WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals have added a much-needed experienced arm to their bullpen, albeit one trying to bounce back from a rough year. Veteran Lucas Sims formally signed a one-year deal with the Nats this morning, the 30-year-old right-hander getting a major league contract and thus a near-guaranteed spot on the Opening Day staff. Nee

SARASOTA, Fla. – There aren’t many prospects in baseball with an 80 grade tool.  The grading scale, ranging from 20 to 80, evaluates five different tools for position players: Hit (evaluating contact), power, run (evaluating overall speed offensively and defensively), arm and field.  MLB Pipeline’s highest graded position player, Roman Anthony, doe

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Josiah Gray knows exactly where he currently stands in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. “I’m about six months and three weeks in,” he said. “It’ll be seven months on the 24th.” Forgive the Nationals right-hander for being able to recite such specific mileposts off the top of his head. It’s just the way it is for any rehabb

SARASOTA, Fla. – Orioles pitching coach Drew French was eager to begin working with Tomoyuki Sugano even before the Japanese right-hander agreed to a $13 million contract. The deal became official and French approached interpreter Yuto Sakurai with a favor. Simple in nature but hugely meaningful. “I said I need to start learning his language a litt

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Before his team took the field for the first official full-squad workout of the spring, Davey Martinez gathered everyone together this morning for his first “Circle of Trust” meeting of the spring. No, there weren’t any camels. Nor any other live animals. Yet. (There’s still five weeks of camp to go, of course.) There was, h

SARASOTA, Fla. – Tomoyuki Sugano can work through a lineup and jet lag with similar ease. The first bullpen session for Sugano this morning lived up to the tremendous hype. He threw 35 pitches and exhibited his usual pinpoint control. Only the slider was omitted from a repertoire that consisted of a four-seam fastball, cutter, splitter, sinker and

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – James Wood sat out defensive drills on the first day of full-squad workouts, the Nationals left fielder hampered by left quadriceps tendinitis. Wood insisted it’s nothing serious, and he was able to take batting practice today with no apparent issues. The ailment has been bothering him since the offseason, though, enough to

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles are hoping to catch Albert Suárez in a bottle. They signed pitcher Rodolfo Martinez to a minor league contract on Nov. 1, the magnitude of it pretty much lost on the baseball world. He hadn’t been with an affiliated team since 2019 in the Giants system, with his travels taking him to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and J

SARASOTA, Fla. – Jordan Westburg is intense. Fans like intense.  Would his friends and family describe him that way? “Probably,” Westburg laughed. “I can be intense, you know? I’m not gonna dodge those allegations. But I do think there’s a lighter side, there’s a less serious side to me off the field especially. But here, I’m kind of very busi

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – There’s no ill will. Josh Bell wished he could’ve been a National this entire time, but he has always understood why Mike Rizzo included him in the Juan Soto trade package that brought five prospects to D.C. in August 2022 and remade the franchise for the long term. “That’s just baseball,” he said. “I would have made the sam