Daily Report – 2/27/26
Yankees
Did you see Spencer Jones-Tani? The Yankees’ six-foot-seven prospect hit another ball out of – literally – George M. Steinbrenner Field yesterday, and he hit another moonshot today. Yesterday’s home run ball soared over the right-field pavilion. Jones has now homered into the parking lot twice this Spring.
The only thing keeping Jones out of the Big Leagues is his high strikeout rate. In Spring Training so far, he is 3-for-8 with three monster dingers and four strikeouts. Those strikeouts mean nothing to me right now. Jones looks like a Big Leaguer, and it isn’t just because his batting stance, which was once described as a left-handed replica of Aaron Judge, has changed. His leg kick has become a toe-tap, and his posture mimics Shohei Ohtani.
If Jones’s adjustments work, his strikeout rate will drop.
“There’s cars back there, and that’s probably not a safe place to park,” Joe Girardi said on the YES Network. After Jones homered, people were peering over the right-field ledge into the parking lot, likely because Jones hit a car. The ball left his bat at 107 mph.
“I feel like he’s put together some good ad-bats,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s getting a lot of playing time, which is good. He’s a big man that’s made a lot of adjustments, that’s tried to get himself into good positions.”
Jones’s homer came in the seventh inning yesterday, an insurance run in the Yankees’ 7-3 Grapefruit League win over the Atlanta Braves. Two other Yankees – Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Paul Goldschmidt – homered as well.
On the mound, Elmer Rodríguez was strong in his second Spring Training start, allowing two runs over three innings, racking up four strikeouts. He could prove to be a strong depth piece in the Yankees’ rotation this season. His talent and mindset seem to be gelling at the right time.
Today, the Yankees earned a 17-5 win in Fort Myers over the Minnesota Twins. In the fifth inning, Spencer Jones launched a 427-foot bomb off the batter’s eye. He finished 1-for-2 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBI. But he wasn’t the only Yankee who looked Big League-ready.
In relief of Luis Gil, Carlos Lagrange was sensational. Across three scoreless frames, he allowed just one hit while striking out four. His fastball averaged 100.1 mph. Something exciting is brewing among the Yankees’ pitching prospects.
Rangers
It began with boos. It ended the same way.
Shocking
Before the puck dropped at Madison Square Garden last night, the Rangers organization honored its Team USA gold medalists: JT Miller, Vincent Trocheck, Mike Sullivan, David Quinn, and… Chris Drury. Public address announcer Joe Tolleson called Drury’s name first, and the Garden faithful vehemently expressed their displeasure.
62 hockey minutes later, they redirected those boos toward the Rangers players, who let a 2-0 lead slip away in overtime (3-2 was the final). Wasn’t the Olympic Break relaxing? I almost forgot how ugly hockey can be. Despite Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin returning to the Rangers’ lineup for the first time since early January, the team was as bad as it has been all year.
Meanwhile, Artemi Panarin is 0-2 in his first two games in Los Angeles. But at least he got out.
That’s not exactly what transpired, but in case you haven't noticed, I’m making a point about how bad the Rangers are. Humor me.
The Rangers actually played a great first period. For the first 10 minutes of their four-game homestand, they dominated puck possession, and halfway through the frame, Sam Carrick found the back of the net. His wrist shot from the right circle took a lucky bounce past Samuel Ersson, who tightened his seatbelt afterward.
“I thought five-on-five, we were pretty good,” Sullivan said. “We had a great start to the game.”
Penalties plagued the Rangers throughout regulation, and they finished with five minors. None proved costlier than the high-sticking call Connor Sheary took at 8:27 into the second period. The Rangers killed off 118 of the 120 seconds Sheary spent in the penalty box, but at 9:34, Owen Tippett wiggled away from Will Borgen at the left halfwall and found Noah Cates at the left circle. Matvei Michkov was wide open at the opposite post.
The Rangers got tangled up defensively, including Brennan Othmann, who missed his mark on a cross-ice pass. He has since been demoted to Hartford.
“We made poor decisions,” Sullivan said. “Our penalty kill needs to be better.”
A major factor in Team USA’s Olympic success – Sullivan was the team’s head coach – was their penalty killing. They killed off every single power play they faced, and no player spent more time killing penalties than the captain of the New York Rangers, JT Miller. The Rangers needed more from him yesterday, and they will continue to need his best efforts down the stretch.
Odds are Vincent Trocheck will get dealt before next Friday’s deadline. That eliminates another goal-scorer from the Rangers’ roster. Therefore, players like Miller and Mika Zibanejad will be counted on, more than ever, to generate offense, especially on the power play, which was stagnant without Fox and lifeless without Panarin.
The Rangers went 0-for-3 on the power play last night, including in overtime, which started with 1:51 of 4-on-3 time because of a goaltender interference penalty against Michkov. Trevor Zegras scored 39 seconds into the third period, firing a shot past Shesterkin on an odd-man rush, to ultimately force overtime. On Zegras’s goal, Adam Fox got caught in the middle of the two-on-one.
“He’s missed a lot of hockey, so it’s gonna take him some time to get into the game speed, the game timing, things of that nature,” Sullivan said. “I would anticipate Foxy getting better with each game that he plays.”
Fox, who was on the ice in overtime for Philadelphia’s game-winning goal, wasn’t pleased when he heard about his team’s retool, which was announced during his time on injured reserve. When asked about how he views his future with the Rangers, he expressed his desire to focus solely on this season.
In overtime, Rasmus Ristolainen was without a stick, so the Rangers tried to get pucks to the net as their power play time wound down. New York’s man-advantage time had already expired by the time Miller’s wrist shot got blocked net-front, and Ristolainen knocked Fox to the ice. Since the clock hadn’t stopped, each team had four skaters, but the hit removed Fox from the play.
This allowed Sean Coutourier to beat a tired Zibanejad to the rebound and pass it to Michkov, who bonked into a sleepy Miller at the blue line. Miller, after spending nearly two straight minutes on the ice, couldn’t stop Michkov, who, uncontestedly, dragged the puck home.
In that moment, the Rangers needed more from their captain, but the only thing he delivered was his team’s 15th home loss.
Oh, I almost forgot – The Rangers haven’t earned a regulation win at home since November 24, 2025. Today is February 27, 2026.
Schedule
Tonight 2/27:
8:00 PM (7:00 PM CST): Friday Night Knicks – NYK at MIL; MSG, Gotham Sports
Saturday 2/28:
12:30 PM (11:30 AM CST): ABC Hockey Saturday – NYR vs. PIT; ABC, ESPN App
1:05 PM (12:05 PM CST): 2026 Grapefruit League Baseball – NYY vs. TOR; YES, Gotham Sports
Sunday 3/1:
1:00 PM (12:00 PM CST): NBA Sunday Showcase – NYK vs. SA; ABC, ESPN App
