PHOENIX -- Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich took a step forward Saturday in his return from back surgery by playing in a game for the first time since July.

Yelich was the designated hitter for the Brewers' 9-4 Cactus League victory over the Texas Rangers. The 2018 NL MVP went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and an RBI.

"It was just cool to be out there, honestly, because it's a long road from the last time I did it," Yelich said. "Honestly, that was a victory in itself for me today."

The 33-year-old Yelich had last played in a game July 23. He went on the injured list later that month and underwent a diskectomy in August to remove the damaged part of a disk in the spine.

His back issues ended a season in which Yelich earned his third All-Star Game selection. Yelich batted .315 with a .406 on-base percentage, .504 slugging percentage, 11 homers, 42 RBIs and 21 steals in 73 games. He was leading the National League in batting average and on-base percentage at the time of his injury.

The Brewers could use a big season from Yelich as they adjust to the loss of shortstop Willy Adames, who signed a seven-year, $182 million contract with the San Francisco Giants after hitting 32 homers and driving in 112 runs for Milwaukee in 2024.

Yelich expects to be available for the start of the season. His presence in Saturday's lineup was a step in the right direction.

"I honestly didn't care what the results were at all," Yelich said. "Just find out where you're at and go from there. I thought there were some good things, some things that weren't too good. But it was basically how I expected it to be, and my body felt good. That was pretty much the biggest concern of the day."

New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton will begin the season on the injured list because of elbow injuries that have sidelined him this spring.

Stanton has received platelet-rich plasma injections in both of his elbows, according to the New York Post. The 2017 NL MVP has been away from the team while dealing with a personal matter, but he is expected to rejoin it in Tampa, Florida, next week.

Stanton, 35, hit .233 with 27 homers and 72 RBIs in 114 games last season. He had seven homers and 16 RBIs in 14 postseason games and was the ALCS MVP when the Yankees eliminated the Cleveland Guardians.

Also, Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu hurt his calf muscle during Saturday's 9-3 spring win over the Houston Astros.

Speaking after the game, manager Aaron Boone called the injury "at least a little concerning."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes got a chance to showcase his expanded repertoire to opposing hitters Saturday while pitching in a Grapefruit League game for the first time this year.

Skenes, 22, has been working on adding a cutter and a running two-seam fastball to complement his electrifying four-seam fastball. He struck out four and allowed four hits, one walk and one run in three innings Saturday in the Pirates' 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

"You've just got to mix it in," Skenes told SportsNet Pittsburgh and other media after the game. "I learned some stuff about it. It's going to be good, I think."

Skenes is following up a sensational 2024 season in which he earned NL Rookie of the Year honors and went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings. The Pirates selected him with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft after he led LSU to that year's College World Series championship.

Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering a petition filed by Pete Rose's family filed on Jan. 8 to have Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader posthumously removed from baseball's ineligible list, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN Saturday.

Jeffrey Lenkov, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented Rose prior to his death at age 83 in late September, said he filed the reinstatement petition after he and Fawn Rose, the oldest daughter of Pete Rose, met with Manfred and MLB spokesman Pat Courtney in the commissioner's office on Dec. 17.

"The Commissioner was respectful, gracious, and actively participated in productive discussions regarding removing Rose from the ineligible list," Lenkov said of the one-hour meeting in the commissioner's office. Lenkov said he is seeking Rose's removal from MLB's banned list for betting on baseball "so that we could seek induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which had long been his desire and is now being sought posthumously by his family."

MLB sources acknowledged the commissioner met with Fawn Rose and Lenkov and that Manfred is now reviewing the petition to reinstate Rose. In December 2015, Manfred rejected Rose's reinstatement petition after meeting with Pete Rose. Manfred and Courtney declined to comment on Saturday.

Lenkov's comments came a day after President Trump said he would pardon Rose and criticized MLB for barring Rose from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose was banned from baseball for life by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989.

"Over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete pardon of Pete Rose, who shouldn't have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on his team winning," Trump posted on social media. "He never betted against himself, or the other team. He had the most hits, by far, in baseball history, and won more games than anyone in history." Although Trump did not say what the pardon would cover, Rose served five months in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion charges in 1990.

Lenkov said he had "not actively sought" the White House's assistance in his efforts to seek reinstatement for Rose, which he said began years ago.

"When he gets passionate about an issue, POTUS stands behind it," Lenkov said of Trump. "He was passionate about Pete. Pete would have appreciated the President's commitment to him."

Lenkov declined to release the petition that he sent to Manfred. But he said the petition describes "what Rose would have said honestly and candidly to Commissioner Manfred, if he had been able to attend that meeting," Lenkov said.

"It is now time to turn the page on Pete Rose's legacy in baseball and for the Hall of Fame to honor him. Whether you are a fan or not of Pete Rose, we are at our best a nation of second chances, a nation of giving people second opportunities. We don't write off people."

Rose, who spent most of his 24-year career with the Cincinnati Reds, won the World Series three times and remains Major League Baseball's career leader in hits, games played, at-bats, singles and outs. Rose often said no player had won more major league baseball games than him.

In a statement on Saturday to EPSN, John Dowd, who investigated Rose for gambling on baseball for MLB in 1989 and served as Trump's lawyer seven years ago, noted that MLB is "not in the pardon business nor does it control admission to the HOF."

In 2020, ESPN reported that for all practical purposes, Commissioner Manfred viewed baseball's banned list as punishing players during their lifetime but ending upon their death. A senior MLB source told ESPN then that after a banned player dies, MLB informally sees that the banning ends. When Manfred denied Rose's petition for reinstatement, he said, "Under the Major League Constitution, my only concern has to be the protection of the integrity of play on the field through appropriate enforcement of the Major League Rules. It is not a part of my authority or responsibility here to make any determination concerning Mr. Rose's eligibility as a candidate for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame."

In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., passed a rule declaring that any player ruled ineligible by Major League Baseball could not appear on a Hall of Fame ballot. This became known as the "Pete Rose rule," because it closely followed the indefinite banning of Rose.

Rose has never appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot. As Lenkov seeks a precedent-setting ruling by Manfred on Rose's removal from the ineligible list, he said he hopes he can use it to persuade the Baseball Hall of Fame to allow baseball writers to vote for Rose's induction.

In the past, Hall of Fame representatives have said that after a player dies-and he's still on the banned list-he still won't be eligible for consideration for the Hall of Fame.

Rose had numerous opportunities to win reinstatement during his lifetime. In the early 2000s, commissioner Bud Selig offered Rose a chance for reinstatement but he insisted on conditions, including that Rose would have to admit he gambled on baseball, make no casino appearances and stop gambling. But Rose declined.

In 2004, Rose admitted in a book that he gambled as a manager of the Reds, but he insisted that he only bet on his team to win. Years later, ESPN reported that Rose also placed bets as a player, but Rose wouldn't admit it. Lenkov said that he is hopeful that Manfred will reinstate Rose and that the Hall of Fame will allow him to be considered. " "Legally, the lifetime ban is over. His lifetime is over," said Lenkov, who also was executive producer of the recent Rose documentary on HBO. "The Hall of Fame has a rule that if you are on the ineligible list, you can't be considered. If he is taken off that list, there's still no guarantee he gets in. It's a unique situation because he's never been on a Hall of Fame ballot.

"But if he gets in, it'll be a wonderful thing. Imagine the outpouring of emotion to go to the Hall of Fame when he's formally inducted. And why not? As a lawyer and as an American, I believe in second chances. Pete Rose has had as long a prison sentence as any person could have ever imagined. Now is the time for Rose to get his second chance."

With spring training games now underway, baseball is once again being played and we can start to fine-tune the top of our draft lists by seeing what players actually look like on the diamond.

However, many fantasy managers will tell you that fantasy championships are not won in the first few rounds, but rather by what bargains you can get in the middle of the roster-allocation proceedings.

With that in mind, we asked our quartet of fantasy experts -- Eric Karabell, Tristan H. Cockcroft, Todd Zola and Derek Carty -- to highlight one player they were targeting as one of these middle-round must-haves. If these names are currently nowhere to be found on your own draft lists, you might want to make some adjustments.

Which player ranked outside the top 50 are you most excited about potentially drafting to as many of your fantasy baseball teams as possible?

Junior Caminero, 3B, Tampa Bay Rays

He's one of the few players you'll routinely draft outside the top 50 (other than in dynasty and keeper leagues) who has a legitimate chance at a top-25 overall season, thanks to his immense raw power potential.

That power is a true 80-grade skill and, to underscore how much punch he packs at the plate, note that he had the highest exit velocity of any player at the Triple-A level last season (minimum 150 batted balls). Then, after getting the call in mid-August, he had what would have been better-than-70th-percentile Barrel and hard-hit rates in his 177 plate appearances with the Rays.

The more hitter-friendly confines of the Rays' temporary home at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa should help his cause, as will hitting regularly in the heart of the order. Expect a big breakthrough from Caminero in 2025. -- Cockcroft

Christian Yelich, OF, Milwaukee Brewers

Yelich produced a stellar .909 OPS over 315 plate appearances during the 2024 season, offering up 11 home runs and 21 stolen bases before his balky back eventually shut him down just before August. Offseason surgery was expected to fix the problem, and Yelich should be ready for Opening Day.

Fantasy managers would be quite pleased if Yelich approaches numbers reflecting his 2023 pace. Remember, Yelich was a five-category provider and top-10 outfielder that season, and lest we forget, he was an All-Star just last season. He has proven upside, yet doesn't need to return to his 2018 NL MVP form to get back to top-50 fantasy status. -- Karabell

Christian Walker, 1B, Houston Astros

First base is loaded in 2025, with five players at the position currently with an ADP inside the top 50. Walker should make it six, but his ADP is borderline top 100.

Being able to wait for Walker allows fantasy managers to focus on other lineup spots early in drafts while still rostering one of the best at his position. He's averaged 32 homers, 94 RBI, 81 runs and five steals while hitting .250 over the past three seasons -- and that's with having missed 32 games last year due to an oblique strain. He had missed only seven total games in 2022-23.

Moving to a new team can be a challenge, but Walker's current home field is much more homer-friendly to right-handed batters than his old digs in Arizona. -- Zola

Taylor Ward, OF, Los Angeles Angels

Yeah, yeah. I know you wanted me to say Dylan Crews or Jackson Jobe or literally anything sexier than Taylor Ward. Tough. You get what you get, and you don't get upset. But trust me: You'll be upset if you don't get Ward.

A 31-year-old Angels outfielder without a single standout skill is hardly someone I'd expect you to already be excited about, but that's exactly why he's my pick. Old, boring veterans (especially on bad teams) are perpetually undervalued -- and they're also perpetually the key to winning leagues.

Ward won't carry a single category for you, but he'll contribute in all five and, most importantly? Ward is good at baseball. He can hit. My projection system (THE BAT X) sees Ward as the 52nd-most-valuable hitter in fantasy this year, but he's being drafted more than 100 spots below that. Take advantage of the market's biases and take the value where you can get it. -- Carty

South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard will leave Leicester Tigers at the end of the season to rejoin Bulls in his home country.

The two-time World Cup winner signed for the Premiership club before the 2022-23 season and has made 45 appearances, scoring 395 points.

But the versatile back said family reasons and the lure of a club where he started his career in 2014 was too difficult to resist.

"It was a hard decision to make, to leave Leicester Tigers, because I love this club and being a part of this group," the 30-year-old told the club website., external

"After a lot of thought, the opportunity to go home to South Africa after six years in Europe and to be able to return to the club where I began my career was one I felt was right for me and my family to take.

"That's really all there is to say for now because I don't really want to start talking like this is already over. There is a lot of rugby to be played and a lot of time left for me at Leicester Tigers, which I am focused on finishing successfully."

Pollard made his breakthrough with Bulls in 2014 before a stint at Japanese club NTT DoCoMo Red Hurricanes in 2015 and a spell with French side Montpellier in 2019.

Pollard's World Cup wins came in 2019, when South Africa beat England in the final, and in 2023, when he scored all of the points in a 12-11 win over New Zealand.

Pollard will continue to play for Leicester, who are fourth in the Premiership, until the end of the campaign.