MLB Player News

Koenig has been an unexpected revelation this season for Milwaukee, recording seven victories in relief to accompany a sparkling 1.66 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 36/11 K/BB ratio across 38 innings (29 appearances, five starts). No word yet on how long he’ll wind up sidelined.

Schmidt opened the regular season with a trip to the injured list after dealing with shoulder discomfort during spring training. The 29-year-old’s return should provide a lift to New York’s injury-depleted rotation. He should be rostered in all fantasy formats already, but it’s worth checking if he’s still out there in some shallow mixed leagues.

Stowers was back in the lineup tonight after sitting against lefties the previous two days. He’s played big roles in three of the Marlins’ four wins this season, delivering a walkoff hit on Opening Day and three hits, one of them tying the game in the 11th, in a 12-inning win Saturday. That’s important with Jesús Sánchez presumably returning sometime this month; Stowers needs to outproduce Griffin Conine to ensure that he’ll stay in the lineup.

The Mets say they’re not limiting Alcantara’s workload in his return from Tommy John, but he exited after just 70 pitches tonight, which is something that certainly wouldn’t have happened a couple of years ago. At least it didn’t cost him a win, as the bullpen protected a 4-2 lead for four innings. Alcantara will take a 3.72 ERA into a rematch with the Mets in New York next Monday.

Lefty Anthony Veneziano opened the ninth with Juan Soto coming to bat, but he retired just one of the three batters he faced. Bender entered to face Mark Vientos and got both he and Jesse Winker to end the game and claim the Marlins’ first save of the year. Bender also got a win on Sunday. He’s probably not the Marlins’ sole closer just yet, but we do like him more than Calvin Faucher, who went unused for a second straight day after throwing 47 pitches between Saturday and Sunday.

Senga was hittable early in this one, but he found his forkball as time went along and also had some success with his cutter. His fastball, on the other hand, was scalded. In the end, it was a solid enough season debut. He’ll face the Marlins again on Monday.

Nimmo has put 14 balls into play in five games and nine have been hit hard. He’s shown improved power these last couple of years, and it doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere this season. It’s a big part of why he’s now batting cleanup, rather than leadoff.

It was a Maddux, as Eovaldi needed 99 pitches to complete the four-hitter. He excelled tonight even those his velocity was down 1-1.5 mph from last year. He really had the splitter and curve working, though, getting 14 of his 18 missed swings on the offerings. Eovaldi’s previous shutouts came with the Red Sox in 2022 and the Rangers two years ago. Tonight was just his fifth complete game in 277 career starts.

Spiers was seventh or eighth on the Reds’ SP depth chart at the beginning of the spring, but he claimed a rotation spot with both Andrew Abbott and Rhett Lowder landing on the IL and he made a case to hold on to it with a nice showing tonight. He’ll definitely make one more start Sunday against the Brewers. After that, the Reds might not need him again before Abbott is ready.

Langford’s 361-foot homer was only his third longest fly of the night; he had 389- and 371-foot flyouts, as well as a line drive single. The 23-year-old is 7-for-22 with two homers thus far, though that’s amounted to just two RBI and three runs scored.

Fraley popped up his lone ball in play today, and he has only two hard-hit balls on the young season. The Reds certainly aren’t going to move on from him in the first month or so, but maybe they’ll eventually give Rece Hinds a shot in his place if Hinds starts off well in Triple-A and Fraley is just his usual slightly below average self.