Jake Bird stood at his locker and relived the nightmare that was last season — the rush of getting traded from the Colorado Rockies to the New York Yankees at the deadline and shaving his gigantic beard,

TAMPA, Fla. — The pop of a speeding baseball striking a catcher’s mitt was more of a boom Saturday when the tallest and hardest-throwing pitcher in Yankees spring training threw a bullpen. Watching from behind the mounds in the caged bullpen behind the Steinbrenner Field right-field stands,

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole has thrown his first bullpen of spring training. He may pitch in exhibition games and is on track to return to regular-season action from May to September. A

OK, so that may be a slight oversimplification, but not by much, as the Yankees are set to open spring training with a roster mostly identical to the one at the end of 2025, when

The only injuries and recoveries the Yankees are dealing with are old news — and that's good news as camp officially gets underway.

Teams will wear the spring training hats throughout the exhibition season, including during games. The MLB spring training schedule begins on Feb. 20, with the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles being the first game in the Grapefruit League.