Today is Truck Day at Truist Park. For the longest time, it was just truck day, no capital letters. The Braves would load an equipment van and their highest-salaried player would drive it to Florida for the start of spring training, even though the actual first day of spring was a ways away.

That part about the highest-salaried Brave being the ...Read more

When Black History Month began Feb. 1, the Red Sox unveiled a new page on their website to “celebrate and recognize the contributions of our Black players and alumni,” with new content throughout February.

The hub includes activity pages and videos, including several about Jackie Robinson and Pumpsie Green, the team’s first Black player. ...Read more

As we segue from the Hall-of-Fame election to the soon arrival of pitchers and catchers, this is a good time to celebrate the active players who don’t have to do anything more for us to earn a ticket to Cooperstown.

By my count — and I admit to be a hardliner — there are six: Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Miguel Cabrera...Read more

Some scattered thoughts on the Red Sox as the truck pulls into JetBlue Park in Fort Myers…

1. The Red Sox are doing a heck of a job alienating both their fanbase and former players this winter, with Matt Barnes the latest longtime player they’ve irritated.

While Barnes was honest and professional in his goodbye press conference this week, ...Read more

Opening beer cans for Orioles fans during Saturday’s Birdland Caravan happy hour, Adley Rutschman got hasty, prompting a Checkerspot Brewing Company employee to jokingly remind him to make sure the patrons paid for their drinks. A nearby fan offered a reason the Orioles’ catcher should have been able to get away with it.

“He can do what ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The Padres have some work to do to keep their de facto captain beyond 2023.

"We've expressed our feelings regarding the opt-out to them," Manny Machado said Saturday, smiling wide.

Machado's candor regarding his ability to opt out of his contract after this season qualifies as news. But the idea he will do so hardly is.

Machado ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — On the same day he was reintroduced to fans at the Dodgers’ FanFest event at Chavez Ravine on Saturday, infielder Miguel Rojas also ensured his return to Los Angeles could last at least a couple of seasons.

The Dodgers agreed to a two-year contract extension with Rojas that will cover this season and the 2024 campaign, ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Braves won against pitcher Max Fried in salary arbitration, as a panel of arbitrators ruled in the club’s favor Saturday, multiple people familiar with the matter confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In 2023, Fried will make $13.5 million — the figure the club filed — instead of the $15 million he sought in his ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Jaime Jarrín summed up the biggest news from the Dodgers FanFest event at Chavez Ravine on Saturday in just one sentence.

“This,” the Dodgers’ recently retired Spanish radio voice said after the team announced it would retire Fernando Valenzuela’s No. 34 this coming season, “is something overdue.”

For years, much ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Fernando Tatis Jr.'s push to return from the long-awaited shoulder surgery and two wrist procedures began roughly a month ago, setting up the 24-year-old to be a full participant not only for the start of spring training but when he's able to return from his PED suspension on April 20.

He's already a full-go in batting practice, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It is more than digits on a uniform, it is a symbol of community, a monument to connection, a deep blue landmark that has long bonded a city and its baseball team.

Thirty-four is the Dodgers' true magic number.

And now, finally, officially, gloriously, it will live forever with Fernando Valenzuela.

In a long-awaited move that ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The cars lined both sides of Tavern Road and Victoria Park Terrace as far as eyes could see. They jockeyed for spots because of a man sitting at a small table in a parking lot next to a giant ice machine, sandwiched between a landscaping business and a Shell station.

They came to get a glimpse of Padres' homegrown pitcher Joe ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. — For the past decade, the vast Coliseum complex in East Oakland has increasingly felt like a forsaken land, its once proud ballpark and arena on a path to concrete ruin following the departures of the Raiders and Warriors and likely the A’s.

Striding into this bleak outlook are Brien Dixon and Ray Bobbitt, co-founders of ...Read more

CHICAGO — Former Chicago Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward attended a ribbon cutting Thursday for the North Austin Center, a 10-acre campus for education, sports and wellness on Chicago’s West Side.

The Jason Heyward Baseball Academy has a major league sized infield and will provide sports training and leadership development programs for ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — During Trea Turner’s three years at North Carolina State, the only opponents who could stop him were the ones manning the entrances to the local taprooms. When Turner was a freshman, his buddies on the baseball team would bar-hop on Friday and Saturday nights, many of them bearing driver’s licenses that indicated they were ...Read more

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The primary explanation for how Jeffrey Springs evolved from a fringy reliever who was dumped off big-league rosters three times and traded twice into a key part of a standout Rays rotation with a new four-year, $31 million contract is his fervent drive and determination to succeed.

Much the same way he got to the major...Read more

LOS ANGELES — One of the biggest questions of the Dodgers’ offseason finally has a definitive answer.

Will the team stay below Major League Baseball’s luxury tax threshold in 2023?

No, club president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman confirmed Wednesday, probably not.

The news didn’t come as much of a surprise. While there ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Orioles don’t seem to care what you think.

On Wednesday, the team — meaning CEO and Chairman John Angelos and whoever he might have asked for input — decided to decline the option in its lease with the Maryland Stadium Authority that would have extended the agreement by five years. That choice, which leaves 11 months on ...Read more

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Outside of Tampa Bay, the money flows freely.

Some might say recklessly; others would argue gloriously. Whichever side of baseball’s economic fence you land on, there is little doubt that the divide continues to grow wider.

The top 10 spenders in the majors shelled out a little more than $3 billion for free agents ...Read more