New York Yankees @ Pittsburgh Pirates: Lou Trivino vs. Mitch Keller

The Yankees travel to Bradenton to complete their first week of spring exhibitions, where they are set to take on Pirates. While we were given a brief bonus in the form of a TV broadcast of yesterday’s 4-2 walk-off over the Nationals, today we will not be so lucky. Unfortunately, there is no Yankees broadcast of today’s action against Pittsburgh, though you can watch the action on AT&T SportsNet if you happen to live in the Pittsburgh market (or if you’re outside the Yankees’ market, you can watch MLB.tv).

Lou Trivino makes his first appearance of the spring, opening for the Yankees. Fellow reliever Albert Abreu had been listed as the probable starter until the lineup came out. Trivino was quite impressive for the Yankees after coming over in the Frankie Montas deadline day deal, making 25 appearances with a 1.66 ERA, 3.34 FIP, and 22 strikeouts in 21.2 innings.

Meanwhile, the Pirates send out righty Mitch Keller for his second appearance of the spring. He squared off with the Blue Jays last week, pitching two scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts. He faced the Yankees during the interleague series in Pittsburgh last season, giving up four runs on ten hits including back-to-back home runs by Josh Donaldson and Joey Gallo as part of the Bombers’ 16-0 drubbing of their opponents. In 31 appearances (29 starts) in 2022, Keller went 5-12 with a 3.91 ERA, 3.88 FIP, and 138 strikeouts in 159 innings.

The Yankees send out an exciting lineup for those who have been following the Yankees positional competitions this spring. Left field and shortstop will reportedly be decided via open competition, and we’ll see 80 percent of the competitors today.

Top prospects Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza — vying for shortstop — both start as double play partners with the more defensively sound Peraza getting the day at short. Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Cabrera — competitors for left field — also get starting nods with Hicks in left and Cabrera at third, keeping with internal reports that the Yankees view the youngster as a utilityman first.

The Pirates are actually playing two games today, with the other half of their split squad heading to Dunedin to take on the Blue Jays. It appears they saved their major league lineup to take on the Yankees, with projected MLB starters filling the top two-thirds of the batting order.

Outfielder Bryan Reynolds has been the Yankees’ key trade target all winter, but the Pirates placed a Juan Soto-esque price tag on his head, so he remains with the Pirates... for now. We also get a chance to see the exciting duo of youngsters Oneil Cruz and Ke’Bryan Hayes — who could very well make up the left side of the Pittsburgh infield for the next decade — while old friend Andrew McCutchen continues his preparations for his return season in the black and gold.

Location: LECOM Park — Bradenton, FL

First pitch: 1:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: AT&T Sportsnet (away broadcast)

Radio broadcast: MLB.com

Online stream: None

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