The long winter wait is over, and baseball is back in full swing. Saturday marked the first full day of Spring Training games, with all 30 clubs taking the field on the same day for the first time since September.
We’ll be keeping track of the top highlights and moments from a busy day of action across Arizona and Florida. Here’s the best from Saturday’s slate.
Judge homers twice, Jones channels Ohtani as Yanks erupt for 20 runs
Yankees 20, Tigers 3
Aaron Judge didn’t take long to find his midseason form. The reigning AL MVP homered off the batter’s eye in his second at-bat, then pulled another blast around the left-field foul pole his next time up. Judge’s two dingers came after prospect Spencer Jones swatted the Yankees’ first homer of the spring, a solo blast to right field that cleared George M. Steinbrenner Field in the bottom of the second inning. Jones, whose home run swing drew immediate comparisons to another MVP — reigning NL winner Shohei Ohtani — has now gone deep in his first spring game in three straight years. The Yankees ended up scoring in all but one inning en route to a 20-run outburst. More >
Yaz has big day in Braves debut
Braves 5, Rays 1
First impressions don’t get much better than what Mike Yastrzemski did in his Braves spring debut. The lefty clubbed a long homer to center on his first swing of Grapefruit League action, lined a single to center in his second plate appearance and drew a walk in his third to finish with a perfect day at the plate. Though spring numbers usually don’t mean much, these results are exactly what the Braves hope to get from the 35-year-old Yastrzemski, who signed a two-year, $23 million contract with Atlanta in December and is expected to be the team’s primary left fielder against righties. More >
O’Hearn gets warm ovation from O’s fans, homers in Pirates debut
Pirates 8, Orioles 2
Ryan O’Hearn’s spring debut with the Pirates was a homecoming of sorts as he took the field against the Orioles, the team he spent parts of three seasons with before being traded to the Padres last July. After receiving a warm ovation from fans at Ed Smith Stadium prior to his first at-bat, O’Hearn gave his new fan base a glimpse of what he can do, swatting a three-run homer in the top of the fifth. More >
Varsho breaks through in Blue Jays opener
Blue Jays 3, Phillies 0
So far, so good for Daulton Varsho, enjoying a clean slate after injuries spoiled an otherwise quite productive 2025 season (20 HR, 55 RBIs in 71 games). Serving as Toronto’s designated hitter in the club’s spring opener, Varsho smashed a leadoff home run in the bottom of the fifth as the Blue Jays got off to a promising start in their quest to finish the job after their World Series heartbreak last fall.
Lewis homers in first spring AB
Red Sox 7, Twins 2
It would seem that Royce Lewis’ decision to work with a new hitting coach over the winter is already paying off. In his first at-bat of 2026, Lewis took Red Sox No. 2 prospect Payton Tolle deep over the berm in left-center field at Hammond Stadium, later followed by an RBI single and a stolen base in the bottom of the fourth. More >
Ohtani’s reflexes on point; Dodgers’ bats still hot
Dodgers 15, Angels 2
Reigning NL MVP Shohei Ohtani showed his reflexes are in midseason form, as he narrowly avoided a foul liner off the bat of Hyeseong Kim as he took his lead off third base. Ohtani went 1-for-3 with a run scored on the day. Meanwhile, the World Series champion Dodgers picked up right where they left off in Game 7 of the Fall Classic. They scored in each of the first three innings of their Cactus League opener on Saturday, which gave them 11 total runs over their previous four innings going back to the 11th inning of the World Series clincher.
Quero drives in four, White Sox improve to 2-0
White Sox 11, Athletics 2
The rebuilding White Sox, coming off an improvement of 19 wins from 2024-25, have so far made an impression, winning their first two Cactus League games of 2026 while outscoring opponents 19-3. Quero, a top-100 prospect across baseball at the time of his April 2025 debut, is among the trio of catchers in competition to make the Opening Day roster and only helped his case on Saturday, going 3-for-3 with a double and four RBIs in Chicago’s rout.
Lockridge unlocks career-best exit velocity on homer
Guardians 9, Brewers 6
Brandon Lockridge has one career home run in 160 regular-season plate appearances. But you wouldn’t know it by just watching what he did on Saturday against Cleveland. In the bottom of the second inning, he smashed a 440-foot shot over the wall in left off left-hander Joey Cantillo. The baseball left Lockridge’s bat with an exit velocity of 112.6 mph, the highest exit velo on any batted ball in his career (his prior career-best was 108.1 mph on a double against the Giants’ Robbie Ray on Aug. 24, 2025).
