MESA, Ariz. — Andrew Vaughn feared the worst when he got hurt making a diving catch for the Chicago White Sox on Sunday. Same for his team, which is looking for the slugger to play a key role this year.

They’re all feeling much better now.

Vaughn was diagnosed with a hip pointer, and he could return to game action in one to two weeks. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 amateur draft ditched his crutches Tuesday and took some swings Wednesday.

“As soon as I dove, I landed on my hip,” Vaughn said. “Thought I was fine. Got up, wiggled around a little bit. Took that first step and it kind of gave out. My mind went to the worst thought. I’m up walking and I feel pretty good now.”

While Vaughn is feeling much better, the White Sox are preaching caution. Asked about Vaughn taking some swings, Manager Tony La Russa cracked: “Looked like me, that’s not good.”

“The reports were that we dodged a severe bullet,” La Russa said. “But I think he’s going to have some soreness and just got to go reasonably slow with him.”

Vaughn, who turns 24 on Sunday, was a first baseman when he played college ball at the University of California. But he started working in left field after Eloy Jimenez got hurt during spring training last year.

The White Sox are looking for a regular right fielder this season, so Vaughn was playing that position when he landed on his right hip while making a play on Hanser Alberto’s line drive during a 9-0 exhibition win against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had to be carted off the field.

YANKEES: Rachel Balkovec, hired by the New York Yankees as the first woman to manage a minor league affiliate of a Major League Baseball team, is nearing a return after being hit in the face by a batted ball during a drill last week.

Balkovec was struck on March 22, causing her to miss her first scheduled spring training game two days later with Class A Tampa.

“I saw her last night; she’s starting to feel better,” Kevin Reese, Yankees vice president of player development, said. “I think she’s getting close to being back on the field.”

The 34-year-old Balkovec didn’t suffer a concussion but had facial swelling that included the area around an eye. She was involved in a hitting drill in an indoor cage at the minor league complex when she was hurt.

Reese did not think the injury would prevent Balkovec from managing her first regular-season game on April 8 at Lakeland.

TV: Retired pitcher Jake Peavy and outfielder Hunter Pence have joined the MLB Network as analysts.

The 40-year-old Peavy last played in 2016. A three-time All-Star, he won the 2007 NL Cy Young Award.

Pence, who turns 39 on April 13, was a four-time All-Star who last played in 2020.

Newly retired players Alex Avila and Cameron Maybin also joined MLB Network, the company said.

HR DERBY TOUR: Former Major League Baseball players Jonny Gomes, Adrian Gonzalez, Geovany Soto and Nick Swisher are going on a home run derby tour to London; Seoul, South Korea; and Mexico City.

MLB said the four will participate in Home Run Derby X at London’s Crystal Palace Park on July 9, in Seoul on Sept. 17 and in Mexico City on Oct. 15. Venues for Seoul and Mexico City will be announced later.

The four former stars will be on four teams that include players from women’s baseball and softball, development systems and content creators. MLB said the competition will take place on a “reduced version of a baseball field” with home plate mounted on a stage and the pitcher’s mound on a podium.

Each batter will get to swing at 25 pitches and take up to 10 of them, with home runs earning a point and catches by players in the outfield gaining one point for the defense. There are additional points for streaks and methods MLB said are inspired by video games.

BRAVES: Max Fried, who capped his 2021 season as the starting pitcher in Atlanta’s decisive Game 6 World Series win over Houston, has been named the Braves’ Opening-Day starter.

The Braves announced that Fried will start against Cincinnati in their April 7 opener in Atlanta. It will be the left-hander’s second consecutive Opening-Day start.

Fried pitched six scoreless innings, allowing only four hits, in Atlanta’s 7-0 win over the Astros to clinch their first World Series championship since 1995. Fried, 28, was 14-7 with a 3.04 ERA and two shutouts in 2021.

Fried, Charlie Morton and Ian Anderson are established atop the rotation. Manager Brian Snitker was expected to choose between Fried and Morton to start the opening game. Morton, 38, was 14-6 with a 3.34 ERA last season. He suffered a broken leg in Game 1 of the World Series but has made a full recovery.

Snitker has not announced who will follow Morton and Anderson in the rotation. Kyle Wright and Huascar Ynoa have been described by General Manager Alex Anthopoulos as the leaders of a competition that also includes Kyle Muller, Tucker Davidson and rookie Spencer Strider.

The Braves are expected to use a six-man rotation as they open the season by playing 14 consecutive days before their first off day. They are then expected to return to a five-man rotation.

REDS: Hunter Greene has cracked the Cincinnati Reds’ season-opening rotation.

The second overall pick from the 2017 draft reached 104 mph with his fastball in Triple-A last season and could be one of the most exciting rookies in baseball this year. The right-hander will pitch behind Opening-Day starter Tyler Mahle during a weekend series against the World Series champion Atlanta Braves.

Manager David Bell informed Greene that he’d made the team Tuesday, and Cincinnati announced it Wednesday.

Greene missed the entire 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery but looked to be at full strength last year, when he was 10-8 with a 3.30 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 106 1/3 innings between Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville.

NATIONALS-CARDS: Washington Nationals fans have reasons to doubt 2022 will be their year. They got 29 more of them Wednesday.

Pitchers Anibal Sanchez and Cade Cavalli allowed 10 runs each while the Nationals were shellacked 29-8 by the St. Louis Cardinals in a spring training game at West Palm BEach, Florida.

“Things just got a little bit out of hand,” Washington Manager Dave Martinez said. “They had some hits where they had the magic wand today.”

The Cardinals scored 15 times in the eighth inning, a barrage that began against Cavalli.

St. Louis has never scored more than 12 runs in an inning during a regular-season game. The outburst was so brain-breaking that when Washington’s Gilbert Lara hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, the scoreboard operator briefly awarded the runs to the Cardinals – perhaps out of muscle memory.

Home runs by Paul DeJong, Paul Goldschmidt and Yadier Molina were among St. Louis’ 26-hit outpouring.

Over 131 years in the National League, the Cardinals’ regular-season record is 28 runs in a game, against Philadelphia in 1929. Records dating to 1996 show their spring training high at 18 runs.

Hopes aren’t especially high in Washington a year after the franchise traded Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber ahead of the trade deadline. No one sees this kind of loss coming, though.

Sanchez allowed 10 runs on 12 hits and one walk over four innings. In the second inning, the 38-year-old threw so many pitches that Martinez removed him, only to have him re-enter the game the following inning.

“I threw like 90 pitches, and I’m still healthy,” Sanchez said. “So that’s a good thing right now. I’m just working on being ahead in the count. I don’t want to be afraid of everything that happened today and try to be around the strike zone.”

Cavalli, Washington’s top prospect, managed to remain upbeat after allowing 11 runs, 10 earned, in 2 1/3 innings.

“I went to battle and I lost today,” Cavalli said. “I’m going to keep my head up. I’m going to learn from it, work, and everything’s going to be good.”

Sanchez and Cavalli are under consideration for the final spot in Washington’s rotation.

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