MLB Player News

It wasn’t announced, but the Angels obviously tried removing Goodrum from the 40-man in recent days, allowing the Pirates to pick him up and stash him. The 32-year-old Goodrum played in four games for the Angels in May, going 0-for-13. He also served a stint with the Rays this season, and he’s 3-for-29 overall.

Oof. Blackburn also issued a pair of walks in the ballgame and didn’t record a single strikeout. He was able to navigate his way through the first two frames without allowing a run, but the Nationals made him pay in the third inning. There, CJ Abrams crushed a solo homer and a couple of batters later James Wood walloped a long two-run blast. Blackburn should open the season in the Mets’ rotation with both Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas shelved, but he’s going to have to perform a lot better than this in order to keep that spot.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post was the first to report of the deal between the Astros and the 31-year-old southpaw. Beeks made 71 appearances between the Rockies and Pirates during the 2024 campaign, posting a 4.50 ERA, 1.49 WHIP and a 55/27 K/BB ratio over 70 innings. It’s unclear if he’ll have enough time to ramp up and get himself ready in time for Opening Day.

Daniel Schneemann also homered and tripled. Assuming that Gabriel Arias is a lock for the roster while being out of options, the Guardians have two spots open for Freeman, Schneeman, Juan Brito, Angel Martínez and Johnathan Rodriguez. Brito will probably only make it if he’s going to be the starter at second. Otherwise, the Guardians could mix and match there. Having started off 6-for-13 with four extra-base hits, Freeman is making his case for being part of the solution. It definitely helps his argument that he was competent in center field last season.

Cantillo allowed three hits, walked two and struck out one. The 25-year-old, who had a 5.11 ERA in eight major league starts last season, is likely behind Luis L. Ortiz in line for the fifth spot in Cleveland’s rotation.

With the wind blowing out to right today, Bido gave up four homers. At least he did end up with four strikeouts and one walk or this one could have been even more of a disaster. Bido is likely to get a spot in the Oakland rotation over J.T. Ginn and Joey Estes, and he should offer some AL-only value.

We’re assuming the 2023 or 2024 A’s would not have committed $3 million to Andujar to serve as a bench guy, but the 2025 A’s had money to burn and Andujar is well cast as a part-timer against lefties. He hit .411 against them last year and .285/.320/.377 overall in 319 plate appearances.

Swanson experienced forearm fatigue in January and entered camp a bit behind the rest of the Blue Jays’ pitchers. He then started experiencing discomfort in his elbow following a bullpen earlier in the week which caused the team to shut him down and get the imaging done. Regardless of how that exam turns out, it seems like a near certainty that Swanson will begin the season on the injured list.

Molina is probably the biggest surprise of the group, as the 23-year-old hurler made 35 appearances out of the Rockies’ bullpen during his rookie campaign in 2024 — posting a 6.79 ERA, 1.58 WHIP and a 41/22 K/BB ratio across 59 2/3 innings. He struggled in his two Cactus League outings, giving up four runs in his three innings of work (12.00 ERA) with an untenable 2.33 WHIP. He should get an opportunity to work out of the Rockies’ bullpen at some point in 2025.

Witt homered in the first and walked in the third, at which point he was removed for a pinch-runner on the wet field. The Royals were also extra protective of Jonathan India, who was likewise lifted in the third. Witt improved to 7-for-21 with two homers this spring.

Lugo gave up three runs in each of his first two spring outings, but he was better today, allowing just one hard-hit ball. His ERA stands at 8.22, but given that he finished up at 7.15 last spring, we certainly wouldn’t read much into it.