{"id":522861,"date":"2026-03-06T16:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522861\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T16:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:39:14","slug":"mlb-rosters-find-new-life-in-spring-training-the-colgate-maroon-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522861\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Rosters Find New Life in Spring Training \u2013 The Colgate Maroon-News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MLB<\/a> <\/p>\n

As MLB teams flock to Florida and Arizona to participate in another go-around in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues, fans anxiously anticipate the start to the 2026 season, following an eventful offseason with plenty of player movement and controversy to keep fans entertained.<\/p>\n

The old saying \u201cif it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it\u201d held for the league\u2019s best this offseason. Last year\u2019s powerhouses remain this year\u2019s top contenders, with the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers occupying the top position in FOX\u2019s preseason power rankings<\/a>, while the American League (AL) remains topped by last year\u2019s AL champions, the Toronto Blue Jays. The Dodgers, in particular, made an effort to solidify themselves as the league\u2019s benchmark for success, signing the league\u2019s top free agent<\/a>, Kyle Tucker, to a four-year, $240 million deal in an effort to solidify an already-potent offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays, on the other hand, retained a large portion of their roster, except for Bo Bichette, who made his way over to the Mets<\/a> during free agency, increasing New York\u2019s chances of being a dark horse for the National League (NL) pennant. The Mets enter at fifth in FOX\u2019s power rankings<\/a>. Another large climber has been the Baltimore Orioles, who look like an entirely new organization, revamping their pitching staff and adding top-tier slugger Pete Alonso. Baltimore, who finished 75-87 last year, has climbed the most in preseason power rankings, from a finish in the bottom third of the league to a projected wild-card position in many preseason projections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Focusing on the large stories surrounding spring training, much of the scrutiny has been on young prospects, who hope to claw their way from the expanded 40-man rosters of spring training onto the 25-man final Opening Day roster. One notable prospect is the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 Konnor Griffin. The 19-year-old was picked ninth in last year\u2019s draft and appears likely<\/a> to sign a long-term extension with Pittsburgh\u2019s organization. The Pirates seem to be betting on Griffin, baseball\u2019s No. 1 prospect, to offer a spark for a team that has failed to make the postseason in over 10 years.<\/a><\/p>\n

Another highly coveted young prospect is the Seattle Mariners\u2019 Colt Emerson. For a team generally considered to be slated for a deep postseason run, a prospect being the most significant story is rather odd. Emerson, however, is competing for a final roster spot, boasting an impressive stat line, which includes an RBI triple<\/a> in a recent game against the Cleveland Guardians. While unlikely to feature as a prominent roster piece immediately due to the strength of Seattle\u2019s current roster, Emerson is looking to be a highly valuable late-in-the-order weapon, or a star minor league player to be promoted during roster expansion in September.<\/p>\n

As always in major sports, injuries plague the preseason, generating plenty of issues for teams. In particular, this year has seen a spike in wrist injuries, namely the Hamate bone, a small bone that incurs a stress fracture<\/a> after contact with the knob of the bat and the heel of the hand. This offseason alone, multiple players, including the Orioles\u2019 Jackson Holliday, have undergone surgery for a Hamate breakage, with Holliday projected to start the season on the injury list<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While baseball\u2019s powerhouses have maintained their position at the top for now, the offseason has offered us good reason to see promise in both the Mets and Orioles rosters; both slotted themselves as strong contenders for playoff runs with big-name signings. This year\u2019s MLB season will prove to be full of surprises and excitement and spring training has kicked the year off to a strong start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As MLB teams flock to Florida and Arizona to participate in another go-around in the Grapefruit and Cactus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-522861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}