3/16/26 : Today in Spring Training
- Steve Potter
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Grapefruit League & Exhibition Game Twenty-Three @ Lakeland vs Tigers
Tigers 13 Phillies 6
Summary :
The Tigers scored seven first inning runs on a two walks, four singles, double and three run home run (Kevin McGonigle).
Garrett Stubbs walked in the second, Bryan De La Cruz singled. Felix Reyes hit a three run home run.
Spencer Torkelson homered for Detroit in the bottom of the second. Three walks and a double scored three runs for them in the third inning. They scored a run in the fifth on a fielding error, single, hit batter and walk.
Justin Crawford and Edmundo Sosa singled in the sixth, they scored on a three run home run by Otto Kemp.
Detroit scored a run in the eighth inning on a walk, double and ground out.
At the Plate : 6 R, 8 H, 2 BB, 5 K’s
Felix Reyes had three hits (two singles & HR) in four at bats with three RBIs, all his hits had exit velocities over 95 mph, two were over 100 mph. Otto Kemp hit a three run home run.
Pitching Notes : 13 R, 13 H, 9 BB, 8 K’s
RH Chuck King - 1.2 IP, 10 R, 7 H, 4 BB, 1 K - 62 pitches - 28 strikes
RH Daniel Harper - 1/3 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K - 12 pitches - 5 strikes
RH Zach Pop - 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K - 13 pitches - 8 strikes
RH Chase Shugart - 1.1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 BB, 2 K’s - 32 pitches - 18 strikes
RH Zach McCambley - 2/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 K’s - 13 pitches - 8 strikes
RH Lou Trivino - 2 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K’s - 28 pitches - 19 strikes
LH Tim Mayza - 1 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 K’s - 18 pitches - 10 strikes
Grapefruit League/Exhibition record is now 8-14-1
Here are my pre-season notes on Felix Reyes written in November and now updated with 2026 spring training stats.
Felix Reyes - 24 years old (25 on 3/26/26) - signed as an international free agent - 2/22/20 - Bani, Dominican Republic
2025 Stats : RH hitter/thrower - played in 95 games - 395 plate appearances with Reading - .335/.365/.572 slash line and .937 OPS - 34 doubles, 4 triples, 15 home runs, 65 RBIs, 18 walks, 61 strikeouts and 13 stolen bases. Promoted to Lehigh Valley 9/16 - 6 games - 26 plate appearances - .261/.320/.391 slash line and .711 OPS with a home run and two RBIs - overall numbers - .331/.362/.562 slash line in 421 plate appearances - 34 doubles, 16 home runs, 67 RBIs - defensively played RF 29 games, LF 31 games, 1B in 18 games and 3B in 4 games. Won the Eastern League batting title and led the league in doubles, slugging percentage and OPS - was 5th in OBP. Was named the Eastern League MVP.
2025 Notes : he had an absolute breakout season after beginning the year in extended spring training. Felix is an aggressive hitter that puts the ball in play and consistently hits it extremely hard. He doesn’t walk (5 % of PA’s in his career) or strike at a high rate (17 % of PA’s in his career) and his bat to ball skills are excellent. Defensively he’s played mostly in the outfield corners, will surprise folks with his athleticism albeit foot speed will always be a challenge. He’s a very pleasant young man, has a great smile and is very well liked. Hitting rockets consistently is a good thing, he’s always done that. He’s from the Dominican Republic and told me “I grew up in a small town in Bani called Catalina. I was born and still live in the same place. I'm proud to represent my family and my town for having one more of the professionals in baseball.” He’s an upbeat young man - uses “the positive” as his social media handle : “Well, the positive means that I always believe in what I do, always positive that everything will turn out well for me. Never negative.” He attributes his success this past season to his off-season work and 2024 winter league play in Colombia : “The winter league helped me a lot because I have played with a lot of experienced players. I changed my swing since I was hitting the ball too low. With the help of coordinator Manny Amador, I trained after playing in the winter league to adjust more.” He played winter ball this past off-season in the Dominican Republic for the Toros del Este.
This spring as a first time non-roster invitee to big league spring training he’s posted a .333/.355/.667 slash line in 17 games (31 plate appearances) with a 1.022 OPS. He’s hit a double, three home runs and has eleven RBIs, has scored five runs, walked once and struck out just once. His hitting skills are legit.
Don’t discount “El Gato” from at some point getting to the show - he’s got the skills and a positive attitude to make that happen - it would be a great thing to see!
Minor League Spring Training :
Pitchers :
Side bullpens (seven mounds) - Ryan Cusick, Ryan Dromboski, Cade Obermueller, Luke Russo, Reese Dutton, Sean Youngerman - catchers - Anderson Araujo, Luke Davis, Nikau Pouaka-Grego
All other players were off for the day
3/17 : three Practice Games vs Tigers - two @ Clearwater, one @ Lakeland
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
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