Mining the News (3/10/26)

Brad Mills-Imagn Images

American League

Guardians

• Joey Cantillo hopes to upgrade his slider.

“My slider has been pretty dog-water the last couple of years,” Cantillo said. “Honestly, it’s been bad. It’s been something we’ve just kind of hoped to throw in the zone, and it’s been a pitch where you really have to throw it to a great location for me to have the results that I want with it.”

Cantillo is coming off a 2025 season in which he logged a 3.21 ERA over 34 appearances (including 13 starts). Heading into a key spring in which he is competing for a spot in the Guardians’ rotation, he honed in on upgrading his slider to not only make it a more viable option for him in ‘26, but to hopefully make his other, stronger offerings even more effective.

The result? Cantillo made a slight grip adjustment that he and the Guardians hope will pay dividends this season, as the 26-year-old looks to make the next step in his evolution as a big league starting pitcher.

Mariners

• Victor Robles’s shoulder still bothers him after having surgery on it last year.

OF Victor Robles
Injury: Right shoulder soreness
Expected return: To the outfield, the week of March 16
Status: Returned to lineup for first time in seven days on March 8 at designated hitter. Could progress to outfield again if all goes well. Had been experiencing fatigue in the same shoulder that he fractured last April.

Orioles

• Zach Eflin is throwing harder than last year.

The most impressive numbers, though, came in the form of Eflin’s velo, as all six of his pitches were coming out harder than in 2025, when he dealt with back soreness much of the year and had three stints on the injured list. He maxed out at 94 mph, with the averages on his sinker (92.2), four-seam fastball (92.9) and cutter (90.3) above last season’s marks.

“I think it’s probably all mechanics. I was kind of surprised at how it was coming out,” said Eflin, who had a 5.93 ERA in 14 starts last year. “But that’s what I used to expect. Genuinely, how I feel right now is how I used to feel when I was throwing a little harder. I’m hoping that continues to keep climbing up, and if it doesn’t, that’s fine. I feel healthy. I was hitting my spots.”

Yankees

• Gerrit Cole’s fastball touched 97.5 mph in batting practice.

RHP Gerrit Cole
Injury: Right elbow ligament tear
Expected return: May/June
Status: Was facing hitters and throwing breaking balls as of March 6, when he threw two innings of live batting practice. Fastball has touched 97.5 mph. Could participate in Grapefruit League games this spring but will not be ready for Opening Day. (updated March 6)

Usually, touching means a pitcher was sitting 2 mph to 3 mph below that mark, so he was sitting 94.5 to 95.5 mph after sitting 96 mph in 2024.

National League

Brewers

• Quinn Priester may see a specialist for his wrist soreness.

RHP Quinn Priester
Injury: Right wrist soreness
Expected return: Late March/early April
Status: Brewers are considering sending him to a specialist for more information about the source of his lingering discomfort, according to manager Pat Murphy.

Diamondbacks

• According to his manager, Paul Sewald will have to earn a high-leverage role.

Manager Torey Lovullo said at the time that Sewald would have to earn a leverage role in the wide-open bullpen competition. The skipper has been very pleased with the uptick in Sewald’s stuff so far this spring, and his history of having done it certainly works in his favor.

Lovullo’s comfort with Sewald, and Sewald’s familiarity with the Diamondbacks, played a role in their decision to sign him and his decision to turn down other offers.

“There were other options,” Sewald said. “The most important thing I can possibly do this year is be healthy and pitch — and what’s a better place to do that than here, where I live? I can sleep in my own bed. There’s just a lot less stress and moving parts being here.”

Dodgers

• The Brewers stole six bases off Dalton Rushing.

We all know that the Brewers love to run. Well, they were off to the races on Monday, stealing six bases off Dalton Rushing and Dodger pitchers. Not what you want. Rushing’s going to need to clean that up if he wants to get better behind the dish.

In daily leagues, Rushing might be a catcher to attack when grinding for steals.

• Andy Pages’s swing degraded as he tired last season, so he wants to stay in better shape. Additionally, he wants to improve his plate discipline.

During the playoffs, he had just four hits in 51 at-bats. Pages said he felt fatigued at the end of his first full season as an everyday player. As a result, bad habits crept into his swing. He couldn’t move the way he wanted. His swing path fell out of whack.

“When he would be on time, it would look like he was late, but he was really just cutting the ball,” Van Scoyoc said. “He was ready for it, geared up for it, and just his swing wasn’t in a place to do anything with it.”
…
Pages is determined to ensure his one poor postseason is a footnote. That starts with the 30 minutes he spends every day in the Dodgers’ hitting lab at Camelback Ranch. Rather than focus on fixing a swing that fell out of place by the end of last season, he’s trying to focus on when he should swing, if at all.

“I feel I can be a more complete hitter,” Pages said.

That requires having a more discerning eye at the plate. Only five qualified hitters in the majors had a lower walk rate last season than Pages (4.6 percent). The Dodgers’ lineup chased at the third-lowest rate in the majors in 2025, with no one chasing more frequently than Pages (swinging at 32 percent of pitches outside of the zone).

Giants

• Robbie Ray is throwing a new slider.

Of the 56 pitches that Ray threw in his fourth Cactus League start, 12 were sliders. They averaged 85.9 mph, 2.0 mph slower than where the pitch sat last season. If they looked different, that was by design.

“I’ve kind of been tweaking it over the last few weeks, just trying to get the consistent shape that I want on it,” Ray said. “I’m less concerned with the velocity on it, I’m more concerned with the shape of it. That was the main focus today.”

Marlins

• Braxton Garrett is going to change his pitch mix.

“He’s probably pitched a little bit old school in his past,” Moskos said. “Now, granted, I’m not going to take away his sinker to opposite-handed hitters, because it’s something he executes really well and there’s a lot of utility. So it’s going to be a little bit different. I could see usage changing some, but not maybe a complete, entire overhaul, just because he has had success at the Major League level before doing what he’s done, and we want to make sure that we capture that as well.”

• Christina De Nicola of MLB.com thinks Chris Paddack is already in the rotation.

Miami’s projected rotation consists of righties Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Max Meyer and Chris Paddack. Garrett seems like the logical choice to round out the starting staff as the lefty, though righty Janson Junk saw success in 2025 and is out of Minor League options. Plus, non-roster invitee Robby Snelling (MLB Pipeline’s No. 39 overall prospect) continues to impress.

Mets

• Kodai Senga’s manager thinks he’s finally healthy, with his fastball velocity up 2 mph.

In what he termed a “really good outing,” Senga allowed two solo home runs in 2 2/3 innings while making his Grapefruit League debut in the Mets’ 3-2 win over the Cardinals on Saturday at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

“Really good signs,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We saw it from the very beginning when we’re watching live BPs on the backfield. It’s not something that I’ve seen the two years that I’ve been here. On the first day 94-95 [mph], and then Day One, when he’s playing in a real game, and you see 97-98 and just how sharp he was. He’s healthy, and we can see it now.”

Nationals

• Nasim Nuñez will get some starts at third base.

Nasim Nuñez: Third base
Major League experience: 338 1/3 innings at shortstop, 91 innings at second base

Manager’s perspective: “It’s a totally different vantage point than the middle infield, but he looked comfortable over there,” Butera said. “I think the biggest thing was just positioning, especially when guys are going to bunt. He’s really athletic, and he wants them to bunt because he wants to show it off. So some of it is just talking to him about, ‘We want to take the bunt away. We’ll take it away.’ I talked to him after and he’s like, ‘It was probably a little bit different than I expected.’

“The biggest thing for him was knowing where to stay on certain hitters. A left-handed hitter, when you’re at third base, sometimes you feel like you’re in no man’s land because you’re kind of that spot between short and third in that hole, and it just feels weird. I told him, whenever you’re not sure, we’ll have someone in the dugout always lining him up. But he enjoyed being out there.”

Padres

• Ty France will get some starts at second base in Spring Training, as the Padres evaluate him for a potential roster spot.

Stammen added that the veteran would get more opportunities at second and third base. France has made a total of three appearances at second base over the past four big-league seasons. He hasn’t played the hot corner since 2022. The added defensive versatility would give him a leg up for a roster spot on a squad with several first base/DH options.

France may be needed as an early-season backup at second if Sung-Mun Song misses the start of the season due to an oblique injury.