The Rundown: One Week Till Opening Day, Teams Boast New Concessions, MLB Inks Multiyear Polymarket Deal

We are officially one week from Opening Day, and it can’t get here soon enough. The conclusion of the World Baseball Classic has left a void of meaningful professional baseball that can’t easily be filled, especially with the Cubs playing late games on Friday and Saturday. Those will at least be on Marquee, as will their Sunday afternoon contest against the Brewers, though neither of their last two spring games against the Yankees will be televised.

The Yankees are traveling west from their spring HQ in Tampa because they open their season against the Giants in San Francisco on Wednesday. I suppose that means we’re actually less than a week from OD, but a one-off game broadcast by Netflix doesn’t really count. I’m super stoked because the weather is back to being awesome and the high school has intrasquad scrimmages on Saturday. There’s nothing better than the first time of the season that you get to sit in the sun and watch baseball.

That’s as much of a relief for me as anything, what with the uncertainty surrounding whether or not we’d be focused on spring baseball. As I may have noted before, my sports fandom is heavily rooted in skepticism. My reaction to the Cubs winning the World Series was to repeat, “This was never supposed to happen,” through tears of joy. And so it was that I steeled myself against disappointment by assuming my son would be cut again this year.

He wasn’t, and for that I’m very happy. I’m more proud of him for the work he’s put in, and I’m so very thankful to those who’ve supported him. We went to his travel facility to lift yesterday evening, and the owner and pitching director were both there. When the latter got the good news, he picked Ryne up in a big bear hug and clapped him on the back. That was a very good moment.

Though playing in the pros is kind of a bigger deal, there will be similar moments when young and/or overlooked players learn that they’ve made the big league roster. The Cubs still have several players vying for one or two bench spots, and at least one of those could be determined soon. That’s because Owen Caissie was traded over the winter, but don’t tell that to the folks designing graphics for the Cubs.

Hey, it’s spring training for everyone.

New Treats Unveiled

‘Tis the season for new concessions to be unveiled, and I wanted to provide a quick list of what I’ve seen so far:

• The Cubs will have Chicken & Churros, crispy tostada stacks, and a new Bao Wow Dog.
• The Diamondbacks have a 128-ounce nacho bucket and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” shake that has salted caramel ice cream, whipped cream, peanut butter sandwich cookies, Kit-Kat bars, and Cracker Jack.
• The White Sox now have the Campfire Milkshake 2.0, which is meant to serve at least two people, plus a new chicken chorizo machete.
• The Dodgers have a watermelon habanero margarita that comes in a souvenir water jug cup.

There’s a whole lot more, but I need to stop because I’m getting really hungry.

MLB Signs Multiyear Deal with Polymarket

Remember when gambling was a death sentence in baseball? Hell, I remember the uproar when Indiana first legalized scratch-off cards. Now, we’ve all got sportsbooks within arm’s reach and every major sports league has agreements with multiple gambling sites. The toothpaste has been out of the tube for a while now, but I don’t think we’re going to see an end to behavior like what we saw from Emmanuel Clase.

The former Guardians closer is unlikely to play ever again after allegedly accepting inducements to intentionally throw balls at certain points, generating payouts for prop bettors. Rather than trying to put the genie back in the bottle, Rob Manfred is trying to rub another one out by signing a multiyear deal with Polymarket to be the league’s exclusive prediction-market partner.

I could not have imagined typing those words even a year ago, mainly because I would not have known what they meant. Polymarket, like Kalshi, is a global cryptocurrency-based platform on which users can bet on future outcomes in sports, economics, weather, awards, and politics. The funny thing here is that Polymarket supposedly bans US users, which I guess makes this a way for Manfred to grow the game overseas.

But with that could come even bigger problems than what we’ve seen with Clase and a number of lesser-known athletes over the years. Times of Israel journalist Emanuel “Mannie” Fabian received death threats from Polymarket users over his report that an Iranian missile had struck a location outside a Jerusalem suburb. I have seen reports that the platform had accepted as much as $14 million — with one bettor laying down $900,000 — over whether an Iranian missile would strike Israel on March 10.

The bettor(s) wanted Fabian to “update the lie” so they would be able to collect their winnings. A Polymarket user collected $400,000 by betting that former Venezuelan head Nicolas Maduro would be ousted just hours before US forces arrested him. Hmm, that doesn’t smell fishy at all. Fabian himself reported in February that an Israel Defense Forces reservist had been indicted for using classified information to bet on Polymarket.

In the past day, I have been receiving numerous emails and texts from Polymarket gamblers demanding that I make an incorrect (and incredibly inconsequential) change to one of my reports.

It has gotten to the point that these addicts are now publishing a fabricated response that…

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 13, 2026

While our political officials here all have far too much integrity to leverage their power in the pursuit of fortune — that would be like insider trading, perish the thought — I can see how less scrupulous members of society might not be as discreet. I don’t consider myself to be the least bit prudish, but I can’t see anything good coming out of this for anyone other than owners and the league.

More than that, I can envision a great deal of very bad outcomes for athletes in particular. Many of them are already dealing with an escalating volume of criticism and threats due to the ubiquity of gambling, and this will only turn up the volume on those negative effects. This is giving me some very, very bad vibes.

More News and Notes

• The Cardinals have optioned righty Richard Fitts to Triple-A despite an outstanding spring, which means Andre Pallante and Michael McGreevy should be in the rotation. You know the old saying: If the Dick Fitts, option it.
• According to a report from Evan Drellich of The Athletic, each member of Team Venezuela will receive $100,000 in prize money. That apparently comes from Netflix, which has entered broadcast agreements with MLB and the NPB, helping to more than double payouts to WBC participants this year over 2023.
• Jay-Z has announced two concerts at Yankee Stadium this summer: July 10 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt, and July 11 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint.
• The Athletic surveyed a panel of 20 MLB insiders to rank the top 50 pitchers from ace to meh. Matthew Boyd (t49), Edward Cabrera (48), and Cade Horton (40) landed in Tier 5 as the only Cubs to make what strikes me as a highly suspect list. The top is unassailable, but everything from 15-50 feels like a toss-up.
• Postseason breakout star Trey Yesavage will open the season on the IL for the Blue Jays as he deals with a right shoulder impingement. That’s a big blow to a rotation that is already without Shane Bieber (forearm fatigue) and José Berríos (stress fracture in right elbow).

Trailer Time

The Hunting Club has all the look and feel of something Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme would have made if SyFy Originals were still a thing. The line delivery is more wooden than UCLA’s legendary coach, and the sets look like something out of a high school play. That said, I admire the chutzpah of writer/director/lead actor Little Mike Trnka to make his dream a reality.