MLB Player News

There isn’t a ton of competition for at-bats at the cold corner in Seattle beyond Luke Raley and top prospect Tyler Locklear, so this is actually a pretty decent landing spot for Shenton after he was cut loose earlier this week by the Rays. The 26-year-old first baseman, who was originally a fifth-round pick by the Mariners in the 2019 MLB Draft, batted .214/.340/.405 with one homer in 50 plate appearances last year in the big leagues, but he blasted 20 homers in just 83 games at Triple-A Durham.

Ramírez was removed Saturday with a wrist sprain and didn’t play Sunday, but he looked healthy on a solo blast that traveled 365 feet in the first inning. The 32-year-old also doubled, and that two-bagger had an exit velocity of 108.2 mph. Ramírez remains one of the true fantasy superstars in the sport.

All three hits were singles and he didn’t drive in a run or score one himself, if you’re looking for something to complain about. Machado is hitting .333 with an .868 OPS over the first fie games of 2025.

Sheets also drew a walk and scored two runs. The 28-year-old was fantastic for the majority of the Cactus League, and he’s been able to pick up hits in four-of-five games while hitting a robust .500 in that timeframe. That’s obviously not sustainable, but Sheets is worth a roster look while he remains hot. The worst thing that happens is you place him on the waiver wire if/when this cools down.

Both runs allowed by Hart came off of solo homers, and outside of that the southpaw was solid in his first start as a member of the Padres. The southpaw struck out four while generating 10 swings-and-misses over his 80 pitches while walking just one. Hart has a tenuous hold on his fifth spot in the rotation, but this was a good building block. He’s scheduled to face the Cubs on Sunday.

While Ortiz didn’t allow a homer, he was consistently in trouble. The 26-year-old allowed nine hits and four walks, and wasn’t able to escape jams; with most of the damage coming in a four-run second. Ortiz also struggled over the Cactus League, so it’s fair to say that he’s not at his best right now. He’ll get a chance to change that Sunday against a not-so-great Angels’ lineup in Anaheim.

Schanuel already topped his career-best exit velocities at least a couple of times in spring training, but he was all of the way up to 109.8 mph on his single tonight. That’s four mph harder than he ever hit a ball last year. Schanuel probably isn’t going to turn into a mixed-league stud right away this year, but the added strength certainly makes him a lot more interesting for the long haul.

Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan hit solo shots in the first two innings. Anderson allowed four other hits and a couple of walks, but he limited the damage otherwise. There’s nothing much at all here to like fantasy-wise. He’ll face the Guardians next time out.

Even though Kenley Jansen and Ben Joyce were unavailable after working the previous two days, the Angels got five quality innings from the bullpen tonight. Brock Burke, who seemed like the favorite to close, pitched a scoreless ninth in a tie game and wound up with the win after the Angels scored twice in the top of the 10th. Johnson, making his second professional appearance after giving up five runs Thursday, allowed only a single and a sac fly in the bottom of the 10th.

Mikolas gave up just three hard-hit balls and two hits tonight, but he didn’t last long enough to get a quality start. He wound up with three strikeouts, which is par for the course with him. He struck out exactly three in 14 of his 32 starts last year.

Nootbaar isn’t only hitting everything hard and typically more in the air this year, but he’s struck out only once in 19 plate appearances. Now that he’s playing every day and batting leadoff, he doesn’t need to maintain this kind of pace to be very useful in mixed leagues. Of course, his durability issues could always pose problems at some point.