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MESA, Arizona — By the time I got to the Cubs Sloan Park complex this morning, much of the activity had slowed down for the day. However, I do have some photos and video to show you. First, though, since this was the first full squad workout day for the team, Cubs Executive Chairman Tom Ricketts had a few comments after meeting with players:

It’s the usual thing he says every spring. This year, though, I think the team is in very good position to win.

After the catchers workout was done, Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya stopped and signed autographs — for everyone waiting. There were a couple dozen kids waiting and the catchers obliged everyone.

So that’s a good thing.

Then, I went over to Field 1, where I had heard Ian Happ, Michael Busch and Alex Bregman were supposed to be hitting. But, I found out those three had been there earlier and were done for the day.

Instead, I saw some brief hitting sessions from Dansby Swanson and Kevin Alcántara, so I can share some videos of that with you.

That’s a very brief visit to Cubs camp today. There was actually a game going on at Sloan Park today. The Cubs (along with several other Spring Training parks) are hosting the Desert Invitational involving college baseball teams. Today’s Sloan Park game was Air Force vs. Kansas State — I saw quite a few fans dressed in KSU purple.

Tuesday is supposed to be a bit rainy and cool in the Valley so practices will likely be indoors. The Cubs’ first spring game will be Friday against the White Sox at Sloan Park at 2:05 p.m. CT. That game will be televised on Marquee Sports Network, with a radio broadcast on The Score.

Carlos Lagrange 'excellent' in first live BP session

The first full-squad workout of camp began with rising prospect Carlos Lagrange on the mound for live batting practice, and he turned some heads with fans in attendance.

Facing the heart of the Yankees' lineup, Lagrange showcased his triple-digit velocity, inducing strikeouts of Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger across a 49-pitch session.

While the appearance wasn't flawless for the right-hander -- he served up a monstrous home run to Judge on a fastball down the middle -- he ultimately got revenge by fanning the Yankees' captain on three pitches. The third-strike fastball reached 102 mph.

Lagrange also forced Giancarlo Stanton to ground out and pop out in at-bats before walking off the field with a changing-speeds punchout of Bellinger. The performance was met with cheers.

"I thought he was excellent. First one to go out there on first full-squad day," Boone said. "The crowd's full, he's facing the big boys. What I liked is, he was filling up the zone with it too. The stuff obviously jumps off the page at you. Thought he held his stuff, most importantly held his strike throwing. February, but really good to see him out there."

Lagrange, the No. 79 prospect on MLB Pipeline's latest Top 100 rankings, logged a 3.22 ERA with 104 punchouts over 78.1 innings in Double-A Somerset last season. Boone has compared the 22-year-old to former Yankees reliever Dellin Betances, based on his 6-foot-7 frame and blistering fastball.

The next step for Lagrange is to develop the "next layer" of strike throwing, according to Boone, but his overall makeup and leadership traits have grabbed the coaching staff's attention. Lagrange's composure against Judge and other Yankees sluggers was lauded, too.

"That's a big thing to walk in to, for a guy who hasn't been over here," Boone said. "It didn't seem like a big thing to him. He was just out there executing... After the homer, he really came back and executed. The chanegup is special. I thought the sweeper was a good pitch for him, got a lot of outs with it. Fun to watch all that unfold."

The Yankees will begin Grapefruit League action on Friday against the Orioles, and Boone said Lagrange has a very strong chance of starting the game in Sarasota.

Positive updates on Cam Schlittler, Anthony Volpe

Anthony Volpe took the next step forward in his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery, starting a hitting program on Monday that included some dry swings, per Boone.

With the expectation of Volpe missing at least all of April while rehabbing, utilityman Jose Caballero should see ample playing time at shortstop and create some in-season competition.

Meanwhile, Cam Schlittler is scheduled to throw off the mound on Tuesday, less than a week after revealing a minor back issue.

The right-hander was never shut down completely -- he threw on flat ground over the weekend and neither Schlittler nor Boone expressed actual concern about the mild injury.

"He was built up pretty good and we didn't shut him down at all," Boone said. "I don't think we thought it was a big issue, but more of one we wanted to get out in front of, just in case."

Carlos Lagrange strikes out Aaron Judge with a 102.6 MPH fastball 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/9XStI8hdu3

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 16, 2026

Righthanded pitcher Zak Kent has been claimed off of waivers by the St. Louis Cardinals, it was announced today. The Rangers had designated Kent for assignment a few days ago to clear a 40 man roster spot for the newly signed Jordan Montgomery.

This is the second time this offseason that the Cardinals have claimed Kent, who was originally drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2019, and then traded to Cleveland for international bonus pool money at the end of spring training 2024 when the Rangers were opening 40 man roster spots for Jared Walsh, Wyatt Langford and Jose Urena.

Kent made his major league debut for Cleveland in 2025, but was placed on waivers in December, with St. Louis claiming him. The Cardinals then waived him in January, and Texas claimed him. Now he’s back with St. Louis, and I would wager he’ll be placed on waivers again towards the end of spring training when the Cards need a 40 man roster spot and teams are flooding the waiver wire with similar guys, making it more likely he goes unclaimed and can be outrighted.

FanGraphs on Monday put out its top prospects in baseball, with five Dodgers ranked in the top 110 entering the 2026.

Eric Longenhagen, Brendan Gawlowski, and James Fegan wrote up the prospects, a list that was expanded from 100 to 110 to account for the prospects with a Future Value rating of 50 (on the 20-to-80 scouting scale) or higher.

Three outfielders lead the Dodgers contingent represented here, with Josue De Paula ranked 17th, Zyhir Hope 41st, and Eduardo Quintero 43rd.

De Paula is ranked between 14th and 24th on prospect lists at FanGraphs, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, The Athletic, and MLB Pipeline, with an average ranking of 18.5. Says FanGraphs of his future: “De Paula’s combination of present raw power and long-term physical projection give him a great shot to develop 40-homer raw power at peak, though it’s debatable whether his hitting skills are the kind that will allow him to actualize all of that raw thump in games.”

Other Dodgers to show up on the list at FanGraphs are shortstop Emil Morales ranked 61st and pitcher River Ryan at 107th coming back from Tommy John surgery. De Paula (48th) and Ryan (101st) are the only Dodgers returning from last year’s preseason ranking at FanGraphs.

Based on the FanGraphs Dodgers team prospect rankings from December, the next prospects in line in the system are, in order, outfielder Mike Sirota, pitcher Christian Zazueta, and shortstop Alex Freeland.

Corey Seager attempted to defuse questions surrounding what has been described this winter as a “toxic” relationship with Marcus Semien, leading to his double-play partner’s offseason trade from Texas to the Mets.

The poor relationship between their shortstop and second baseman prompted the Rangers to take back Brandon Nimmo and $5 million from the Mets to shed the final three years and $72 million left on Semien’s deal, according to a Jan. 23 report by The Post’s Joel Sherman.

“I mean, I think that’s things that I heard in-house that people don’t know about, right, that’s just all speculation,” Seager said Monday at the Rangers’ spring-training facility in Surprise, Ariz. “Me and Marcus had a fine relationship, we both respected each other, we were both professional and we knew how to go about our business and try to accomplish a goal, and we did that in ’23, so like I said, you can’t take that away from us.”

The middle infield duo teamed up with the Rangers via free agency ahead of the 2022 season, with Seager leaving the Dodgers for a 10-year contract worth $325 million and Semien bolting the Blue Jays for a seven-year deal worth $175 million. Texas captured the franchise’s first World Series title in 2023, but the team has posted a combined record of 159-165 the past two seasons, including a .500 finish last year.

The 31-year-old Seager, the MVP of the ’23 Series win over the Diamondbacks, was limited to 102 games in 2025 due to season-ending appendectomy surgery in August.

The 35-year-old Semien, a three-time All-Star, endured a down year offensively with 15 homers, 62 RBIs and a career-worst .669 OPS.

Still, the former shortstop also earned the second Gold Glove award of his career — both as a second baseman — with only two errors and a .996 fielding percentage. Semien’s defense was attractive to the Mets, who sought to improve their run prevention in the offseason.

Thomas Saggese has proven that he is a versatile player, but does he have the skill set to transition to the outfield? There are reports that the St. Louis Cardinals are at least considering it.

I came across this story from MLB Trade Rumors over the weekend that says the St. Louis Cardinals are exploring internal options for its outfield and right-handed bat needs. In their report, they refer to a story by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch saying the Cardinals have not been seriously engaged with Randall Grichuk and that Austin Hays had chosen the White Sox over the Cardinals due to playing time expectations. Their conclusion was that the St. Louis Cardinals were considering Jose Fermin and/or Thomas Saggese for outfield playing time. The Post-Dispatch just shared video today of Chaim Bloom saying Saggese in the outfield is a possibility.

Jose Fermin has already played a handful of MLB games in the outfield, but Saggese hasn’t played in the outfield since he was a 10-year-old kid. As we have shared here previously, Thomas Saggese has solid defensive numbers at 2nd and 3rd base with less impressive metrics at shortstop. Speed plays a much larger role in the outfield than it does the infield and Baseball America rates Thomas as having average to below-average speed rated to around 45 on a 20 to 80 scale. With his work ethic, I don’t question that he can adapt and learn a corner outfield position, but his natural skill set doesn’t seem to be a comfortable fit.

The concept for possibly transitioning Saggese to the outfield would allow him more playing time since his primary infield positions will be filled by Gorman, Winn and likely Wetherholt. If he could earn outfield playing time, that would get his right-handed bat into the lineup, but that’s not the thump many of us were hoping for. My initial impressions of Thomas Saggese was that he was a scrappy hitter similar to David Eckstein. That’s not a bad thing since he did end up being a World Series MVP, but David was known as a slap hitter with limited power. To be fair to Thomas Saggese, his performance in the minors in 2023 and 2024 show he does have some pop with 26 homers in 2023 and 21 in 2024. As I recall, David Eckstein only had 35 home runs over his 11-year career.

We’re still at the genesis of Spring Training so it’s too early to know if the St. Louis Cardinals envision Thomas Saggese as a middle infielder primarily and an outfielder only on rare occasions, but it’s obvious that the team would really love for him to be able to take on the super-utility role that Brendan Donovan excelled at. Does the thought of Thomas Saggese in the outfield make you nervous or is this a brilliant use of an already versatile right-handed bat? No matter what your opinion on Saggese in the outfield is, here’s something that is guaranteed to brighten your day as shared by the St. Louis Cardinals this morning.