect there are multiple reasons behind this. Particularly early in the spring, there aren’t many fans to accommodate, and I did wonder if some of them were scouts for other teams. Why give them a free look?

This year brought some improvement as the press credentials improved my access but also allowed me insight into who, what and where of scheduling, so I could target and time my visits to different camp locations. They run a tight ship, so you could pretty well count on if someone was scheduled to pitch at 12:12p, they were going to pitch right around 12:12p. Much better than random visits and hoping to get a look. Information is key!

For the most part, the news was good in that it was mostly lacking in negative surprises. Pitchers on the recovery trail were as expected. Dobbins appears to be farthest along. Hjerpe and Roby have a way to go, timewise. Hjerpe is throwing. A good sign. I don’t expect Roby to pitch competitively this year. AFL, maybe. Dutkanych IV was a surprise in the rehab group. Henderson showing up with a sore forearm was disappointing. I’ve tended to suspect forearm strains can be pre-cursors to UCL injuries, but we will see. Let’s hope not for his sake. Most everyone else was good to go.

What I really noticed was the overall quality of the pitching organizationally. To me, pitching depth has been a concern as far back as 2020, maybe even longer. Even the playoff seasons of 2021 and 2022 required infusions of pitching at the deadline and my recollection is that need was obvious at the outset of those seasons.

As I watched the games and/or walked through the MLB bullpen area and watched, I could see seven or even more guys who can legitimately compete for a rotation spot at the MLB level right now. Not just “guys” or “arms” to fill a spot but actually guys we as fans would actually like to see throw. May, Liberatore, McGreevy, Pallante, Fitts, Leahy and I will include Dobbins. Although he may not be ready day 1, he is far enough along where you can see the stuff. The knee is his limitation right now, not the arm.

Then as I walk the backfields, I can see a AAA rotation that incorporates last year’s stellar AA rotation plus Mathews, who looked sharper. This should be a vast improvement over last year’s AAA rotation. These are the backstop guys, the depth for the MLB rotation. But with quite a bit more upside than was present in prior years. While none are guaranteed success, it has the feel of a group that will have an answer when the MLB rotation inevitably needs a boost as the season progresses.

Then, that AA rotation? Wow. Just wow! Cinjtje. Lin. Doyle. Likely with Rincon and Saladin filling it out, but there are some other guys that might have something to say about that. There is some serious juice here. I’m not projecting success or failure for any individual pitcher here either, but I don’t think it takes much squinting to see some potential quality.

Down below? Guys like Franklin, Sequera and Fajardo (and some others) begin to reveal just how deep this system is, across all timelines. Side note: Don’t sleep on Sequera. He might be my pick to break-out this year. To say nothing of the rehabbing pitchers that have their own pedigree – Holiday, Graham, Dutkanych IV, Findlay. That is seven guys High-A or below that are worthy prospects, not just organizational filler. There are others, too. I just haven’t seen them yet.

My personal measuring stick of how far this system has come? I watched Tink Hence work off a major league mound in a game (a great thing all by itself) and realized that this kid, with his stuff, is part of a much larger group and no longer “the one” that MUST succeed. I’m a big fan of his, in case you can’t tell. I hope we see him in StL this season.

I got a look at the Spring Breakout Roster. It has 20 prospect pitchers. I could see 16-18 of those guys pitching in the MLB. Some years, I have trouble seeing half that many making it that far. This is a deep group, covering a range of potential upside. Not just a bunch of back-end starters.

Oli asked (rhetorically, it turned out) “What is the strength of this team?”. He answered his own question with “Pitching”. I couldn’t disagree. If you are rebuilding a house, getting a strong foundation seems like a really good place to start. I’m no pitching guru, but I walked away impressed. Seriously. And I’m not easy to impress.

Since someone is bound to ask, I’ll get to the one prospect that gave me some pause. Liam Doyle. I’m still trying to gather my thoughts on this one. It seems apparent that there are some development needs there. I need to see more.

I have trouble separating my own limited observations from what/how I see the Cardinals handling him. To me, their actions say a lot. Eighty some guys in the organization got MLB numbers, he did not. You will notice that of the many pitchers that have gotten on the MLB mound in Spring Training games, he is not one of them. I don’t believe he has had an MLB bullpen, either. None of this screams fast track. All of it seems to reflect decisions made before camp, so it’s not like he showed up out of shape or anything like that. As I look at his peers, that puts him behind a number of them. Enough that him being in the rotation at the start of 2027 (much less being ROY) seems … optimistic. At least until we see more.

Probably the greatest intrigue that remains (at the time of writing this) is whether the Cardinals go with some form of six-man rotation. It’s not clear they’ve decided, but so far I’d say health and Fitts’ performance has begun swinging the decision. The way it maps out, his schedule aligns with split-squad days on the 9th, 14th and 19th (Prospect Day, if they want to have someone pitch on a backfield that day), so they could carry him on the MLB roster right up to the end of camp and get him starts. The big club won’t really need said 6th starter until April 15. As things play out right now (no guarantee), that day would be a May start and that is where they may want to insert a sixth starter (Fitts). My guess is he makes a start on March 19, stays in Jupiter and throws a back-field game around the 25th, then opens for Memphis around March 1, which looks like it would put him on schedule to start April 15, either with StL or Memphis (assuming a 6-man rotation in Memphis). Weather, health and/or performance could all conspire to foil that plan.

It’s hard to discern if they will really go with a full-on six-man rotation. It seems more likely that they roll with a modified six-man rotation, like last year. In this case, it wouldn’t shock me if Fitts joins the rotation, but ultimately Leahy is the guy that rotates back and forth between the rotation and bullpen, both as a way to manage his innings and a belief that he is probably best equipped to do this.

One thing is for certain, we will see. In this area, it is a land of opportunity and should be fun to watch unfold.