SEATTLE — It's harder to keep a stride in your step when you're feeling a pebble in your shoe.

You could say this about MLB's elite young players, just as you can their most ardent fans.

Because as stable as the sport seems to be right now — with the ungodly contract sizes and last year's exhilarating postseason — there is a looming ...Read more

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Konnor Griffin could only stare as a man wearing a Paul Skenes shirsey gamely thought he could catch the baseball after Griffin’s first home run of spring training cleared the Green Monster-like structure in left field at JetBlue Park.

Two innings later, the sport’s prospect did something even more impressive, crushing ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — What's not to love about Pete Crow-Armstrong? The young, talented Chicago Cubs center fielder is somehow simultaneously super cool and fiery. Nicknamed simply PCA, he should be an entertaining and accomplished player to watch for many years.

And he's Southern California born and bred, the product of esteemed diamond factory ...Read more

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The closer is a solitary figure, walking in from the bullpen to a banging beat and thunderous applause.

Hitters fear him, and managers depend on him. The very best among them have iconic and, often, edgy music to announce their arrival.

For Mariano Rivera, it was “Enter Sandman.” Trevor Hoffman had “Hells Bells.�...Read more

LAKELAND, Fla. — Tarik Skubal might be serving two masters in the early part of spring, but there is no confusion about his priority.

“I am trying to do both things,” he said. “I am going to pitch for Team USA (in the World Baseball Classic), but also I understand I really need to be here with these guys and get ready for the season.

�...Read more

MESA, Ariz. — Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell doesn’t have a ton of roster decisions to make this spring.

His starting lineup and rotation are mostly the same. Daniel Palencia returns as the closer, and most of the other bullpen pieces were signed over the offseason.

“That changes,” Counsell said Saturday morning at Sloan Park, ...Read more

BRADENTON, Fla. — The boisterous discussion among several Latin American Pittsburgh Pirates players had ended. Oneil Cruz, one of the last stragglers, ducked into the athletic trainer’s office. Left alone at his locker inside the home clubhouse at LECOM Park was Marcell Ozuna.

Ozuna’s days here have been busy — and Sunday was no ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. – Pungent sewage had the New York Yankees flowing across the street on Sunday morning, as the drainage issues that flooded parts of George M. Steinbrenner Field the previous day forced the Bombers to hold pregame workouts at their Himes player development complex before hosting the New York Mets.

The Sunday exhibition game took ...Read more

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — There are so many reasons why Cam Booser shouldn’t be here.

A horrifically broken left leg, a twice-fractured back, a torn labrum and Tommy John elbow surgery. Bad grades that cost him his spot at Oregon State. A poor attitude that made waste of his five years pitching in the Minnesota Twins system, during which he ...Read more

FORT MYERS, Fla. — An important piece of the puzzle that is the 2026 Red Sox was put into place Saturday morning when manager Alex Cora named Roman Anthony leadoff hitter.

Anthony impressed overall in his 71-game rookie season last year, but he proved an especially strong table-setter. He made 27 starts at the top of the lineup (31 games ...Read more

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Bo Bichette entered Saturday’s Grapefruit League game eager to see what he was facing at third base. A career shortstop who hasn’t played third base since travel ball, Bichette has to see how deep he wants to play, he has to figure out the angles of the balls hit to the left side, and figure out the timing of his ...Read more

NEW YORK — Amid the tidal wave of the Tony Clark scandal that rocked the MLB Players Association last week, the baseball owners were meeting at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla., to re-affirm their solidarity over the necessity of a salary cap. And when the dust cleared, and Bruce Meyer was quickly and just as unanimously installed as Clark’s...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — The Yankees’ spring home opener was a real you know what show, and not just because the visiting Tigers surrendered 20 runs in the exhibition.

As putrid as some of the play on the field was, it hardly compared to the literal stench that came from the lower level of George M. Steinbrenner Field, where sewage water leaked into ...Read more

SARASOTA, Fla. — Don Kelly began a team meeting Saturday with news he didn’t want to share. But the Pirates manager also took time to properly honor a franchise legend in Bill Mazeroski.

Mazeroski died Friday at the age of 89, the Pirates announced Saturday morning. As news broke, Kelly took time to remind players of Mazeroski’s legacy as...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Shortly after Gerrit Cole faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery last spring, Aaron Judge said that “you would have never known” the Cy Young winner was coming off a procedure that robbed him of the entire 2025 season.

“It looked like the old 45 that I’ve seen for years,” Judge said Friday...Read more

TEMPE, Ariz. — On the eve of the Angels’ first spring training game of the season, the team is still trying to figure out what their television situation will look like when the regular season starts in just over a month.

The uncertainty is a large reason why the Angels payroll is down so much from last year, owner Arte Moreno said Friday. ...Read more

MESA, Ariz. — Bad traffic nearly delayed Munetaka Murakami’s spring debut with the Chicago White Sox.

“Oh, my God, crash,” Murakami said in English of an incident leading to the tie-ups on the Phoenix-area roads.

He continued through an interpreter: “I was so concerned if I could make it on time. There was a big accident on the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Flashing bleached hair under his cap as he settles in with his new team, Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz threw his first pitch of Thursday's live bating practice session to Freddie Freeman. It was called a strike. As Díaz got set for his next pitch, Freeman tapped on his helmet in a playful attempt to challenge the call.

In response...Read more