MLB Player News

The first baseman has been out since the end of August with a broken thumb that was expected to keep him out for 4-6 weeks. Over the weekend, he took batting practice on the field multiple times, and the team must feel good about his ability to manage the pain while swinging. No final decisions have been made yet, but it seems like things are tracking for the 26-year-old to be in the lineup in the Wild Card round.

There’s no question that the Diamondbacks’ pitching staff disappointed in 2024, finishing with a team ERA of 4.63 which was 27th in all of baseball. However, how much of that is on the coaches, and how much of it is that the front office used a lot of resources to bring in underwhelming free agents Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery? Strom was the Astros’ pitching coach from 2014-21 and Houston never finished worse than 11th in the league in ERA. He has struggled to duplicate that in Arizona with the team finishing 22nd in ERA in 2022 and 20th in ERA in 2023, so the team will hope another coach can get more out of their pitching staff.

After taking a seat on Wednesday with J.D. Martinez starting at DH, it will be Winker back in the lineup and hitting sixth on Thursday against Tobias Myers and the Brewers. The rest of the lineup remains the same but Jose Iglesias will move to fifth in the order with Mark Vientos hitting second and Brandon Nimmo hitting third.

With Anthony Rizzo sidelined with two fractured fingers, the Yankees are looking for other options at first base. It seems likely that the left-handed hitting Ben Rice would start against right-handed pitchers and the switch-hitting Oswaldo Cabrera could start against lefties. Rice got off to a hot start when he got his first shot to take Rizzo’s playing time, but he faded down the stretch, finishing the year hitting .171/.264/.349 with seven home runs in 50 games. Having either Rice or Cabrera in the lineup just furthers the concerns about the bottom of the Yankees lineup.

Rizzo fractured two fingers while being hit by a pitch during a game against the Pirates last Saturday. Cashman mentioned that, up until this point, Rizzo has yet to attempt any baseball activities as he looks to make his way back onto the field. The veteran has been spending time on the field with his teammates and “is presenting well without doing any activity,” but until he starts doing baseball activities, it’s hard to see how he can get back on the field. As the Yankees prepare to play without Rizzo, the team has had Ben Rice, Oswaldo Cabrera, Trent Grisham, and Jon Berti take grounders at first base to try to give themselves as many options as possible.

After the Orioles collapsed late in the season and then got swept by the Royals in the first round of the playoffs, there have been calls from the local fans to move on from Hyde. There is a growing belief that the Orioles have not done enough to capitalize on their championship window opening as their top prospects came of age. Yet, despite the murmurs, Hyde will get at least one more season to try to get the most out of an undoubtedly talented roster.

Javier underwent Tommy John surgery at the beginning of June, so a return at the end of July would be 13 months post-surgery which sets up with the normal recovery timeline. Even though Javier had an up-and-down season in 2024, he has posted a 3.59 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and 27 percent strikeout rate over 501 innings (116 appearances, 82 starts) in the majors since 2020. Since fantasy managers will likely only get two months from Javier in 2025, it’s unlikely he gets drafted in most formats but he could be a valuable waiver add at the end of the season. Dana Brown mentioned that Jose Urquidy will be on a similar timeline, so the Astros will be without both of them for the majority of the 2025 season.

Skubal started Game 1 of the Wild Card round against the Astros on Tuesday, which means he would be on normal rest for Game 2 of the ALDS against the Guardians. Woodbery also notes that Skubal could return for Game 5 if it were to become necessary. While the Tigers have yet to announce an official plan, getting the chance to start the likely AL Cy Young winner twice gives them a major leg up in a test against the Guardians.

Michael Harris II’s two-run homer in the eighth made things interesting, but the Braves couldn’t overcome a five-run second inning that produced all of San Diego’s runs. Tatis went 4-for-6 with a homer in the brief series, and he is now 11-for-28 with four homers and a 7/7 K/BB ratio in the postseason during his career. The Padres will move on to face the Dodgers in the NLDS.

Higashioka started both games of the Wild Card series over Elias Díaz, and the Padres seem fully committed to him as their regular at this point. He’s 7-for-31 with three homers over four different postseasons, having previously split time with Gary Sánchez and Jose Trevino with the Yankees.

Harris hit a two-run homer off Jason Adam in the eighth to bring the Braves within one run, but that was the end of the scoring on the night. It’s obviously not the outcome Harris wanted, but it had to be a bit of a confidence builder personally, considering that he went 1-for-14 and 0-for-13 in his previous two postseasons. He was 5-for-8 this time around.