Mining the News (3/2/26)

Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

American League

Angels

• Mike Trout is feeling better and wants to run fast.

Mike Trout wants to let you know he’s aiming to reach 30 feet per second, which is considered an elite sprint speed by Statcast.

Trout showed that he still has plenty of speed on Saturday, when he reached 29.9 feet per second trying to beat out an infield single against the D-backs. It was Trout’s fastest sprint speed since he first sustained his meniscus tear in his left knee in late April 2024, which he believes is a good sign.
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For context, Trout, 34, averaged 27.9 feet per second last year, which ranked in the 62nd percentile and his fastest sprint speed was 29.7 feet per second. It was a drop off for Trout, who averaged 29.5 feet per second in ’23 (96th percentile) and 28.9 in ’24 (90th percentile) and regularly hit 30 feet per second.

But the drop was due to his issues with his left knee, as he tore his meniscus twice and had surgery twice in ’24. He returned last season but sustained a bone bruise in his left knee on April 30 when he stepped awkwardly on the first-base bag in Seattle. His fastest sprint speed of the season also came on that play. He returned May 30 but his speed wasn’t at his usual level.

Red Sox

• Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval will start the season on the IL.

Kutter Crawford is likely to start the year on the injury list as he builds up from wrist and knee surgeries; he’s just started facing hitters in live batting practice. Patrick Sandoval, coming off Tommy John surgery, has been facing batters in live BP, but has not yet entered a game and likely won’t be ready for a full starter workload by the end of camp.

Royals

• Kris Bubic cleaned up his motion to stay healthy.

Bubic spent less time this offseason on his arsenal and more on his delivery, trying new things to make it more efficient and “calmer,” in his own words.

Bubic traveled with the Royals for their final road trip last season, the West Coast swing through Anaheim and Sacramento, and he underwent a 30-minute movement assessment to better understand the way his body moves. While he didn’t build a delivery plan from that assessment, it did make him more aware of what his motor preferences are as he thought about the changes he might make.

His posture is what Bubic ended up focusing on the most, trying to stay more upright rather than bending over so much as he comes set.

National League

Braves

• Spencer Strider’s fastball velocity is way down.

So, how hard was Strider throwing on Saturday? His four-seamer touched 94.3 mph and averaged 93.1 mph. These numbers will rise over the next few weeks. This pitch averaged 95.5 mph last year, when he returned from the second elbow procedure.

Strider’s focus has always been about regaining the shape of his fastball. The heaters he threw last year didn’t have the late life we’d seen in the past. This is measured via induced vertical break. This number was 18.4 in 2023, 16.4 in 2025 and 17 on Saturday.

Cubs

• Shota Imanaga’s fastball is averaging 93 mph after averaging 91 mph last season.

Imanaga went back to the drawing board after a hamstring injury led to some subtle mechanical changes, a flurry of home runs allowed and an eventual drop in confidence. All that factored into the disappointing end to last season, when the Cubs went with a bullpen script rather than start Imanaga in an elimination game.

Imanaga’s four-seam fastball has unique characteristics, an extra zip that can make it appear harder and faster than the standard velocity measurement. Bigger separation between that primary pitch and his other options makes his off-speed stuff more effective.

Piecing all that together, the lefty averaging 93 mph on his fastball during his first outing in spring training was noteworthy.

• Michael Busch will not be platooned to start the season.

Busch, the left-handed hitter who finally filled their post-Rizzo opening at first base, will not work in a platoon system. The numbers don’t lie.

“The point is Bregman’s reaction to that,” Counsell said. “It’s a sign of someone who’s earned it. And now, like everybody else, you got to prove it.”

Diamondbacks

• Paul Sewald’s velocity is up ~1.5 mph.

Sewald allowed one run on one hit with a strikeout, but his fastball velocity was 92 mph on average, up from 90.4 mph last year. It was more closely on par with his previous Diamondbacks tenure — he spent last year with the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers.

“I feel good. I feel healthy. I feel like it should be there,” Sewald said. “That’s a great sign that I don’t have to feel like I have to overthrow to get to a certain velocity. I don’t have to take something off to locate. But if I could throw that at the top, that’s going to be just fine.”

Sewald dealt with shoulder injuries last season that held him to 22 appearances. There were times when he would throw the ball as hard as he could, turn around and feel disappointed by the reading.

Dodgers

• Freddie Freeman thinks he needs and will get to 47 PA during Spring Training.

Freeman got into some great spring-training nuts and bolts too, especially his target for plate appearances before the regular season starts. “I always start every year, if it’s a healthy year, about a week after New Year’s,” he said, then explained how his own number has evolved over time. “It’s kind of evolved. When you’re younger, you get as many at-bats as they tell you to get. Then as you get a little older, you realize by 45, 50 that’s kind of when I started to feel good. Some guys like to play a little less. I’ve played with guys back in the day that only needed 25. But I always seem to be okay the first week or two, and then there’s about a week in between where it looks like I’ve never played the game before. So I need to get that out of the way and then go back. So usually 45 to 50. I also like to shock the body, so I’ll play back to back quicker. I’ll play back to back this weekend. So it’s more of just getting ready and getting reps. And 47 is usually, I’m doing 47 this year. Is it going to change? Maybe. I get two at-bats in two innings, Doc wants me to play another couple innings of defense, I’ll get a third one. But right now it is 47 on the dot.”

• Gavin Stone is ahead of River Ryan with their recovery.

“River, the stuff is good. The command early on is not there. It will get better,” manager Dave Roberts recently said. “But the ball is coming out, so that’s good. He’s healthy. I think just kind of tightening up the command.

“Gavin has been really good. Gavin has been further along since his post-surgery, so he’s in a good spot.”

Giants

• Tyler Mahle reworked his slider this offseason.

Mahle has thrown seven different pitches over his big league career, but he spent the offseason focusing on getting more horizontal movement on his slider, which he used to strike out All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson윌슨 to lead off the bottom of the first.

“Just something that’s moving left,” said Mahle, who signed a one-year, $10 million deal with San Francisco over the offseason. “Last year, I had a cutter, but it wasn’t a very good pitch. It had its purpose, which is a big part of it, too. To get that to expand a little more gloveside is something I worked hard on.”

Mets

• Clay Holmes added a curveball to get called strikes.

Holmes unveiled a curveball during his Grapefruit League debut outing against the Blue Jays this week, throwing that pitch for the first time since 2021 — the year the Pirates traded him to the Yankees. It’s a pitch he’s not positive he will use in regular-season games but that he feels can potentially benefit him against left-handed hitters.

“I don’t really see it being a strikeout pitch,” Holmes said. “I think it’s more a pitch that I can throw for a strike early in counts when lefties are trying to see the ball close to them. Something that starts away could be a free strike type of thing. Maybe a little bit easier to throw for a strike than the sweeper to lefties. I could see it being useful there.”

• Devin Williams is working on a cutter.

Making his Mets debut in the team’s 14-3 win over the Cardinals on Friday, Williams served up a first-pitch homer to JJ Wetherholt on what manager Carlos Mendoza called a “cutter that didn’t cut much.” That’s notable for Williams, who is working on adding a cutter and slider to his arsenal after spending the first seven years of his career almost exclusively as a fastball-changeup artist.

• Craig Kimbrel is trying out a cutter.

Kimbrel said he was “more focused” as he faced another team for the first time this spring, though he admitted being a “little frustrated” by the pair of two-out walks. He even threw one cutter during his 25-pitch inning, testing out a new pitch he’s been working on this spring.

“It’s a pitch I’m kind of trying to mix in, trying to get guys off my fastball and open up some more offspeed opportunities,” Kimbrel said. “It’s coming along. How much I’m going to use it? I think how well I can command it and control it is going to have a lot to do with that.”

Nationals

• Miles Mikolas is experimenting with a split change.

Never one who feared tinkering with his arsenal, Mikolas is using this spring to experiment with a split changeup, taking velocity away from the straight splitter he’s thrown in past seasons. He’s also endeavoring to develop more “sweepy” action on his slider, hoping it can become a better swing-and-miss pitch.

Phillies

• Sounds like Bryson Stott will remain in a platoon because of how well Edmundo Sosa hits lefties.

Thomson didn’t commit Friday.

“We’ll see. Sosa hits lefties so well,” he said. “It’s hard to keep him out of the lineup.”

He’s not wrong. Sosa hit .318 with an .895 OPS versus left-handers last season. Otto Kemp has also gotten work at second, slugging .462 against lefties in his rookie campaign.

The Phillies would call that a good problem to have. What they really want, though, is for their former top prospect to become the complete, everyday player they always believed he could be. The defense and speed were never in question.

“That’s a good sign,” Thomson said of Stott reaching base each time he’s faced a southpaw. “If he’s hitting lefties, that means he’s staying on the ball and using the field. He’s looked very, very good.”

• Orion Kerkering is now throwing a splitter.

Kerkering said he threw a few splitters, which is something he hasn’t thrown in the past.

“We joke around,” he said. “It’s like kick-change, kick-split, kick-split-change, however you want to call it.”

Kerkering throws a sweeper, a four-seam fastball and a two-seam fastball. But Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham and assistant pitching coach Mark Lowy suggested a fourth pitch this offseason. They landed on the splitter.

• Andrew Painter is working to improve his command.

The elusive fastball command first returned in January. Andrew Painter felt it as he approached catch-play, bullpen sessions and flat ground work with greater intention and focus on his targets. He long tossed again. He worked on re-upping his arm slot. He finally spent a chunk of his offseason away from the Phillies’ Clearwater complex, simply being a normal person, a normal baseball player. And command, often the last trait to return after Tommy John surgery, came back again.

It was noticeable in bullpens this spring. And it was noticeable on Sunday, when Painter threw 20 pitches and conjured a few powerful whiffs while sending New York Yankees hitters back to the dugout in quick succession in two innings of work.