Feb. 21st Spring Training Notes: Starters, Gardner, Ottavino

Sad news to pass along. Veteran baseball scribe Nick Cafardo passed away in Florida today. He was 62. Cafardo’s weekly Sunday Notes column in the Boston Globe was a must read — we’ve cited his work here at RAB countless times over the years — and he was very kind to me the handful of times we interacted. He’ll be missed. Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

Here are today’s Spring Training notes:

• We have our first starting pitchers of the year: Nestor Cortes will start Saturday’s spring opener and Jonathan Loaisiga will start Sunday. Miguel Andujar, Greg Bird, Aaron Hicks, and Gleyber Torres are making the road trip for Saturday’s game. [Brendan Kuty]
• Brett Gardner wants to play beyond 2019 and he said he never considered signing with another team this offseason. “I’ve played with quite a few people who have come from other places and can’t believe the way we do things around here. I play with people here who go other places and call me and say, ‘You don’t want to come over here,'” he said. [Jack Curry, Brendan Kuty]
• Adam Ottavino threw a simulated game today and struck out all four batters he faced. “I try not to blow first (sim games) out of the water, but you can see why he’s good. You can see why his slider’s pretty devastating. His fastball command also. Some good life at the top of the zone. I was impressed with it,” said Austin Romine, who caught Ottavino. [Bryan Hoch, Erik Boland]
• James Paxton (27 pitches) and Masahiro Tanaka (32 pitches) also threw simulated games. Chad Green and Domingo German threw to hitters in live batting practice while Zack Britton and Trevor Stephan were among those to throw bullpen sessions. [Brendan Kuty]

Only one more workout day before the Yankees start playing spring games. Thank goodness for that. The team’s first four Grapefruit League Games will be televised.