MLB Player News

Pederson will take a $3 million buyout and head to free agency after posting a .908 OPS with 23 homers and seven stealds in 132 games for the Diamondbacks. The 32-year-old slugger makes a ton of sense as a righty-mashing platoon option on a contending roster. He shouldn’t have too much trouble finding plenty of suitors.

The Marlins failed to muster any hard contact against Parker, who is having to battle for a rotation spot after posting a 5.68 ERA and a poor 14.2% strikeout rate as a sophomore. The addition of Miles Mikolas to near-certainties Cade Cavalli and Brad Lord has left the Nationals with Josiah Gray, Foster Griffin, Jake Irvin and Parker battling for two rotation spots, and the assumption is that Gray will have one if he gets through camp healthy. All but Mikolas do have options, though.

Alcantara needed 28 pitches to get his three outs, ruling him out for a second inning in his spring debut. The damage came on a Brady House homer after a single and a walk. Alcantara averaged 96.3 mph with his fastball, down 1.4 mph from his 2025 norm. That’s acceptable for a spring opener, though.

That the Twins retained Trevor Larnach and added Josh Bell and Victor Caratini over the winter would seem to leave their younger outfield types with little opportunity to crack the starting lineup this spring. Roden, though, overcame similar circumstances to make the Jays last spring. He wound up disappointing and getting moved in the Louis Varland deal, but his on-base skills make him interesting, especially if he shows a little more power.

Bradley should have given up two homers, but the wind knocked down a potential leadoff shot from Ronald Acuña Jr. to start the bottom of the first, resulting in a single. As it turned out, only Drake Baldwin’s solo shot in the third did any damage. Bradley’s bid for a rotation spot got a big boost when Pablo López was diagnosed with a torn ACL. He still definitely has the stuff to be a quality big-league starter. He just needs to turn that into results at some point.

Rojas struggled in Triple-A after the Twins got him from the Jays in the Louis Varland deal last summer, but he remains a really exciting pitching prospect. The 23-year-old topped out at 98.5 mph today, and his eight sliders produced four missed swings, two called strikes and zero contact.

Sale averaged 95.1 mph with his fastball in his spring debut, a slight improvement over his 94.8-mph average from last year. He also threw a first-pitch strike to all eight batters he faced today.

The Braves today had Baldwin hitting second, which could be his placement during the regular season. He finished last season batting cleanup, and he still might make more sense there if the Braves want to split their lefties. Walt Weiss said that wasn’t a big issue for him, though.

This one was 4-4 after one, 4-4 after five and then 10-7 Boston after six. The Red Sox added one insurance run from there, which proved important when the Jays scored three times in the ninth. Eaton helped a bunch. One of his doubles was a 408-footer to center that would have been a homer in 20 MLB ballparks. He seemed like a non-tender candidate in November, but the Red Sox liked him enough to keep him on the 40-man, even after signing Isiah Kiner-Falefa and acquiring Caleb Durbin to seemingly knock him out of a projected bench role. He still might get one, however, if Romy Gonzalez opens up on the IL.

All four runs came in the first, when Bello was pulled after 24 pitches. He came back out for the second and threw 11 pitches in a scoreless frame then. Bello’s velocity was down about one mph from last year. He threw his remade changeup six times for one whiff and five balls.

The Jays knew they could get away with taking Rodríguez off the 40-man over the winter, but that doesn’t mean they were ruling him out as a contributor. Today, though, he didn’t look like someone who was ready to compete for a spot. He averaged 92.6 mph with his fastball, which is down three mph from last year, and throwing out the six balls in play against him, only five of his remaining 20 pitches were strikes. He was unlucky to give up five hits on the quality of contact against him — just one of the six balls in play was hard hit — but he didn’t resemble a major leaguer.