Spring Training has arrived and as I’ve been writing daily notes for myself to recap all spring training starting pitchers for the Plus Pitch Podcast, I realized I should publish them on the site for quick access.
I’ll be livestreaming every weekday morning 10am-12pm ET at Twitch.tv/pitcherlist, as I watch all of the starts with y’all and answer all your fantasy baseball questions.
Major SP News To Know
The Red Sox have made our day. Connelly Early will be in the Boston rotation over Johan Oviedo, though he may be a little limited in his first outing or two. GRAB. HIM. NOW.
Meanwhile, the Rays have sucked all joy out of the morning after announcing that Ryan Pepiot will start the season on the IL with hip inflammation. Woe is me. You’d think Ian Seymour is the obvious choice to grab the open spot, but Joe Boyle is getting the pearl instead. No, I do not recommend chasing Boyle’s HIPSTER nature. In addition, Nick Martinez has slight hamstring tightness and has been pushed back to the fourth spot in the rotation to give him more time to rest.
The Astros have optioned Spencer Arrighetti to Triple-A. We’ve been in the dark about their plans with Ryan Weiss, Lance McCullers Jr. Jr. and The Pasta Pirate, and consider Arrighetti an arm to monitor for a potential add once he returns.
Zack Wheeler sat 94 mph in his first rehab game. We’ll take that all day – it’ll likely climb up to 95/96 mph – and let’s be thrilled he’s not 91/92 mph. He’s worth your attention.
The Blake Snell timeline keeps getting worse. Initially “not sure about Opening Day’, is now “Hoping to be back before the end of May.”
Those hoping for Brandon Woodruff to skip an IL stint are in luck: He’ll make his season debut on Tuesday, March 31st. I’m highly skeptical it’ll be worth your time given his massive velocity drop in his last outing.
Expected Rotations By Team
Monday’s Games
CLE vs. ARI
CWS vs. ATH
ATL vs. PIT
BAL vs. WSH
MIN vs. BOS
NYY vs. CHC
CIN vs. MIL
DET vs. COL
SUG vs. HOU
KCR vs. TEX
LAA vs. LAD
TBR vs. PHI
SEA vs. SDP
MTY vs. SFG
STL vs. SPR
Merrill Kelly (ARI) – 2.0 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K. His velocity is back to normal at 92 mph and despite his feel not being on point, it’s Kelly. The bad news? The Sneks have a horrible opening schedule. I feel like you don’t need to chase this.
Luis Morales (ATH) – 2.2 IP, 3 ER, 1 H, 4 BB, 2 K. The rotation spot is his and that four-seamer can be legit at times with 15/16″ of vert at a decent arm angle at 97+ mph, but he doesn’t know where it or the sinker are going. There’s a slow 80 mph sweeper in there too, that floats over the plate, and I hate this profile a ton. He’s also pitching for the Athletics, after all.
Didier Fuentes (ATL) – 4.2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K. Didier! The four-seamer is still 96/97 mph and he got it upstairs for just 1/33 whiffs (wait, what) and the slider/splitter failed to miss bats, too. Huh. He got hit hard 64% of the time, too, and I’ll wait until we get Fuentes comfortably starting with a better slider and four-seamer feel.
Shane Baz (BAL) – 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 5 K. Daaaang, this is a cool one. The curve and changeup stayed low to LHB, and the cutter saw action for 71% strikes. He faced few RHB, which made the sinker disappear and the four-seamer fail to generate a whiff, but he avoided the heart of the plate and let his elite curveball cook. This is lovely.
Chris Bassitt (BAL) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K. 35 pitches here, likely to keep him warm for his start later in the rotation. A little down in velo, and likely not going as hard as he can, while displaying nothing interesting for me to chase in anything but a deep league.
Johan Oviedo (BOS) – 3.1 IP, 6 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 3 K. He lost the job to Early after this one, ending his spring with a 4.91 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. If only he could locate the heater upstairs (and get its vert back), while not losing so much velocity. He was 93 mph here (down 2.6 ticks?!) on a day when he was fighting for a rotation spot. Yikes.
Shota Imanaga (CHC) – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 K. Even in his final tune-up, Shota still sat 92/93 mph across 81 pitches, up 1.5 ticks from last year, hitting 93.4 mph on his final pitch of the game. THAT’S. WHAT’S. UP.
Anthony Kay (CWS) – 3.2 IP, 7 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 4 K. No no no no. This was really bad. He could not locate against LHB, while the slider was demolished inside to RHB (I’m surprised!), his changeup didn’t do much, and his only decent offering was 95/96 mph four-seamers down for called strikes. Not his day. I’m still very interested and will monitor closely. I’m kinda tempted to stream on Sunday @MIL in deeper leagues, but it’s so dang risky.
Brady Singer (CIN) – 4.0 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 K. Yep, this is Singer. No cutters, no four-seamers, just sinkers and sliders with a sprinkle of sweepers, which are awfully close to the slider, just with more lift. Yeah, more vert. It’s weird. It can work as a different look, but he doesn’t do it much. Anyway, I’m not a fan, per usual.
Slade Cecconi (CLE) – 4.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 2 K. Ayyyyy, surely the cutter is being thrown over 30% of the time agai–Five? You threw FIVE CUTTERS?! WHY. I don’t understand. Slade found the thing that works so well, noticed it, shrugged, and went back to his old self. Fine, not his old self – he’s throwing more sweepers at 82 mph than sliders at 85 mph, BUT WHY. Welp, guess I’m not going to the Slade Brigade’s next meeting.
Joey Cantillo (CLE) – 4.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 6 K. Cantillo’s vulcan-change is still the focus, but his extension has fallen a significant amount, from 7.4 to 7.1, without the typical velocity drop that outlines less exertion in his final tune-up. Maybe it comes back in-season. Anyway, he still gives me anxiety with so many fastballs sitting comfortably over the middle of the plate, and I don’t think I can lean into his HIPSTER nature. I have him ranked lower than other pitchers who likely won’t have as successful of a season due to the fact that I’ll at least be able to make a quick decision on those pitchers, while Cantillo is sure to oscillate all season, rooted in that poor fastball and shifty command.
Jack Flaherty (DET) – 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 K. Flaherty has done very little to get me encouraged about this season in Detroit. He doesn’t look any different, which is a little alarming given that he needed something to change from what we saw last year.
Tatsuya Imai (HOU) – 3.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 K. Stretched out to 79 pitches in cool, but I hate that he needed so many to not even finish the fourth against a really poor lineup. His four-seamer command was far from what we expect to see, returning sub 60% strikes and returning only three whiffs on 36 thrown. I also love that he sat 96 mph consistently throughout the game, and is a pitcher who knows how to utilize the fuel in his tank properly. I wish I loved his secondaries more. His slider’s movement is a bit erratic, though he was generally able to spot them down-and-gloveside, and his curve + change + splitter are a bit all over the place. I still like Imai based on his heater and slider + I expect him to adapt across the year and find a #3 pitch he can properly trust (outside of the splitter), but there may be some disappointments early.
Michael Wacha (KCR) – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 5 K. Blegh. The changeup was put in his back pocket to focus on the fastball and cutter, and his control was horrific. I do like that cutter focus, and he’s still on my radar as a random streaming option, but nothing more.
Reid Detmers (LAA) – 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 3 K. Detmers is going four-seamer/slider, as expected, and the curve is a show-me called strike offering, with a splitter for a changeup, which doesn’t get me amped. Why? Because I want southpaws to have a proper changeup they can command to RHB, and splitters are more volatile. So how much do I like Detmers as FF/SL? Meh. It’s a good slider, and good four-seamer, but that’s it, and it’s not enough as a proper SP, especially with a poor offense and defense supporting him. I’m out.
Roki Sasaki (LAD) – 2.0 IP, 5 ER, 0 H, 6 BB, 2 K. He’s still in the rotation. Why? I don’t know. My fella can’t throw 45% strikes on his four-seamer and live life normally. But he still is. Maybe Wrobleski will piggyback with him and make it clear that Justin should just start the game instead of Roki. Wouldn’t that be nice.
Bailey Ober (MIN) – 4.1 IP, 4 ER, 10 H, 3 BB, 3 K. He’s under 90 mph still and got THWOMPED. At least he’s getting the four-seamer upstairs to LHB, eh? Oh dear.
Carlos Lagrange (NYY) – 2.2 IP, 8 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 4 K. Oh noooo. He had a terrible third inning with back-to-back HRs, and had inherited runs in both that frame and the next one, so don’t read too much into this. What actually matters is his 48% four-seamer strike rate, which obviously needs to get better. He was well in the top half of the zone to RHB, though, and let’s forget this ever happened.
Jesús Luzardo (PHI) – 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 6 K. I gotta say, I absolutely love that Luzardo is throwing sinkers to RHB near the same rate as four-seamers. He got Singled Out a bit here on said sinker (he didn’t locate them super well, but still decently!) and I’m excited for him this year. Just stay healthy, fella.
Hunter Barco (PIT) – 2.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 3 K. Barco made the team and will likely piggy-back Mlodzinski, though I’m not sure you should care. Vulture Wins? Okay, maybe. He does have a very interesting 94 mph two-plane four-seamer at 12″ vert and 17″ ride, but he lacks the devastating changeup we want, nor a stupid good slider to take out LHB. I dunno, it’s kinda mid to me.
Germán Márquez (SDP) – 4.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 8 K. He was opened for and somehow had 22 whiffs on 81 pitches. It was a game of “Imma throw all the curveballs that are actually 86 mph gyro sliders” and it was kinda hilarious. He just continued to throw them down and gloveside to both LHB and RHB and they kept swinging. Not the worst lineup either, with Arozarena (HR), Raliegh, Naylor, Julio, garver, Donovan, etc., and maybe he still has it in him. Naaaaaaah.
Luis Castillo (SEA) – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K. He spotted the slider super well to RHB (nice!) and kept the four-seamer up at 95 mph (nice!). He’s also lost a whole lot of movement on his fastballs and changeup, and displayed no gains from the declining fastball velocity. But hey! A new cutter thrown three times at 91 mph! ADAPTING. I hope that helps.
Dustin May (STL) – 4.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 4 K. THERE’S NO DATA. I hate this. So. Much. Why? It was an exhibition game against their minor league squad in their park. IT’S DUMB. What I do know is he earned 9/61 whiffs and threw 66% strikes with a 30% CSW. I’ll take it.
Steven Matz (TBR) – 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 K. He’s not doing everything I want with his changeup, but I love that he’s elected to go for more depth on the slider at 85 mph vs. the high lift 88 mph version. It did well against LHB here and the 94 mph is decent enough. I kinda love him in deeper leagues right now.
MacKenzie Gore (TEX) – 4.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 3 K. We got another trio of sinkers to LHB! That’s fun, especially considering nine total pitches to LHB, making it 33% usage. He also sat over a tick up at 96/97 mph and I’m kinda gung-ho for Gore. It sure does feel like it’s true breakout year with a much better team context.
Who To Monitor Today
SPs on the mound today #SpringSPnotes (This is the last one before opening day!)Get morning updates to EVERY SP via my daily SP Roundup article on the Pitcher List site.Ryan Pepiot – NOPE. Chuck Testa/IL with hip injury. Boyle is in rotation and I'm not interested.Edward Cabrera – Sinkers > FF?
— Nick Pollack (@nickpollack.pitcherlist.com) 2026-03-24T15:26:22.460Z
