Spring Training has arrived and as I’ve been writing daily notes for myself to recap all spring training starting pitchers, I realized I should publish them on the site for quick access.
I’ll be livestreaming every morning 10am-12pm ET at playback.tv/pitcherlist as I watch all of the starts with y’all and answer all your fantasy baseball questions.
Major SP News To Know
Sean Manaea is dealing with a strained oblique muscle. Expect him to start the year on the IL and miss a heavy chunk of April, at the very least. Expect all of Griffin Canning, Tylor Megill, and Paul Blackburn, with the possibility of the Mets signing Jose Quintana or trading for Jordan Montgomery or Marcus Stroman. Monitor this.
Rangers prospect Alejandro Rosario is undergoing right elbow surgery and will miss the full year. He was a top prospect with electric stuff and incredible control, and I hope we see him before 2027.
Andrew Heaney signed a one-year, $5M deal with the Pirates. It lowers the chance of Bubba Chandler making the opening-day rotation with only one spot remaining for him, Bailey Falter, and Johan Oviedo.
The Red Sox are likely missing Kutter Crawford for their first turn of the rotation, if not more, as he recovers from a sore knee.
After taking a line drive to the head in his first appearance of the spring, Bobby Miller returned to the mound in a bullpen session on Monday. I’m expecting Miller to be held back in the spring after this, making him highly unlikely to start in the rotation. Drop him in your SP rankings – I’d have him outside the Top 100 at this point.
Expected Rotations By Team
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Boom. That easy to see his velo (insane!) his excellent flat attack angle, near seven feet of extension, and decent iVB. We can also track pitch usage changes and velocity bumps, too. AND give you expected results on contact. It’s incredible, y’all. Get access via PL Pro at 15% off with code SPRINGISHERE
Statcast Games – TV
CIN vs. LAD
CWS vs. TEX
SD vs. CHC
Brady Singer (CIN) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 4 K. H’ok. So Singer is down a tick (whatever, first spring game) and did the normal sinker/slider dance of called/swinging strikes…BUT GUESS WHAT?! Singer’s biggest problem has been LHB as it is for all sinker/slider guys and he threw the thing he should throw. A CUTTER. Five times. Was it good? Ehhhh, 2/5 strikes with terrible misses and maybe one good one. I love that he’s trying this out, though. It could actually make him reliable if that pitch can be featured 30% of the time against LHB (15% of the time here) and actually, you know, good. I’m awfully excited to see more and find out cause hot dang, it’s not ready now.
Carson Spiers (CIN) – 2.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 K. Hey, eight whiffs across five pitches! Nothing has changed, though. Nope. Sigh.
Tyler Glasnow (LAD) – 1.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 2 K. He’s at last year’s velocity. Stop being afraid of drafting Glasnow.
Shane Smith (CWS) – 1.2 IP, 4 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 1 K. He throws 96/97 mph with intent to elevate and looks filthy…but the command was wild. We saw some knee buckling curves at 82/83 mph, too, but the nerves got to him or maybe he’s just this wild? Definitely monitor him, he earned three quick popups on heaters to complete the second, after all (all on up-and-in four-seamers to RHB. He was pulled mid-way through the 1st since it’s the spring).
Nick Nastrini (CWS) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K. Velocity is back to 95 mph with 17″+ vert, but nah. He doesn’t command it like a pro yet.
Wikelman Gonzalez (CWS) – 1.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K. Oh man. Two solo shots derived from poor command including a hanger of an 0-2 curveball at 20 mph slower than the heater. I want to believe he can put it together given his absurd 1.8 HAVAA that would rival Joe Ryan but comes in three ticks harder at 97 mph. It could easily be the spring n all, but he was all over the place and he may just be a reliever.
Jon Gray (TEX) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K. He should close. I don’t care.
Randy Vásquez (SD) – 2.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 K. He may get a look to start, but with 1-2 ticks down in velocity at a time when he’s trying to earn the #5 spot…that doesn’t bode well.
Matthew Boyd (CHC) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 2 K. A weird one. Less velo on the changeup, but less movement too? A harder slider with far less movement? Ehhhh, not ideal but obviously we ignore it. First game y’all!
Ben Brown (CHC) – 2.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 K. Yes, he added a changeup…that he threw thrice to a pair of LHB. This isn’t the pitch we’re dying for him to have. He needs something harder and closer to the four-seamer he can throw to both LHB and RHB. No thanks.
Statcast Games – No TV
STL vs. NYM
KC vs. ATH
AZ vs. CLE
Steven Matz (STL) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 K. He exists. Cool.
José Buttó (NYM) – 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K. Look, the Mets are running out of SP options and maybe Buttó is involved. Not fun, I know.
Cole Ragans (KC) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K. PEW PEW PEW. I still can’t believe they didn’t let us watch him sitting 97 mph. Get the slider down-and-away you rascal.
Osvaldo Bido (ATH) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 4 K. I’m still worried he breaks the Huascar Rule, but if he keeps up the strikeouts, we may need to ignore that and go for it. He has a rotation spot, after all.
Gunnar Hoglund (ATH) – 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K. Whoa, I think Statcast has it wrong here. Hoglund was sitting around 96+ mph with some weird sub 90 mph “heaters” that were probably sliders. Pay attention to this guy – he had roughly 17″ of vert, though it came with a high release angle…but 6.8 extension. Yeah, pay attention. It looked like a cutter + slider + curve in the mix as well and that’s all kinds of fun if he throws strikes, even with just 1/12 whiffs.
Zac Gallen (AZ) – 1.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 K. Fastball sat 3.5 ticks down to 90.6 mph. Yikes. First game of the spring as a vet who has had a heavy workload over the years. Not much of a surprise he’s down and get scared if he’s significantly down the same amount next time and still down in the third one.
Joey Cantillo (CLE) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 3 K. Hmmm. He lost a touch of velo with less extension and less HAVAA possibly to gain more iVB on the heater. I wonder if that means the arm angle changed too? Curious if he carries over in his next one, specifically the extension as he was 7.5 feet and dropped to a still elite 7.2 mark.
Slade Cecconi (CLE) – 2.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K. Nothing too interesting save for leaning on the slider more than last year, which could very well be small sample size.
No Statcast – TV
LAA vs. SF
Kyle Hendricks (LAA) – 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K. Look at the new prof, showing how it’s done in the spring. I’m happy for him. I’m happy he has this moment before what looks like an inevitable disaster in 2025.
José Suarez (LAA) – 2.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K. He could find some innings this year and note he’s reserved just for 15-teamers and deeper.
Mason Black (SF) – 1.1 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 K. Womp womp. Black has some potential and maybe it comes out in future spring starts.
Carson Seymour (SF) – 2.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 2 K. It’s another Carson and I don’t see a ton of promise for redraft leagues here.
No Statcast – No TV
SF vs. COL
MIL vs. SEA
Justin Verlander (SF) – 2.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K. Yep, things are normal. Don’t expect strikeouts n whatnot.
Carson Whisenhunt (SF) – 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K. He’s a prospect. Not much else here.
Chase Dollander (COL) – 2.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K. You’re going to hear about Dollander a lot. He pitches for the Rockies, sadly, and that just makes it so hard to buy into him.
Logan Gilbert (SEA) – 1.0 IP, 2 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 3 K. Okay. Welcome to spring.
What To Watch Today On TV
SPs to watch on TV today #SpringSPnotes Get morning updates to EVERY SP via my daily Plus Pitch Podcast AND SP Roundup article on the Pitcher List site.Jacob Misiorowski – YOOOO watch this guy.Ronel Blanco – CH back?Taj Bradley – Cutter spotted well?Reynaldo López – SL for strikes?
— Nick Pollack (@nickpollack.pitcherlist.com) 2025-02-25T17:08:31.033Z
