Daily Report – 2/26/26
Yankees
Yankees Face the Minimum 27 as Weathers Brings Heat in Pinstripes Debut
Ryan, what’s the weather?
Hot. I’m bringing the heat.
In his first start in pinstripes, Ryan Weathers dazzled, striking out five of the 11 batters he faced across 3 2/3 innings. His fastball averaged 98.5 mph, and he hit 99.8 at one point. Weathers set the tone for the Yankees’ pitching staff, which faced the minimum 27 batters and cruised to a 7-0 Spring Training win over the Washington Nationals. They allowed just one hit over nine innings.
I daresay the Yankees “Cruzed” to a win. Fernando Cruz was the Yankees’ best bullpen arm, striking out three batters on 13 pitches in the sixth inning. He was one of three pitchers last night, including David Bednar and Tim Hill, who are expected to make the Opening Day roster.
“I felt like the command is starting to get back to where I used to be, and I came out of the outing feeling healthy,” Weathers said. “Any time I can stay healthy after pitching, that’s a good day for me.”
Weathers has suffered several injuries throughout his five-year Big League career, including a couple of freak injuries, like when he took a ball to the head during warmups last season. It was like this video gone wrong. Weathers almost got hit in the head again yesterday when the first batter he faced, CJ Abrams, grounded sharply to Paul DeJong at shortstop.
Meanwhile, Amed Rosario, the Yankees’ leadoff hitter, launched the first pitch he saw into the seats in right-center field. The Yankees brought Rosario back to serve as a platoon player at third base because of how well he hits against left-handed pitching.
George Lombard Jr., the Yankees’ highest-rated prospect, also had a strong evening. The 20-year-old went 1-for-2 at the plate with a walk and a 108.8 mph two-run double. He is listed as a shortstop, but he was phenomenal at third base. In the fifth inning, he made a highlight-reel barehanded grab, and off one leg, he fired the ball across the diamond for the out.
Like Weathers, whose father, David, pitched for the Yankees in 1996, Lombard grew up around the Major Leagues. His father is the bench coach for the Detroit Tigers, and he played professionally between 1998 and 2006.
Chips Are for Chumps
The only chip the Yankees need to worry about is the World Series. Not the bags of chips Giancarlo Stanton won’t be able to open this season. This morning, the 36-year-old slugger told reporters that his tennis elbows still bother him every day. The news came roughly two weeks after Aaron Boone claimed Stanton was healthy, although it was already clear he’d be battling discomfort all year.
“I can’t open a bottle,” said Stanton, who missed his team’s first 70 games last season with dual-elbow tendinitis. “I can’t open a bag of chips – a bag of anything. That’s the way it is.”
Despite discomfort, Stanton hopes to play a full season. He probably won’t play his first Spring Training game until March 3, but he has been practicing every day. He has even been taking reps in the outfield, where he started 18 games last year. Although he is quite injury-prone, Stanton enjoys playing the outfield because it makes him feel more active, but the work caught up to him in the postseason, his first without a home run.
Stanton, who is 47 homers shy of the 500 Club, is hellbent on being available for all 162 games. He will require a consistent rest schedule, but he doesn’t mind. He will do whatever it takes to stay healthy.
“The key is to get in the box,” Stanton said. “My last year’s overall numbers were low. I want a full season.”
“The LegaCCy Continues”
Ahead of yesterday’s game, the Yankees announced plans to retire CC Sabathia’s number 52. The former Yankees ace was inducted into the Hall of Fame last summer. On September 26, the Yankees will acknowledge his first-ballot excellence with a jersey retirement and plaque ceremony.
Sabathia stood at the helm of the Yankees’ rotation during their 2009 championship run. He pitched to a 3.37 ERA in 34 starts that season, and he was named the American League Championship Series MVP when the Yankees clinched their 40th pennant.
Sabathia is one of 20 MLB pitchers, including four southpaws, to reach 3,000 career strikeouts. He will be the 24thYankee all-time, and the first since Paul O’Neill in 2022, to have his jersey retired by this historic franchise.
“From the first number that hung in my locker to 52 forever hanging in Monument Park, this HOF journey has come full circle,” Sabathia wrote on X. “To have my number retired by the New York Yankees this year is one of the greatest honors of my life. The LegaCCy continues.”
Knicks
Karl-Anthony Towns took five shots in Tuesday’s 109-94 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Five.
Shots.
If you were wondering why the Knicks lost this game, it’s because they showed zero effort, and Towns took five shots. It was an inexcusable loss for New York. Had they at least shown some level of care, though, then there would be less to criticize them for.
To make a lackluster defeat sound even worse, here’s what Towns said about his five-shot performance:
“We’re trying to run our offensive game plan that we had coming into today. We wanted to execute it at the highest level possible. We just didn’t do a good job of making the plays needed to win the game.”
I’ll assume the Knicks didn’t plan for Towns to take just five shots, but that’s a high-level lack of execution.
“That’s fine,” Towns continued. “It happens like that. Yeah, we’re just trying to do what we talked about at shootaround, what we game-planned offensively, what we wanted to get done.”
KAT, stop. Just stop. You’re kidding yourself if you think it’s acceptable for you to have a five-shot performance, not to mention the five turnovers you committed.
As soon as it felt like Towns was adjusting to Mike Brown’s system – and yes, it looked that way against Houston and Chicago – he and his teammates laid a massive egg in Cleveland. Before tip-off, the Cavaliers sat one game behind the Knicks in the standings. It was clear who cared more about winning.
Before last night, it felt like the Pistons were the only Eastern Conference team standing in the Knicks’ way. Now, the Cleveland Cavaliers have joined the list. A growing list. Cleveland lost last night, so they rank a half-game behind New York. Boston and Detroit also lost yesterday, and they sit 1.5 and seven games ahead of the Knicks, respectively.
But the Pistons already swept the Knicks in their season series, and Jayson Tatum is expected to return from his Achilles injury in the coming weeks. Forget about how the Knicks are failing to run away with the East this season, which they were expected to do. They could, all too easily, fall out of the top four.
Mikal Bridges’s struggles have contributed significantly to the Knicks’ disappointing rank in the standings. Despite receiving several Grade-A scoring chances, Bridges shot 6-for-17 from the field on Tuesday, including an abysmal 1-for-7 in the third quarter, when the Knicks were held to 11 points. That quarter was tied for the Knicks’ lowest-scoring frame of the season, and as a team, they made just three of 23 field goal attempts.
In the game overall, here is how the Knicks’ starters performed from the field:
Josh Hart: 4-for-11
OG Anunoby: 2-for-9
Karl-Anthony Towns: 5-for-5
Mikal Bridges: 6-for-17
Jalen Brunson: 6-for-19
Good grief. At least Towns made all five of his shots.
Meanwhile, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden combined for 43 points and eight assists, and Jarrett Allen added another 19, plus 10 rebounds. Mitchell only shot 5-for-18 from the field, but he nailed 11 free throws.
Cleveland acquired Harden at the deadline, and while the move didn’t turn too many heads back then, Harden has brought Cleveland back into championship conversations. His presence has been especially impactful on the offensive end, resulting in Allen’s reemergence. Something else the Knicks couldn’t match on Tuesday.
Next, the Knicks turned the ball over 16 times, allowing Cleveland to score seven more points off turnovers. 11 of the Knicks’ turnovers came in the first 15 minutes, at which point they were on pace for 35. For reference, they average 13 turnovers per game.
Back to Mikal Bridges for a moment: I recognize he wasn’t the least productive Knick statistically, and while his three steals led the team, he was visibly struggling to shoot the ball. Jalen Brunson wasn’t comfortable, either, but Bridges looked off-balance at times. It wasn’t pretty.
A storyline has emerged regarding whether Bridges or Landry Shamet would make a better starting guard. Remember, the Knicks acquired Bridges from Brooklyn in exchange for five first-round picks while they signed Shamet to a one-year, $2.3 million contract. So, Bridges must be the better player, right?
Yes, technically. He seems to be in his own head right now, but adding poor shooting to an ugly 2025-26 resume, highlighted by an ongoing defensive lapse, doesn’t help his case to crack the starting lineup. That said, neither Bridges nor Shamet played well on Tuesday, and Bridges will always receive more playing time.
The Knicks have a very difficult schedule coming up. After visiting the Bucks tomorrow, they will host the Spurs on Sunday, travel to Toronto on Tuesday, face Oklahoma City on Wednesday, and visit Denver on Friday. Next week’s Nuggets game will be the first of a five-game West Coast road trip, which will include games against the Lakers, Clippers, Jazz, and Pacers.
Schedule
8:00 PM (7:00 PM CST): NYR vs. PHI; ESPN, ESPN App
