We’re just days away from the season starting for real, and that can make the remaining Grapefruit League showdowns feel kind of underwhelming. For today at least, the big hook is the starting pitching matchup, with one of the game’s most reliable workhorses facing one of its bright up-and-comers, as the Yankees travel down to Lakeland to play the Tigers.
Framber Valdez has never been the best pitcher in baseball, but for the last five years or so has comfortably been very damn good. He’s put up a 4+
fWAR season in three of the last four campaigns, and was the second-biggest pitching target of this winter’s FA class. While he certainly slots behind Tarik Skubal in the Tigers’ rotation, he’s a terrific No. 2, with a bowling-ball sinker that makes it very difficult to go yard, and regularly touching 190+ innings pitched — not notable for 1996, sure, but in today’s game is pretty close to workhorse status.
Cam Schlittler meanwhile is just getting started. The right-hander had a Cinderella 2025, and comes into this season needing to find a way to augment his terrific fastball options with some kind of breaking or offspeed pitch. He’s been great in spring action so far, striking out a hilarious 43.5 percent of hitters faced, albeit in just six innings. Look at his secondary offerings today as a good sign of what the club expects from him once the games actually count.
Offensively, this is certainly an away spring game type of lineup. The Yankees will feature some regulars but nobody that will likely be a day-to-day starter save for catcher Austin Wells, and of course José Caballero who is likely to be the Opening Day shortstop. Paul Goldschmidt leads off, with recently-named fourth outfielder Randal Grichuk and likely Triple-A depth Paul DeJong also scheduled to play.
How to watch
Location: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium — Lakeland, FL
First pitch: 1:05 pm ET
TV broadcast: Gotham Sports App | Detroit Sports App
Radio broadcast: WXYT 97.1 FM
Online stream: Gotham Sports App
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