Now 16 years old and just over a year away from graduating from high school, D’Angelo Ortiz inhabits the same kind of playground he’s been in since he could walk. All of his life, from his earliest memories, he’s had one vocational goal -- and that’s to be a baseball

Have you seen them out there during these Spring Training games? Have you? They’re something we’ve seen only sporadically over the last year-plus of our lives, and didn’t see at all last season until the National League Championship Series. They’re ... fans! There are fans at baseball games this spring.

PEORIA, Ariz. -- The simulated game on a Mariners backfield on Sunday became a hotbed of nostalgia, with Mike Cameron and Ichiro Suzuki suiting up, playing the outfield and taking live at-bats. Ichiro took his first at-bat against No. 1 starter Marco Gonzales in the top of the second, which

Angels fans got a taste of what new addition José Iglesias can bring defensively at shortstop in Sunday's 6-2 win over Seattle, as he made an incredible play on a slow roller from Mariners center fielder Kyle Lewis in the fourth inning. Iglesias, acquired in an offseason trade with the

What do Tom Brady and Kevin Youkilis have in common? Sure, they're both world champions -- Brady seven times in the NFL, and Youkilis twice with the Red Sox. But there's a much deeper connection than that: they're both proud uncles to Maya Brady, the UCLA softball star who smashed

TAMPA, Fla. -- Gary Sánchez made it a point to arrive weeks early for Spring Training, huddling with catching coach Tanner Swanson for daily sessions throughout the month of January. Those workouts are paying dividends, as the Yankees believe they have seen a more confident version of their starting catcher

The college baseball campaign is heating up, and Vanderbilt’s Jack Leiter looks like he’s already in midseason form. That’s trouble for opposing lineups. The No. 6 prospect in MLB Pipeline’s 2021 Draft rankings started his Sunday afternoon with five hitless innings, departing in the sixth with a final line of

The instructions were simple enough, and the skinny 16-year-old kid from Hialeah, Fla., committed them to memory. Thirteen years later, Manny Machado recounts them word-for-word. "It was: 'Meet me here at eight o'clock in the morning at the University of Miami,’" Machado says. "’Bring a gallon of water and bananas.'"

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Spring Training spawns all sorts of weird situations, all sorts of strange matchups, especially this year. But what happened Sunday at LECOM Field was something else entirely. The third-inning matchup would have otherwise been a footnote in the Orioles’ 13-1 loss to the Pirates, had it not

Stay up-to-date with all the latest news on injured and recovering players from across Major League Baseball.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- The Indians didn’t think twice about isolating Franmil Reyes, Zach Plesac and Mike Clevinger in 2020 when each of them broke COVID-19 protocols on different occasions. Now, the team finds itself in the same position in 2021. Reyes and José Ramírez were sent home from the Tribe’s

Spring Training is well under way, and camps are chock-full of veterans, rookies, non-roster invites and everyone in between who are trying to earn a coveted roster spot for Opening Day on April 1. So who holds the inside track for each of those 26-man roster spots? It’s likely too

We may never see another season quite like 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Opening Day was pushed back and teams played an abbreviated schedule of just 60 games in the regular season. With such a small sample size, fantasy managers need to figure out how much stock to put

MESA, Ariz. -- Cubs players have expressed this spring that having fans in the stands has brought a much welcomed feeling of normalcy. Come Opening Day, they will be welcomed home by fans at Wrigley Field. On Monday, the Cubs announced that they have been approved to host a limited-capacity

Yadier Molina isn’t exactly a spring chicken anymore. But that doesn’t mean the 38-year-old catcher can’t demonstrate just how good he still is behind the plate. We got a glimpse of Molina’s greatness -- and his fiery competitive spirit -- again on Sunday in the seventh inning of the Cardinals’

Astros top pitching prospect Forrest Whitley has been diagnosed with a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, the club announced on Sunday. Whitley is seeking a second opinion before he finalizes his plans for treatment, but a UCL sprain typically requires Tommy John surgery. Whitley, 23,

Matt Chapman stood in the on-deck circle with a bat in his hand and watched Matt Olson crush a ball over the two bullpens situated behind the right-field wall at Hohokam Stadium. One pitch later, it was Chapman rounding the bases after crushing a ball 105 mph off the bat

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has already said that Kenley Jansen will be the team’s closer on Opening Day. But with the way last season ended, all eyes have been on the right-hander this spring. Jansen made his second appearance of the spring in the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss

Baseball is unique among the sports in so many ways, but one of them captures our attention every few seconds of a game: the pitcher with the funky windup and delivery. Just as every batter has his own stance, every pitcher has his own windup, and certain pitchers' motions are

It would be tempting, when you own a fastball like Yu Darvish's, to simply throw it all the time. Even at 34, Darvish has a four-seamer that sits around 95-96 mph, with significant late life. It's a really, really good pitch. But Darvish, in all of his veteran savvy, has

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- After undergoing thyroid gland removal surgery in New York on Friday, Jon Lester was flying back to Florida on Sunday to rejoin the Nationals, which he will be cleared to do following an intake test. “He said he feels great,” manager Dave Martinez said on

The earliest memories of Marnie Starkman’s life are tied to baseball. Currently, she’s the executive vice president of marketing and business operations for the Blue Jays, her 12th year of working for the team. She oversees more than 60 people, sharing a business leadership role with Anuk Karunaratne, and she

In the history of baseball, there are just two rookies who have hit more than 50 home runs in a season. Both of them play in New York. The first to do it, in 2017, was Aaron Judge, a.k.a. "All Rise." The second to do it was Pete Alonso, known

Is it possible for any team in baseball today to be truly "under the radar?" It feels like it's not, that between social media and websites and bloggers reviewing every single move from every single team that is endlessly dissented, and perhaps that's true. But certainly there are some teams

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Players, coaches and executives around the Twins have all expressed their excitement about seeing Andrelton Simmons' defensive ability through hypotheticals for long enough. "Amazingness -- that's such a bland word to use," pitcher Matt Shoemaker said. "There's more to it, right? I've watched him play for