LOS ANGELES — For many fans, Major League Baseball's opening day is somewhat of an unofficial holiday. Though this year offers a different viewing experience.

Instead of turning on ESPN or a regional sports channel to catch their favorite team, there will only be one game kicking off the season, and it will be streaming exclusively on Netflix...Read more

SEATTLE — Julio Rodríguez was right.

On Oct. 20, 2025, Seattle’s star center fielder stood in an eerily quiet clubhouse, digesting the shards of another shattered dream. Rodríguez was a fitting symbol for how unforgivably a game — and a season — can flip, from euphoria to this franchise’s most excruciating almost. The 24-year-old ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — To get back to the World Series, the Phillies are going to need the equivalent of one of these names:

— Addison Barger

— Evan Carter and Josh Jung

— Andy Pages

— Gabriel Moreno

— Jeremy Peña

They might need the equivalent of one of these names:

— Corbin Carroll

— Randy Arozarena

— Yordan Alvarez

...Read more

NEW YORK — Shortly after the New York Yankees made Cade Winquest their first Rule 5 draft pick in 14 years in December, the former St. Louis Cardinal connected with his new pitching coach for lunch.

It was at The Smith in Midtown that Winquest, already in New York City visiting his girlfriend, first met Matt Blake in person. There, the two ...Read more

CHICAGO — Retired Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas filed a lawsuit against his former ballclub, Nike and Fanatics last week for allegedly using his identity for commercial purposes without his agreement.

The complaint, filed March 19 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, alleges that Nike, Fanatics, Fanatics Apparel and White Sox ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs are locking in the new face of their franchise.

The Cubs and All-Star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong are finalizing an agreement on a contract extension, pending medical exams, a source confirmed to the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday.

Crow-Armstrong, who turns 24 on Wednesday, last year became just the second ...Read more

Buster Posey is running a bold, brash experiment. For the sake of the Bay Area’s sports fans, it better work.

Greatness for the San Francisco Giants in 2026? Please. That’s greedy.

Just don’t let the floor cave in.

Just be interesting.

Give folks a reason not to click away by the sixth inning.

Just escape the aggressively bland, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ rotation order is set for the first homestand of the season. And another wild spring training start from right-hander Roki Sasaki didn’t change the plan.

“He’s going to start the fourth game of the season,” manager Dave Roberts said Monday after a 7-7 tie with the Angels. “He’s got to go ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Can you dig it? Can you hear it?

They're getting louder, the echoes from 2002, when Lakers flags flapped above car doors all over L.A., and for a third consecutive year, residents paraded, gleeful and triumphant, with another championship to celebrate.

As well as any place, Los Angeles understands: Great teams win championships...Read more

PHOENIX — By the time Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki reached the blue backdrop set up in the Surprise Stadium interview room, he’d diagnosed the issue.

“I think it’s because of the two-seamer,” Sasaki said through an interpreter. “It kind of caused my forearm to pronate a little more. Also my arm slot was a little ...Read more

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — It’s the time of the year when baseball is dominated by feel-good stories. The New York Mets are feeling especially good about their player development department as they break camp to begin the 2026 season, with 2024 first-round draft pick Carson Benge set to play right field Thursday at Citi Field when they host the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Robert Vargas is in a bit of a time crunch.

The Los Angeles-based artist has embarked on one of his most ambitious murals. Titled "Samurai of the Diamond," it features the Dodgers' trio of Japanese stars — two-way player Shohei Ohtani and pitchers Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — in larger-than-life fashion on a 12-story...Read more

CHICAGO — The 2026 baseball season begins this week, and for that we’re eternally grateful.

Sure, it starts too early and ends too late, leading to cold-weather games every spring and World Series games into November.

But for much of the next seven months, a three-hour game provides a temporary respite from spiking gas prices, growing ...Read more

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — From a red and gold espresso machine to Up with Purple.

Michael Lorenzen has lived the spectrum this spring.

He experienced the raucous World Baseball Classic — Team Italy provided caffeine shots in the dugout — and the fist-in-the-face reality of raising the Colorado Rockies from the ashes.

At 34, he is the right ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The truth of this Los Angeles Dodgers season was recently found in a place where all sports truths are clipped and tapered and styled into reality.

The barbershop.

Of course, the barbershop, where ball talk is real talk, and where the expectations around the Dodgers upcoming quest for a three-peat recently smothered me like a ...Read more

PEORIA, Ariz. — After the Seattle Mariners' 6-4 victory over the A's at Hohokam Stadium on Thursday night, the players made their way through the customary postgame handshake line, each offering up fist bumps or high-fives. Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena met in the line. Would it be awkward? Would it be cordial? Would it be confrontational?

...Read more

NEW YORK — Well, let’s face it. The World Baseball Classic was a smashing success, everything MLB had hoped for, except for Team USA. But like it or not, as long as the finals are held in Miami’s domed LoanDepot Park, where the drumbeats, horns and cowbells from the huge contingent of Latinos who live in the Miami area turn the place into ...Read more