ESPN | Buster Olney: Who knew a Michael Kay line would set baseball off so much? It’s only been a week since the YES booth broke the news about Anthony Volpe and other Yankees experimenting with so-called torpedo bats, a new approach to optimizing a given player’s contact quality. Buster goes deep into the next 48 hours, where a new turning model on a lathe became the biggest story, not just in MLB, but across all of sports. For whatever else you think about torpedoes, MLB has to be happy that between the Dodgers, Yankees and this story, the league is top of mind as the season kicks off.
The Athletic | Eno Sarris: The first week is difficult to analyze for anything real, baseball is so much of a marathon that even a ridiculous start like Aaron Judge’s doesn’t give us much of predictive value. A few building blocks can though, like bat speed and fastball velo, and we get a look at some of the initial improvers around baseball. The real good news for the Yankees is how much harder Cody Bellinger is swinging, and the potential to rediscover some of the power the big lefty has struggled to find consistently over the past couple of years.
MLB.com | David Adler: Speaking of early starters, Ben Rice entered play yesterday as the third-best hitter in baseball, and then proceeded to reach base three more times atop the Yankee lineup. The improvement in Rice’s power has been obvious, with the youngster crediting the additional muscle gain over the winter. However, his swing itself looks quite different from his troubled 2024, and while Rice isn’t going to finish with a 300 wRC+, having a competent bat at first base is a big piece of the future of the org.
MLB Trade Rumors | Nick Deeds: It wasn’t exactly a surprise, but Adam Ottavino was DFA’d by the Yankees yesterday. With the return of Devin Williams from the paternity list, the veteran righty was superfluous. Ottavino’s the type that can pick up an MLB contract here and there, so expect to see him back on a big league field at some point this year, be it in the Bronx or elsewhere.
MLB Trade Rumors | Anthony Franco: Late on Friday, the Yankees added depth by signing switch-hitting outfielder/first baseman Cooper Hummel to a minor-league contract. He walked nearly 18 percent of the time in Triple-A last year and had been in Astros camp before being designated for assignment on March 27th.
