A month ago, Dave Roberts was asked if the Dodgers’ hope was for Shohei Ohtani to be back in the team’s pitching rotation by May this season.

“I think that’s about right, yeah,” the manager responded, speaking on Feb. 1 at the club’s preseason fan fest event. “And it might be earlier.”

Fast-forward to Thursday, however, and ...Read more

Another baseball season, heavy with hope, begins on March 17 with the first of two games between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers in, of all the “we are the world” places, Tokyo.

What is being called “traditional” Opening Day is set to take on March 27, with one Opening Day game moved to March 28 so that George M. ...Read more

Giancarlo Stanton’s return to Tampa is imminent. His return to the field is a different story.

On Thursday, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters that Stanton is expected to rejoin the club in Tampa this weekend. The designated hitter has been in New York due to a personal matter while also dealing with tennis elbows. Those ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The Padres seem headed to another competitive season in a 15-team league that serves up six playoff berths, with two or three teams that raise a figurative white flag on Opening Day and a few others that lack the pitching to really go for it.

A constant to this unprecedented Padres era of consistent competitive relevance is the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It took some four hours of work, roughly 1,200 Rubik's Cubes, and years' worth of knowledge with the six-side, 54-panel puzzle.

Ever since high school, minor league Dodgers reliever Jack Dreyer has been able to master the Rubik's Cube; getting so good he not only solves them in as little as 20 seconds, but has learned to arrange...Read more

PEORIA, Ariz. — Baseball can beat you down.

Will Mitch Garver bounce back?

In the fourth inning of an 18-9 loss to the White Sox on Saturday, the 34-year-old veteran crouched in a slightly open stance, his bat resting below his helmet, peering at the pitcher. Chicago’s Nick Nastrini set from the stretch and unfurled a 95-mph fastball along...Read more

PHOENIX — It all came as advertised.

The 99-mph heat. The late-diving, hard-biting splitter. The overwhelming, if still raw, stuff that many expect will make him a future ace … if not more.

In his first official Major League Baseball contest, in the Dodgers’ 4-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds in Cactus League play at Camelback Ranch, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Four months later, it's the most grueling memories that have also become the most meaningful ones.

When the Dodgers won the World Series last October, it set off a cathartic celebration throughout the team and around the city. Old postseason demons had been vanquished. A club that had repeatedly fallen short of expectations — ...Read more

NEW YORK — It will be a while before Luis Gil returns to the mound.

The American League’s reigning Rookie of the Year has been shut down with a high-grade lat strain following an MRI, Aaron Boone told reporters on Monday. The Yankees‘ manager said that Gil won’t throw for at least six weeks as he continues to get exams and opinions from...Read more

CHICAGO — Pete Rose’s entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame likely moved one step closer late Friday when President Donald Trump announced he would soon pardon the all-time hits leader.

While Trump’s expected pardon for the federal crime of tax evasion has nothing to do with Rose being banned from Major League Baseball for betting as ...Read more

PEORIA, Ariz. — On the morning of March 21, 2024, Scott Servais sat in his office at the Peoria Sports Complex. Two nights prior, his Seattle Mariners posted 18 hits and 12 runs (with just five strikeouts) in a 12-3 clubbing of the Colorado Rockies, followed by a deserved day off. They'd soon wrap a sizzling spring with more runs per game (6.3...Read more

PHOENIX — Jameson Taillon was among the 43,326 fans in Minute Park for Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, his arm in a brace following his second Tommy John surgery as he watched former Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Daniel Hudson, a fellow two-time Tommy John survivor, nail down the final three outs for the Washington Nationals.

"That was a ...Read more

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Pressure doesn’t make perfect.

Colorado Rockies outfielder Nolan Jones learned that harsh lesson last season.

“That was the ultimate mistake that I made, I wanted to be perfect,” he said. “I set big goals. I wanted to hit 30 homers. I wanted to steal 30 bases. I wanted to win a Gold Glove.

“I wanted to be ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — This spring there is a palpable buzz coming out of the Boston Red Sox camp in Fort Myers that can be heard all the way up the gulf coast to Steinbrenner U. Where the Yankees are now anticipating their biggest challenge to American League East supremacy coming from an old familiar foe about to rise out of dormancy.

You have to ...Read more

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — He is neither a phenom nor an established hitter. He is not a new face and not a darling of the preseason hype. He is not a kid anymore, and he hasn’t yet scored the big contract.

He is, simply, hope.

Hope that the Tampa Bay Rays have less volatility and more consistency in center field. Hope that he is the rare ...Read more

TEMPE, Ariz. — Andrew Benintendi hoped for the best from tests after getting hit by a pitch in the first inning Thursday against the Cleveland Guardians.

Instead, the Chicago White Sox left fielder learned he would miss four to six weeks with a nondisplaced fracture in his right hand.

“I think we were hoping for better news, but in the ...Read more

PHOENIX — For all the awards he won last season, and all the ways he amazed the Dodgers and their fan base in his first season with the club, Shohei Ohtani faces almost as many questions as he embarks on the 2025 season.

After offseason shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum, will he be as explosive at the plate in his second campaign in ...Read more

NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole’s first start of the spring had the Blue Jays swinging and missing, as the Yankees’ ace struck out five on Friday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

The right-hander, using a six-pitch mix, induced nine whiffs over 46 offerings and 3.1 innings. Cole allowed three hits and one earned run — courtesy of a Will ...Read more

MESA, Ariz. — Justin Turner didn’t waste any time getting into Cactus League games.

Despite his veteran status, entering his 17th big-league season, Turner did not use that as a reason to ease his way into camp. After officially signing with the Cubs on a one-year, $6 million deal Feb. 20, Turner was in the spring lineup four days later. ...Read more