About Yesterday: Baseball Begins (Sort of)

by Andrew Hefner

February 21, 2026

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The Big Story:

After a long offseason, baseball finally returned yesterday with the New York Yankees visiting the Baltimore Orioles for the Grapefruit League Opener. The Yankees made little changes in the offseason, while the Orioles completely revamped a roster that had a truly disappointing 2025 campaign. The biggest piece added for Baltimore was far and away Pete Alonso, the slugging first-baseman who walked away from the Mets to sign a mega five-year, 155 million dollar deal. Alonso made his first start in his new white and orange uniform to kick off 2026. Alonso was the lone player with RBIs yesterday as he blasted a two-run homer in the sixth to put the Orioles up 2-0, a score that remained throughout. The Orioles also hired manager Craig Albernaz to lead the way in 2026 and beyond to a completely new era for Major League Baseball.

Top Yankees pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez Cruz took the mound for the visiting side and had a great three-inning outing with no runs surrendered. Rodriguez will be pitching for Puerto Rico early next month in the World Baseball Classic, alongside Austin Wells behind the dish, who was the starting catcher for New York yesterday.

The Yankees only picked up three hits at Ed Smith Stadium, the first of which was the only one off of a Major League bat as Jazz Chisholm, who was making the start at second, roped a single to right for the first hit of 2026. Jose Caballero, Amed Rosario, and Austin Wells were the only other big league fielders to make the trip. Jake Bird, who struggled heavily after being moved to the Yankees last season, pitched one inning and surrendered a hit but no runs. AA pitcher Carson Coleman also had a nice outing, striking out the side in one inning of work.

ABS is once again on full display this spring as well, and Austin Wells took full advantage, challenging three pitches and only being correct on one. Teams have two total “misses” to work with throughout the game, but as long as a team keeps getting the challenges correct, there is an infinite amount available.

The Orioles racked up 13 strikeouts in the game, headlined by starter Trevor Rodgers, who had three through two innings of work, and top prospect Trey Gibson, who closed out the final three innings of the contest with another three punchouts.

Player of the Game

Trey Gibson shut down the Yankees in the final three frames of the game, only surrendering two hits. He spent time across three levels last season, his highest being AAA, where he will likely start this year.

Final Line: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 3 K, 0 BB, 0 ER

Yankees Player of the Game

Elmer Rodriguez Cruz made his first start of the spring and pitched three innings of shutout ball against an Orioles lineup with all MLB talent.

Final Line: 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 K, 0 BB, 0 ER

Notable Performances

Jazz Chisholm: 1-1, 1 H, BB

Jonathan Ornelas: 1-2, 1 H

Jackson Castillo: 1-1, 1 H

Jake Bird: 1.0 IP, 1 K

Kevin Castro: 1.0 IP

Carson Coleman: 1.0 IP, 3 K

Better to Forget:

Austin Wells: 0-3, K

Duke Ellis: 0-2, 2 K

Bradley Hanner: 1 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 HR, 2 ER

My Take

Spring is here! I want to be optimistic throughout the first couple of weeks of games because these matchups are no longer just a tune-up for the season, but also a warm-up for the WBC, in which I will be watching Yankees performances in a more skeptical manner. I think that Elmer Rodriguez Cruz had a fantastic outing against a loaded Orioles lineup; the relief, for the most part, was as advertised, just the bats did not really wake up. The nice news is that it was true for both sides of this game, and a Pete Alonso missile off of a player who has never made the bigs is not a problem in my book.

Certainly, ABS needs to be figured out, and I am hoping that Wells was just testing the limits and being aggressive to open spring. Still, Aaron Boone needs to lock down the rules on that sooner rather than later.

Next Up

It gets exciting today as the Yankees make their home debut at George M. Steinbrenner Field with another top pitching prospect, Carlos Lagrange (lah-GRAHN-heh is the pronunciation), getting the start. Aaron Judge is also expected to play as he gets ready to captain Team USA in the WBC.

First pitch is at 1:05 ET on YES Network.