Worldwide Sports News

Much of the Colorado Rockies 2026 roster came into focus over the weekend in terms of position players and the starting rotation. This morning, they began crafting the bullpen into its final form.

Kevin Henry reported that reliever Seth Halvorsen will start the season in Triple-A Albuquerque.

According to Henry, manager Warren Schaeffer added this: “Coming off injury, high walk rate in spring. He needs to go down there and get right because we know what kind of pitcher he can be for us in leverage situations.”

Currently, Halvorsen has a 21.60 ERA in 5.0 innings pitched, allowing eight hits that resulted in 12 runs.

The news that Tyler Freeman will begin the season on the Injured List is not a surprise given the nagging back issues he has struggled with throughout spring training.

Troy Johnston, then, will be on the team as a first baseman and outfielder. In spring training, he has slashed .358/.426/.547 in 22 games and hit his first spring homer last night against the Detroit Tigers.

The Rockies claimed Johnston from the Miami Marlins on November 5th.

UPDATE

This afternoon, the Rockies made the following announcement about relief pitcher Parker Mushinski:

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With a little more than 24 hours before first pitch of Opening Day, the Yankees are putting the final touches on their active roster. The latest move saw the team select the contract of right-handed reliever Cade Winquest to the big-league roster; Jon Heyman was the first to report the news.

The Yankees selected Winquest from the Cardinals in the Rule 5 Draft, just the ninth player they’ve selected since the inception of the modern Rule 5 Draft in 1965 and their first since Brad Meyers in 2011. He becomes the first Rule 5 Draft pick to make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster since first baseman Josh Phelps was selected from the Orioles in 2006 (he played 36 games in 2007 before being designated for assignment and claimed by the Pirates). Per the rules of the Draft, the Yankees must keep Winquest on the active roster for the whole season — he cannot be optioned or DFA’d — otherwise they are required to place him on waivers and offer him back to St. Louis should he clear waivers.

The 25-year-old righty was used mostly as a starter in his three seasons between Low-A and Double-A in the Cardinals organization, but the Yankees feel he can best help the team coming out of the bullpen this season. He throws a mid-90s fastball that’s gotten hit pretty hard in his minor league career, but the real weapon in his arsenal is an upper-70s curveball that induced a 46-percent whiff rate in 2025. To the Yankees, that’s fairly worth a back-of-the-bullpen flyer.

The Yankees are hoping Winquest can bounce back from a rocky spring, where he pitched to a 7.20 ERA and 7.45 FIP in nine relief outings lasting ten innings. Fortunately, exhibition play is exhibition play for a reason, and players who appear shaky on the surface often have more to offer when the games actually count and they’re not just working on particular preseason tinkerings. Winquest is the second auditioning player to break camp with the big-league team after the Yankees selected the contract of non-roster invitee Randal Grichuk. Winquest joins Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn as the low-leverage swingmen in the Yankees bullpen, all three capable of making a spot start in an emergency.

The 26-man roster is now almost full with Winquest’s addition, though they could open another spot by optioning Luis Gil as they use a four-man rotation for the first two weeks of the season. As it stands, Brent Headrick and Jake Bird appear to be competing for the last spot.* One of those two could be the 26th man, or perhaps they could both be in if Gil is sent down. Maybe there’s a mysterious other contender on another team! We’ll find out soon enough. [Update: Both indeed made the team with Gil going to Triple-A. Jake has more here.]

*Osvaldo Bido was mentioned in an earlier version of this post as a possible contender as well, but he has since been claimed off waivers by Atlanta.

Well, I don’t think the Royals are going to end up with the Cactus League Crown this year.

At 9-20, the Royals have not exactly played great during Spring Training. The good news is twofold: first, that all of Kansas City’s best players were playing in the World Baseball Classic. Two, that Spring Training doesn’t matter.

Nevertheless, the tuneups continue, and the Royals will face their compound buddies the Rangers—but in Globe Life Park in Texas. A nice opportunity to play in a big league stadium.

Rangers lineup

Royals lineup

Could this be a preview of the regular season lineup? Or a preview of the regular season lineup?

The Detroit Tigers made the decision everyone was waiting for all spring, announcing on Tuesday that top prospect, infielder Kevin McGonigle, has made the Opening Day roster.

The 21-year-old McGonigle hit a pair of homers in Grapefruit League play, and another tape measure shot off Athetlics’ starter Luis Severino in an exhibition tune-up for Team Dominican Republic prior to the World Baseball Classic. He slashed .250/.411/.477 this spring, good for a 135 wRC+ and struck out just 16.1 percent of the time, while posting a 19.6 percent walk rate

Of course, his bat was never really the big question. The Tigers main opening on the roster was at the shortstop position, and as late as last fall there were still enough questions about McGonigle’s defense at the position that it wasn’t a sure thing that the Tigers were ready to play him there. The young infielder played in the Arizona Fall League last October after the regular season ended, working with Tigers’ great Alan Trammell on his defensive actions at both shortstop and third base. The results have been impressive this spring.

McGonigle was never poor at the shortstop position, but he lacks the big arm that can get a shortstop out of a tough play in the hole, for example. He has the quickness, the hands, and throwing accuracy to play the position well, but even late last year there were still extra steps, sloppy transfers from glove to throwing hand, poor angles on ground balls, all the little details that cut into a shortstop’s time to make a play. McGonigle and the Tigers have systematically worked to make his actions more precise and efficent, and that work paid off as he’s looked much improved this spring.

Everyone who knows ball knows Kevin McGonigle is going to hit. He may have some rookie struggles as pitchers try to junk ball him and avoid giving him fastballs to crush, but McGonigle also has an elite eye and a disciplined approach. They’re not going to get him out like that for long, and he’ll live on base taking walks if they try that too much. All spring, the young infielder has displayed the lightning quick bat and plus power that we’ve watched for two full seasons in the minor leagues and which carried him to a consensus ranking as the second best prospect in baseball. The defensive home when he reached the majors has been the trickier question to answer in the minor leagues, with many speculating his best position was second bsae. In showing off his upgrades at the shortstop position and showing the versatility to handle third base as well, McGonigle answered the big questions and made the Opening Day roster.

The Tigers spent the 37th overall pick in the 2023 draft to select McGonigle out of Monsignor Bonner HS in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. In two seasons, he’s missed time to a hamate fracture in 2024 and a sprained ankle to start the 2025 season, but despite the somewhat limited reps, he’s torn through the Single-A, High-A, and Double-A levels, reaching camp this spring looking like one of the teams best hitters, and with his defensive upgrades, one of their best all around players as well.

McGonigle grew up in the Philadelphia area as a big Chase Utley fan, and their resemblance as players has been a common feature in McGonigle profiles during his rapid ascent through the minor leagues. The short list of all-time Tigers greats who’ve reached the majors at this age includes Al Kaline, Lou Whitaker, and Alan Trammell. This is rareified air, but McGonigle is more likely than all those players but Kaline to hit the ground running as a hitter.

The Chase Utley comps have been popular, but you could also flip it around and think of McGonigle as left-handed hitting Alex Bregman. The combination of power and contact ability in a small, compact frame is definitely reminiscent. Whichever comparison you prefer, McGonigle has handled every challenge his coaches have thrown at him this spring, and no doubt A.J. Hinch is thrilled to add a low strikeout, power bat to an offense that badly needed more balance between sluggers and strikeouts down the stretch and in the postseason last fall.

The decision makes the Tigers eligbile to receive a prospect promotion incentive (PPI) selection after the regular first round of the 2027 draft, but only should McGonigle win Rookie of the Year this year, or finish top three in MVP voting in a season before he becomes arbitration eligible. He’ll also have to stay on the roster all season. These are all smaller concerns, of course. The Tigers are probably thinking more about a long-term contract that extends beyond their six years of team control. In such case, his service time control won’t matter at all.

Kevin McGonigle came to camp with questions to answer, and he answered them all. We’ve been expecting this decision and we’re very excited to see his major league career begin. The Tigers have a strong farm system of young prospects who will be joining their buddy in the Show over the next two seasons, but McGonigle was always going to lead the way. The Tigers are a much better, more well rounded, roster and lineup with him on the squad.

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On Sunday, the New York Daily News’ Gary Phillips wrote a story about ascendent Yankees pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange which gave me pause when I read the headline. Specifically, the story was about Lagrange’s partnership with a start-up company called Finlete. Finlete is a platform of sorts which allows fans to essentially treat players like stocks—financial assets to be bought into and speculated on to grab a piece of their future earnings if their career takes off.

This isn’t a piece of artistic license on my part: it is quite literally the pitch Finlete makes to its customers, albeit with slightly more pillowy language. “Invest in the career of a top baseball prospect,” their website invites visitors in boldfaced font. For just a $300 down payment, you can “back” a prospect and partake in the rewards if the kid reaches the pros.

So, what’s in it for the players? Well, as Phillips details in his story, the prospect gets all the money from Finlete ‘investors’ upfront and can spend it right away on whatever they need. Lagrange, who in January received over $150,000 from Finlete after signing on with them in September, confirmed that the upfront cash played a role in his decision to enter a partnership with them.

Now, I suppose most of you reading probably weren’t familiar with Finlete before. But if you’re like me and you perked up a bit at seeing that name, that’s probably because you remember their most famous client: Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase. Clase, who partnered with Finlete last year, was federally indicted last fall for his alleged role in a scheme to make money for sports bettors by intentionally spiking pitches at the start of his outings.

Phillips mentioned Finlete’s agreement with Clase in the story, and asked Finlete cofounder Rob Connelly about it—naturally, Connelly declined to comment. If your most famous client is a guy facing criminal charges for the most serious challenge to MLB’s integrity since Pete Rose, we’re already off to a bad start.

Of course, given the league’s recent actions, questions about integrity don’t seem to particularly concern them. Already heavily intertwined with the online sportsbooks which have invaded every televised sports broadcast in America, the league recently announced a partnership with Polymarket, a so-called ‘prediction market’ which allows gullible users to light money on fire by betting—sorry, investing, there’s that word again—on the possibility of just about anything taking place.

Polymarket and its competitor Kalshi are the end result of this gambling craze: open seas of speculation where the cursory limitations sportsbooks place on what what their users can ‘predict’ are further sanded down. The league has announced that they’ll be working with Polymarket to “address integrity concerns”—concerns which of course never would have existed if they didn’t take the reported $300 million-per-year bag to enter this partnership, or the myriad of sports betting sponsorships that came before.

It can be easy for people to lose sight of the fact that behind all the rush to make money off these gambling crazes is the simple truth of why gambling looks appealing to more and more people: they’re financially insecure. Full-time jobs that pay well and provide good benefits are increasingly elusive; gig work and hustling for extra income to make up the difference become increasingly obligatory. It doesn’t take much for a person in dire financial straits to plunge what little they have into bets which could in theory multiply those earnings. But gambling is addictive, and once addictive cycles of behavior around gambling emerge, it stops being about winning money to pay off your student loans or get your car serviced. It becomes about the act of staking, the endorphin rush of making a decision you know you shouldn’t make.

As the financial pressure on ordinary people increases, activities they previously engaged with for leisure start to transform into an extension of the grind. As a result, it’s no longer enough for a baseball fan to pay recurring fees to various streaming websites or MLB itself just to be able to watch all their favorite team’s games, or shell out hundreds of dollars for a ticket. They are repeatedly and obnoxiously entreated to put money down on the outcome, too.

We’ve seen what this leads to: online and in-person harassment of athletes for “losing fans’ money” on bets that didn’t work out. Phillips mentioned this ugly, extremely common side effect of gambling in his article—Lagrange appeared not to be troubled by the possibility. But in much the same way it’s easy to abstract away the money you bet with, it’s easy to abstract away threats which haven’t yet been made. People who invest in a baseball player’s potential future earnings to essentially ride their coattails likely don’t have their own ducks in a row financially. If they feel they’ve been wronged, they can resort to doing some ugly things.

Of course, you have to be in a precarious situation yourself to allow people to “invest in your future”. And that’s where I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the makeup of Finlete’s ‘roster’, as it were. Out of the ten players they list on their website, all of them are from Latin America—half, including Lagrange, from the Dominican Republic, three from Venezuela, one from Mexico, and one from Panama. For his part, Lagrange has nothing but praise, at least publicly, for the way Finlete negotiated with him, but the company still has a ton of leverage in this situation. Just as a Hispanic player is more likely to accept a team-friendly extension from their big league club for the immediacy of a major pay raise, they’re more likely to opt for a scheme like this.

Connelly describes what Finlete does as “[shifting] career risk away from athletes and onto investors”. But that’s disingenuous. These athletes are still taking all kinds of risks—chief among them trying to make it as a nonresident Hispanic man in a country with a government which is actively hostile to them. Like it or not, Lagrange is taking a very real risk every day he wakes up in the morning and travels to the Yankees’ spring training facility.

No, what Finlete is doing is simply creating risk for more people; taking the kinds of agreements which players have taken in the past (and occasionally sued over, as in the case of Fernando Tatis Jr.) and expanding them to hundreds of other people. They’re taking advantage of a loose regulatory environment and a public which has spent years being goaded into betting on as many discrete outcomes as possible. Why stop at offering players predatory loans when you can convince a bunch of impressionable strangers with bad money habits to take them too?

I think some people’s initial reaction to hearing about Lagrange’s partnership with Finlete is going to be “well, good for Lagrange. He’s having success and getting rewarded for it.” But to me, this is one of those supposedly heartwarming stories which distracts from a darker reality. Just like how a person who resorts to GoFundMe to pay their medical bills shouldn’t have that gargantuan expense foisted on them in the first place, a baseball player shouldn’t feel like he needs to enter an agreement like this to find some security as he strives to make the majors. And even if it all works out for Lagrange, Finlete just represents yet another way to financialize baseball; continuing its transformation from nation’s pastime to just another vehicle for speculation.

The future is now for Kevin McGonigle. 

The consensus No. 2 prospect in Major League Baseball has done the near-impossible: Win a starting infield job on a veteran-laden team coming off a playoff appearance. 

The Detroit Tigers announced March 24 that McGonigle will make their opening-day roster, and if the 21-year-old is in Detroit, it's not to sit the bench. Drafted 37th overall in 2023, McGonigle won a job outright in spring training - he can play either shortstop or third base - posting a .923 OPS with two homers and impressing both Detroit brass and his teammates with his field presence. 

At 5-foot-9, 187 pounds, McGonigle is not the potential aircraft carrier that No. 1 prospect Konnor Griffin, the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop, embodies. Yet it will be McGonigle debuting at the game's highest level while the Pirates send Griffin to Class AAA. 

If he starts at shortstop, it will be over veteran utilityman Zach McKinstry and former All-Star Javy Baez. His youth and skill set certainly raises the ceiling for a position in which the Tigers trotted out McKinstry, Trey Sweeney and others over the past two years while making runs to the American League Division Series.

The Detroit Tigers have made it official.

Young phenom Kevin McGonigle, one of the top prospects in all of Major League Baseball, has made the Tigers’ Opening Day roster.

Detroit drafted McGonigle with the 37th-overall selection in the 2023 MLB Draft, a move made possible when the team drafted Max Clark to a below-slot deal after making him the third-overall pick that same draft class. While McGonigle has dealt with injuries since being drafted (a fractured right hamate bone in 2024 and a right-ankle sprain early last season) the infielder has done nothing but rake since the Tigers selected him.

Last year at High-A West Michigan he posted a slash line of .372/.462/.648, and the numbers dipped a bit when he moved to Double-A, he still belted 12 home runs in 46 games.

He also played in the Arizona Fall League, earning MVP honors thanks to slashing .362/.500/.710 with five home runs over just 19 games.

During Spring Training this year, he slashed .250/.423/.500 over 19 games and 52 plate appearances, with a pair of home runs and six runs batted in.

Moments like this from Monday night — a 108-mph rocket off the bat — have Tigers fans excited about his future:

Where he fits in Detroit was once an open question, manager A.J. Hinch has noted that a better pre-pitch routine has led to improved defensive play at shortstop.

“”He’s been very, very good on defense,” stated the Tigers manager.

Now that he is on the roster, he might just be Detroit’s starting shortstop come Opening Day.

Certainty in SEC baseball scheduling isn’t easy — the conference schedule released last September wasn’t finalized with on television until February, which wouldn’t matter much except for Thursday-Saturday series that impact how coaches choose their midweek games.

That’s the explanation for how the No. 2 Texas Longhorns ended up traveling to face the Houston Cougars at Schroeder Park on Tuesday before returning to Austin for a Red River Showdown against the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners that starts on Thursday.

“Had I known we were going to have a Thursday series, I certainly wouldn’t have scheduled a road game on a Tuesday night, in Houston, much less. But we owe coach [Todd] Whitting a trip. This is what it’s come down to,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said in his Monday appearance on the Around the Horns podcast.

Last year, a matchup between the Cougars and Longhorns in Austin was cancelled due to cold weather.

“We’ll leave some guys back so they can be rested, but we have to go down there and play. I know they had a rough weekend, but he’s got one of his better Big 12 teams right now, so we’re excited to go play,” Schlossnagle said.

Houston is 12-11 and 1-5 in Big play with a 6-6 home record after losing a home conference series to Kansas State and getting swept on the road in Lawrence over the weekend after allowing 29 runs to Kansas in the three-game series.

The loss of star center fielder Tre Broussard for three weeks due to a hamstring injury hasn’t helped the Cougars — considered a top 2026 MLB Draft prospect, Broussard’s speed makes him an elite outfielder and a dangerous base runner to complement an excellent left-handed swing with some power. In 14 games, Broussard is slashing .468/.542/.787 with three home runs and 17 RBI after stealing 31 bases last season.

Batting .289 as a team, Houston only has one regular starter hitting over .300 — shortstop Tyler Cox, a Dartmouth transfer who hits leadoff and is batting .329 — but does have some pop with 27 home runs on the season.

Former Texas outfielder Easton Winfield is scuffling for a second straight season, batting .200 in nine games with four starts, continuing his downward trend after leading Louisiana-Monroe in eight offensive categories as a freshman in 2024.

Receiving the start for the Coogs is freshman right-hander Caleb Kimble (7.71 ERA, 0-0), the first of his career after throwing two scoreless innings against Arkansas Pine-Bluff before allowing two runs on three hits in 0.1 innings against Kansas State.

Houston has a staff ERA of 5.87, a WHIP of 1.49, and is allowing opponents to bat .260.

Texas is giving sophomore right-hander Jason Flores (0-0, 9.00 ERA) his second start of the season after moving freshman right-hander Sam Cozart into the weekend bullpen. Flores has consistently received praise from Schlossnagle despite subpar results this season — in his first start against Lamar in the first midweek game, the 6’1, 240-pounder allowed three runs on three hits with one walk and one hit batter in 1.2 innings before giving up two runs on three hits with a walk and a wild pitch in two innings of relief against Houston Christian.

The poor results have often come on good pitches for Flores, a distinction that matters less the more often it happens, making Tuesday an important opportunity for the No. 76 prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, according to Perfect Game.

Schlossnagle also wants to get freshman right-hander Brody Walls some work after he pitched well in last week’s embarrassing home loss to Tarleton State, allowing one unearned run over 2.1 inning with four strikeouts.

“Brody did great last week against Tarleton,” Schlossnagle said. “He’ll certainly see the mound tomorrow in some form.”

Tuesday also represents an opportunity for struggling junior second baseman Ethan Mendoza to get back on track after a hitless week that saw his batting average drop from .325 to .269 as he went 0-for-16 with four strikeouts.

“I don’t think it’s swing mechanics much with Ethan — if anything, it may be that green monster out there. When you’re a right-handed hitter, like it does in Fenway, it’s in your mind,” Schlossnagle said.

Auburn’s 37-foot wall in left field is only 315 feet from home plate, which the Texas head coach believes may have influenced multiple infield popups by Mendoza, a rarity for the contact hitter with burgeoning power who typically has a strong feel for the barrel.

Sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez is also continuing to battle through the impact of his left hand injury last year that offseason surgery did not fully repair. The switch hitter is still batting .280, but his slugging percentage is down 118 points from 2025, when he hit seven home runs, five of which came before he was hit by a pitch against Missouri in late March.

“If Adrian was fully healthy, we would have six, eight more homers, for sure,” Schlossnagle said.

Now almost a year fully removed from the injury, it seems likely to linger through the season and continue sapping his power — Rodriguez doesn’t have a home run this year, forcing him to settle for some gap-to-gap pop.

First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. Central on ESPN+.