MLB Player News

Before his 408-foot shot today, Paris had been just 7-for-67 with one extra-base hit since debuting late last season. He’s in the majors now despite having opened this year 7-for-77 with no homers and 36 strikeouts in Double-A. There’s some hope here for the future, but he will return to the minors once the Angels get healthier.

Basallo entered the game at first base today. He should eventually be a starting catcher in the majors, but that’s complicated in Baltimore, and he might have to first establish himself as a first baseman or DH. His bat simply isn’t going to need much more time in Triple-A.

Rodriguez plunked Nathan Lukes, but he otherwise had a clean outing. He’s fully recovered from last year’s lat strain and hopefully ready to take his place as a top-30 MLB and fantasy starting pitcher.

The Blue Jays aren’t sure Martinez is far along enough defensively to help in the infield right now, but they do have the DH spot open if they ever wanted to go that route. To have any chance of making the Opening Day roster, Martinez would almost surely have to clearly outhit Will Wagner this spring. So far, he’s 3-for-7 with a homer and two walks and Wagner is 0-for-6 with three strikeouts.

He’s 5-for-9 with a steal this spring. Solak, 30, got into one game for the Braves and one game for the Tigers in 2023, which is still better than the zero he got into last year. He wound up hitting .311/.406/.446 in 90 games for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate then. Given that he’s a full-time outfielder these days, what slim chance he might have had of making the Pirates probably vanished with the Tommy Pham signing.

Even though they recently added Andrew Heaney, the Pirates are following through with plans to stretch Ferguson out as a starter. His velocity today was down about two mph from where he was as a reliever last season, and that’s probably two mph he can’t afford to lose and still be helpful. The pen is where he belongs.

López was knocked around a bit, but his velocity was very good and he struck out four. He’s not typically a big spring training guy anyway; he had a 7.07 ERA in four starts last year and a 10.13 ERA in three starts back in 2022.

Suwinski’s balls in play both exceeded 106 mph. He also went 2-for-3 with a homer on Wednesday, so this is quite a start of the spring for him. He will need to keep it going for a couple of more weeks before the Pirates give much thought to making room for him on the roster. It hurts his case that he has options and Joshua Palacios doesn’t.

Burger had flied out to center and grounded out to third base in his first two trips to the plate. He then victimized Blas Castano for a 408-foot (105.4 mph EV) two-run shot that increased the Rangers’ lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning. Fantasy managers should expect Burger to leave the yard 30 or so times during the 2025 season and hitting in the middle of the Rangers’ lineup should lead to ample counting stats to go with his plethora of long balls.

Mahle struck out one batter on the afternoon and didn’t allow a base on balls. The lone strikeout victim was Dylan Moore on a swinging third strike in the first inning — the only whiff that Mahle generated on 32 pitches on the day. Mahle’s velocity was down in this start, with his fastball averaging just 90.8 mph (91.4 mph in 2024) and his splitter averaging 83.9 mph (85.5 mph in 2024). It could still be a case of him shaking off the rust this spring, but it’s something that fantasy managers should at least be monitoring.

As a team, the Mariners tallied just five hits in the contest, with Locklear and Harry Ford each accounting for two. Locklear also had his club’s lone extra-base hit, a double off of Walter Pennington in the fourth inning. He’s off to a strong start on the spring, hitting .429 (3-for-7) with a pair of runs scored, two RBI and a stolen base as he attempts to secure a spot on the M’s Opening Day roster.