PHOENIX — There are expectations surrounding new Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker — not surprising for someone with a four-year, $240-million contract.
But first things first.
“Last year I got one hit in spring [training], so hopefully I get more than that,” Tucker said, sharing a laugh with reporters after grounding out and walking in two plate appearances in his Cactus League debut on Sunday. “So, that’s the goal. But I mean, [I’m] just feeling comfortable.”
In a clubhouse full of superstar players, the feeling seems mutual with his teammates.
“I’m glad he’s with us,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said, adding: “Yeah, There might be other superstars on this team, but it’s not really anyone’s focus here. It’s all about getting in every day, working hard, helping us win a ballgame that day and working toward the ultimate goal of winning the World Series.”
It was a tale of two seasons for the 29-year-old Tucker in 2025.
Through the first three months of the year, Tucker had the Chicago Cubs’ offense humming, powering the club to a 53-35 start. Entering July, Tucker was batting .291 with a .395 on-base percentage, .931 OPS, 17 home runs, 52 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. Tucker found himself in the middle of the National League MVP discussion as the Cubs sat in first place in the NL Central.
But from July 1 through the end of the season, he batted just .225, posting a .690 OPS, five home runs and 21 RBI, a far cry from his first half that earned him a start in right field in the All-Star Game.
It was later revealed that Tucker sustained a hairline fracture in June, which he played through. In September, he suffered a calf strain, landing him on the injured list.
He finished the season with a .266 batting average and 22 home runs, career lows for him. That did not deter the Dodgers, and it was an easy sell for Tucker as well.
“Every organization is unique in its own sense,” Tucker said. “But this organization obviously the last couple of years has done pretty well, so I think that’s a huge part of the front office and them doing their part and trying to get a great group together. Just great people and great athletes, and then trying to just put the best product out on the field for the city of Los Angeles and the fans. I think they’ve done a pretty good job of that so far. Hopefully, we can keep winning for them.”
Despite what happened last season with Tucker, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is confident in the newly-signed star.
“For me and the people that I talked to and how he goes about it, there’s nothing negative for me,” Roberts said last week. “I love guys that just come to work and love playing and competing. So, he just wants to win. He’s not a self-promoter; he’s not going to give [the media] a bunch of great soundbites. He wants to play to win, and I love guys like that. So, I’m excited to have him and get to know him even more.”
Tucker missed just under three weeks in the season’s final month. He would not return to the outfield in 2025, manning the designated-hitter spot for the Cubs, whose season ended at the hands of the Brewers in five games in the NL Division Series. Tucker says he felt good all offseason and is feeling even better in the early days of camp with his new team.
“It was a pretty healthy [offseason],” Tucker said. “At the beginning, I might have still been kind of nursing the calf a little bit. But it was kind of feeling pretty good right at the end. I think if we had moved onto the next series, I probably would have gone to the outfield, so I wish I could have gotten out there for that. Overall, in the offseason, I felt pretty healthy, and [feel pretty healthy] going into camp so far.”
Alex Vesia returns to the mound
Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia made his Cactus League debut in Monday’s 3-0 win over the Seattle Mariners — the first time he’s pitched in a game of any kind since his newborn daughter died last fall.
Entering Monday’s game in the fifth inning to a loud ovation, Vesia struck out one and retired the side in order. He then received a warm greeting by his teammates in the dugout.
“Being around the guys, it’s really been comforting,” Vesia said. “These guys are my brothers, I truly love all of them. It’s meant a lot.”
Dodgers set starting pitchers for the week
Before Monday’s game, Roberts revealed starting pitchers for this week. Gavin Stone will take the mound Tuesday, Roki Sasaki will start Wednesday before Tyler Glasnow makes his first start of the Cactus League Thursday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start for the second time Friday, in what will likely be his final start before joining Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic.
Over the last two offseasons, the Dodgers spent a combined $141 million on relief pitchers Edwin Díaz and Tanner Scott, both of whom are expected to make their first spring training appearances later this week.
“I think Tanner and Edwin are going either Wednesday or Thursday in the Cactus League games,” Roberts said. “Those guys, we’ll start to see them this week.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. It’s championship week in high school basketball with some big-time semifinal matchups Tuesday in the Southern Section playoffs.
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
Brandon McCoy of Sierra Canyon soars for a tomahawk dunk.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
The toughest divisions in high school basketball in the state have their semifinals Tuesday for boys and girls. Get ready for intense, crowd-pleasing matchups.
For boys in the Southern Section Open Division, it’s Sierra Canyon hosting Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Harvard-Westlake hosting La Mirada.
Both games are rematches, so there will be no surprises for the coaches. Sierra Canyon and Harvard-Westlake won the first meetings, so they deserve the favorite’s role to reach Saturday’s championship game at Ontario Arena. But that doesn’t mean the favorites will win.
Notre Dame has athleticism to play with Sierra Canyon, especially if Zach White is rebounding and NaVorro Bowman is hitting threes. Sierra Canyon, though, is 25-1 and surging with its depth. Harvard-Westlake looked done after losing three of its last four regular season games, but has come on to beat Damien, Santa Margarita and Crespi in the Open Division playoffs.
La Mirada is the surprise team, seeded No. 12 and winning every game on the road. The Matadores eliminated Redondo Union in the quarterfinals behind Gene Roebuck. You have to admire La Mirada. Last season they desperately wanted to be in the Open Division, giving up a chance to be in the state playoffs. Now the Matadores are one win away from playing for a section title.
The girls’ competition should draw even bigger crowds than the boys Tuesday, with the featured matchup Etiwanda hosting Sierra Canyon. The two powerhouses have been preparing for this game all season. Jerzy Robinson of Sierra Canyon will try to make sure Etiwanda doesn’t serve as a roadblock to winning the Open Division or state championship. The other semifinal has top-seeded Ontario Christian hosting Sage Hill. If Etiwanda and Ontario Christian win, they’ll get to play in front of lots of fans Saturday night in Ontario.
Boys basketball
Freshman Phillip Reed was in dominant form for Palisades in the City Section Open Division semifinals.
(Steve Galluzzo)
It comes as no surprise that No. 1-seeded Palisades will play No. 2 Cleveland in Friday’s 8 p.m. City Section Open Division final at L.A. Southwest College. They’ve been the top two teams all season. Palisades is the heavy favorite. Here’s a report from the semifinals.
Jack Levey celebrates a big win in the Dolphins’ return to their home court against Western League rival Fairfax.
Sylmar coach Bort Escoto has his team in the City Division II finals. Two of his ex-players at Sylmar, Jeff Bryant and Sam Harris, have their teams in finals. Bryant for Palisades and Harris for Chatsworth in the Division I final.
The Southern Section Division 1 championship game has two surging Orange County schools meeting: JSerra vs. Crean Lutheran.
Division 2 has two surprise finalists in Hesperia taking on Bishop Amat. Hesperia eliminated Mater Dei and Bishop Amat took out defending Open Division and state champion Eastvale Roosevelt.
Etiwanda is ready to take on Sierra Canyon at home on Tuesday night in an Open Division semifinal.
(Nick Koza)
Etiwanda continues to rely on a balanced attack, which should help the Eagles in their showdown semifinal game against Sierra Canyon. Here’s a report from the quarterfinals.
Valencia’s girls basketball team has reached the Southern Section Division 1 semifinals under coach Jared Honig.
(John Duncan)
Valencia has reached the Division 1 final behind coach Jared Honig, who had previous success at Granada Hills. Here’s the report.
In the City Section, top-seeded Westchester and No. 2 Birmingham will play Saturday night at Pasadena City College in the Open Division final. Westchester has the top player in the City in Savannah Myles. Birmingham has used a young team to get better and better.
Baseball
The approaching storm from last week caused South Hills to come up with the novel idea of playing its season opener against Covina early Monday morning before rain came. So the teams began at 12:40 a.m. and finished at 3:34 a.m. in a new way to pull off Midnight Madness. Here’s the report.
Harvard-Westlake unveiled freshman Louis Lappe of El Segundo Little League fame. Here’s the report.
With darkness coming, Huntington Beach took a 7-5 lead over Loyola in the top of the ninth inning. Coach Benji Medure confirmed that he tried to have his players on base get into a triple play to end the inning immediately to try to win the game before the umpires called the game. Two players were tagged out at home plate, but the home-plate umpire stopped everything before a third runner one could be tagged out. It ended up as a 5-5 tie because of darkness.
The first runner tagged out at home was Jared Grindlinger, who responded to Medure’s instructions to get tagged out by saying, “What?” The creativity wasn’t approved by the umpires.
No. 1 St. John Bosco and No. 2 Orange Lutheran begin their seasons this week.
Mike Boehle is entering his 28th season as volleyball coach at Loyola.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
The boys volleyball season has begun, and Loyola figures to be one of the title contenders in Division 1 after a rough season last year in which players lost homes to the Palisades fire, their coach had prostate cancer and a classmate was tragically killed.
Huge congratulations to @CDMBoysVball on winning the Redondo Union/Mira Costa Tournament. The Sea Kings swept Mira Costa in the final 25-21, 25-23, handing the Mustangs their first home loss since March 25, 2024.
It’s championship week in high school soccer. Once again, the top two boys teams in the City Section all season face off. El Camino Real will take on South East. Both teams won their semifinal games by scores of 1-0.
In girls, No. 1 Cleveland will face No. 7 Granada Hills in a rematch from their West Valley League battles.
Trinity League rivals Orange Lutheran and Mater Dei have advanced to Saturday’s Southern Section Open Division boys final after beating Placentia Valencia and JSerra, respectively.
The girls final will have Santa Margarita taking on Mater Dei in another Trinity League rematch.
TWICE AS NICE The Oaks Christian Girls’ Water Polo team is the back-to-back CIF-SS Open Division champions. The Lions defeated Mater Dei 11-8 to retain the title. pic.twitter.com/HMmuCOLBi5
Oaks Christian won its second consecutive Southern Section Open Division girls’ water polo championship with an 11-8 victory over Mater Dei. . . .
Senior Jaslene Massey of Aliso Niguel, one of the top girls discus and shotputters in the nation, began her outdoor season with a discus mark of 179-6 to set an Orange County record. . . .
Aaron Riekenberg has resigned after nine years as boys basketball coach at La Habra. . . .
Junior defensive lineman Isaia Vandermade from Division 1 champion Santa Margarita has committed to USC, where his father, Lenny, was a lineman. . . .
Pat Harlow, a former head football coach at JSerra, is returning to serve as an assistant coach under new coach Hardy Nickerson. Harlow is well known for his ability to coach the offensive line. This is the second time he’s come out of retirement. “I really believe in the school,” he said. Also added to the staff is former Servite, Notre Dame and NFL quarterback Steve Beuerlein. . .
Former Gardena Serra and USC star Robert Woods has retired from football. . . .
Former Garfield football coach Lorenzo Hernandez has come out of retirement to become football coach at Whittier. Here’s the report. . . .
Former St. Margaret’s and Long Beach Poly coach Stephen Barbee is the new football coach at Irvine Northwood. . . .
Standout pitcher Jared Grindlinger of Huntington Beach has reclassified from junior to class of 2026, making him eligible for this year’s amateur draft. Here’s the report . . .
Chad Rolison from Oaks Christian baseball has committed to Loyola Marymount. . . .
Twins James and Miles Clark from St. John Bosco baseball have committed to Duke. . . .
For the fifth straight year, NFL receiver Trenton Irwin is holding a camp on March 8 at his alma mater, Hart, for grades four through eight. . . . .
Quentin Hale, a junior receiver who transferred from Cathedral to Corona Centennial, has committed to USC. . . .
Patrick Goodpaster is the new football coach at Narbonne. He’s a Narbonne grad, member of the Gardena Police Department and former football player at Colorado State. He’s been a youth football coach in the area. . . .
From the archives: Russell White
Former Crespi, Cal and Rams running back Russell White, who led Crespi to the 1986 Division 1 football championship.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Russell White was one of the greatest running backs in Southern California history, leading Crespi to the 1986 Big Five Conference championship as a sophomore when the Celts routed St. John Bosco in the final.
He’d go on to star at Cal and get drafted by the Rams. He has been at Flintridge Prep the last 10 years coaching eight-man football but is stepping down to perhaps coach 11-man football. His son, Zach, is a standout basketball player at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
From USA Today, a story on South Carolina legislators moving to replace its high school athletic association over transfers and other disagreements.
From CBS, a story on a Florida proposal to allow high school coaches to spend up to $15,000 on player needs known as the Teddy Bridgewater Act.
From KTLA, a story on how AI cameras are helping youth sports parents capture videos.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on the controversy surrounding trans high school athletes in California.
Tweets you might have missed
Robert Woods has retired from football. This is one of my favorite stories from his high school days at Gardena Serra explaining his inspiration.https://t.co/lihVQqP60f
Former Loyola, Cal and NFL safety Chris Conte has joined JSerra as assistant. There are so many ex-NFL players coaching now in the Trinity League there needs to be an all-star game for coaches only.
A great opening day for the Notre Dame throwers going 1-5 in the shot put at the Eagle Invite in Santa Margarita. 4 boys throwing over 51. Jadin Beckford 53’ 6, Jordan Peck 51’ 9. Alex Parker 51’ 6, Palmer Connery 51’ 4 and Sacha Galatzan 48’ 5. pic.twitter.com/px6aypjzvT
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
Did you get this newsletter forwarded to you? To sign up and get it in your inbox, click here.
PHOENIX — Dalton Rushing’s first year in the big leagues with the Dodgers didn’t go quite as planned.
Over 53 games after his May call-up, the highly-regarded prospect batted .204 with a .258 on-base percentage, .582 OPS, four home runs and 24 RBI. It was the only time in his baseball life — aside from his freshman year at the University of Louisville — that Rushing was not a regular fixture in his team’s lineup.
“It was very, very up and down,” Rushing said. “It was some good, some bad, some ugly. A lot of things were new to me, the scattering [of] playing time was tough. It was a little tough being able to stay on top of compete mode, keep the swing in a good spot.”
But it still yielded a rather satisfying end result.
“Overall, I got to win a World Series with this team,” Rushing said. “And it’s hard to look back and think, ‘I’d take this back or I’d take that back.’ It went exactly how it was planned.”
With three-time All-Star catcher Will Smith in front of him, Rushing’s role is clear: he is the Dodgers’ backup catcher. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts feels good about Rushing’s progression going into 2026.
“Dalton’s in a good spot right now,” Roberts said last week. “I want him to understand his role as a backup catcher, what that entails, really learn the pitchers, learn the swing that works for playing a couple times a week. He’s used to playing a lot more. But I think, that [he’s] still maturing, because it’s not easy to not play every day when you’re used to [playing regularly]. I think that he grew last year, and I like where he’s at.”
Roberts plans to use Rushing at first base, if Freddie Freeman comes out of the game or needs a day off. Rushing will not, however, play in the outfield, where he saw some run in the minor leagues.
“Outfield’s not on the table”, Roberts said. “I do think that there’s going to be some spots for him to come into games if Freddie’s out or if there’s a game he doesn’t play, we’ll see how that lines up. And I think right now for me, just seeing how the roster plays out as far as what are the options we might have at first base, but I do want to get him at-bats when I can.”
Rushing started Saturday’s Cactus League opener against the Angels, driving in a run on a sacrifice fly in his three at-bats. The 25-year-old said he’s fully embracing his spot on a club vying for its third consecutive championship.
“For me, if I can keep myself ready to play two or three times a week, then it’s going to be easy to keep myself ready to play five or six,” Rushing said. “To be able to go through something like this early in my career, where I have to not only earn the time on the field, but also navigate my way through my career, I think it’s a really good start to my career, to be able to understand how this game works.”
Rushing also views playing behind Smith as a valuable opportunity to learn from one baseball’s best catchers, something he believes will help him grow as a player.
“I have a spot to work behind the best catcher in baseball,” Rushing said. “And from there, I’m going to be given opportunities to see more time on the field, to get my bat in there as much as possible, and it’s up to me to take advantage of those opportunities and continue to put myself on the field as much as possible.”
Rushing says he does not have any personal goals or accolades that he hopes to reach in 2026. This season is about team success and winning.
“The main goal especially with this role is I’m going to win as many [games as] possible,” Rushing said. “Every game I’m on the field, I want to win. I want to win 110 games in the regular season as a Dodger. We’re fully capable of it. I think that’s a good goal to put for ourselves and it just makes each and every game that much important.”
Shohei Ohtani throws live BP before departing for WBC
Before the Dodgers’ 5-1 win over the San Diego Padres in Peoria, Ariz., on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani had a live batting practice session at Camelback Ranch in which he threw 33 pitches and struck out Freeman and Mookie Betts.
“I felt pretty good about today in terms of volume,” Ohtani said via interpreter Will Ireton after his session. “While in Japan, I plan to do some sort of live BP/bullpen/some kind of simulation.”
After the game, Roberts revealed the star two-way player is expected to depart either Sunday night or on Monday to join Team Japan for preparations for next month’s World Baseball Classic.
Welcome to the Olympic Edition of the Sports Report, an L.A. Times newsletter published every morning during the Winter Olympics. To sign up to receive it via email (it’s free), go here and select the Sports Report. If you’ve already signed up for the Sports Report, you will receive the Olympics edition as well.
Welcome to your daily review and preview of this year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics. My name is John Cherwa and I’m your tour director for the Games as we enter the final day with the U.S. setting a record for golds and closing in on total medals.
Guessing we can call these Games a success for the U.S. after it won its 11th gold medal Saturday — the most ever for the U.S. in a single Winter Olympics. Now the U.S. is hoping to beat or tie its best mark of 34 medals set at Salt Lake City in 2002. With five events yet to be completed, the U.S. is at 33 counting a guaranteed medal in men’s hockey. (A few days ago, we predicted the U.S. would finish with 33.)
There is no chance the U.S. will catch Norway, which has 40 total medals, including 18 golds.
So, with five events remaining does the U.S. have a chance to tie or set a record?
Cross-country skiing. The final event is the women’s 50-kilometer mass start. The podium is likely to be populated by Sweden and Norway, but Jesse Diggins of the U.S. has an outside chance of making the podium.
The U.S. is ninth and 12th heading into the final two runs of the four-man bobsled. Could be another Germany sweep.
The U.S. is out of the women’s curling tournament. Switzerland and Sweden play for the gold.
The U.S. has a guaranteed silver in ice hockey when it plays Canada.
The U.S. will not likely medal in the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe but it could have. One of the favorites is Eileen Gu, who is from the Bay Area but competes for China. Vice president JD Vance criticized her, among other athletes.
Getting them onto the cusp of tying or breaking the total medal record and breaking the gold medal total on Saturday was the U.S. mixed team freestyle aerials group of Kalia Kuhn, Connor Curran and Christopher Lillis, who gave the U.S. back-to-back golds in this event. It was the 11th gold medal.
The U.S. also picked up a bronze when Mia Manganello came in behind the Netherlands and Canada in the speedskating women’s mass start. The men’s mass start was also won by the Netherlands. Three-time medalist Jordan Stolz of the U.S. was fourth.
The U.S. finished the day with a bronze in the two-woman bobsled. Kaillie Humphries and Jasmine Jones were in the sled where, as usual, Germany took gold and silver. Kaysha Love and Azaria Hill finished fifth.
So the U.S needs one more to tie the record. That means either Jesse Diggins or the four-man bobsled have to have career-defining performances.
The big event today is the men’s hockey gold medal game between the U.S. and Canada. The tournament is so much better with the return of NHL players after 12 years.
Here’s a look at NHL players on each team:
United States: Matt Boldy (Minnesota), Kyle Connor (Winnipeg), Jack Eichel (Vegas), Jack Hughes (New Jersey), Jake Guentzel (Tampa Bay), Clayton Keller (Utah), Dylan Larkin (Detroit), Auston Matthews (Toronto), J.T. Miller (NY Rangers), Brock Nelson (Colorado), Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa), Matthew Tkachuk (Florida), Tage Thompson (Buffalo), Vincent Trocheck (NY Rangers), Brock Faber (Minnesota), Noah Hanifin (Vegas), Quinn Hughes (Minnesota), Jackson LaCombe (Ducks), Charlie McAvoy (Boston), Jake Sanderson (Ottawa), Jaccob Slavin (Carolina), Zach Werenski (Columbus), Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg), Jake Oettinger (Dallas), Jeremy Swayman (Boston).
Canada: Sam Bennett (Florida), Macklin Celebrini (San Jose), Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh), Brandon Hagel (Tampa Bay), Bo Horvat (NY Islanders), Seth Jarvis (Carolina), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado), Brad Marchand (Florida), Mitch Marner (Vegas), Connor McDavid (Edmonton), Sam Reinhart (Florida), Mark Stone (Vegas), Nick Suzuki (Montreal), Tom Wilson (Washington), Drew Doughty (Kings), Thomas Harley (Dallas), Cale Makar (Colorado), Josh Morrissey (Winnipeg), Colton Parayko (St. Louis), Travis Sanheim (Philadelphia), Shea Theodore (Vegas), Devon Toews (Colorado), Jordan Binnington (St. Louis), Darcy Kuemper (Kings—injured), Logan Thompson (Washington).
Elsewhere on Saturday
Oceane Michelon of France approaches the finish line to win gold in the women’s 12.5-kilometer biathlon mass start on Saturday.
(Harry How / Getty Images)
France picked up gold and silver in the biathlon women’s 12.5-kilometer mass start. There were no U.S. competitors.
The U.S. closed its curling competition by losing the women’s bronze medal match 10-7 to Canada. Canada won the men’s gold, beating Britain, 9-6.
Finland beat Slovakia, 6-1, for the men’s bronze in ice hockey.
The men’s 50-kilometer mass start in cross-country skiing was an all Norway medal stand as they swept the medals and lengthened its lead in total medals. Gus Schumacher of the U.S. was 13th.
The new must-watch sport of ski mountaineering (skimo) finished with the mixed relay, which was won by France. The U.S. pair of Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith was fourth.
Best thing to watch on TV today
The centerpiece of Sunday’s final day is the closing ceremony, which is less of a ceremony than a party. Athletes just flood the zone and the party begins. The event is not in Milan or Cortina d’Ampezzo but Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet fame. (Speaking of Shakespeare, the movie Hamnet is a must watch.) It starts at 11:30 a.m. PST and should last about 2½ hours. But, before all that is the gold medal hockey game between the U.S. and Canada. It starts at 5:10 a.m. PST. The final heat of the four-man bobsled is at 3:15 a.m. PST.
Favorite photo
U.S. speedskater Mia Manganello celebrates after earning a bronze medal in the women’s mass start final in Milan on Saturday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Times photographer Robert Gauthier is at the Winter Olympics. Each day, Times newsletter editor Houston Mitchell will select a favorite photo from the many Gauthier has taken.
Sunday’s Olympic TV and streaming schedule
CLOSING CEREMONY 11:30 a.m. — NBC
MULTIPLE SPORTS 2 p.m. — Best of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Games | NBC 9 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Closing ceremony, bobsled, cross-country skiing, curling, hockey. | NBC
BOBSLED 1 a.m. — Four-man bobsled, Run 3 | Peacock 3:15 a.m. — 🏅Four-man bobsled, final run | Peacock 3:35 a.m. — 🏅Four-man bobsled, final run (in progress) | USA 4:15 a.m. — Four-man bobsled, final run (delay) | NBC 8 a.m. — Four-man bobsled, runs 3-4 (re-air) | NBC
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING 1 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 50-kilometer mass start classic | USA 4 a.m. — Women’s 50-kilometer mass start classic (re-air) | USA 8:45 a.m. — Women’s 50-kilometer mass start classic (re-air) | NBC
CURLING 🏅Women’s gold-medal match 2:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Sweden | Peacock 4 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Sweden (delay) | USA, NBC 10:30 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Sweden (re-air) | USA
HOCKEY 🏅Men’s gold-medal match 5:10 a.m. — United States vs. Canada | NBC 1:30 p.m. — United States vs. Canada (re-air) | USA
In case you missed it …
Check out the following Milan-Cortina Olympics dispatches from the L.A. Times team on the ground in Italy:
That concludes today’s Sports Report Olympic Edition newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email newsletter editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here and select the Sports Report.
TEMPE, Ariz. — Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto toed the rubber Saturday for the team’s Cactus League opener against the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium with the expectation that it would be his only start before joining Team Japan for next month’s World Baseball Classic.
Even manager Dave Roberts believed that was the case as he came out to lift his star pitcher with two outs in the bottom of the second inning.
“Doc came to the mound, and he said, ‘Good luck in the WBC,’” Yamamoto said via interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “But actually, I have one more game to pitch.”
After giving up one earned run, three hits and striking out three in his 30-pitch outing, Yamamoto said he believes his next start will be on Friday against the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium.
Yamamoto cruised through the first inning, striking out third baseman Yoan Moncado swinging and getting shortstop Zach Neto to look at a called strike three on a darting sinker.
But then the Dodgers, who had scored three runs in the top of the first, sent 11 men to the plate, scoring six runs on five hits, two walks and a hit batter in a half-inning that took nearly 30 minutes. Yamamoto believes the long break between innings may have disrupted his workflow, contributing to a messy second inning.
A dropped fly ball on the warning track in left field by Teoscar Hernández spelled trouble for Yamamoto, scoring a run and allowing Jo Adell to reach second base with nobody out. Yamamoto struck out the next hitter, getting left fielder Josh Lowe to swing through a splitter, before allowing back-to-back outfield line drives to catcher Logan O’Hoppe and second baseman Christian Moore. After Bryce Teodosio flied out for the second out of the inning, Yamamoto’s day was done.
Yamamoto reached into his five-pitch repertoire Saturday, mixing in six fastballs, eight splitters, five sinkers, four cutters, four curveballs and three sliders. His fastball sat between 91 and 93 mph, topping out at 94.9 mph.
“I was looking for some stuff I needed to get back before I go back to Japan and join the team,” Yamamoto said. “I was looking forward to the feeling, the delivery and those things.”
Fans pack Diablo Stadium for Saturday’s game between the Angels and Dodgers.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
He added: “Yesterday’s practice, I was already feeling good. And then, somehow I was able to carry that to today’s game, especially the first inning. I think I was great, but due to the gap between innings, that affected me a little bit.”
With Yamamoto’s time being limited with the Dodgers before the WBC, Roberts spoke pregame Saturday about what he hopes to see from his star pitcher in the time leading up to the event.
“I think that obviously, him going and pitching for Team Japan, he’s going to be trying to ramp it up and get prepared,” Roberts said. “So, I think it’s just more of what he does [on] strike one, [how he] uses secondaries, and be efficient and get some outs.”
Though Yamamoto will pitch once more before leaving for the WBC, Roberts told reporters that he isn’t concerned about the WBC interrupting Yamamoto’s preparation for the regular season.
“I think I’m confident because there’s no exact science on ramping up early and success, or being methodical and not participating to result in success during the season,” Roberts said. “There’s just no exact science. For me, and for all of us, you’re just believing in the player, knowing that he knows what it takes to be ready for a season and he takes care of himself, so I think for me, it’s an easy way to think and wrap my head around, just kind of believing in him, trusting him.”
Etc.
Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernandez hugs Dodgers manager Dave Roberts after scoring in the first inning.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Just over a week into camp, utilityman Hyeseong Kim has already made a strong first impression, as he vies for more playing time in his second season. On Saturday, he went two for three with three RBIs to help spark the Dodgers’ offensive outburst. Elsewhere, the top three hitters in the lineup — Shohei Ohtani, Hernández and Andy Pages — combined for six hits in nine at-bats with two RBIs. … The Dodgers claimed outfielder Jack Suwinski from the Pittsburgh Pirates. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred utilityman Kiké Hernández to the 60-day injured list.
Welcome to the Olympic Edition of the Sports Report, an L.A. Times newsletter published every morning during the Winter Olympics. To sign up to receive it via email (it’s free), go here and select the Sports Report. If you’ve already signed up for the Sports Report, you will receive the Olympics edition as well.
Welcome to your daily review and preview of this year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics. My name is John Cherwa and I’m your tour director for the Games as the U.S. surpassed the gold total of its last five Winter Olympics early Saturday. The U.S. men’s hockey team could add to that mark.
It’s been two pretty good Olympic hockey tournaments. And the U.S. could win both of them. On Friday, the U.S. men beat Slovakia, 6-2, in the semifinals and will meet Canada for the gold on Sunday. The better game was Canada and Finland. Our once-friendly neighbor to the north fell behind 2-0, tied the game with 9½ minutes to go and then won with 35 seconds left. We’ll preview that game more tomorrow.
And, who can forget the U.S. women beating Canada, 2-1, in overtime in a gold-medal quality game.
The ninth gold for the U.S. was in the men’s freestyle halfpipe Friday when, as we predicted in yesterday’s newsletter, Alex Ferreira got the gold on his last run. It completed the lifetime gold, silver, bronze trifecta for the 31-year-old from Colorado. The U.S. also had the bronze until the last run when Nick Goepper was bumped to fourth.
The only other U.S. medal of the day was Corinne Stoddard’s bronze in the women’s 1,500 meters in short track speed skating. South Korea was first and second. The Netherlands won the men’s 5,000 relay. The U.S. did not make the finals.
It’s kind of a light day, so let’s do some random thoughts on the TV coverage.
Snoop Dogg attends mixed doubles curling in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Feb. 6.
(Fatima Shbair / Associated Press)
Snoop Dogg was fresh and exciting in Paris. The act isn’t as fresh or exciting in Italy. Snoop and buddy Martha Stewart remind me of CBS’ Gayle King’s unofficial “I’m Privileged and You’re Not Tour” where she goes to awards shows, Broadway plays, Jeff Bezos’ wedding, Bad Bunny in Puerto Rico and into “space.” Well, Snoop and Martha seem almost as privileged, getting into all the best places that you or I couldn’t. Just saying, for a reported $500,000 a day for Snoop, it wasn’t as good as Paris. No idea how much Martha is making, but she’s not likely being paid in garden vegetables.
I’ve heard the Captain and Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” more times the last two weeks than in all of 1975, when it was No. 1 for four consecutive weeks.
Do you think an NBC executive made the wrong decision to put the women’s figure skating on NBC and the U.S.-Canada women’s hockey game on USA? I do. You could have shown the game, use the time between periods to cut to the figure skating and it would seem as if you had the pulse of the Games. And the hockey game was over before the medal skaters took the ice.
Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir on figure skating get our vote for best analysts.
Kenny Albert (hockey) and Dan Hicks (skiing) have been the best play-by-play announcers.
Did you know that most of the Games are being called from Connecticut and not Italy? Sports called from stateside are curling, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, speedskating and most freestyle skiing. And a lot of the studio shows were also from Stamford. (In fairness, this newsletter is being done from Florida. But Thuc Nhi, Sam, Kevin and Robert are in Italy.)
The Games have been a ratings success for NBC with numbers almost double what they were in 2022 in Beijing. The time difference between the U.S. and Italy was six hours and it worked to the benefit of U.S. viewers.
Mike Tirico is very good at whatever he does. Glad to see they gave him some afternoon time.
When Hoda Kotb interviewed the “Blade Angels” on Friday, I told those around me she would tell them that she loved them. I was right.
Best Thing to Watch on TV today
The gold medal chances of the U.S. women’s curling team died on the last shot in the last frame when Switzerland, holding the hammer, knocked the U.S. rock out of the house and got two points to win, 7-4. Switzerland will now play Sweden, a 6-3 winner over Canada, for the gold while the U.S. will play Canada for the bronze. On the men’s side, Switzerland won the bronze by beating Norway, 9-1. Britain plays Canada for the gold.
No surprise that Norway picked up a gold and silver in the biathlon men’s 15-kilometer mass start. Campbell Wright of the U.S. was 29th.
Besides the U.S. gold in freestyle skiing halfpipe, Germany won the women’s ski cross. The U.S. did not make the final. And, China got gold and bronze in the men’s aerials. Christopher Lillis was the top U.S. athlete in eighth.
Favorite photo
U.S. forward Jack Eichel celebrates after scoring in the second period of a 6-2 win over Slovakia in the men’s hockey semifinals Friday at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Times photographer Robert Gauthier is at the Winter Olympics. Each day, Times newsletter editor Houston Mitchell will select a favorite photo from the many Gauthier has taken.
Saturday’s Olympic TV and streaming schedule
MULTIPLE SPORTS 8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Cross-country skiing, bobsled, figure skating, freestyle skiing and more. | NBC
BIATHLON 10:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 12.5-kilometer mass start (re-air) | USA
BOBSLED 8 a.m. — Four-man bobsled, runs 1-2 | USA 10 a.m. — Two-woman bobsled, Run 3 | NBC 12:05 p.m. — 🏅Two-woman bobsled, final run | Peacock 12:15 p.m. — 🏅Two-woman bobsled, final run (in progress) | NBC 2:15 p.m. — Two-woman bobsled, runs 3-4 (delay) | NBC
CURLING 🏅Women’s bronze-medal match 5:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. Canada | Peacock 7:20 a.m. — U.S. vs. Canada (delay) | USA 🏅Men’s gold-medal match 10:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Canada | CNBC Women’s bronze-medal match 1 p.m. — U.S. vs. Canada (re-air) | CNBC
FIGURE SKATING 11 a.m. — Exhibition gala | Peacock 11:55 a.m. — Exhibition gala (in progress) | NBC 12:50 p.m. — Exhibition gala (in progress) | NBC
FREESTYLE SKIING 8:45 a.m. — 🏅Men’s skicross, finals (delay) | USA 9:15 a.m. — Mixed team aerials, final (re-air) | USA 10:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s freeski halfpipe, final | NBC 1:30 p.m. — Mixed team aerials, final (re-air) | NBC
HOCKEY 🏅Men’s bronze-medal game 11:40 a.m. — Finland vs. Slovakia | USA
SPEEDSKATING 6 a.m. — 🏅Men’s and women’s mass start, semifinals and finals | Peacock 7 a.m. — 🏅Men’s and women’s mass start, semifinals and finals (in progress) | NBC
In case you missed it …
Check out the following Milan-Cortina Olympics dispatches from the L.A. Times team on the ground in Italy:
That concludes today’s Sports Report Olympic Edition newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email newsletter editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here and select the Sports Report.
PHOENIX — Flashing bleached hair under his cap as he settles in with his new team, Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz threw his first pitch of Thursday’s live bating practice session to Freddie Freeman. It was called a strike. As Díaz got set for his next pitch, Freeman tapped on his helmet in a playful attempt to challenge the call.
In response, Díaz tapped his cap twice.
These gestures will become the norm in major league baseball this season, starting this weekend, thanks to the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System.
Each team will begin games with two challenges, initiated by a pitcher, hitter or catcher tapping their head within seconds of the call — no dugout consultation allowed. The moment it’s challenged, a graphic will show the result of the challenge on the video board and once the call is confirmed or overturned, the game will go on.
Teams retain challenges when they’re successful and lose them when they’re not.
The added layer of strategy intrigues Stephen Nelson, the Dodgers’ radio play-by-play voice.
“As humans we are naturally resistant to change, especially baseball fans, and I say that as a baseball fan,” Nelson said this week at the team’s Camelback Ranch training facility. “So there’s definitely going to be that early period where everybody’s probably going to hate it, but you got to get through that.”
In recent years, MLB has tweaked the game — implementing a replay system to challenge calls on the field, placing a runner on second base to start extra innings, using a pitch clock. The ABS system has been tested in the minor leagues since 2022, and major leaguers got a taste of it during spring training last year and also in the All-Star Game.
In 288 spring games last year, there was an average of 4.1 challenges per game, adding an average of 57 seconds to it. Pitchers and catchers successfully overturned calls more often than hitters.
So who will be in charge of making challenges during at-bats?
“I will let the catcher dictate if he [wants] to challenge or not,” Díaz said this week. “I won’t do it … he’s been there all day long, they know the strike zone for the umpire.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was hesitant to say the club will have a hard rule on who can call for challenges. He feels more comfortable with his catcher doing it than a hitter or pitcher, but if a catcher decides to challenge, he expects them to be right.
“He better be right,” Roberts said Friday.
“It’s good that we’re practicing in spring, but we’re having conversations about leverage and how to use it to our advantage,” he added.
Roberts said if hitters want to make a call, they need to be honest with themselves about their personal knowledge of the strike zone and their baseball IQ and understand when to challenge a call and when not to.
“There’s no perfect science to it, but we’re just going to keep talking about it, trying to educate our guys,” he said.
Luis Cruz, a former player and now a Spanish-language announcer for the Dodgers, said hitters don’t need to be thinking about challenging a call.
“I don’t want to have another thing in my mind … then you lose your focus on your at-bat,” he said.
Jackson Ferris to start Sunday’s game
Left-hander Jackson Ferris, the Dodgers’ minor league pitcher of the year in 2024, will start Sunday’s game against the San Diego Padres at the Peoria Sports Complex.
Ferris, acquired along with outfield prospect Zyhir Hope from the Chicago Cubs for Michael Busch two years ago, logged a 3.86 ERA and 1.46 walks plus hits per inning pitched across 26 games and 126 innings at double-A Tulsa last season.
“I like Jackson,” Roberts said. “I like the player. He’s a good kid. A lot of talent. I think for me, it’s just trying to harness his arsenal. It’s a good fastball. He needs to continue to get ahead, be able to put hitters away with the secondary pitches, be efficient with his pitches per inning, but I like Jackson. He’s really talented. He’s scratching the surface, but he’s gotta go out there and perform, so I’m excited to see him on Sunday, and throughout the spring.”
From Felicia Keller: The No. 2 UCLA women’s basketball team beat Washington 82-67, extending its win streak to 20 games, clinching the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament and earning at least a share of the league regular season title on Thursday night.
“It shows how hard we are working throughout the season, and we’re just going to have to continue to try to get better,” Bruins center Lauren Betts said. “Obviously it’s great, but we have bigger things that we’re looking forward to, so we’re just going to continue to keep our heads down.”
It is the Bruins’ first regular season conference championship since the 1998-99 season, when they tied for first in the Pac-10.
“To have a couple of alumni that were on that team here today, that’s really special, and I really want to compliment these guys for always having a sense of humility,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “We walk on the shoulders of the people that came before us, and we’re just really thankful to be in the position we’re in, and in the number one net conference in the country for women’s basketball.”
Betts scored a game-high 23 points and was one of five UCLA players to finish with double-figure scoring, while Washington freshman Brynn McGaughy recorded the second-highest point total of her college career with 19. Avery Howell scored 17 points and led the Huskies with seven rebounds.
From Ryan Kartje: Through a stellar debut season, freshman Jazzy Davidson has done everything for USC that was asked of her. She’s led the Trojans in scoring, in rebounds, in blocks, in assists, in steals. She’s been their best defender, their most clutch performer. Six times, she’s won Big Ten freshman of the week.
Her star turn had helped turn the Trojans around in recent weeks, powering a season-long win streak that was extended to six with a 66-59 victory over Wisconsin on Thursday. She’d already turned in another in a season’s worth of extraordinary performances, when Davidson landed awkwardly in the final minutes and a searing pain shot through her calf.
The pained look on the freshman’s face and the hush of the Galen Center in those first few seconds was enough to transport at least some of the USC faithful in the crowd back to last March, when Trojan superstar JuJu Watkins injured her knee not far from the same spot. The feeling of dread only worsened as teammates carried her first to the sideline, where coaches and trainers eventually carried her to the locker room.
Considering all the unfortunate twists of fate for USC over the last year, it was impossible not to, for a moment at least, assume the worst. But not long after, Davidson strode into the postgame news conference room no worse for the wear.
“Based on the 30 texts I’ve gotten,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said, “Jazzy is OK.”
Doncic had played only five minutes Sunday for Team World in the All-Star Game because of a lingering left hamstring strain. He missed the previous four Lakers games.
With the Lakers’ season scheduled to restart against the Clippers on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, Doncic was asked if he would be playing.
“Probably,” he said. “We’ll see. I got to talk to people.”
Since Doncic practiced, he was asked how he was doing and how his hamstring felt.
Bennedict Mathurin helps Clippers edge the Nuggets
Bennedict Mathurin scored 38 points in his home debut for Los Angeles and the Clippers held off the Denver Nuggets 115-114 on Thursday night.
Denver’s Jamal Murray had a chance to tie it on three free throws with 0.9 seconds remaining after a foul from Derrick Jones Jr. Murray made the first two before missing the third, with time expiring on the rebound.
Kawhi Leonard added 23 points, and Jones had 22 to help the Clippers (27-28) improve to 21-7 since Dec. 20. Both teams were coming off the All-Star break.
“He will be in the MVP conversation this year,” Roberts said this week. “But again, I think, speaking for Mookie, his main goal is to help us win a championship. So, I think whatever falls out from there, I think that will happen. I just want him to focus on just being healthy, helping us win, and then whatever happens outside of that, will happen.”
Coming off a season that got off on the wrong foot with a stomach virus that caused him to lose 20 pounds and then saw him set career lows for batting average (.258), on-base percentage (.326) and OPS (.732), Betts is eager to move forward. And with a more typical spring training timeline this year — unlike the previous two years when season-opening games in South Korea and Japan sped up preparations — Betts can ease into his seventh season with the Dodgers.
“I haven’t had a regular spring maybe since I’ve been a Dodger,” said Betts, who also won’t be participating in the World Baseball Classic as he did in 2023. “I just know that, being 33 now, I don’t have to hurry up and get here, and be ready to play from day one. So, I can just kind of embrace that. Not everybody’s blessed to have that, so being that I am one of the ones that’s blessed with that, I’ll see what I can make of it.”
From Steve Galluzzo: The roars were back at The Riv on Thursday… and so was the rain.
After a four-birdie spree on the back nine, Englishman Aaron Raivaulted into the lead at six-under-par through 16 holes before the horn sounded to suspend play at 5:41 p.m. He and 29 others will finish their first rounds when play resumes Friday morning at the Genesis Invitational.
Unfazed by a nearly three-hour weather delay, Jacob Bridgeman fired a five-under-par 66 and shares the clubhouse lead with the No. 2-ranked player in the world Rory McIlroy.
“Awesome course,” Bridgeman said as he left the press tent. “Played it yesterday for the first time and I love it!”
Making his tournament debut, Bridgeman carded four birdies on the back nine, the last at No. 17, to pull even with McIlroy at five-under, and parred the 18th to take the clubhouse lead. The 26-year-old South Carolinian is ranked 52nd — the highest he has been since turning pro four years ago — but has never won on the Tour.
1887 — The International Assn., the first minor league baseball association, is organized in Pittsburgh.
1951 — The college point-shaving scandal prompts Long Island University to drop basketball and all other intercollegiate sports. LIU revives basketball in 1957.
1971 — En route to a record 76-goal season, Boston’s Phil Esposito becomes the first player to score his 50th goal in February, but the Bruins lose to the Kings 5-4.
1972 — Larry Brown of the Denver Rockets sets ABA records for assists in a game (23), half (18) and quarter (10) during a 146-123 home win over the Pittsburgh Condors.
1974 — Gordie Howe, the NHL’s career scoring leader, comes out of retirement and signs a $1-million, four-year contract to play with the Houston Aeros of the WHA and sons Mark and Marty.
1976 — Muhammad Ali beats Jean-Pierre Coopman with a fifth-round knockout at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in Puerto Rico to defend his world heavyweight title.
1988 — In Calgary, Brian Boitano of the U.S. wins the Olympic figure skating gold medal on a technical merit tiebreaker and nearly flawless free skate.
1993 — Julio Cesar Chavez records a fifth-round TKO over Greg Haugen in a WBC super lightweight title bout before a record crowd of 130,000 at Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium.
1998 — Tara Lipinski, 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating champion, beating fellow teen and U.S. teammate Michelle Kwan to take the gold. Lipinski is two months younger than Sonja Henie was in her 1928 victory.
2006 — Tanith Belbin and partner Ben Agosto end the U.S. medals drought in Olympic ice dance competition with a silver. The last to do so were Colleen O’Connor and James Millns, who won bronze in 1976.
2009 — Lindsey Van of the U.S. becomes the first female ski jumping world champion. Women’s ski jumping makes its debut at this year’s Nordic world championships in the Czech Republic. Todd Lodwick wins the opening Nordic combined event to give the U.S. two golds in one day. Before Van’s victory, the U.S. had not won a gold at a Nordic worlds since 2003 when Johnny Spillane took a Nordic combined sprint.
2010 — Switzerland’s Simon Ammann wins the large hill at the Vancouver Games to become the first ski jumper with four individual Olympic titles.
2011 — Trevor Bayne, 20, wins the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s biggest race, in only his second Sprint Cup start.
2011 — Kobe Bryant wins his record-tying fourth All-Star game MVP award, scoring 37 points before his hometown fans and leading the West past the East 148-143.
2016 — Lindsey Vonn clinches a record 20th World Cup crystal globe title and surpasses Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark. It’s Vonn’s record eighth downhill title. Stenmark won 19 globes between 1975 and 1984.
2021 — Australian Open Women’s Tennis: Naomi Osaka of Japan wins her fourth major and second Australian title; beats American Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3.
2022 — Hannah Green of Australia becomes first woman to win a mix-gender golf tournament over 72 holes; closes with five-under 66 for a 4-stroke win in TPS Murray River on the PGA Tour of Australasia.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
“He will be in the MVP conversation this year,” Roberts said this week. “But again, I think, speaking for Mookie, his main goal is to help us win a championship. So, I think whatever falls out from there, I think that will happen. I just want him to focus on just being healthy, helping us win, and then whatever happens outside of that, will happen.”
Coming off a season that got off on the wrong foot with a stomach virus that caused him to lose 20 pounds and then saw him set career lows for batting average (.258), on-base percentage (.326) and OPS (.732), Betts is eager to move forward. And with a more typical spring training timeline this year — unlike the previous two years when season-opening games in South Korea and Japan sped up preparations — Betts can ease into his seventh season with the Dodgers.
“I haven’t had a regular spring maybe since I’ve been a Dodger,” said Betts, who also won’t be participating in the World Baseball Classic as he did in 2023. “I just know that, being 33 now, I don’t have to hurry up and get here, and be ready to play from day one. So, I can just kind of embrace that. Not everybody’s blessed to have that, so being that I am one of the ones that’s blessed with that, I’ll see what I can make of it.”
One thing that’s not in question for Betts heading into the season: his shortstop play. Despite the nearly unprecedented shift from the outfield to the infield, Betts played 148 games at short last season and was a Gold Glove Award finalist. The work he put in to learn a new position raised questions about whether that was a root cause of his hitting struggles, a point he granted some credence to late last season.
Betts did pick up the pace late in the season, batting .317 and nearly doubling his home run total from 11 to 20 over his final 47 games. But he slumped in the NLCS and World Series, batting a combined .136 and was eventually dropped from second to third in the batting order for Game 5 against the Toronto Blue Jays, then fourth for Games 6 and 7.
Roberts said this week that he intends to slot Betts third in the batting order this season, with Shohei Ohtani still in the leadoff spot. (He added that Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and newcomer Kyle Tucker are all in play for the second and fourth spots in the order.)
“I like [Betts] in the number three in the sense that there’s an on-base component, there’s a ‘get hits’ component, there’s a drive-in-runs component, and you’re more of a Swiss Army knife in the lineup,” Roberts said. “So, I’m not beholden to it, but I like him in the three-hole right now.”
And as a result, Roberts feels bullish about Betts this season.
“I think he had a great offseason,” Roberts said. “He’s in a good headspace. The body’s good, and I think for me, it’s just getting back to being who he is. I just think that last year was an outlier offensive season, and I’m not too concerned about Mookie at all.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start Cactus League opener
Roberts announced Thursday that World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start the Dodgers’ first spring training game Saturday against the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. He did not share how many pitches or innings Yamamoto expects to throw, but he did state that it will likely be Yamamoto’s only Cactus League start before departing to play for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.
Roberts also revealed what players may start Saturday’s Cactus League opener.
“I would expect Will Smith to be in there,” Roberts said. “I expect [Teoscar Hernández] in there, and probably Andy [Pages]. I think that’s safe, and then we’ll go from there.”
Roberts plans to hold other veteran players until next week.
“Guys like Mookie and Muncy, I’m going to start those guys a little bit later than this weekend and see where we go,” Roberts said. “Once they get going, then we’ll stagger and give them the ample time in-between. I’ve got to appreciate that it’s a longer spring. So, if they’re going to be here for six weeks, then I don’t want to kind of come in too hot, I want to pace them out a little bit.”
Freeman said Thursday that he will not play in the Dodgers’ first three spring training games.
“I feel good, I’m ready to go, but we are going to slow-play it a little bit,” Freeman said. “I won’t play until I think Tuesday, so the fourth game, and then I’ll get going.”
That was the toughest thing to watch. That was what seared into the mind. That’s what made you want to fire Mick Cronin on the spot.
It was a look of embarrassment. It was a look of confusion. It was the look of a young man who had just been cruelly pushed around by someone with more power.
Mick Cronin is a classic bully, and the fact that UCLA continues to empower him with new contracts and no questions is misguided malfeasance.
So, he wins games. He doesn’t win enough to compensate for incidents like Tuesday night in East Lansing, Mich., where Cronin became perhaps the first college coach in history to eject his own player from the game and order him to the locker room in the middle of the game.
Yes, Cronin holds players accountable. That’s fine, as long as he also holds himself accountable, but that didn’t happen when, after his team was beaten by 23 points by Michigan State in a second consecutive humiliating loss, he publicly criticized Jamerson for the hard foul that led to the ejection incident and then wrongly assailed a reporter for allegedly raising his voice during postgame questioning.
From Ryan Kartje: Alijah Arenas sank into a folding chair, his face buried in a towel, his breathing heavy.
For the last few days, smack dab in the middle of his long-awaited breakthrough at USC, Arenas was sick. He’d spent the last few days worn down and missed practice Tuesday, leaving his status for Wednesday night’s critical tilt with No. 10 Illinois uncertain until a few hours before. But the Trojans star freshman refused to sit out, resolving instead to tough it out against a true Big Ten contender, even if he wasn’t at 100%.
“That takes real courage,” USC forward Jacob Cofie said.
Indeed, it was a noble effort, albeit one that meant little by the time Arenas collapsed into the bench, breathless, midway through the first half Wednesday. By that point, Illinois was already rolling, well on their way to a 101-65 victory that left USC gasping for air.
“It’s pretty simple,” USC coach Eric Musselman said. “We were not good enough tonight. We’ve got to get better in all aspects.”
From Jack Vita: A slimmer Teoscar Hernández reported to Camelback Ranch this week, willing to take on a new role in the Dodgers’ quest for a three-peat.
Hernández acknowledged Tuesday that he played through a nagging left groin injury last year, which forced him to miss time early in the season.
“I didn’t get back in my health,” Hernández said. “When I got back from the injury, I was fighting through it. Obviously, I didn’t say anything. I just wanted to be on the field and try to help the team.”
Hernández says he was overweight in 2025, and took better care of his body this past winter.
“It’s a combination of eating really good or knowing what you’re eating, and working a little harder than normal,” Hernández said. “But, right now I’m feeling really good. Back to the way I used to be. My whole career I used to be 204-205 [lbs.], in that range. Last year, I was a little over [that], but I’m back to normal right now.”
Galaxy ready for another season without Riqui Puig
From Kevin Baxter: On Jan. 1, Galaxy coach Greg Vanney sent a text to his best player, wishing him a happy new year. The next day Riqui Puig responded, but his answer didn’t alter the resolutions Vanney had made for 2026.
Puig, who missed all of 2025 because of a torn ACL in his left knee, told his coach he needed another surgery, one that will sideline him this season as well. Yet after the shock wore off, Vanney and general manager Will Kuntz decided to stick with the plans they took into the offseason rather than blowing them up because Puig would again be sidelined.
“We wanted to reinforce the back line. We needed to look for a [striker]. We’ve done both of those things successfully,” Vanney said. “The difference is that we don’t have Riqui’s qualities, which I think over the course of last year we learned a little bit about ourselves and how to deal with it.”
Indeed, after going winless in their first 16 games — the worst start ever for a reigning MLS champion — the Galaxy figured out how to play without their playmaker in the second half, going 7-6-5 in MLS and beating three of Mexico’s top teams in the Leagues Cup.
1928 — Canada wins the gold medal in ice hockey at the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Canada, represented by the 1926 Toronto University team, receives a bye to the final round. The Canadians beat Sweden 11-0, Britain 14-0 and Switzerland 13-0.
1955 — Bernie Geoffrion of the Montreal Canadiens scores five goals in a 10-2 victory over the New York Rangers.
1977 — Rod Gilbert of the New York Rangers gets his 1,000th point with a goal in a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders.
1982 — Atlanta’s 127-122 four-overtime win over Seattle equals the fourth-longest game in NBA history and the second-longest since the institution of the 24-second clock.
1984 — Phil and Steve Mahre of the United States become the first brothers to finish 1-2 in an Olympic event, the men’s slalom, at the Winter Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union beats Czechoslovakia 2-0 to win the gold medal in hockey.
1984 — Cale Yarborough sweeps into the lead two turns before the finish to win the Daytona 500. He becomes the second driver to win consecutive Daytona 500s; Richard Petty was the other.
1993 — Wendel Suckow edges two-time world champion Georg Hackl of Germany by 0.106 seconds to capture the first world luge championship medal of any kind for the United States.
1994 — Speedskater Bonnie Blair wins the fourth gold of her Olympic career with her third consecutive 500-meter victory.
2002 — In Salt Lake City, bobsledders Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers give the United States 21 medals in the Winter Games.
2005 — Lindsay Kennedy becomes the first woman to play in a Major Indoor Soccer League game. Kennedy, a St. Louis forward, participates in the final 76 seconds of Milwaukee’s 7-3 win over the Steamers at Savvis Center.
2005 — Schreiner ends its NCAA-record losing streak at 83 games, beating Sul Ross State 75-69 in a women’s basketball game. It’s the Division III Mountaineers first win since Jan. 17, 2002, when they also beat Sul Ross.
2012 — American star Hannah Kearney’s all-discipline record for consecutive FIS World Cup victories ends at 16 with a semifinal loss in a dual moguls event at Naeba, Japan. Kearney’s streak began in Lake Placid, N.Y., on Jan. 22, 2011.
2012 — Steven Holcomb and brakeman Steve Langton win the two-man bobsled in Lake Placid, N.Y., the first time the U.S. captures this event at the world championships.
2014 — Norway wins the first Olympic mixed relay in biathlon at the Sochi Games and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen becomes the most decorated Winter Olympian ever with 13 medals. Ted Ligety wins the giant slalom with a dominating performance, becoming the first American man to win two Olympic gold medals in Alpine skiing.
2017 — Laura Dahlmeier wins the world title in the women’s 12.5-kilometer mass start, becoming the first to win five gold medals at a single biathlon world championship.
2017 — Anthony Davis scores 52 points, 10 more than Wilt Chamberlain’s All-Star record that had stood for 55 years. The Western Conference beats the Eastern Conference 192-182 in the highest-scoring game in league history.
2021 — In a softening of 4-year WADA ban on Russia from all international sport, Russia to compete under acronym “ROC” after name of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
PHOENIX — With Tommy Edman opening the season on the injured list, Hyeseong Kim is a prime candidate to see an uptick in playing time at second base for the Dodgers in the coming season. On Tuesday, he further solidified his case.
With teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto throwing a live batting practice session on the backfields at Camelback Ranch, Kim took the World Series MVP on an unexpected ride. On the 16th pitch of Yamamoto’s live batting practice, Kim crushed an opposite-field home run, dazzling the hundreds of Dodgers fans gathered to watch the team ready itself for its first slate of exhibition games that begin Saturday.
Kim’s home run came after watching Yamamoto walk Teoscar Hernández, induce a ground ball from Andy Pages, and strike out newcomer Kyle Tucker looking. However, Kim wasn’t finished quite yet.
Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Hyeseong Kim just CRUSHED an opposite field homer off of World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto in live BP at Dodgers Spring Training camp. pic.twitter.com/g92ernHvKt
Yamamoto took a short break, as Shohei Ohtani threw a round of batting practice himself. After Ohtani got his work in, Yamamoto returned to the mound, with Kim waiting for him in the batter’s box.
On the fifth pitch of his second at-bat versus Yamamoto, Kim ripped a base hit to right field. Yamamoto would see eight at bats on the day, logging 30 pitches. He allowed three hits, two of which came from Kim.
Kim said he tweaked his swing last year after coming over from the KBO on a three-year, $12.5 million contract, and is continuing to progress and feel more comfortable with the adjustments he’s made.
“The swing changes we made last year, I would say I felt about 70% comfortable with,” Kim said through an interpreter on Monday. “And then, this offseason and spring training, we were able to recognize some of the other stuff that we needed to work on, so I’m working very hard to make those changes again this year.”
As a rookie, he batted .280 with a .314 on base percentage, .699 OPS, three home runs and 17 RBI across 71 games. He began the season in Triple-A, before earning a promotion in May. A left shoulder injury would land him on the IL, limiting his time in his first big league season — though he was healthy enough to be on the team’s postseason roster primarily as a late-inning defensive replacement, playing second base when the Dodgers closed out their Game 7 World Series victory.
Kim also mixed in 17 games in the outfield to provide depth behind Pages last season, and he knew his outfield defense would be an offseason priority.
“I was aware that I needed to work on my center field and outfield defense,” Kim said. “Even without the front office telling me, I knew that it was something I needed to work on, so I was going to work on it regardless.”
As he prepped for the coming season, Kim focused on his nutrition, upping his protein intake and adding some weight.
“I noticed that I lost a little bit of weight throughout the season and I wanted to make sure that I was gaining my weight back before the season started,” Kim said. “So, I made sure to intake my proteins and my meals so that I was able to gain 2-3 kilograms this offseason.”
With the news that Edman is still on the mend from offseason ankle surgery, Kim stands to benefit in terms of playing time but he says he’s not getting ahead of himself.
“I’m using this time — the offseason and spring training — to just get better,” Kim said. “Whether I play more or not, it doesn’t really affect me much. I’m just trying to get better every day.”
Welcome to the Sports Report, our weekday morning newsletter covering L.A. sports. To sign up to receive it via email (it’s free), go here.
From Jack Vita: Position players reported to spring training at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers on Monday, but manager Dave Roberts revealed that the team will be without its versatile second baseman and utilityman Tommy Edman when it opens the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks at home on March 26.
The 30-year-old Edman underwent ankle surgery during the offseason after being limited to 97 games in 2025 in his first full season with the Dodgers.
“I think just looking at where his ankle is at, trying to play the long view that you don’t want to have any regression or setbacks,” Roberts said. “So, how can we be methodical with it? Just for me, knowing that he’s just taking swings is enough. We’re not going to rush it. We want to put him in the best position, so I think it just kind of became [clearer] very recently.”
Edman will open the season on the injured list, something he is at peace with. He felt that a return before opening day was a bit ambitious, and that it would be better to err on the side of caution.
Mike Trout says he would prefer to return to center field for the Angels, and the star slugger says he will skip the World Baseball Classic because of insurance issues.
The 11-time All-Star who been plagued by injuries since 2021 says his familiar position isn’t as physically demanding as the corner outfield spots, contrary to traditional thinking.
Trout played his most games since 2019 last season, finishing at 130. The three-time American League MVP started 22 of his first 29 games in right field before a knee injury sidelined him for a month. The 34-year-old was exclusively a designated hitter when he returned in late May.
“I feel like I’m at my best when I’m in center,” Trout told reporters at the club’s spring training facility Monday. “If I have to go to the corner, I’ll go to the corner.
“When I was in center, it was less on my body than the corners. To be honest, in right field I felt I was running a lot. Talking to some other outfielders and they’re saying that they feel the same way sometimes, center is less on your legs. I just feel … confident in center.”
1923 — Cy Denneny of the Ottawa Senators becomes the NHL’s career scoring leader. He scores his 143rd goal to surpass Joe Malone in a 2-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
1924 — Johnny Weissmuller sets a world record in the 100-yard freestyle swim with a time of 52.4 seconds.
1926 — Suzanne Lenglen beats Helen Wills 6-3, 8-6 in Cannes, France, in their only tennis match against each other.
1928 — Sweden’s Gillis Grafstrom successfully defends his 1920 and 1924 Olympic figure skating title, with Austrian Willy Bockl finishing in second place as he did four years earlier.
1941 — Joe Louis knocks out Gus Dorazio in the second round in Philadelphia to defend his world heavyweight title.
1955 — Mike Souchak establishes the PGA 72-hole scoring record with a 257 at the Texas Open. Souchak starts with a record-tying 60 at San Antonio’s Brackenridge Park course and ends with a 27-under-par, beating the previous low for a 72-hole event by two shots.
1968 — The Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield, Mass.
1974 — Richard Petty wins his second straight Daytona 500. It’s the fifth Daytona 500 title for Petty, who also won in 1964, 1966, 1971 and 1973.
1992 — Raisa Smetanina wins a gold medal with the Unified Team in the 20-kilometer cross-country relay to set the career Winter Olympics medal record with 10. Smetanina, 39, also becomes the oldest champion and the first to win a medal in five straight Winter Games.
1994 — San Antonio’s David Robinson records the fourth quadruple-double in NBA history with 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocks in the Spurs’ 115-96 win over Detroit.
1998 — The U.S. women’s hockey team wins the sport’s first Olympic gold medal. Sandra Whyte scores on an empty-netter with eight seconds left to give the United States a 3-1 victory over Canada.
2010 — Americans Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso finish 1-2 in the downhill at the Vancouver Olympics. It’s the first time since 1984 that the U.S won gold and silver in a women’s Alpine event.
2013 — Danica Patrick wins the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any Sprint Cup race.
2014 — Meryl Davis and Charlie White win the gold medal in ice dance, the first Olympic title in the event for the U.S..
2018 — Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu becomes the first man to successfully defend his Olympic figure skating title since Dick Button in 1952.
2020 — 62nd Daytona 500: Denny Hamlin wins second straight title by 0.014 seconds over Ryan Blaney on the second restart in overtime; his third Daytona victory
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
1.Yoshiki Ideguchi, who traveled from Tokyo, watches at Dodgers spring training at Camelback Ranch in Arizona Monday.(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)2.Children lean against a fence and wait to greet players during Dodgers spring training at Camelback Ranch in Arizona on Monday.(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)3.A fan holds a World Series bobblehead while waiting to greet players at Dodgers spring training at Camelback Ranch in Arizona on Monday.(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
PHOENIX — Position players reported to spring training at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers on Monday, but manager Dave Roberts revealed that it will be without its versatile second baseman and utilityman Tommy Edman when the team opens the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks at home on March 26.
The 30-year-old Edman underwent ankle surgery during the offseason after being limited to 97 games in 2025 in his first full season with the Dodgers.
“I think just looking at where his ankle is at, trying to play the long view that you don’t want to have any regression or setbacks,” Roberts said. “So, how can we methodical with it? Just for me, knowing that he’s just taking swings is enough. We’re not going to rush it. We want to put him in the best position, so I think it just kind of became [clearer] very recently.”
Edman will open the season on the injured list, something he is at peace with. He felt that a return before Opening Day was a bit ambitious, and that it would be better to err on the side of caution.
“That was always kind of a stretch, just due to the nature of the injury and the timing of the surgery and everything,” Edman said. “I think, having been out of the boot for a little over a month now, I was just kind of waiting to see how it progressed, and everything has gone exactly on-schedule. We were kind of leaving Opening Day open, just in case it happened to feel way better than expected. Everything’s on the expected schedule so far. As I get into more baseball stuff, I still have to work into the adaptation of volume. As the volume goes up, the swelling kind of increases a little bit, so I’ve got to take it slow and let the progress play out the way it was planned all along, instead of trying to speed it up.”
For now, Edman is slow-playing it.
“He took some swings a couple days ago, [from] both sides,” Roberts said. “He did some skipping, some light jogging, I think it was. He’s getting his body into baseball shape, so obviously he’s not going to be ready for the start of camp. He’s in that same bucket of, ‘When he’s ready, he’s ready.’ But each day, there’s been progress.”
Evan Phillips excited to be back
Days after signing a one-year contract to return to the Dodgers — despite being non-tendered earlier in the offseason — Evan Phillips expressed relief at being back.
“[The offseason] was quiet for a little bit,” Phillips said. “I leaned on my agent to be patient and trust that things were going to work out and we’re certainly glad that we’re back. It was definitely a very, very wild ride this offseason. It feels like I never left, so it’s kind of weird to get all the handshakes and hugs, but it’s just another spring training to me. I’m certainly glad to be back in Dodger blue.”
Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes told reporters Sunday that Phillips should return to the Dodgers sometime in the middle of the season. He underwent Tommy John surgery last June.
“[I’ve been] doing long toss a few times a week, hoping to get on the bullpen or on the mound for a bullpen next month,” Phillips said. “I’ll start that mound progression here in the next couple of weeks. I think, actually, Tuesday I’ll throw off of the mound for the first time, but it won’t be to a catcher or anything. It’ll just be a catcher standing up and there’s a slow progression, week by week. So [there will be] plenty of steps ahead that’s going to keep me busy here in Arizona, but I’m definitely looking forward to that progression.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. At last, our long, national nightmare is over. The Dodgers re-signed Kiké Hernández.
Well, the first spring training game is Saturday against the Angels. Opening day is March 26 at home against Arizona. So what better time to look at a potential opening day roster? After all, it’s not like there will be injuries and roster moves before then, right? This will definitely be the roster.
But first, a couple of notes to catch up on:
—They are splitting up the raising of the World Series flag and the ring ceremony again. The ring ceremony is March 27.
—The Dodgers re-signed Evan Phillips to a one-year, $6.5-million deal. The Dodgers originally acquired Phillips off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays near the end of the 2021 season. Since then, he has gone 15-9 with a 2.22 ERA and 45 saves in 201 games (195 innings). His injury last season threw the bullpen into disarray. He had Tommy John surgery in June and won’t be back until the All-Star break.
—To make room for Phillips on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers designated Ben Rortvedt for assignment, probably hoping again that Rortvedt will go unclaimed and they can send him to the minors. However, the New York Mets claimed Rortvedt, and he will compete for a backup spot with, among other, former Dodger Austin Barnes, who signed a minor-league deal with the Mets on Jan. 29
—The Dodgers re-signed Kiké Hernández to a one-year, $4.5-million deal. He had elbow surgery in the offseason and won’t be able to play until probably the All-Star break, so expect him to be put on the 60-day IL soon. To make room for Hernández, the Dodgers put Phillips on the 60-day IL.
—The Dodgers traded Anthony Banda, whom they designated for assignment last week, to the Minnesota Twins for $500,000 of international bonus pool space.
—The Dodgers signed Max Muncy to a contract extension, giving him $7 million for the 2027 season with a $10-million team option for 2028. Muncy has said he wants to remain with the Dodgers the rest of his career, and he will be 38 when the 2028 season ends.
—In this era of high contracts, you have to look at Muncy and Will Smith, who has a 10-year, $140-million contract, and marvel. They both have left a lot of money on the table to remain with the Dodgers. Especially Smith, who is arguably the best catcher in baseball, and definitely in the top three.
Why are the Dodgers so good at getting players for under market value? Muncy said this last week to reporters:
“Part of me and who I am as a person and how I was raised, I like to be loyal to people. This organization took a chance on me when I was out of baseball, basically. That meant a lot to me. They stuck with me when things were going bad. They’ve never wavered on me at all. That means a lot to me in itself, and it’s just a place I’m very comfortable. My family’s comfortable here. We have a chance to win every single year. That’s why I play this game. I want to win. Obviously you make money in this game, but that’s not why I play. I play because I want to win. It’s the competitive fire that I want to go out and win as much as I can. That to me is worth more than money.
“I know I’m leaving money on the table, but I’m more than OK with that because I wouldn’t be OK with myself trying to chase money somewhere else watching this team win and I’m on the sidelines. That’s just not who I am. I would rather win. Another component to it is just the relationships I’ve built here. Like I was just saying, I like to be loyal and my relationships mean a lot. I’ve created such a relationship with the staff, the front office, the coaches, the medical and training staff, the clubhouse guys. I just don’t want to create that somewhere else. Being here for my entire career at this point would mean the world to me, and this gives me the chance to do that.”
So, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at the 40-man roster.
Pitchers Ben Casparius Edwin Díaz Jack Dreyer Paul Gervase Tyler Glasnow Brusdar Graterol Edgardo Henriquez Kyle Hurt Will Klein Landon Knack Ronan Kopp Bobby Miller Evan Phillips-* River Ryan Roki Sasaki Tanner Scott Emmet Sheehan Blake Snell Brock Stewart Gavin Stone Blake Treinen Alex Vesia Justin Wrobleski Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Two-way players Shohei Ohtani
Catcher Dalton Rushing Will Smith
Infielders Mookie Betts Tommy Edman Alex Freeland Freddie Freeman Kiké Hernández Hyeseong Kim Max Muncy Miguel Rojas
Outfielders Alex Call Teoscar Hernández Andy Pages Michael Siani Kyle Tucker Ryan Ward
*-on 60-day IL so doesn’t count as part of the 40-man limit.
So, let’s assume the Dodgers go with 13 pitchers and 13 position players as usual. And, Dave Roberts reiterated Thursday that they will go with a six-man rotation, at least for the first part of the season. Where does that leave us?
Bullpen (8) Edwin Díaz *Jack Dreyer Brusdar Graterol Will Klein *Tanner Scott Blake Treinen *Alex Vesia *Justin Wrobleski
*-left-handed
—Henriquez also could slip in here, it just depends on how everyone looks in spring training. Plus, knowing Dodgers history, one of these guys probably will start the season on the IL.
—Stewart is expected to miss part of the season, and there are questions about Snell, who says he slowed his process of getting ready for the season, and Graterol, who didn’t pitch last season.
—Remember, Ohtani counts as a two-way player, so he is a pitcher and designated hitter but takes only one roster spot, allowing the Dodgers to carry 14 pitchers when the official roster says 13.
Two-way player (1) Shohei Ohtani
Catchers (2) Dalton Rushing Will Smith
Infielders (6) Mookie Betts Tommy Edman Freddie Freeman Hyeseong Kim Max Muncy Miguel Rojas
Outfielders (4) Alex Call Teoscar Hernández Andy Pages Kyle Tucker
—There’s a chance Edman starts the season on the IL.
—The odds that this is the actual opening day roster are very long. Remember, this is just a guess, not a prediction, so please, no wagering.
—This is just to give you a sense of where the Dodgers stand. Dave Roberts already said it is the best team he has had. But, as I’ve said before, here is what will happen: People will say they are going to set the record for wins. Expectations will be sky high. Injuries will hit the pitching staff. Slumps will happen. Some fans will wonder what happened and say the Dodgers stink and Roberts couldn’t manage his way out of his own house. The Dodgers will end the season with around 95 wins. And then anything can happen in the postseason.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto talks about pitching and other topics with José Mota. Watch and listen here.
Until next time…
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. The high school baseball season begins this week, and it’s the sport that produces the most future pro athletes in Southern California. While everyone thinks they are a scout and thousands of dollars are spent on private coaches, travel ball and showcases seeking any kind of edge, the bottom line is whether a player can produce results against quality competition. And throwing 90 mph without throwing strikes means nothing to the programs that win.
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
St. John Bosco High teammates celebrate with a dogpile on the field after winning the regional baseball title last season.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Baseball is the sport in Southern California where you think the best team can win a championship but doesn’t because there’s always another team with equally good pitching Corona was the certain team last season to win it all (just like the Dodgers), but St. John Bosco beat the Panthers in the playoff semifinals and won the Southern Section Division 1 championship.
Now St. John Bosco is the Corona of 2026: Everyone’s No. 1 team to start the season because of numerous returnees, including the Clark twins, James and Miles; closer Jack Champlin; top hitters Jaden Jackson and Noah Everly; plus the addition of a healthy pitcher, Julian Garcia, who was supposed to be the No. 1 thrower last season until an injury.
Just like Corona, however, St. John Bosco is no sure thing because there’s lots of teams with the kind of standout pitching to beat the Braves in a one-game playoff situation.
The Mission League alone has so many pitchers throwing 90 mph and above that if you don’t have a radar gun at a game, you look out of place. Harvard-Westlake, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Sierra Canyon and Loyola all have formidable pitchers capable of winning big games against top opponents.
St. John Bosco faces immediate challengers in the Trinity League, led by Orange Lutheran, which has another team filled with all-star players, including 6-foot-8 pitcher Gary Morse and Huntington Beach infielder transfer CJ Weinstein. Texas commit Brady Murrietta will be a four-year standout. The Lancers can tell anyone that being ranked No. 1 hardly guarantees success in the postseason. They haven’t been able to win a section title despite lots of great teams.
Royal has a group of pitchers with big arms ready to see where they stand. Who’s going to inflict a loss on Huntington Beach junior Jared Grindlinger? Striker Pence of Corona Santiago has been clocked throwing 101 mph.
Cypress, El Dorado, JSerra, Santa Margarita, Mater Dei, Aquinas, La Mirada, Arcadia, Norco, Gahr and Huntington Beach have no fear of taking on the big boys this season.
As far as pro prospects, outfielder Blake Bowen of JSerra, outfielder Anthony Murphy of Corona, infielder Trey Ebel of Corona and infielder Brody Schumacher of Santa Margarita are among the top players to watch.
And prepare for one of the most talented group of players from the class of 2029, led by the hero of the El Segundo Little League World Series team,Louis Lappe, who makes his freshman debut for Harvard-Westlake.
OJ Popoola of Palisades has made major contributions after transferring with his twin brother from Detroit.
(Nick Koza)
The City Section Open Division semifinals are set for Saturday at L.A. Southwest College. Palisades will face San Pedro at 6 p.m. and Cleveland will take on Fairfax at 4 p.m.
Fairfax upset No. 3-seeded Birmingham. San Pedro eliminated Coliseum League champion Washington Prep. San Pedro has the kind of veteran team that might be able to stay with the top-seeded Dolphins for a little bit if its zone is working.
The top seeds are mostly holding in Division I. The semifinals will have No. 3 Venice at No. 2 Chatsworth and No. 5 L.A. Jordan at No. 1 Granada Hills.
In Division II, No. 10-seeded Marquez is making noise behind football standout Elyjah Staples, upsetting No. 2 Eagle Rock 57-50. Marquez will be at Sylmar in the semifinals. King/Drew coach Lloyd Webster has his team in semifinals after a 52-50 win over Downtown Magnets. He also was smiling because his son, Josahn, scored 22 points for Rolling Hills Prep in its win over Orange Lutheran in Southern Section Division 1.
La Mirada got a breakthrough win in the Southern Section Open Division. Here’s the report. On Tuesday, Corona Centennial is playing at Redondo Union to determine No. 1 in its pool and ditto for Harvard-Westlake at Santa Margarita.
Blair upset top-seeded Bonita in Division 4. Blair is coached by Derrick Taylor, who’s won championships at Taft and St. John Bosco. Here’s the report.
Mater Dei and JSerra continue to dominate in Division 2 and Division 1, respectively. JSerra will face a challenge in the quarterfinals on Tuesday from Rolling Hills Prep at North Torrance. Rolling Hills Prep inflicted a loss to Orange Lutheran last week.
Girls basketball
One of the best coaching jobs this season has been turned in by Birmingham’s Victor Koopongsakorn. The Patriots are 27-3 and seeded No. 2 in the City Section Open Division despite being a young team with few returnees. Next up is a semifinal game against Hamilton on Saturday. The other semifinal has top-seeded Westchester facing Venice. Three of the four remaining teams are from the Western League.
In the Southern Section Open Division, there’s no sign any opponent is going to threaten Ontario Christian, Etiwanda or Sierra Canyon among the 12 teams in pool play. All three are preparing to inevitable meetings in the next two weeks.
Oak Park came through with a 67-44 win over Corona Centennial to make itself the likely No. 4 team to challenge the big three. Karisma Flores had 17 points and Ava Rogerson 15.
Two veteran coaches, Charlie Solomon of Brentwood and Kevin Kiernan of Troy, faceed with their teams on Saturday in Division 1. Troy won 61-48. Kiernan is the winningest coach in California history. He came out of retirement to return for a second stint at Troy. Mei-Ling Perry had 19 points and nine rebounds to advance Troy to the quarterfinals. Kelsey Sugar had 20 points for Brentwood.
Softball
Garden Grove Pacifica continues to take pride in all of its former players playing college softball. The list is at 16 for this season. As they say, “Once a Mariner, always a Mariner.”
Norco, the defending Southern Section Division 1 champions, is expected to be the preseason No. 1 with the return of pitcher Coral Williams. The Cougars open the season Tuesday at home against Aquinas.
Defending City Open Division champion Granada Hills has to find a pitching replacement for Addison Moorman, but has lots of hitters, including Zoe Justman, who batted .442, and Elysse Diaz, who hit .470. The Highlanders will try once again to prepare for City competition by playing Southern Section teams in nonleague and tournament games.
Wrestling
Birmingham’s Henry Aslikyan, seen here last year, became a four-time City Section champion on Saturday.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Henry Aslikyan of Birmingham capped off a remarkable four-year run in City Section wrestling by winning his fourth City individual title. This time it was at 120 pounds, sending him on to the state championships. He has won two state titles but the 120-pound division will be the toughest in state with three returning state champions competing.
El Camino Real, South East, Marquez and Palisades are the four teams that have made it to the City Section Open Division boys soccer semifinals. On Thursday, top-seeded El Camino Real will host Palisades and No. 2 South East will host Marquez.
On Wednesday in City Open Division girls semifinals, No. 1 Cleveland plays host to Palisades and Thursday, No. 6 New West Charter hosts Granada Hills.
In Southern Section Open Division boys, the quarterfinals begin Tuesday with Orange Lutheran hosting Placentia Valencia and JSerra hosting Mater Dei. In Division 1, Servite is the fourth Trinity League still alive and plays host to Santa Monica.
In Southern Section Division 1 girls, Mission League rivals Harvard-Westlake and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame will face off in Wednesday’s quarterfinals at Harvard-Westlake.
Competitive equity playoffs
The CIF governs high school sports in California.
(CIF)
There’s still coaches unhappy with the Southern Section competitive equity playoff system using computer algorithms to place teams in divisions.
The Southern Section says no system is perfect, but it’s clear the system used for basketball is flawed. How in the name of sanity (just go ask coaches) was Mater Dei placed in Division 2? They were in Division 1 all season until taking a free fall from Jan. 27 until the time the next rankings were released during seeding announcements. They happened to need an at-large berth to qualify for the playoffs and wouldn’t have earned one in Division 1, causing conspiracy theories. I don’t believe there was a conspiracy, just that the computer system got it badly wrong. Mater Dei has won its first two Division 2 playoff games by scores of 83-63 and 85-59. And look for more to come because they are a Division 1 team.
St. John Bosco has already won the transfer portal in high school football with the announcement that standout sophomore offensive tackle Elisha Mueller of Servite has arrived at the Bellflower school. Leuzinger sophomore quarterback Russell Sekona has transferred to Mater Dei. Leuzinger sophomore defensive back Pakipole Moala has transferred to Santa Margarita. Here’s the transfer portal list. . . .
Russell White has stepped down after 10 years coaching eight-man football at Flintridge Prep. He’d like to try 11-man football. White led Crespi to a Division 1 football title in 1986 playing running back and went on to star at Cal before being drafted by the Rams. . . .
Rick Garretson is the new football coach at Servite. He’s a 1974 graduate of Servite, was once a long-serving assistant coach and served as head coach at Chandler in Arizona from 2019-2024. Here’s the report.
Kicker Jacob Kreinbring of Loyola has committed to Stonybrook. . . .
Chaparral returns receivers Tycen Johnson (Arizona State commit), Michael Farinas (UCLA) and Eli Woodard (USC), all of whom get to catch passes from quarterback Dane Weber. If the line can block, maybe Corona Centennial will get some competition this fall.
Football coach James Stewart of La Quinta has resigned. Lucas Alexander will be the new coach. . . .
Randy Luna is the new football coach at Canoga Park. . . .
Fred Gambrell has resigned after two years as head football coach at Sunny Hills. . . .
Junior receiver Eli Woodard of Chaparral has committed to USC. . . .
Golfer Charlie Woods, the teenage son of Tiger Woods, has committed to Florida State as part of the class of 2027. . . .
Two top high school baseball tournaments for this spring have been finalized. The Boras Classic will begin April 7 at Mater Dei and JSerra. The National Classic also will be held in Orange County starting March. 30. Here’s the link.
St. John Bosco twins Ethan and Justin Coach, standout linebackers, have committed to Washington. . . .
Henry Polanco is the new girls flag football coach at Schurr. . . .
Kiyoshi Harris is the new football coach at JW North. . . .
Benjamin Siff, an assistant baseball coach at St. Margaret’s since 2016, has been named the head coach effective at the end of the 2026 season. Long-time coach Scott Wallis is leaving out of Orange County at the end of this season. . . .
Richard Masson has announced his retirement from coaching basketball. What a journey he’s had coaching boys and girls after winning more than 700 games. He was boys coach at L.A. Jordan for seven years, Carson boys coach for 22 years, Rolling Hills Prep girls coach for seven years, Carson girls coach for four years. He’s won championships and coached lots of great players. “Blessed to have had great players, assistant coaches and support system,” he said.
From the archives: LaMelo Ball
Chino Hills guard LaMelo Ball pulls up for a shot over Mater Dei’s Michael Wang and Matthew Weyand (21) in 2017.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
It’s been nine years since LaMelo Ball scored 92 points as a 15-year-old sophomore for Chino Hills in a 146-123 win over Los Osos in February of 2017, so why not look back.
The big debate was whether it was an accomplishment that should be celebrated or criticized.
“As a coach, if I see a player doing well, who am I to stop his shine?” Stephan Gilling, Chino Hills’ first-year coach, said in 2017.
“About the third quarter, my dad said, ‘Keep shooting,’” LaMelo said during a radio interview on KLAC-AM (570). “If I knew I was going to score that much, I would have shot more in the first half.”
From the Seattle Times, a story on former NBA guard Jamal Crawford coaching his son in high school.
From the Tennessee Bar Assn., a story on how the state is moving to loosening transfer rules with one free sports transfer.
From the Pleasantonweekly, a story from last December from a high school sportswriter detailing his frustration with the transfer issues in California high school sports.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on how Brentwood School’s athletic facilities are facing a challenge from the Veterans Administration.
Fram Angelusnews, a story on the turnaround at St. Bernard.
Tweets you might have missed
This week Clippers host NBA All-Star Game at Intuit Dome. Time to give kudos to Steve Ballmer. He has virtually every high school in California represented by their jersey in exhibit. Team is giving away thousands of free hoops to L.A. County residents. He’s making a difference.
Being in Los Angeles, 2026 baseball season is rizz. The Dodgers, UCLA, St. John Bosco, Mike Trout, Roch Cholowsky, elite freshmen like Louis Lappe and Jordan Leon. Enjoy the weather and the baseball.
Redondo Union coach Reggie Morris Jr. is the guest on Friday Night Live Thursday at 5 p.m. via X. Here’s a tribute clip to his father, Reggie Sr., a City Section coaching legend who was at Manual Arts. pic.twitter.com/Lr7UoRqSM3
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
Did you get this newsletter forwarded to you? To sign up and get it in your inbox, click here.
Welcome to your daily review and preview of this year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics. My name is John Cherwa and I’m your tour director for the Games as the U.S. finds a new star in speed skater Jason Stoltz. The U.S. got the trifecta on Saturday with a gold, silver and bronze.
Going into the Games, the U.S. had its usual cadre of star power that was supposed to propel the country to the top of the medal standings. But then reality set in. Ilia Malinin had a good lead heading into the free skate in men’s figure skating. Then, he had a ghastly performance, falling twice, and slipping to eighth. Chloe Kim, two-time Olympic champion in the women’s halfpipe, struggled for repeated clean runs and finished second. Then, dreamers believed Lindsey Vonn, skating with a torn ACL, could navigate the women’s downhill to the medal podium. She crashed high in the course.
Enter the latest star for the United States. Speed skater Jordan Stolz, who picked up his second gold of the Games by winning the men’s 500 meters to go with his gold in the 1,000 meters. Both were set in Olympic record time. The 21-year-old from Wisconsin still has at least two events to go, hoping to up his personal and the U.S. medal count. He’s set to compete in the men’s 1,500 (Thursday), and the men’s mass start (Saturday).
The only other medals the U.S. won on Saturday were in the freestyle skiing women’s dual moguls. An Aussie was the winner, but Jaelin Kauf got the silver and Liz Lemley (not to be confused with 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon) won the B final for the bronze. This was the first appearance of dual moguls in the Olympics.
Catching up on the men’s hockey stage, the Kings suffered a severe blow when forward Kevin Fiala sustained a season-ending injury playing for Switzerland on Friday. Fiala had a tough collision with Canada’s Tom Wilson with only a couple of minutes to play in the game. He was stretchered off with a lower leg injury. He had surgery in Italy on Saturday morning and was said to be done for both Olympic and NHL competition the rest of this season.
The Kings are on the cusp of making the playoffs and this, no doubt, will make their road to the postseason that much more difficult. Fiala had 18 goals and 40 points so far this season in 56 games.
NBC should ask Today show personalities Craig Melvin, Al Roker and Dylan Dryer to turn in their journalistic credentials after an embarrassing, saccharine interview with IOC President Kirsty Coventry on the Third Hour of “Today” on Friday. There should have been a warning that watching the interview could cause an immediate increase in blood sugar. The trio, doing the interview from New York, covered such difficult topics of how much fun everyone is having in Italy, how the Olympic spirit is pervasive and, of course, how cuddly the mascots are.
But in no way did they address what would have been the first question any legit journalist would ask, Coventry’s barring of Ukranian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych for wanting to honor his fallen Ukranian athletes with stickers on his racing helmet was never mentioned. We’ll give you that Roker and Dryer are meteorologists, but there is no excuse for Melvin’s lack of journalistic chops.
Elsewhere on Saturday
— Good day for U.S. curlers as the women (2-1 record) beat Japan 7-4, while the men (2-2) beat Germany 8-6. (Valentine’s Day moment at restaurant. My wife: “Are you the only one here straining to see the curling score on TV?” Answer: “Yes.”)
— The U.S. men’s team (2-0) rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat Denmark 6-3. Germany is next.
— Brazil topped three Swiss skiers, who finished second through fourth, to win the men’s giant slalom. River Radamus of the U.S. was 17th.
— Norway, on its way to its 10th gold medal, won the women’s 4×7.5 km cross country relay, upsetting Sweden. The U.S. managed a fifth-place finish.
— Austria upset Germany, which finished second and third, in the women’s skeleton. Kelly Curtis of the U.S. was 12th.
—- Slovenia picked up its first gold of the Games in the men’s ski jumping, large hill. Tate Frantz of the U.S. was 19th.
— Norway — who else? — won the women’s 7.5 km sprint in the biathlon. France got silver and bronze. Deedra Irwin was the top U.S. competitor in 47th.
Best Thing to Watch on TV today
We went off the board yesterday and picked the men’s 500 in speed skating as our best bet. Turned out a wise choice. Today, let’s make another swerve and look to the mixed team snowboard cross, in which the U.S. is the defending gold champion. You’ve got returnee Nick Baumgartner, 44, with new partner Faye Thelen. He won gold in Beijing with Lindsey Jacobellis, who is taking a break this year. The qualification starts at 4:45 a.m. PST, with the finals at 5:35 a.m. PST. After a day off, the figure skating gets back on the ice with the pairs short program. The U.S. team of Ellie Kim and Danny O’Shea is going 14th of 19th pairs with a 10:15 a.m. PST start for competition. The U.S. men’s hockey team (2-0) plays Germany at 12:10 p.m. PST.
Favorite photo of the day
The Netherlands’ speedskater Jenning de Boo clutches his head after losing to American Jordan Stolz in the 500 final in Milan on Saturday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Times photographer Robert Gauthier is at the Winter Olympics. Each day Times newsletter editor Houston Mitchell will select a favorite photo from the many he has taken.
Sunday’s Olympic TV and streaming schedule
Sunday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.
MULTIPLE SPORTS 8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Skiing, figure skating, bobsled, speedskating and more. | NBC
ALPINE SKIING 1 a.m. — Women’s giant slalom, Run 1 | USA 4:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s giant slalom, Run 2 | NBC
CURLING Men (round robin) 12:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. Sweden | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Germany vs. Britain | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Norway vs. Italy | Peacock Women (round robin) 5:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. China | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Denmark vs. Italy | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Sweden | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Japan vs. South Korea | Peacock 5:30 a.m. — U.S. vs. China (in progress) | CNBC Men (round robin) 8 a.m. — U.S. vs. Sweden (delay) | CNBC 10:05 a.m. — U.S. vs. Norway | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — China vs. Canada | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Switzerland | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Italy vs. Czechia | Peacock
FIGURE SKATING 8:20 a.m. — Pairs, short program, warmup | Peacock 10:30 a.m. — Pairs, short program | USA Noon — Pairs, short program | NBC
FREESTYLE SKIING 1:40 a.m. — 🏅Men’s dual moguls, final | USA 9:30 a.m. — Men’s dual moguls, final (re-air) | NBC 10:40 a.m. — Men’s big air, qualifying | NBC
HOCKEY Men (group play) 3 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Czechia | CNBC 7:40 a.m. — Canada vs. France | USA 10 a.m. — Denmark vs. Latvia | CNBC 12:10 p.m. — U.S. vs. Germany | USA
SKELETON 9 a.m. — 🏅Mixed team event | Peacock 10:15 a.m. — Mixed team event (delay) | NBC
SKI JUMPING 8:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s large hill, finals | Peacock
SNOWBOARDING 4:45 a.m. — 🏅Mixed team snowboard cross, finals | USA 5:30 a.m. — Mixed team snowboard cross, finals | NBC
SPEEDSKATING 7 a.m. — Men’s team pursuit, qualifying | NBC 8 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 500 meters | NBC
In case you missed it …
Check out the following Milan-Cortina Olympics dispatches from the L.A. Times team on the ground in Italy:
That concludes today’s Sports Report Olympic Edition newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email newsletter editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here and select the Sports Report.
PHOENIX — Coming off an offseason in which the Dodgers spent over $300 million on just two free agents, the two-time defending champions’ luxurious spending has undoubtedly been a topic of conversation and consternation around Major League Baseball.
However, when asked about the Dodgers’ record-setting payroll Sunday, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper and the San Diego Padres’ Manny Machado were complimentary of the way the Dodgers do business.
“I love it,” Machado told reporters at the team’s facility in Peoria, Ariz. “They figured out a way to do it. … I think every team has the ability to do it. I hope all 30 teams could learn from that.”
Machado spent a half of a season with the Dodgers in 2018 before inking a $300-million contract with the Padres. That same winter, the Dodgers met with Harper, who eventually signed a $330-million contract with the Phillies. Harper shared the same sentiment as Machado when he spoke with reporters in Clearwater, Fla.
“I love what the Dodgers do, obviously,” Harper said. “They pay the money, they spend the money. I mean, they’re a great team. They run their team like a business, and they run it the right way.”
Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes, while speaking with media at Camelback Ranch Sunday, made it clear that his organization isn’t searching for approval from any outside sources.
“We’re not looking externally for validation,” Gomes said. “The validation is winning championships and putting out as good a team as we can each and every year, and all we’re trying to do is get a little bit better each and every season, with the goal of winning championships. [Our] coaching staff, our players I think view it as that. Good, bad or indifferent, the external stuff is something we can’t worry about.”
Gomes also credited Dodgers ownership for providing the financial resources to help the front office continue to bolster its roster each winter.
“[We’ve had] incredible support from ownership,” Gomes said. “We’ve always [been] in the position to address the needs that will help us go out and win another championship, so I think a lot of it is looking at what’s needed in the roster and what’s available. We’ve been in the fortunate position to be able to acquire guys that fit that really well.”
“No,” he said Saturday, chuckling at the notion. “Nothing’s changed.”
Ah, but everything has changed, the formerly overpaid disappointment having transformed himself into arguably the most important player on baseball’s most important team.
Barely touching 5 feet 10, he looks tiny next to giant countryman Shohei Ohtani, with whom he’ll always be compared because they joined the Dodgers at the same time with equally historic contracts.
Quiet and contemplative, he seems dry next to the charming Ohtani. Employed only as a pitcher, he seems boring next to the goose-bump-inducing Ohtani.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto hoists the MVP trophy as the team celebrates the World Series victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Struggling at times during his first two regular seasons with the Dodgers while Ohtani was twice voted National League MVP, Yamamoto was originally overshadowed by the greatest player in history.
Until last October, when he became one of the greatest World Series pitchers in history.
It was crazy. It was historic. It was two allowed runs in 17 ⅔ innings with 15 strikeouts and two walks.
Put it another way: It was more compelling than Sandy Koufax’s three-hit shutout on two days rest to win the 1965 World Series over the Minnesota Twins.
It was Yamomania. It was Bulldog 2.0. But if you believe the guy on the mound, it barely made a ripple.
At Camelback Ranch on Saturday, in his first news conference since his World Series heroics, he shrugged and acted like those games were just a walk in the park — except, of course, he barely walked anybody in the park.
Someone asked, how did the World Series change him?
Um, it didn’t.
“I was able to get into the offseason with a great feeling and I was able to go into the offseason with more calmness,” he said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.
Someone else asked, did he have to alter his legendary workload in the offseason?
Er, no.
“As a matter of fact, the amount of work I did last year has not been affected in terms of preparation,” he said. “In November, I took off and then I began a gradual ramping up. It’s been like a normal offseason.”
Then someone asked, has he watched anything from that World Series?
Actually, yes!
“Of course, that moment of the last out,” he said. “But when I reflect back on that series, there’s so many great plays they made. Also there’s the small play which was very important. So many great scenes.”
One of the best scenes was the one nobody saw, after Yamamoto had thrown 96 pitches in a Game 6 victory.
He was done. He told his personal trainer he was done. Dave Roberts told the media he was done.
But then, in his words, he got “tricked.”
According to a report by then-Times columnist Dylan Hernández, trainer Osamu Yada told Yamamoto, “Let’s see if you can throw in the bullpen tomorrow.”
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws live batting practice during a workout Friday during spring training at Camelback Ranch.
(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)
The trainer figured Yamamoto’s mere presence as a potential reliever would inspire the Dodgers and worry the Blue Jays.
Yamamoto figured he was just going to the bullpen for show.
Oh, he put on a show, all right.
After he pitched 2⅔ scoreless innings to win the game and the World Series championship for the Dodgers, the gamesmanship had been transformed into greatness, and the con man had become a hero.
“For him to have the same stuff that he had the night before is really the greatest accomplishment I’ve ever seen on a baseball field,” said Dodgers baseball boss Andrew Friedman to reporters after the game.
Yamamoto explained afterward, “I didn’t think I would pitch. But I felt good when I practiced and the next thing I knew, I was on the mound in the game.”
And before he knew it, history.
“I really couldn’t believe it,” Yamamoto said. “I was so excited I couldn’t even recall what pitch I threw at the end.”
Now, with the Dodgers chasing a third consecutive championship and Yamamoto involved in a daring race for a Cy Young Award — who will get there first, he or Ohtani? — a different sort of question must be asked.
How on earth can he pitch any better?
“That’s an internal personal question … as far as, can you repeat and continue to get better than what you’ve been,” Roberts said. “Certainly there’s a high bar, but there’s always room for improvement and I can’t find anything right now to be quite honest, but …”
Yamamoto needs to stay healthy. He made his major-league high 30 starts last year after making just 18 the previous year. He needs to do that again to support the other frail Dodgers starters.
Yamamoto also needs to take care of himself while playing for Japan in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Ohtani is not pitching, but Yamamoto is, and he doesn’t need to wreck his arm.
Finally, he needs to continue acting like the ace that he has become, from his uncomplaining leadership to his dazzling arsenal.
“Every time he takes the ball, he expects to win and we expect to win,” Roberts said.
That is the bottom line on Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s new reality. He was once Ohtani’s sidekick. He is now Ohtani’s partner.
Like it or not, his life has changed. Witness the crowd that screamed for him Saturday at Camelback Ranch like they always scream for Ohtani.
PHOENIX — Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz has been settling in with his new team at Camelback Ranch, but in his first comments to the media since camp opened, he faced questions about his old team.
In an interview with Mets broadcaster Howie Rose on Friday, team owner Steve Cohen called Díaz’s decision to a sign a three-year, $69-million contract with the Dodgers “perplexing.” Though Díaz was caught off guard by Cohen’s comments, he said Saturday he had no bad feelings towards the Mets or their fans.
“It’s a market and I was a free agent, so I got the chance to talk with everyone,” Díaz said. “I think the Dodgers did a great job of recruiting me, so at the end of the day, I chose to be here. I have a lot of respect for the Mets organization — players, staff, ownership — they treated me pretty good. I don’t have anything bad to say about them. But at the end of the day, I’m here, so this is a new journey for me. I’m happy to be with the Dodgers, so let’s see how it goes.”
Díaz participated in the Dodgers’ first day of official workouts Friday, throwing a clean bullpen session without any hiccups. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has liked what he has seen thus far from the three-time MLB reliever of the year.
“I’m very excited to get to know him more,” Roberts said. “[He’s] just a great teammate, really good person, loves baseball, a good heartbeat. You can tell he knows what he needs to do to get ready. [He’s] likable, and at the end of the day, he chose to be here, so that’s something that is of a lot of value for us. High character. I’m really looking forward to getting to know him.”
One thing that attracted Díaz to the Dodgers was the team’s culture.
“That’s how they’ve been so good,” Díaz said. “They have a really good clubhouse… They’ve got different personalities in the clubhouse. They’ve got different players from different countries, and they all get together and have fun, so that’s something good.”
Part of having a melting pot of a clubhouse means missing some key ingredients for an extended period of spring training. The Dodgers will have several players participating in the World Baseball Classic, including Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Will Smith and Díaz.
Each Major League player competing in the event runs the risk of injury, something Díaz knows all too well. Moments after striking out the side to send Puerto Rico to the WBC quarterfinals in 2023, Díaz sustained a season-ending knee injury.
Despite suffering the trauma of the last WBC, Díaz told reporters it was a no-brainer, when he was asked to compete for his country again in 2026.
“It wasn’t in my mind,” Díaz said. “I have the chance to play in front of my family in Puerto Rico. It was an easy decision.”
Díaz’s fearlessness is one trait that Roberts admires about his new closer. Díaz met Roberts’ squad in the 2024 National League Championship Series, where the Dodgers managed only two hits off him across 5.1 IP, scoring no runs.
“He’s not scared,” Roberts said. “When he’s in the game, it’s an uncomfortable at bat for lefties and righties, and when we did see him in the postseason, [we were] really trying to keep him out of the game, knowing that he can go one, two [or] even three innings. That, he’s done against us in the postseason; [he’s] just a great competitor.”
The addition of Díaz should stabilize the back end of the Dodgers rotation. Since bidding farewell to Kenley Jansen after the 2021 season, the Dodgers haven’t had a closer tally more than 25 saves in a season. Over his nine-year career, Díaz has 253 saves.
With Díaz expected to be the regular ninth-inning guy, Roberts looks forward to having more flexibility when managing his bullpen.
“It’s huge,” Roberts said. “I don’t think that there’s one way to manage a pen, but when you have a guy like Edwin Díaz as your closer, I do think it frees up other guys, myself included. Not having to worry about matchups for the ninth, I think that’s freeing for me and allows for getting the matchups we need in the prior innings.”
Dodgers staying cautious with Graterol
One key relief weapon Roberts hopes to have in his armory is Brusdar Graterol.
The hard-throwing right-hander underwent labrum surgery shortly after the 2024 World Series, and hasn’t pitched in a game since.
Roberts provided an update on Graterol’s recovery Saturday.
“He’s in the picture, but I do think that coming back from the shoulder, it’s going to take some time,” Roberts said. “He’s in the bucket of, ‘We’re going to slow-play him’. I think yesterday he threw off the mound, and the velocity is not near where it’s going to be, so I think that it’s a slow progression. I just don’t know where that puts us, but it’s a slow process for Brusdar.”
Staff writer Anthony Solorzano contributed to this report.
Welcome to the Olympic Edition of the Sports Report, an L.A. Times newsletter published every morning during the Winter Olympics. To sign up to receive it via email (it’s free), go here and select The Sports Report. If you’ve already signed up for the Sports Report, you will receive the Olympics edition as well.
Welcome to your daily review and preview of this year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics. My name is John Cherwa and I’m your tour director for the Games as we learn how thin the line is between greatness and failure.
In the most shocking moment of the Games so far, U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin had the gold at his doorstep but instead had a dreadful performance, falling twice and giving the gold to Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan. The feeling in the arena was that there with no way Malinin could lose with his big lead after the short program. Then his main competitor, Yuma Yagiyama of Japan, had a subpar skate just before Malinin took the ice as the last skater of the night.
But Malinin missed his first combo and could never regain his composure in what was likely his worst performance in a major competition in quite some time. He finished eighth but at age 21, we could see him in a future Olympics. It was Malinin’s first loss since Nov. 2023.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we thought we should look at some of the athlete couples at the Games. We compiled the list from People, so we take no responsibility for last-minute fights or splits (other than time splits, of course).
Madison Chock and Evan Bates: U.S. ice dancers. Won the silver with a gold-medal performance.
Brittany Bowe and Hilary Knight: U.S. speedskater Bowe finished fourth in the women’s 1,000 meters and has the 1,500 and team pursuit to go. Knight plays for the U.S. women’s hockey team, which is in the semifinals.
Nicole Silveira and Kim Meylemans: Both are in the women’s skeleton with Silveira competing for Brazil and Meylemans for Belgium. After two of four heats, Meylemans is eighth and Silveira is 12th.
Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey: Both are members of the Canadian women’s hockey team, who, despite losing to the U.S. in pool play, is expected to contend for a medal.
Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien: This pair’s love is on the rocks … or stones if your prefer. They are curlers for Norway. They finished sixth in the mixed competition.
Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant: It’s another curling pair swept to each other’s brooms. The Canadians finished fifth in the mixed competition.
Ronja Savolainen and Anna Kjellbin: These hockey players play for two different countries, Savolainen for Finland and Kjellbin for Sweden. Both countries made the quarterfinals with Sweden already advancing to the semifinals.
Hunter Powell and Kaysha Love: This U.S. bobsledding couple will see competition soon, Powell in the four-man and Love in both singles and doubles.
Emily and Dominik Fischnaller. This luge couple will bring back some hardware. Dominik, who sleds for Italy, took bronze in singles and team relay. Emily, who competes for the U.S., was 12th in singles.
There are certainly others, and some in the making as we speak, but this is a sampling.
Elsewhere on Friday
Italy is on fire at these Games but were not hot enough to beat the U.S. in women’s hockey. The U.S. won 6-0 and will move to the semifinals.
France, followed by two from Norway, won the biathlon men’s 10-kilometer sprint. The best U.S. finisher was Campbell Wright in 12th.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, the GOAT of cross-country skiing, won his eighth lifetime gold for Norway by winning the men’s 10-kilometer interval start free. He is tied for most lifetime gold medals in the Winter Games and has three more events. John Steel Hagenbuch of the U.S. was 14th.
The U.S. and Canada played each other in both men’s and women’s curling. The women won, 9-8, (now 2-1) and the men lost, 6-3, (1-2).
The U.S. was shut out on snowboard with Australia winning gold in women’s snowboard cross and Japan getting gold and bronze in men’s halfpipe.
Matt Weston, the world champion from Britain, won men’s skeleton. Germans won silver and bronze. Austin Florian of the U.S. was 12th.
A 19-year-old from Czechia won the men’s 10,000 meters in speedskating. The U.S. did not compete.
Best Thing to Watch on TV today
Today is the day to take a breath from figure skating. It also seems to be a good time for your tour guide to admit something: I have absolutely no idea if the skaters are doing three, three and a half, four or four and a half rotations when they are in air in real time. OK, I said it. Are you nodding your head in affirmation right now? Thought so. OK, let’s go to something different for today.
The best bet will be the men’s 500 meters in speed skating. Jordan Stolz, the winner of the 1,000 for the U.S., will be in the 12th pair in the event which starts at 8 a.m PST. This isn’t his best event but he should have confidence and momentum going his way. If you need your hockey fix, the U.S. men play Denmark around 12:10 p.m.
Favorite photo of the day
France’s Adam Siao Him Fa performs a backflip while competing in the figure skating men’s free skate Friday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Times photographer Robert Gauthier is at the Winter Olympics. Each day Times newsletter editor Houston Mitchell will select a favorite photo from the many he has taken.
Saturday’s Olympic TV and streaming schedule
Saturday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.
MULTIPLE SPORTS
8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, speedskating and more. | NBC
ALPINE SKIING 1 a.m. — Men’s giant slalom, Run 1 | USA 4:30 a.m. 🏅Men’s giant slalom, Run 2 | NBC
CURLING Women (round robin) 12:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Canada | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Italy vs. China | Peacock 12:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Japan | Peacock 4:30 a.m. — Britain vs. Canada (delay) | USA Men (round robin) 5:05 a.m. — Germany vs. U.S. | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Czechia vs. Britain | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Sweden vs. China | Peacock 5:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Canada | Peacock Women (round robin) 5:30 a.m. — Italy vs. China (delay) | CNBC Men (round robin) 10 a.m. — Germany vs. U.S. (delay) | CNBC Women (round robin) 10:05 a.m. — Japan vs. U.S. | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Canada vs. Switzerland | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — Italy vs. Sweden | Peacock 10:05 a.m. — South Korea vs. Denmark | Peacock 2:30 p.m. — Japan vs. U.S. (delay) | CNBC
HOCKEY Men (group play) 3 a.m. — Germany vs. Latvia | CNBC 3:10 a.m. — Sweden vs. Slovakia | Peacock 7:40 a.m. — Finland vs. Italy | USA Women (quarterfinals) 7:40 a.m. — Canada vs. Germany | CNBC 12:10 p.m. — Finland vs. Switzerland | CNBC Men (group play) 12:10 p.m. — U.S. vs. Denmark | USA
SKELETON 9 a.m. — Women, Run 3 | NBC 10:35 a.m. — Women, final run | Peacock 2:30 p.m. — Women, runs 3-4 (delay) | USA
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING 11:15 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 1,500 meters final and more | Peacock 3:15 p.m. — 🏅Men’s 1,500 meters final and more | USA
SKI JUMPING 8:30 a.m. — Men’s large hill, trial round| Peacock 10 a.m. — 🏅Men’s large hill, final round | USA
SPEEDSKATING 7 a.m. — Women’s team pursuit, qualifying | USA 8 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 500 meters | NBC
In case you missed it …
Check out the following Milan-Cortina Olympics dispatches from the L.A. Times team on the ground in Italy:
That concludes today’s Sports Report Olympic Edition newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email newsletter editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here and select the Sports Report.
PHOENIX — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expects a lot from Shohei Ohtani this season. But even with those high expectations, a topic of conversation Friday as pitchers and catchers went through their first official workouts at Camelback Ranch, the superstar two-way player already found a way to exceed them.
“I came into camp at the beginning of February,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton following a bullpen session. “This is my third bullpen with pretty good intensity. … I’m not really sure how I’ll be able to practice in the WBC setting, so I’m going to try to ramp up as much as I can to a point where I’m throwing a live BP, which should be next week.”
The 2026 season will be Ohtani’s third year with the Dodgers, and his first pitching without restrictions. Fully recovered from his second Tommy John surgery, Ohtani was able to enjoy a regular, albeit short, offseason. With Ohtani in full bloom, Roberts has even higher hopes for the four-time MVP in the coming season.
“I think there’s certainly a lot more in there, and regardless of my expectations for him, his are going to exceed those,” Roberts said Friday. “I think it’s fair to say, he expects to be in the Cy Young conversation, but we just want to be healthy and make starts and all the numbers and statistics will take care of themselves, but man, this guy is such a disciplined worker, and expects the most from himself.”
Ohtani’s highest placement in Cy Young Award voting came in 2022, when, still a member of the Angels, he finished fourth after logging 15 wins, a 2.33 ERA and a 1.012 WHIP across 166 innings pitched. Ohtani suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament the following season, requiring Tommy John surgery.
“If the end result is getting a Cy Young, that’s great,” Ohtani said. “Getting a Cy Young means being able to throw more innings and pitch throughout the whole season, so if that’s the end result, that’s a good sign for me. I’m just focused on being healthy the whole year.”
Ohtani appeared in 14 games last season, logging 47 innings pitched. Roberts liked what he saw in the small sample size.
Share via
“I think the thing that was most surprising from last year was his command,” Roberts said. “And I’ll say that he still feels his command wasn’t up to par, but given the Tommy John and what typically command looks like the year after, it was above that. So, I think that was impressive. Just his ability to command the couple different breaking balls, to change the shape of his breaking balls was pretty impressive, and everything he does is with a purpose. So, I’m really excited to see with the full offseason and to just prepare and not rehab, what he can do this year.”
Physically, Roberts believes Ohtani is in the right place entering the ninth year of his career.
“I think he just looks strong,” Roberts said. “He looks strong, but there’s not too much mass. Just watching him throw, watching him run, his body’s moving well. I think he’s in a sweet spot. Just watching him, the muscle mass, it just seems that he’s in a sweet spot.”
Ohtani and Roberts said that they don’t yet know when Ohtani and some of his teammates will be departing for the World Baseball Classic, but Ohtani will continue to ramp up in the time leading up to next month’s event. Last month at DodgerFest, Roberts announced Ohtani will not pitch in the WBC in order to focus on pitching in the regular season.
“As much as people think that he’s not human, he’s still a human being who’s had two surgeries,” Roberts said Friday. “He’s got a long career ahead of him.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws live BP
Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a live batting practice Friday as the World Series MVP took the mound for the first time since he recorded the final out of last year’s Fall Classic. Yamamoto threw 20 pitches to a pair of his teammates, with right-handed hitting catcher Will Smith and left-handed hitting infielder Hyeseong Kim alternated at-bats.
Kim turned on a pair of fastballs from Yamamoto, ripping a pair of base hits into right field.
A little over an hour before Yamamoto pitched, Roberts was asked by reporters about Yamamoto’s durability, coming off a postseason where the 27-year-old totaled 526 pitches, capped off by a Herculean effort in Game 7 that powered the Dodgers to their second straight World Series championship.
“I just believe that he knows his limitations and he’s prepared, so I’m not too concerned about it,” Roberts said.
Yamamoto wasn’t the only pitcher to see some run on the Dodgers’ first day of camp. Among those to throw a bullpen session Friday: veteran Tyler Glasnow, promising sophomore Roki Sasaki, playoff hero Will Klein, newcomer Edwin Díaz, and Ohtani.
Staff writer Anthony Solorzano contributed to this report.
