Sports Thoughts

Arizona +109 (R. Nelson) (0.3-0.327)

• Reynaldo Lopez essentially missed all of 2025 after shoulder surgery. After some odd spring training struggles (velo was down 4.5 MPH vs. ’24), he did rebound in his first start against KC (6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K). His velo also rose to 94.4 (still 1.3 slower vs ’24 – he blamed opening up his hips/shoulder too early in ST). So while that is an encouraging sign, he has the look of a guy who will still be finding himself after a full year out of action. Nelson opened with an up and down outing against the Dodgers (4.2 IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 K). All of the damage came in one inning with two HRs (only one baserunner in the other 3.2 IP). Overall though – I’m bullish on Nelson – his velo was up nearly 1.5 MPH in this opening start over last season, and he was electric in spring training with what observers say is improved breaking stuff.