MLB Player News

All six hits Skubal allowed were singles. He got 16 missed swings today and ended up with a 44% CSW in the 68-pitch outing. Everything so far suggests that Skubal will be very much in the running for another AL Cy Young Award in 2025.

The 29-year-old southpaw punched out eight batters on the afternoon, throwing 53 of his 78 pitches for strikes. The Phillies had wanted to stretch him out to 90 or more pitches before he returns, so there’s a chance that a fifth rehab start could be in the cards here. It’s also possible that the Phillies bring him back if Cristopher Sánchez (forearm) is unable to make his next start.

This is the perfect example of why the Red Sox felt Campbell was MLB-ready despite his poor spring training batting average. Campbell has an elite understanding of the strike zone and a mental approach to the game well beyond his years. The surface-level stats have come around as well, with the 22-year-old slashing .305/.412/.474 on the season with two steals and 10 RBI. Sometimes, surface-level spring training stats can be misleading.

Ryan gave up two doubles, two singles and a walk in his best outing of the year. The 11 strikeouts were one off of his career high of 12 against the Tigers last April, and he now has 10 career 10-strikeout games. Ryan will take a 2-2 record and a 3.18 ERA into his next start in Boston.

It was one run through five, but the sixth began with a single, an error and an RBI double, at which point Soriano was lifted. Both inherited runners later came around to score off Brock Burke. Soriano is a big-time talent with his high-90s heat and ability to generate grounders, but in such a bad situation in Anaheim, mixed-league value is going to be tough to come by. He’ll face the Tigers next.

Correa’s exit velocity numbers have been a bit off, but his second single today was a 112.6-mph smash that rated as his hardest-hit ball of the season. It’s his first three-hit game. He wound up 6-for-13 with three RBI in the series against the Angels, improving his OPS from .496 to .578.

It’s the eighth straight hitless start for Paris, who is 0-for-24 with 14 strikeouts and no walks during the span. He was so good before the slump that he has still has an .823 OPS, which is 168 points better than the Angels’ team mark. Given that the primary alternative at second base is Tim Anderson, it can’t fathomably hurt the team to stick with Paris for now; he’ll likely continue having issues hitting for average, but that power outburst couldn’t have been a complete fluke. Mixed leaguers, on the other hand, can move on.

Rafaela needed to start hitting since he’s likely the player currently holding off top prospect Romany Anthony from debuting with Boston. Yet, Rafaela is a talented young player in his own right and has a hit in nine of his last 12 games, going 12-for-44 (.272) with two home runs, nine RBI, and four steals over that span. Given that he also plays elite defense in center field, that’s going to convince the Red Sox to keep him in the lineup for the time being.

Duran was a prime buy-low candidate given his quality of contact, but that window may be shut closed after he’s gone 7-for-11 with three RBI and a steal in his last two games. The 28 year old figures to be a catalyst for the Red Sox lineup again, and it was only a matter of time before he got hot.

The surface-level stats for Jones are not great. He’s hitting .190/.311/.317 on the season with one home run and five RBI. However, he has hit second or clean-up against right-handed pitching, and many of the plate discipline and contact metrics look much better under the hood. You shouldn’t add Jones now outside of the deepest possible formats, but he is a player to at least keep on your radar in case the process stats start to carry over onto the field.

Allen had gotten off to a strong start to the season, but came back down to earth a little bit today, which is not much of a surprise given how few bats he was missing in his earlier starts. Allen walked three on the day, while striking out two and posting a 19 percent whiff rate and 20 percent CSW. He is not a recommended streamer next week against the Blue Jays.