Worldwide Sports News

Good morning.

• We’re coming off a terrific World Baseball Classic semi-final between the US and Dominican Republic with a controversial end. We’ll have more on that game later this morning. Here are some takeaways from the Team USA win.
• Some of the best photos from the game.
• Players from the Dominican Republic explain how baseball is like a religion in their country. Michael Clair with the story.
• The DR was managed by Albert Pujols. Cody Stavenhagen looks at Pujols’ ambitions and chances of being an MLB manager. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Mike Trout couldn’t play in the WBC this time around, but he’s thrilled so many people are getting excited about it this year.
• Tarik Skubal is defending himself against criticism (The Athletic sub. req.) that he betrayed Team USA by leaving the team early. On the one hand, Skubal has to do what’s right for him and he shouldn’t be criticized for not making a second WBC start. On the other hand, I love that American fans are getting this passionate enough about the WBC that they’re willing to be jerks about the whole thing. OK, I’m not thrilled about the jerks part. Just the passion part.
• Matt Snyder believes this time, the US has really bought into the joy of the WBC.
• Matthew Trueblood argues that the WBC is a wonderful celebration of baseball culture from around the world, and that includes US culture.
• USA catcher Cal Raleigh refused another in-game fistbumb from a teammate, but this one with Team Canada’s Josh Naylor was pre-arranged. Sort of.
• However, Kathryn Xu argues that no one is having more fun that Team Italy. (free reg. req)
• Tyler Kepner writes about how the mostly-American Team Italy is firmly embracing Italian culture as the Cinderella underdogs. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Italy has been celebrating home runs with espresso. Rustin Dodd looks at how caffeine affects athletic performance. (The Athletic sub. req.) Italy is juicing!
• Johnny Flores Jr. has a preview of tonight’s Italy/Venezuela semifinal. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Venezuelan native Francisco Cervelli manages Team Italy. He says that when he’s wearing the uniform, he’s all Italian.
• Venezuelan manager Otto López says his objective is to bring joy to his home country.
• Jake Mintz writes that Japan was simply outplayed by Venezuela in the semifinals.
• Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata resigned after the loss.
• Bob Nightengale talks to Shohei Ohtani and asks how Ohtani is processing something he has little experience with: failure. I mean, he was on the Angels for six years, Bob.
• Jake Mintz has the story of Ohtani’s first ever international game, and 18-and-under loss to Canada. Team Canada, which included Josh Naylor and Cal Quantrill, were still impressed with him.
• Here’s what many of you want to know about Samurai Japan: Which players on Japan’s WBC team could be coming to MLB next? Jorge Castillo with the story.
• Union president Bruce Meyer has warned that a work stoppage in 2027 could affect MLB player participation in the 2028 Olympics.
• Meyer also said that if MLB players do play in the Olympics, MLB is considering exhibition games between major and minor leaguers to fill the time the league shuts down for the Games. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Katie Woo reports that the Dodgers have sold naming rights at Dodger Stadium to the Japanese company Uniqlo. (The Athletic sub. req.) It will still be Dodger Stadium, it’s just going to be something like “Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium.” One, that’s a terrible name. Second, the Dodgers already have enough money and don’t need to do this.
• Kevin Acee reports that four bids have been submitted to buy the Padres.
• Jeff Passan has a short season preview of all 30 teams.
• Six darkhorse candidates to win MVP.
• Six darkhorse candidates to win the Cy Young.
• One player from each MLB team who has made the biggest impression in Spring Training.
• Giants pitcher Hayden Birdsong is getting a second opinion after being diagnosed with a Grade 2 right forearm strain and ulnar collateral ligament sprain. Obviously Tommy John surgery is a possibility.
• The Giants named Logan Webb as their Opening Day starter for the fifth-straight year. Only Juan Marichal, with six, has more consecutive Opening Day starts in Giants history.
• Here’s an interesting article with lots of quotes from Pete Crow-Armstrong in it. How difficult is it for outfielders to play in each MLB park?
• And finally turning to college baseball, Georgia beat Tennessee on Sunday thanks to this amazing walk-off home run robbery.

Jose Ramirez left the game early yesterday after sliding into third base on a successful steal attempt and jamming his shoulder and if it affects him this season, I will lose my sanity.

Yes, USA beat the Dominican Republic in a close game that was unfortunately affected by Cory Blaser’s ump show in the bottom of the 9th where he decided Mason Miller needed help so he called sliders three inches below the zone strikes. I was rooting for USA so it has to be pretty bad for me to complain here. But, now USA will face the winner of tonight’s game between Italy and Venezuela on Tuesday.

The Guardians beat the Athletics yesterday 12-6. Tanner Bibee seems to be just throwing strikes and letting in fly in Arizona as he gave up six runs and 13 hits but he didn’t walk anyone. I’m sure that’ll be fine… right?

The big news was hoping José is ok. Stephen Vogt said after the game that Jose would be day-to-day. David Fry, Stuart Fairchild, and CJ Kayfus had homers, Travis Bazzana had a couple singles, Steven Kwan tripled, Jose doubled, and Gabriel Arias and Chase DeLauter also had a couple hits. Colin Holderman, Cade Smith and Erik Sabrowski put up scoreless innings from the bullpen.

Jim Rosenhaus spoke to Jose, Smith and Tim Herrin on the latest Guardians Weekly podcast.

It’s a Monday in March, and you know what that means: it’s time for another edition of Pinstripe Alley’s Making the Team Meter! The third week of March is typically a major milestone, as we are now officially closer to Opening Day than we are to the first spring training game. As such, this is typically the week that teams take an axe to their spring training roster, and the Opening Day squad begins to slowly take shape. Thanks to the World Baseball Classic, however, the Yankees have taken their time trimming down the roster, as they have worked to make sure that they have kept enough players in the big league camp to get through the spring schedule.

Despite this relative lack of cuts, we can look at usage, individual performance, and comments by Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman to get a sense as to how these few roster battles are shaping up, and begin to more firmly project the anticipated Opening Day roster — although, as will be clear shortly, comments from the organization might actually increase the uncertainty, rather than help us gain an insight into what the team is thinking.

As always, in case you need it, I’ve included the key below as a refresher. I’d also like to remind you that, like last week, players who were cut or removed from the injured list prior to last Monday will not appear on these lists, while those cut in the last seven days will.

As always, let’s start with the pitchers:

In a spring where injury news has been fortunately few and far between, the majority of the pitching staff looks, in theory, rather set. Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Ryan Weathers, Will Warren, and Luis Gil represent the team’s five starters. David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Fernando Cruz, and Tim Hill will be the team’s quartet of high-leverage relievers, while Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn will at least open the year as multi-inning relievers capable of starting if needed. Even if Weathers and Gil have looked inconsistent on the mound so far this spring, nothing that we have seen has truly changed this projection, which leaves just two bullpen spots up for grabs.

And yet, early during yesterday afternoon’s broadcast on the YES Network, Michael Kay, David Cone, and Meredith Marakovitz threw a wrench into these projections by highlighting the number of off-days the Yankees have during the first month of the season. From the start of the season on March 25th through the end of April, New York has a whopping five days off, including three in the first eight days of the season. Because of this, the team can open the season with just four starters for at least the first two trips through the order.

Judging from Aaron Boone’s comments during his fourth inning interview on YES, I think the Yankees are inclined to use a four-man rotation to start the season; after all, Boone did say he wants to avoid giving his starters seven or more days of rest between starts, something that can easily happen with a five-man rotation early in the season. But exactly how this changes their plan for the roster remains to be seen. The simplest way, which the Yankees have done in recent years, is to have the No. 5 starter begin the season in Triple-A, allowing them to carry an extra reliever for the season’s first week; this is especially useful, as most starters are only built up to 80-90 pitches for their first start anyway. But Boone stressed the fact that the team has seven to eight players who will be built up as starters, and suggested that possibility of lining up those not in the rotation to piggy back behind the starter, allowing them to remain stretched out, at least early in the season.

How the Yankees opt to approach this — something which Boone suggested they will do this week — will have ramifications throughout the roster. If they take the first way and bring an extra reliever, one of Warren and Gil will open the season in Scranton (hence why both are now listed as yellow, although I think the team is more likely to carry Warren than Gil, even before Gil’s stinker yesterday), and they will carry three relievers. If they opt to employ Yarbrough, Blackburn, and Warren/Gil as swingmen, as David Cone called the role yesterday, then they may be able to carry one fewer reliever than normal, allowing them to carry 14 position players (and thus solving the roster jam there, discussed below).

Regardless of the number of relievers the Yankees will take, there’s still very little clarity. The team cut another round of pitchers this week — Michael Arias, Brendan Beck, Kyle Carr, Dylan Coleman, Dom Hamel, and Ben Hess — but none of them were exactly in line to crack the roster anyway. Angel Chivili and Jake Bird have struggled, Cade Winquest and Osvaldo Bido need to make the roster (the former because he was a Rule 5 Draft pick, the latter because he’s out of minor league options), and Yerry De los Santos, Kervin Castro, and Brent Headrick have looked good this spring, but lack long track records. How will the Yankees weigh these considerations? Bryan Hoch has Bird and Headrick make the team, with a shoutout to Castro, but as we’ll see later, his projected roster has some flaws. The FanGraphs Depth Chart has not wavered from its Winquest/Bird pairing. For now, it truly is anybody’s game.

Catcher, on the other hand, looks very, very different:

Austin Wells will be the starter. J.C. Escarra will be the backup. With the Yankees opting to have Ben Rice focus on first base this spring, this will be the Yankees’ catching tandem. Michael Kay’s offhand comment yesterday that Ryan McMahon’s struggles at shortstop may put Escarra’s roster spot in danger should be ignored, because it would be malpractice to have Rice start the season as the backup catcher without any game action behind the plate to start the season.

Miguel Palma was reassigned to the minor league camp after yesterday’s game.

Last but not least, the position players:

Out of the players on this list, 11 can make the Opening Day roster. After the Yankees took an axe to the roster this week — George Lombard Jr., Marco Luciano, Braden Shewmake, Duke Ellis, Yanquiel Fernández, Ernesto Martínez Jr., Jonathan Ornelas, and Zack Short were reassigned to minor league camp, 23 remain with the big league club — a testament to the team’s need for bodies with so many players representing their country in the World Baseball Classic.

With a pair of veterans in Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario under contract, the Yankees entered the spring with just one bench spot up for grabs. That fact has not changed, although the nature of that last spot has. Heading into the spring, Jasson Domínguez and Oswaldo Cabrera were penciled in by fans and journalists alike. The Martian, however, is now ticketed to Scranton despite a strong spring, barring an injury to one of the team’s three outfielders or Giancarlo Stanton, and while Cabrera has returned to the diamond, it seems likely that the team will have him start the year in the minors, possibly on a rehab assignment, as they continue to bring him along slowly as he recovers from last May’s gruesome ankle injury.

As it stands, the Yankees have two options for the final spot, either a right-handed hitting outfielder to serve as a platoon bat in Randal Grichuk, or a backup shortstop in Paul DeJong or Max Schuemann (Jorbit Vivas is not a realistic option due to his inability to play shortstop, while Zack Short is clearly behind the other two in the pecking order). In an ideal world, the Yankees clearly want to bring Grichuk north with them, letting Ryan McMahon open the season as the backup shortstop — both Hoch and FanGraphs, in fact, hand Grichuk the final spot on the bench. At the moment, though, this is unrealistic. McMahon has looked uncomfortable moving laterally at shortstop, and while he certainly can play the position in an emergency, the Yankees simply cannot go into the season without a backup to José Caballero. Unless the third baseman shows major improvement with more reps at the position, they almost certainly will be taking DeJong or Schuemann.

There may be a solution to this conundrum: piggybacking the starting pitchers. If the Yankees open the season with a four-man rotation, and use Gil, Yarbrough, and Blackburn for 60-70 pitches behind three of Fried, Schlittler, Weathers, and Warren, they may be able to operate with only 12 pitchers on the active roster, at least for the first two weeks of the season. Carrying one fewer arm than normal would allow the Yankees to carry 14 position players, enabling them to carry both a shortstop and Grichuk. It wouldn’t be a permanent fix — once the five-man rotation begins in earnest, they will need to bring the bullpen back to full strength — but as we’ve seen in recent years, by the time a decision will need to be made, the baseball gods tend to make the decision rather obvious.

And that’s where we stand today. We’ll be back again next week, this time on Monday, for one last projection before the Yankees open the season next Thursday. In the meantime, let us know in the comments section below what you think about our read on the Yankees roster bubble.

Good morning, Camden Chatters! Another Monday is upon us as we inch closer and closer to Opening Day 2026. We are now just 10 days from the first real Orioles game of the season. We’re so close! This is the final week of Grapefruit League games. The Orioles play the Red Sox at home this evening, at 6:05 EDT. After that, it’s just five more days of games before they head north for a pair of exhibitions against the Washington Nationals.

The Orioles attempted to play the New York Yankees last night, but the weather had other ideas. The game started on time and Tyler O’Neill made some noise with a two-run single to score Pete Alonso and Samuel Basallo, but the rain came in the third inning and washed away the game. Zach Eflin started and threw 32 pitches in 2+ innings.

We still don’t know if Eflin will be ready to join the roster on Opening Day, although Craig Albernaz says that Eflin is progressing faster than he expected. So we’ll see.

One spring mystery has emerged: Where is Coby Mayo? Mayo is the presumptive starting third baseman for the Orioles and he has been swinging a red-hot bat in spring training. On March 10th, he had four hits, including a home run. He hasn’t played since then! It’s been four games without Coby. There are, of course, other ways to practice and get ready that aren’t playing in games. And no one has reported any injury concerns for Mayo. But still, where is he? If we see him in the lineup tonight, I will retract my concern.

Meanwhile, the real baseball excitement continues with the World Baseball Classic. The United States eliminated Canada on Friday, which is why O’Neill was back in the Orioles’ camp. That same night, the Dominican Republic knocked out Korea. That set up a semifinal between USA and DR, which took place last night.

It was an exciting game that ended with USA on top. DR took an early lead on Junior Caminero’s home run, but Gunnar Henderson tied the game with a homer of his own in the 4th inning. Roman Anthony also homered and Team USA took a 2-1 lead that they did not relinquish.

DR got the tying run to third in the bottom of the ninth, and Mason Miller struck out Geraldo Perdomo looking on a pitch that was very clearly below the strike zone. What an awful way for them to go home. There is no ABS in the WBC.

Henderson goes into the final with an OPS of 1.358. His two homers so far are tied for the most on the team with three other players. He’s played in half as many games as those other guys, by the way. Has he done enough to get the start in the final?

On Saturday, Venezuela knocked out the defending champion Japan, while the underdog Italy beat Puerto Rico to make it to their first semifinal in WBC history. Italy and Venezuela face off tonight to see who will move on to play USA in the final on Tuesday.

Links

Orioles option Cade Povich to minors as rotation takes shape – The Baltimore Banner
If Cade Povich had made the Opening Day roster, it would have meant that something went horribly wrong. I expect we’ll see him at least a bit during the season, though. Andy Kostka takes a look at the current state of the starting rotation.

Cano back to being a pain for opposing pitchers – MASN Sports
I mean, I hope this is true. But it feels a little early to be making such a declaration.

Nick Markakis talks Orioles, Alonso, WBC – Baltimore Baseball
Markakis was in camp as a guest instructor.

Who bats leadoff for O’s? No answer yet, but Ward emerging as option – MLB.com
Jake Rill says that who will bat leadoff is a burning question in spring training. That feels a little dramatic. Per Rill, it’s down to Taylor Ward and Gunnar Henderson.

Camden Chat’s 2026 Pre-Season Contest
Are you looking for a fun activity? Participate in our pre-season contest! There are no physical prizes, but you can feel really good about yourself for being so smart.

Birthday and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have two Orioles birthday buddies, both of the old-timey variety. Catcher Hobie Landrith (b. 1930, d. 2023) appeared in 62 games with the Orioles in 1962 and 1963. He had a 14-season career, mostly with the Cincinnati Reds. Clint Courtney (b. 1927, d. 1975), also a catcher, played for the Orioles in 1954 and 1961.

There isn’t much happening on this day in Orioles history. In 2021, they signed Maikel Franco, who went on to play poorly in 104 games that season. In 2010, the San Francisco Giants returned Steve Johnson, who they had drafted in the rule 5 draft just a few months earlier.

This starts the final full week of spring training games, meaning we are a bit closer to real baseball action. For those that aren’t fans of the WBC, this is a positive thing as seeing these few games of still minor leaguers starting in regular positions is getting tiresome. We all reach this point each year during spring where we just want it to end, but for the Phillies, they just want their guys healthy through this week.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Chase Utley is being honored by the Phillies by getting a Wall of Fame. He’s continuing to build a case for Cooperstown ($).
• Garrett Stubbs is willing to do most anything they ask in order to stay on the major league roster ($). We’ll see about that.
• Turns out, Jesus Luzardo will not be pitching for Venezuela at all in the WBC. He’ll stick with the Phillies through the end of camp.

MLB news:

• The Padres’ sale will move forward with at least four groups known to have bid on them. The price might reach $3 billion.
• Seiya Suzuki had to leave Japan’s quarterfinal game with a knee injury. He’ll get some more tests this week while the Cubs hold their breath.
• Francisco Lindor made his spring debut on Sunday for the Mets, increasing the likelihood that he’s ready for Opening Day.

Team USA vanquished the Dominican Republic. The defending champions, Japan, already had been dismissed.

So … congratulations to the United States for winning the World Baseball Classic?

Not so fast, and certainly not based on Sunday’s tense but hardly crisp 2-1 victory in which the U.S. eliminated the Dominican Republic.

“That was high-level baseball at its finest,” U.S. manager Mark DeRosa said.

High-level baseball, no doubt. It was the heavyweight match, the WBC game everyone wanted to see.

At its finest, well, the Americans better hope not.

Read more:Plaschke: Get all beaned up and enjoy the surprisingly profound World Baseball Classic

U.S. batters struck out 15 times, walked once, and went hitless with runners in scoring position. None of their final 13 batters got a hit.

Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony each hit solo home runs in the fourth inning, and five relievers shut out the Dominican over the final 4⅔ innings.

That guaranteed the U.S. a spot in Tuesday’s championship game, against the winner of Monday’s game between Italy and Venezuela.

Can the Venezuelans beat the U.S.? They eliminated Japan, their leadoff batter is Ronald Acuna Jr., and they are outslugging the U.S.

Can the Italians beat the U.S.? They already did, in pool play. They have hit more home runs than the U.S., in fewer games. They would have Aaron Nola lined up to start.

Tuesday’s starter for Team USA: New York Mets rookie Nolan McLean. He was the losing pitcher in the Italy defeat, giving up three runs — including two home runs — in three innings.

You never know: The difference in Sunday’s game was billed as Paul Skenes.

“You can make the argument he is the best pitcher in the game,” DeRosa said. The other candidate, according to DeRosa: Tarik Skubal, who could have been in line to start the championship game but opted out of the WBC after one appearance.

Skenes breezed through the first inning in nine pitches and the first three in 38, dented only by a Junior Caminero home run.

Before the game, Dominican manager Albert Pujols said facing an All-Star lineup is one thing in the All-Star Game, quite another in a game that counts and a pitcher faces batters more than once. Skenes has started two All-Star games and pitched one inning each time.

Sure enough, Skenes required 33 pitches to get his final four outs, saved throughout his outing by repeated defensive brilliance: from right fielder Aaron Judge, from shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., from second baseman Brice Turang and from third baseman Henderson.

“Toughest lineup I’ve ever faced, for sure,” Skenes said. “I’m sure they would probably say the same thing about facing us.”

Credit to the Dominican, of course, for a lineup that started with Fernando Tatis Jr., with a heart of Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Manny Machado, and with shortstop Gerardo Perdomo batting ninth. Perdomo led National League position players in WAR last season, according to Baseball Reference.

The tough U.S. lineup? On paper, sure. In the past four WBC games — after routs of Brazil and Britain — the U.S. has scored more than five runs once and has a two-run win, a two-run loss, a two-run win and a one-run win.

“I’m still waiting for our offense to explode,” DeRosa said.

Said Henderson: “We haven’t played our complete game yet.”

Read more:'Bigger than baseball.' Why being in Puerto Rico for WBC meant so much to Kiké Hernández

The most valuable player for the U.S. might be closer Mason Miller, who earned the save Sunday. Miller has faced 14 batters in the WBC, allowing no hits and striking out 10.

Because this is the WBC, DeRosa has to consult with Miller’s employers, the San Diego Padres, to determine whether Miller can pitch for a third time in five days in the world championship, should the U.S. need him.

DeRosa called Sunday’s game “a game we’ll remember forever” and, given the hype, why not?

The Americans are the favorites Tuesday, no matter who they play. However, if the U.S. bats do not rouse from their slumber, the championship game will be a game the Americans curse forever.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.