Despite an excellent showing in high-leverage situations out of the bullpen as the Dodgers won their second consecutive World Series, Roki Sasaki was always part of the club’s plans in the starting rotation to begin 2026.

Which MLB players exceeded and fell short of expectations in an eventful spring training?

After throwing 4 1/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts, hitting 99.9 mph against the Giants in his training stint debut, reports confirmed that Shohei Ohtani is the 2026 highest-paid MLB star.

There are always plenty of Spring Training stat lines that don't matter. There's probably no one worried that Tarik Skubal has an ERA close to 4.00 this spring, or that Shohei Ohtani is barely batting over .

Spring Training is underway for all 30 teams. Many teams are getting acclimated with offseason acquisitions, while hoping the new names are the difference makers in the upcoming season. At the same time,

A deep dive into the data on five of the loudest names in camp. Four have real signal underneath. One is noise.

So it was merely a matter of time before I found my way to MLB spring training, having moved to Lakewood Ranch in August 2025. This past week, I set aside my book bag and left my press pass behind to become a spectator at the three ballparks closest to me.

Philadelphia Phillies reliever Daniel Robert suffered a cardiac event during a spring training session. He collapsed suddenly on the pitching mound. People on the medical team used a defibrillator on him before he was transported to the hospital.

Here's what we can expect from the ABS challenge system in the 2026 MLB season based on spring training data.

There's nothing in sports like attending a spiring training game under the sunny Arizona and Florida skies, with fans camped out on the berms beyond the outfield walls to watch Major League Baseball's exhibition games before the regular season gets underway.

Spring training baseball is like the premise of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Yes, there’s a scorekeeper who issues points and declares a winner at the end of the episode, but the points (well, stats), as well as wins and losses,