The New York Yankees have retired more jersey numbers than any other team in baseball. They’ll be adding to that tally this season.

The team announced Wednesday that Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia’s No. 52 will enter Monument Park on Sept. 26, when the Yankees host the Baltimore Orioles during their final series of the 2026 regular season.

Sabathia will become the 24th Yankee to have his number retired. Among that group, both Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey wore No. 8, so Sabathia’s number will be the 23rd the club has retired.

“From the first number that hung in my locker to 52 forever hanging in Monument Park — this HOF journey has come full circle,” Sabathia wrote in a post on X. 

“To have my number retired by the New York Yankees this year is one of the greatest honors of my life. The LegaCCy continues.”

Sabathia, 45, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last year, along with outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and reliever Billy Wagner. Although the southpaw spent the first seven-plus seasons of his career in Cleveland, where he notably won the AL Cy Young Award in 2007, his plaque in Cooperstown features a Yankees cap.

After lending a big hand to the Milwaukee Brewers in the second half of the 2008 season and guiding them back to the postseason for the first time since 1982, Sabathia signed a then-record-setting contract with the Yankees. He helped them win the World Series in 2009 and ultimately piled up 11 seasons in the Bronx before walking away from the game in 2019 following his 19th season.

Sabathia is one of just 15 major-league pitchers to record at least 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts. He’s a six-time All-Star and two-time MLB wins leader. He accomplished the latter in 2009 and 2010, stitching together 19 and 21 wins, respectively.

During the 2009 postseason, he went 3-1 with a 1.98 ERA over five starts. That year’s ALCS MVP, he recorded 32 strikeouts and just nine walks in the process, and the Yankees claimed their 27th World Series title, still their most recent.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper will miss the next two games after the death of his father, Robert.

Assistant Rob Zettler was the acting head coach for the Lightning’s home game against Toronto on Wednesday night and will again do so at Carolina on Thursday night.

Cooper, who coached the Lightning to Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021, was the head coach for Canada in the Milan Cortina Olympics. The Canadians left with the silver medals after losing 2-1 to the United States in overtime in the gold medal game.

“Thoughts and prayers, as always, to Coop and his family,” Zettler said Wednesday before facing the Maple Leafs. “That was the No. 1 thing, that he takes care of business back home. He left this morning to go back to Vancouver. What I am in confident in is our guys. They’ve been excellent in so many ways this year, including in times like this where’s Coop’s missing or something happens to one of the guys.”

The NHL restarted its season Wednesday after taking a break for the Olympic Games in Milan. Tampa Bay entered the day with a six-point lead in the Atlantic Division and the Lightning’s 78 points were tied with the Hurricanes for best in the Eastern Conference.

They went 19-1-1 over the final 21 games before the break.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

MESA, Arizona — Things were going on swimmingly at Sloan Park for the first four innings, with good Rockies pitching holding the Cubs down and Cade Horton throwing well after Jameson Taillon got lit up early on.

Then both teams scored six runs in the fifth inning, a frame that took nearly an hour to complete. The final football-like score of Rockies 14, Cubs 7 featured 26 hits, 12 walks, a couple of pickoffs and generally looked like the minor-league game it was after the fourth inning.

About Taillon, he served up a home run to Mickey Moniak on the game’s first pitch. After that a couple more hits led to a second run in the first, and then T.J. Rumfield homered off Taillon leading off the second. Don’t know whether Taillon was still working on mechanics, as he said after his first start, or whether this was something else. Here’s what we do know:

So there’s that.

Horton made his first spring outing and it was a good one. He issued a two-out walk in the fourth after retiring the first five hitters he faced. Overall he struck out a pair and threw 17 strikes in his 26-pitch outing. Here’s the final out Horton recorded, a strikeout of Zac Veen on a nasty curveball. He was also sitting at 96 on his fastball:

Most of the damage the Rockies did in their six-run fifth was charged to Caleb Thielbar, though in fairness, with one out and a couple of runners on, Thielbar induced a ground ball that had Michael Busch been playing first base, might have turned into an inning-ending double play with only one run scoring. But it wasn’t, a run scored and the next hitter, Ezequiel Tovar, smashed a three-run homer.

The Cubs scored six in the bottom of the fifth after most of the regulars, who started en masse in this one, had departed. Of those, only Alex Bregman, Ian Happ and Miguel Amaya had hits at all. Happ’s single in the fifth drove in two runs [VIDEO].

The Cubs made it 9-7 in the sixth on an RBI single by minor leaguer Devin Ortiz. Phil Maton and Hunter Harvey both had scoreless innings, and both executed pickoff plays, which was good to see.

Luke Little, unfortunately, again got himself in trouble with walks and then served up a two-run homer to Kyle McCann and wound up charged with five runs in the eighth. I suspect Little’s headed to Triple-A Iowa again. I’d love to see him succeed but he just doesn’t throw enough strikes. Jack Neely threw an uneventful ninth.

Matt Shaw made an error in right field after a single by old friend Nicky Lopez, and I wish I could show that to you but… there’s only a limited amount of video available from these non-televised games.

You have all probably already heard this news, but I wanted to mention it here:

Which now explains why Austin hadn’t played at all this spring. And this is likely why the Cubs signed Michael Conforto. I think of Conforto, Chas McCormick (who was the DH in today’s game and went 1-for-3) and Dylan Carlson, two of those three will make the team — and Moisés Ballesteros likely becomes the backup first baseman. When Ballesteros is ready for game action I suspect we will see him playing a lot of first base.

Attendance watch: A small crowd of 8,919 attended this game, likely the smallest crowd of the spring. That makes the season total for four dates 44,822, or 11,206 per date.

The Cubs head to Tempe to face the Angels Thursday afternoon. Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs and José Soriano goes for the Angels. Game time Thursday is 2:10 p.m. CT. Once again, no radio or TV for Thursday’s game.

Record: 2-4. Change on 2025: 0. 5-inning record: 1-5

And it was going so well, too… The D-backs jumped on the Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki in the bottom of the first. Nolan Arenado doubled in Geraldo Perdomo, and Ildemaro Vargas then doubled in a pair for a quick 3-0 lead. But it was more or less downhill from there. While Arizona actually outhit Los Angeles by a margin of 13-7, errors and walked doomed them: half of the ten runs conceded by the D-backs today were unearned, and their pitchers also issued nine walks. But there were positives, with three Diamondbacks going deep this afternoon for the first time: Pavin Smith (below), Tim Tawa and Jose Fernandez all homered.

It was Zac Gallen who started, though he only went one inning, being a little behind the other pitchers. That may factor into the decision as to who might replace Merrill Kelly as our Opening Day starter. He allowed a lead-off hit, but struck out two and went over 95 mph, including on the last of his 23 pitches. Drey Jameson took over in the second and was touched up for a pair of runs (one unearned), on two hits and a walk, but was also throwing hard, reaching 98 mph. That was the last pitcher the casual fan would probably recognize, and the results thereafter were… mixed, shall we say.

The Dodgers added a four-spot in the fifth, helped out by a pair of bases-loaded walks and an error by Ildemaro Vargas leading to two more unearned runs. They repeated the damage – four runs, two unearned – in the seventh, with a Jose Fernandez error a key play there. Gerardo Carillo and Hayden Durke were the only two of the ten pitchers used by Arizona to throw a full, clean frame, each striking out one in their inning of work. Despite the three errors, there were some good plays by the D-backs, notably a diving catch in left-field (below) by Ryan Waldschmidt. There were four ABS challenges today, only one being successful.

Tawa was the offensive star of the day, adding another hit and a walk to his home-run, while Druw Jones also picked up two hits, and Jordan Lawlar drew a pair of walks. Tomorrow, the D-backs hit the road again, heading off to Surprise to take on the Kansas City Royals. It’ll be our first chance to get a look at left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, with Ryan Thompson and Kade Stroud potentially also taking the mound.

The Cincinnati Reds ran their win streak to, well, a win streak on Wednesday with a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. It was their first true road game of the season as they shipped over to Camelback Ranch, and the squad got both excellent pitching and a pair of big dingers to win the day.

The Good

Nick Lodolo looked incredibly sharp in his first outing of Cactus League play, fanning 4 and scattering a pair of hits in 2.0 scoreless frames. Luis Mey rebounded from a rough initial outing of the spring to strike out the side for a hold in his perfect frame of relief, while lefty Brock Burke put up a scoreless frame of his own.

The offense, meanwhile, was powered quite literally by Sal Stewart and JJ Bleday. Sal swatted his first dinger of the spring to begin the scoring, a towering 440 foot blast to CF in the Top of the 2nd that gave Cincinnati a 1-0 lead. The following inning, Bleday knocked the snot out of an inside breaking ball, leaving a dent some 464 feet away down the LF line – a two-run shot that scored Hector Rodriguez and gave the Reds all the runs they would need on the day.

Nate Lowe singled and walked in his quest to make the Opening Day roster, while Leo Balcazar picked up yet another hit and now boasts a 1.334 OPS in this incredibly small spring sample size.

The Bad

Middle infield depth is already a bit of a question mark on this club, as the team’s regular 2B (Matt McLain) is currently the only other player projected on the roster who can cover SS when Elly De La Cruz needs a break. And on days when that happens, one of Sal Stewart or Spencer Steer would have to cover 2B, in theory, and neither of them has any real big league experience at the position in recent memory (or at all).

So, it’s a bit of a bummer to see both Edwin Arroyo and Michael Chavis have errors charged to them in this one since, in theory, both are glove-first backup options up the middle on the depth chart.

The Ugly

Lyon Richardson got bonked for a homer and a pair of hits in his one IP, failing to strike anyone out in the process. He’s now yielded 5 H and 3 ER with a walk and zero Ks in his pai of appearances so far this spring after having been DFA’d earlier in the winter (and clearing waivers).

There’s still a ton to like in his right arm, but it’s pretty clear he’s not right at the moment.

What’s Next

Chase Burns will make his second start of spring camp on Thursday afternoon back at Goodyear Ballpark when the Reds play host to Nick Pivetta and the San Diego Padres. Once again, there will be no televised coverage of the game, though audio will be provided by 1360 WSAI.

First pitch is slated for 3:05 PM ET.

If you planned on killing some time this afternoon by watching some Mariners Cactus League baseball – or more enticingly, Bryan Woo’s first outing of 2026 – you were out of luck. For the first time this spring, we were confined to the narration of Rick Rizzs, Gary Hill Jr., and Charlie Furbush, with some scant video across socials filling in some gaps. Even the humble AM radio wasn’t an option to follow along live, with the broadcast shunted to later this evening on 710. Remember when that was the norm for spring training games?

The game itself was a standard February baseball affair. Seattle slogged through ten pitchers and endless mid-inning pitching changes, while the Royals were a bit more economical at seven. The floodgates opened as the NRIs and nameless jerseys took over the game, with a dozen of the game’s sixteen runs scoring after the fifth inning. Still, as with any spring contest, there were a handful of nuggets – and ~grainy footage! – beyond the statlines that are worth touching on.

Bryan Woo

Woo tossed 28 pitches through 1.1 innings, including being pulled in the first with two outs after a nine-pitch battle with Salvador Pérez that followed back-to-back doubles from Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino to open the scoring. Spring training: where the rules are made up and the runs don’t matter! Famously fastball-forward, Woo didn’t deviate, with eleven four-seamers and seven sinkers leading the charge at their normal velocities. His sweeper was his primary offspeed offering, and he only threw a single changeup – though it got Kyle Isbel fishing in the other batter’s box for a strikeout in the second inning. Velo in line, a couple strikeouts, and no walks? We take that every time.

Postgame, Woo touched on his process and approach to his first time out: “Spring training can be a little bit of a trap, come in trying to feel things out, try new things. I think everyone has their traps. Some guys are too hard on themselves, or focused on different things. That’s the trap in spring training. For me, I try to take things like, work on what you worked on during the week. Having the head space to differentiate between those two things is important.” He also offered insight on his sweeper as he gets more comfortable with adding the pitch to his repertoire and figuring out when and where to deploy it. The double from Witt was off of one, but hey, spring brings the freedom to tinker and fail.

Rob Refsnyder

Refsnyder started in the two-hole and manned right field in his second game of the spring, and both of his plate appearances came against left-handed pitchers with predictable success. He notched a one-out single off of Royals starter Noah Cameron in the first inning, and got the Mariners on the board in the third with a ringing double into the left-center gap against indy ball veteran Chase Jessee. It’s two at-bats – one against someone whose outing was his first ever in affiliated ball – but Refsnyder producing in the exact role he was signed for was a more than welcome sight.

Andrés Muñoz and Eduard Bazardo

A pair of the Mariners’ key relievers got their second outing under their belts with no damage. Muñoz took the third, coaxing a pop-up from Luca Tresh and a groundout from Maikel García before rearing back for triple digits to blow away Witt. Bazardo followed suit in the fourth, a one-out knock from Salvy the lone blemish as he worked a scoreless frame of his own, picking up a signature called strikeout with a sinker on the outer edge against Lane Thomas. After some hard-hit balls plagued Muñoz’s spring debut, weak contact and 100 on the radar gun in a breezy outing was a perfect balm.

Brennen Davis

The former top-30 prospect has made a big impression early in camp, and checked in with a monster game off the bench. Taking over right field for Refsnyder, Davis opened the top of the sixth with a solo shot to left against José Cuas, and laced doubles in his next two plate appearances, including a 111.4 MPH shot to lead off the ninth inning. Injuries have long plagued Davis’s career – he got into just 105 combined games the past two seasons – but has shown big power when on the field. He won’t break camp with the M’s unless multiple catastrophes occur, but he’s a name worth keeping on eye on when the Rainiers kick off their season.

Connor Joe

Connor Joe is this year’s Michael Chavis, Colin Moran, or any other early-to-mid-30s corner infielder the M’s have brought aboard as a non-roster invitee you can think of. We’ll probably see him frequently this spring – especially when the World Baseball Classic gets underway – but once the regular season gets underway, he’ll be chilling in Tacoma for at least a little while as the Cactus League becomes a distant memory. That being said, he did tie the game in the ninth with a two-run bomb, so I’d be remiss not to include him here.

The Mariners will get another crack at getting back to .500 against the Guardians in Peoria tomorrow. Lefty Joey Cantillo will get the start for Cleveland; perhaps we’ll see Refsnyder in back-to-back games for the first time. It’s Bryce Miller’s turn to make his 2026 debut, but don’t fret about missing it – tomorrow’s tilt is back on TV and streaming.

Well, after a stretch of play that had us checking the calendar to make sure it was actually still February, the White Sox took their second loss. The Cincinnati Reds’ pitching staff effectively cooled off a South Side offense that entered the day with a flashy +20 run differential.

Unlike some of the high-scoring games the Good Guys have played recently, this one actually felt like an MLB contest. Unfortunately, though, it was one where the Sox pitching staff surrendered too many homers, and their bats went silent when it mattered, as they were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Davis Martin made his Cactus League debut and was decent in his two innings of work. He flew through the first inning on three ground outs before Sal Stewart smoked a leadoff homer in the second. Jordan Hicks took the mound for the third inning, and although he touched 100 mph on the gun, he ultimately unraveled after hanging a fat 88 mph splitter to JJ Bleday that landed over the wall in right field for a two-run homer. Jordan, just a heads-up here for future reference, the splitter actually has to split.

The real story of the afternoon, though, was Jonathan Cannon. The righthander tossed three clean innings, going nine up and nine down. Not a single blemish on the record card. If Cannon can pitch like this on the regular, the front office is going to have some very difficult (and welcome) decisions to make in a few weeks. Jordan Leasure also looked solid for a frame, surviving a 379-foot fly ball to the wall that Tristan Peters tracked down nicely.

The Sox offense ran into a buzzsaw early in Reds’ starter Nick Lodolo, who struck out the side in the first. The Good Guys had a chance in the second with back-to-back singles from Luisangel Acuña and Andrew Benintendi, but Jarred Kelenic and Korey Lee couldn’t drive them in. Munetaka Murakami tried to get things rolling once Terry Francona took Lodolo out of the game by smacking a single with two outs in the third. Unfortunately, Reds’ pitcher Brock Burke promptly picked him off to end the inning.

There was a bit of a scare early in the game for Acuña. After a single in the fourth, he swiped second but suffered some type of injury to his face. He had to leave the game to get stitches for a cut above his eye. It sounds like he’ll be fine, but it’s a tough way to earn a stolen base.

The offensive highlight of the day belonged to Colson Montgomery, who finally got all of one, obliterating a 94 mph fastball from Lyon Richardson in the fourth. Montgomery’s first homer of the spring had an exit velocity of 104.6 mph and went 421 feet to right center. Baseball is back!

The South Siders threatened late but couldn’t find the big knock. In the eighth, a walk to Oliver Dunn and yet another base hit by William Bergolla Jr. put two on with one out, but Caden Connor and Mario Camilletti went down quietly to end the threat.

The ninth got interesting when Sam Antonacci led off with a single and caught a massive break. He would’ve been gunned down trying to stretch the base hit into a double, but an interference call on first baseman Michael Toglia gifted him the bag. After moving to third on a Dru Baker K in the dirt, Antonacci scored on a Dustin Harris double to center. Unfortunately, that was the end of the line, as Kelenic and Josh Breaux both went down swinging and left the tying run stranded.

The White Sox head “away” tomorrow, although they aren’t going far. They face the Los Angeles Dodgers right back at Camelback Ranch, this time as the road team. First pitch is at 2:05 p.m. CST, and if you’re looking for a reason to tune in, Sean Newcomb gets the start against Tyler Glasnow. Hopefully, the boys’ bats will awaken from today’s desert slumber, but it’s the Dodgers, so maybe keep your expectations in check for a Thursday afternoon in February.

Last game: 14-7 loss to Rockies

Next spring training game: Thursday, Feb. 26, vs. Angels at Tempe, 2:10 p.m. CT. TV: None. Radio: None

Next regular season game: Thursday, March 26, vs. Nationals at Wrigley Field, 1:20 p.m. CT. TV: Marquee Sports Network

Cubs regular season radio: WSCR/The Score (all regular season games), Cubs broadcast radio affiliates, Cubs Sirius XM radio schedule

Current MLB standings

2026 Cubs regular season schedule

Cubs 2026 spring training record: 2-4
Al’s 2025 spring training record: 1-3

Cubs 2025 regular season record: 92-70 (50-31 home, 42-39 road)
Cubs 2025 postseason record: 4-4 (4-1 home, 0-3 road)
Al’s 2025 regular season record: 53-37 (50-31 home, 3-6 road)
Al’s 2025 postseason record: 4-2 (4-1 home, 0-1 road)

Cubs 2025 regular season record on various TV channels

Marquee Sports Network: 81-64
Fox: 4-2
ESPN: 4-2
Apple TV+: 3-1
Roku: 0-1

Cubs 2025 regular season record wearing various uniforms

White pinstripe: 41-25
Chicago Blues: 9-4
Blue alternate: 14-15
Road gray: 28-25
Ryne Sandberg tribute: 0-1

The Dodgers keep their undefeated start to the spring alive, improving to 5-0, as they defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks by a final score of 10-7 on Wednesday.

Roki Sasaki made his spring debut, which was also his first start since May of last season. Sasaki struggled over 1 1/3 innings of work, tossing 36 pitches with just 17 going for strikes. He gave up three runs on a pair of doubles from Nolan Arenado and Ildemaro Vargas while striking out three and walking two.

River Ryan made his spring debut, completing a scoreless bottom of the third inning while collecting a strikeout and allowing a walk. Edwin Díaz made his Dodgers debut, tossing a scoreless fourth inning while allowing a hit and picking up a strikeout. Will Klein followed Díaz for his first appearance since his World Series heroics, also completing a scoreless inning of his own.

Hyeseong Kim made his first start in center field this spring, robbing Pavin Smith of a hit with a sliding catch in the bottom of the first and making a nice running catch to end the fourth inning. He collected a pair of hits and stole two bases while also collecting his fourth RBI of the spring with a game-tying single in the top of the fifth inning.

The Dodgers added an additional three runs in the fifth inning to take their first lead of the game. Alex Freeland and Jake Gelof both walked in a run, while Nick Senzel reached on a fielding error by Ildemaro Vargas to bring home a run.

Outfield prospects Zyhir Hope and Kendall George added four insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning, with Hope driving in two on a ground-rule double and George reaching on an infield single, with an errant throw into the Dodgers dugout allowing two runs to score.

The Dodgers are now averaging 8.8 runs per game, although they have to wait at least one more day to hit their first home run of the spring.

UP NEXT

The Dodgers return to Camelback Ranch on Thursday as they host the Chicago White Sox. Tyler Glasnow gets the ball for the Dodgers, making his first spring start, as he faces left-hander Sean Newcomb.