MLB Player News

Stratton returns to Pittsburgh as extra organizational relief depth just a few weeks after being non-tendered. The 28-year-old righty, who missed the final month of last year after suffering a ruptured left patella tendon, posted a solid 3.26 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 43/10 K/BB ratio across 49 2/3 innings (44 appearances) over the past two seasons for Pittsburgh.

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.

Bellozo will head down because the Marlins need some fresh arms after their extra-inning contest. The 25-year-old threw 4 1/3 innings in his start against the Pirates on Friday while allowing one run, and he should be back at some point in April for the Miami staff.

Robert Suarez, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada all worked in wins the previous two days, so Morejon was the choice for the save tonight. It should be a very rare save for the left-hander; Adam is definitely the primary fallback to Suarez in the ninth.

It was a grounder into the perfect spot to get past shortstop Orlando Arcia. We’re pretty sure the rest of the NL contenders were overjoyed to see the Padres keep Gurriel and Martín Maldonado as part-timers this year, but even at 40, Gurriel is still a fair source of singles. This one was clutch.

Schwellenbach struck out four and walked one. The Braves had to be tempted to send him back out for the seventh, but they couldn’t do so with him up to 90 pitches in his first start of the year. That the Braves held Schwellenbach back for game three means he’ll miss out on facing the Dodgers next week. He’s due to face Miami instead.

Vásquez wound up with more walks (four) than strikeouts (three), but he gave up just three hard-hit balls and the one that would have been a homer in most locales was a 395-foot double from Matt Olson in Petco. Vásquez will face the Cubs next. He’s not recommended even in NL-only leagues.

Arraez had just one three-game hitless streak in 2024, that coming against the Dodgers at the very end of the year. The Padres are expecting some extra production from him this year now that thumb has been fixed up, and he had a fine spring in hitting .349/.378/.512. One bad series surely doesn’t mean much.