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The Baseball gods giveth and taketh away. 

Aaron Judge showed off his defensive prowess and then had a home run taken away from him by an impressive defensive play by Julio Rodríguez.

The Yankees slugger looked as though he was about to extend the Americans’ lead in the World Baseball Classic semifinal against the Dominican Republic at loadDepot Park on Sunday night. 

Judge hit a blast that was headed over the center field wall before Rodríguez leaped and snagged it for the second out of the top of the fifth. 

J-ROD ROBS AARON JUDGE pic.twitter.com/c1JgwC0lWP

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 16, 2026

Rodríguez let out a massive celebration before sending the ball back into the infield. 

Earlier in the game, Judge reminded everyone why trying to run on him just isn’t a good idea. 

The Yankees star showed off his arm when Fernando Tatis Jr attempted to reach third after Ketel Marte hit a line drive into right field in the bottom of the third inning. 

Judge quickly scooped the ball and launched it in an attempt to throw out Tatis, firing the ball perfectly to Gunnar Henderson to get the third out of the inning. 

It was the second time in the tournament that Judge had shown off his arm and made a similar play in the United States’ win over Mexico. 

A ball hit to right field was played by Judge and led to him throwing out a runner at third to end the inning. 

The United States had been trailing 1-0 after Junior Caminero had hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second. 

AARON JUDGE SHOWS OFF THE CANNON! pic.twitter.com/ydhdnMcHNc

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) March 16, 2026

The Americans turned the game around in the top of the fourth after Henderson hit a home run in the fist at-bat of the inning to tie things 1-1. 

Roman Anthony gave the United States a 2-1 lead two batters later when he hit a solo home run of his own.

And finally, the outfield. Due to the sheer number of non-roster invitees this spring (34 all told), it has been quite the process. The first part of this series was published almost six weeks ago, back on February 2. As a result, a fair amount of water has gone under the bridge between now and then. Indeed, none of the four players we will be covering here, currently remain in consideration for an Opening Day roster spot. All of them have already been re-assigned to minor-league camp. However, I would bet you we’ll see one or more of them on the D-backs at some point over the next six months. So they still deserve coverage.

Druw Jones (93)

Druw’s star has certainly dimmed, since MLB Pipeline named him the number fifteen prospect in all baseball, the season after the D-backs drafted him with the second pick in the 2022 draft, paying him almost $8.2 million, still a club record. Three years later, he doesn’t even rank that high in the Arizona system, coming in at #16 on the recently released Pipeline list. He had a sub-.700 OPS in Hillboro last year: even though he was aged just 21, you’d expect better. A variety of injuries have taken their toll, and mechanical adjustments haven’t had the hoped for results. The defense is as good as you’d expect given his lineage, but the bat needs seriously to come around if he’s ever to come close to that early hype.

Kristian Robinson (62)

This will be Robinson’s ninth season in the Diamondbacks’ farm system, in part for reasons that we really do not need to rehash once again. But he still only turned 25 in December, and put up decent numbers after a mid-season promotion to Reno. Over 41 games for the Aces, he had a line of .262/.393/.469 for an OPS of .862 – not bad for his first time in Triple-A. Of course, having been part of the Great Britain roster in the WBC, I am naturally obliged to root for Robinson. But even beyond national allegiance, it would be quite the story if he were to end up patrolling the outfield at Chase Field this summer.

A.J. Vukovich (95)

A fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft, Vukovich spent all of 2025 in Reno, where his 22 home-runs and 79 RBI led the team in both categories. Admittedly, so did his 111 games, nobody else reaching three figures. But at the age of 24, he was still considerably younger than average for the level. I was a bit surprised he didn’t appear on even the Fangraphs’ list, which goes down as far as the top 56 prospects for the team. The bat probably does need to be improved, but I’d not mind a long-term outfield for the Diamondbacks of Corbin Carroll, Jordan Lawlar, Vukovich and Ryan Waldschmidt. And, speaking of whom…

Ryan Waldschmidt (59)

It seems appropriate to finish off this round-up with the consensus top player in the the D-backs’ farm system, and our only widely agreed top 100 prospect. It’s remarkable that he was under serious consideration for a spot on the team’s Opening Day roster, despite having less than 150 professional games to his name – none of them above Double-A. It’s probably for the best that Lawlar seems to have slotted into center acceptably, so that will give Waldschmidt a chance to polish his skills in Reno for a bit. I would still bet we will end up seeing Ryan in a Diamondbacks uniform at some point this year, as an appetizer for 2027 and beyond.

Dominican Republic center fielder Julio Rodriguez made a stunning catch to rob Aaron Judge of a home run in the fifth inning of the World Baseball Classic semifinal.

Judge, the New York Yankees' three-time MVP and captain of Team USA, drove a pitch from Juan Mejia to center at loanDepot Park in Miami and Rodriguez timed his leap perfectly at the wall to make the play.

An All-Star three times in four MLB seasons with the Seattle Mariners, Rodriguez popped up to celebrate and immediately while Judge could only smile after being robbed of extra bases.

J-ROD ROBS AARON JUDGE pic.twitter.com/c1JgwC0lWP

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 16, 2026

The winner of the USA-Dominican Republic game advances to Tuesday's championship game against Venezuela or Italy.

TAMPA — The search for the 2024 Luis Gil continues. 

There is still time to find it, but the Yankees right-hander will not have forever. 

In his penultimate start of the spring, Gil had a game to forget Sunday, getting tagged for three home runs, nine hits and seven runs across three innings against the Tigers.

The former AL Rookie of the Year needed 68 pitches to get nine outs, and while his velocity took another slight tick up, he lacked command and overall crispness, making for a rough afternoon. 

“I feel like we’re closer right now [to Gil’s 2024 version] than we were last year, but ultimately these next steps are the big ones — really capturing the life on the fastball and then creating some space for the secondary,” pitching coach Matt Blake said after a 12-1 loss to the Tigers at Steinbrenner Field. 

Asked if Gil is a lock for the rotation, Aaron Boone described him as “one of the five guys.”

But the Yankees have four off-days before their 10th game of the season, so they are still trying to figure out how to best manage the rotation in the first two weeks to keep everyone sharp.

Gil has a minor league option remaining, but the Yankees could also piggyback one starter with another if they decide to carry all five on the Opening Day roster (and that is before they eventually have to make space in the rotation once Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole return from the IL). 

That places some extra significance on Gil’s final start of the spring later this week, when he will have another chance to prove he is still capable of getting back to his 2024 form, when he was one of the more dominant pitchers in the first half of the season. 

“At the end of the day, I got to concentrate on what I need to do,” Gil said through an interpreter. “For me, [being consistent] is the focus and that’s the key, to control what I can control and work on my craft and be as consistent as possible. … It takes time to get there, to be at 100 percent, and I think that’s what’s important.”

Gil, who missed four months last year with a lat strain, averaged 95.8 mph with his fastball Sunday (up from 95.3 in 2025) and topped out at 97.5.

But he only got two whiffs on 19 swings against the fastball, after not generating any on 18 swings against it in his last outing. 

“That’s definitely something we’re looking into,” Blake said. “The profile from ’24 to now is slightly different. There’s a little bit less ride to it from a little bit slower slot. Sometimes that’ll play into the visibility of the pitch, the life above the barrel, those type of things. But the velos started to trend up as the spring’s gone on, so you feel like it’s improving. 

“Ultimately, the batters will tell you, so we got to find a way to get some miss and stay off the barrel with it.” 

Of the three home runs Gil gave up Sunday, one came on a changeup down the middle to Spencer Torkelson, one came on a slider on the inner third of the plate to Matt Vierling, and the last came on a 95 mph fastball on the inner third to Riley Greene.

He came away from the outing encouraged by the uptick on his fastball but displeased with his changeup. 

Boone, who acknowledged earlier this spring that he still wanted to see more from Gil, was asked if he has seen enough with a week left in camp. 

“I’ve seen a lot of good from Luis and again, it’s ticked up every time,” Boone said. “I want him to get back to where that first half of ’24, that next level of electricity with the heater. He’s still having trouble right now getting swing-and-miss with the heater. But it’s the whole package. But I also don’t want to ignore a lot of the good that’s gone on in some of the starts he’s had as well. So this was a rough one today, without question, but we got to get back and keep working on it.”

Is this an omen? Like Benny the Jet knocking the cover off a ball in “The Sandlot” — is Gregory Santos botching a perfect game with two outs in the 9th a sign of terrible things to come?  Is this 2026 bullpen going to be the death of the San Francisco Giants? Did not the soothsayer warn Julius Caesar to “beware the ides of March” before his assassination by the Roman senate? And here the Giants are, on the 15th, smack dab in March’s ides, bringing the Scottsdale faithful to their feet in the 9th only to have them slump down in their seats as a walk, followed by an RBI double claimed perfection, a no-hitter, and a shut-out in quick, successive stabs.

Disappointment in Spring Training, as Bryan points out, is never a good look… but so is getting carried away by Spring Training one-offs.

The perfect game would’ve definitely improved vibes in the moment, but losing the achievement on the 27th man hardly takes away from how well the Giants are playing as a whole. If Santos had sealed the deal, I doubt teammates would’ve flooded out of the dugout into a celebratory dogpile at the mound. The crowd in attendance would’ve cheered, strangers would’ve exchanged hi-fives, guffawed incredulously, and that would’ve been the extent of it. Fans at home would’ve checked the box score and smirked at the five-pitcher perfect-o. That’s kind of neat, some would think to themselves before seeking out more substantial things to sink their teeth into, like Robbie Ray’s 8-strikeout performance over 5 innings pitched, or Grant McCray’s beautifully caressed bunt up the third base line, or Jerar Encarnacion’s lumberjack cut in the 2nd. 

Nearly ten days ago, on March 6th, I wrote about how Encarnacion’s slow start meant “the big man was in serious danger of getting left behind” in San Francisco’s developing outfield race. The next day, after reading my post and resolving to prove me wrong, Encarnacion went 3-for-3 with a double and 2 runs batted-in in a game against Texas. Including those results and his mash from this afternoon, he’s now collected 9 hits over his last 20 at-bats, including 4 extra baggers, 9 RBIs and just 3 strikeouts.

Luis Matos, who was the hot hand a week-and-a-half ago, has cooled considerably. He’s gone 2-for-18 with no extra baggers, no RBIs, and has now seen his no-strikeout-spring blemished by two K’s, including one today. While Matos and Encarnacion are not mutually exclusive options for the Opening Day roster, their option-less inflexibility, as well as their right-handedness, puts them at odds with each other for many. While the Giants did beat the Brewers 7-1 today, the real competition of Spring Training are these internal battles. Matos had his moments with runners on base today and didn’t do much. He struck out with Matt Chapman on 2nd in the 1st, then rolled weakly to short with the bases loaded in the 2nd and can’t really take credit for David Hamilton’s two-run throwing error.

Meanwhile Encarnacion made a cutter disappear in a puff of smoke and won the day. Things are getting interesting.  

And on the mound, Robbie Ray looked regular-season ready in his fifth start of the Cactus League. He threw 64 pitches over 5 perfect innings while striking out 8 Milwaukee batters. The approach was simple and to the point: Heavy on the four-seamer with the hard slider peppered in just enough to keep hitters on their toes. He snuck a dozen fastballs by hitters for called strikes. 6 of his K’s came on the slider and 6 of the 8 swings taken at the pitch were whiffed. What made his outing so successful was not the swing-and-miss stuff, it was his efficiency. He fought back into counts and kept balls in play grounded, which are not necessarily well-established aspects of his game. 

Perfection was out of reach in today’s 7-1 win. But that’s okay. Ten days out from Opening Day, fans aren’t picky right now. Entertaining works, so does promising, or intriguing — descriptors that fit the Giants’ Cactus League performance so far.

Other things of note: 

Matt Chapman’s 3-for-3 day, including two more doubles, improved his Spring Training totals to 13-for-29 with 8 extra base hits (6 2Bs, 2 HR). He frankly looks bored at the plate.

Grant McCray singled twice with two stolen bases, before he was picked off from second attempting to swipe a third. That being said, the outfielder continues to put on a pointed display for Tony Vitello and the coaching staff. The Giants don’t need him to be a power-threat, they need him to be fast. So far, McCray has matured into this understanding: He’s walked more (7 BB) than he’s struck-out (6) so far, he’s bunting, he’s being aggressive on the bases. If he can show he can consistently get on base and turn dinky singles into scoring threats with his speed, he’s going to find his way onto the big league roster.   

PORT ST. LUCIE — For anyone paying attention to Yankees spring training over in Tampa, you know the danger of expecting too much too soon from young prospects, regardless of how high they were drafted or, in Jasson Domínguez’s case, how much money they signed for. 

Nearly seven years after getting a $5.1 million bonus from the Yankees, as well as the nickname “The Martian,” the switch-hitter is still trying to establish himself as a major leaguer. 

That brings us to Elian Peña, the 18-year-old infielder who signed with the Mets in January 2025 for $5 million out of his native Dominican Republic. 

Now 18, Peña is in his first spring training not only in Port St. Lucie but in the United States. 

He spent last season in the Dominican Summer League, where he began his professional career by going 0-for-26. 

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Peña rebounded with a solid two-plus months in the DSL and has spent much of this spring playing minor league games on the backfields behind Clover Park — where he was at shortstop Sunday. 

The lefty-swinging Peña will get his first chance on a bigger stage Thursday in the Mets Spring Breakout game at Clover Park. As Andy Green, the Mets senior vice president of player development, said Sunday, “That will be the first opportunity to see him in a sanctioned game atmosphere, but we’ve seen some of the things he can do against pretty high competition already.” 

That includes when Carlos Mendoza saw Peña deliver immediately in a minor league game. 

“He homered as soon as I saw him, left-on-left,” the manager said. “It was a good first impression.” 

But as Domínguez and the Yankees know, it takes more than a few good swings to get to the majors and stay there. 

And the franchise record bonus Peña received — which nearly doubled the previous high of $2.7 million that Francisco Alvarez received in 2018 — will add some challenges. 

Just ask Domínguez, who appears to be headed to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to open the season. 

Domínguez became aware of Peña last July, when Peña broke out with a three-homer game in the DSL and Domínguez saw the clips on social media. 

He had two pieces of advice for Peña: “I hope he has someone to tell him what to do with his money. Just leave it alone like I did.” 

And secondly, Domínguez added, “Don’t worry about expectations from other people and be careful with social media. It’s good when you get hits and everyone says you’re great, but if you strike out four times, it’s, ‘I hope you die and your family dies.’ You get used to it, but that can be a lot when you’re young if you pay attention to it.” 

That startling reality will be among the things Peña will have to contend with as he works his way up the system. 

“I think that’s part of being in New York and high expectations,” Mendoza said. “There are gonna be a lot of eyes on him. He’s mature and I think he’s built for it, but you’ve got to go through it and learn. Our job as an organization is to guide him and get him locked in on things he can control.” 

There have been promising signs, according to Green, especially with how he recovered after his rough start to his pro career. 

“The resilience he showed after going 0-for-26 and bouncing back is important,” Green said. “This game is going to smack every player around at some point, and you have to be tough.” 

The Mets are also confident Peña can be a shortstop despite some questions there. 

But with just 55 professional games under his belt, not even the Mets can predict where Peña will wind up. 

He could be with the team’s Florida Complex League affiliate this season, as they try to forge a path for him to Queens. 

Green, though, has seen plenty of examples of young players exceeding expectations and falling short. He managed the Padres when Fernando Tatis Jr. debuted with San Diego as a 20-year-old in 2019. That was a year after he watched Juan Soto hit his second major league homer with Washington at age 19. 

“Those guys are extreme examples,’’ Green said. “There are a ton of really successful outcomes that show up in the big leagues at 22, 23 or 24. I have no idea what his timeline will be. Nobody does. It’ll take the amount of time it takes.”

In a must-win game for Team USA, Yankees star Aaron Judge is doing all he can.

With the Dominican Republic up 1-0 in the bottom of the third inning of the World Baseball Classic semifinal, Judge showed off his arm strength with an incredible throw from right field to third base to get Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. out.

It's the second time in a week that Judge has thrown out a runner trying to go from first to third base on a single, as he nabbed Mexico's Joey Ortiz inpool play.

Judge's clutch play seemed to spark life into the US bats as they hit two homers in the top of the fourth inning, with Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony going deep to give them all the runs they needed.

Judge's defense came to the rescue again in the fourth, robbing Juan Soto of a leadoff base hit with a diving catch.

The Americans hung on –  thanks to a great escape in the seventh from Yankee teammate David Bednar – as the Dominicans got the tying run to third base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, thanks to a questionable strike three call to end it. The 2-1 win means they will head to the Championship Game on Tuesday against the winner of Monday's Venezuela-Italy game.

Don’t run on Aaron Judge! pic.twitter.com/9E6bDaL8j4

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) March 16, 2026

Aaron Judge lays out to take a hit away from Juan Soto! #WorldBaseballClassicpic.twitter.com/XLzHT4bwSP

— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 16, 2026