MLB Player News

Those players include three likely members of the rotation in Jesús Luzardo, Edward Cabrera, Braxton Garrett, as well as outfielder Jesús Sánchez, catcher Nick Fortes and reliever Anthony Bender. No one from the group stood out as a non-tender candidate, but the Marlins might have let Luzardo or Garrett go if they were particularly worried about the state of their arms after they missed much of last season. Fortes will also get to stick around after his improved finish, though it’d be great if he were pushed into a backup role by either Agustin Ramirez or an outside acquisition.

García had a two-run double in the first and then a solo homer in the fourth, both off Walker Buehler. It’s the first time he’s had three extra-base hits in a game since Aug. 2023, and it was definitely a welcome scene for the Rangers after his poor final five months last season.

Mahle walked four and gave up two hits to the 11 batters he faced. jacob Webb bailed him out in the second after a bases loaded walk to the struggling Rafael Devers plated the lone run he allowed. Mahle’s fastball velocity was pretty good tonight — his 93.1 mph average was up 1.7 mph from where he was in his return from Tommy John last year — but he was all over the place, throwing only 30 of his 61 pitches for strikes. He’ll make his next start Friday against the Rays.

Luke Jackson was unavailable after getting save chances the previous two nights, so the Rangers were forced to close with their best reliever tonight. Using Martin as a strict closer would be a bad idea, given that he needs a structured workload at age 38. Still, he should get saves from time to time.

Things could have gone better for Buehler tonight. Kristian Campbell nearly made a diving catch that would have prevented the two runs in the first. Also, he was pretty unlucky on the three singles that scored a run in the fifth. Still, this wasn’t vintage Buehler. He struck out three and had a 21% CSW. His hardest pitch was 95.0 mph, which is what he averaged with his fastball last year. Tonight, he averaged right around 93 mph. Perhaps part of that was his recent illness. However, he seems like a fringy mixed-league option at the moment.

The homer off Jacob Webb left his bat at 112.2 mph and traveled 431 feet. Campbell played left field for the first time today. He almost made a spectacular diving catch on his very first outfield chance in the first inning, but he couldn’t hold on with the ball in his glove and two runs scored on the play. Campbell is 5-for-10 at the plate through three games.

Devers was lucky not to strike out on a couple of close calls during the walk. He did put one ball into play tonight, but it was a harmless groundout. He’s being challenged consistently with fastballs, and even though he knows they’re coming, he’s still always late on them. He’s just thoroughly lost at the moment, and while it’s possible things could change at any time, we’d say it’s more likely that he’ll struggle for a while longer. It’d be no surprise to see him on the bench against Jacob deGrom on Sunday.

The lone run came in the sixth. With one out and Jose Siri on third, Juan Soto hit a harmless comebacker. Arrighetti grabbed it, looked Siri back and then made a soft toss to first. Siri used the opportunity to take off and beat Christian Walker’s throw home. Aside from that, Arrighetti was sterling in striking out five and walking two. He’ll take on the Twins next weekend.

Hader walked one. With two outs and the tying run on second, he gave up a 108-mph liner to Mark Vientos that found shortstop Jeremy Peña’s glove to end the game. Hader is 2-for-2 in save chances through three games.

In a 1-1 game, the Mets let Canning pitch to the top of the order for a third time in the sixth. They almost got away with it, too, but Yordan Alvarez doubled in Isaac Paredes with two outs. Canning definitely looks considerably better than he did last season, but he’s still not a guy who is likely to retire Yordan Alvarez three times in a row (in fact, Alvarez was 7-for-13 with two homers and three walks against him during his Angels days). Canning’s next start will come next weekend against the Blue Jays.

It was particularly surprising to see the Astros keep both Cam Smith and Dezenzo to begin the year, particularly since they don’t appear to be at all interested in using Jose Altuve at second base right now. They two will rarely start at the same time as long as everyone is healthy, so one probably ought to be playing regularly in Triple-A right now. If they were to make the move, Dezenzo would presumably be the one sent down.