MLB Player News

On the day that it was announced he would start on Opening Day for the Rockies, Freeland turned in his worst outing of the spring, though he did still manage to record five strikeouts. All of the scoring came during a mammoth uprising in the second inning that featured five hits a walk and a hit batsmen. After this debacle, Freeland now holds a 6.43 ERA, 1.36 WHIP and a 16/3 K/BB ratio over 14 frames in four spring starts.

Zero surprise here. Wheeler kicks off the season with an extremely favorable road matchup against the rebuilding Nationals. It’ll be his second consecutive Opening Day start for Philadelphia after Aaron Nola took the ball for six straight years from 2018-2023. The 34-year-old fantasy ace will be among the top five starting pitchers off the board in all remaining fantasy drafts.

Gilbreath was limited to just three appearances late last year in his return from Tommy John surgery due to a shoulder injury that cropped up towards the conclusion of August. The 29-year-old lefty made a handful of appearances this spring, which is encouraging, but he’ll open the year back in the minors as extra relief depth.

Doyle latched on with the Rockies back in late January on a minor league contract, but wound up only making a pair of relief appearances this spring before being cut loose. The 28-year-old righty has made 18 appearances in the big leagues dating back to 2020.

Neither Wall or Goodrum had a real shot at making San Diego’s season-opening roster, but they’re experienced emergency depth options at the Triple-A level.

Drohan was taken by the White Sox in the Rule 5 draft a year ago, but shoulder problems wrecked his season, and he was returned to the Red Sox in June. The lost year has turned into something of a forgotten man, but he still might offer bottom-of-the-rotation potential if he’s all of the way back. First, he’ll have to prove himself in Triple-A.

No Statcast today, but he topped out at 98 mph, according to the stadium gun. Statcast isn’t really required anyway when a guy is striking out three-quarters of the batters he sees. Strider, who had elbow surgery 11 months ago, should be back in the Atlanta rotation before the end of April. Judging by today, he might as well just be put there initially, even if it’s to throw only 3-4 innings. The Braves, though, plan to have him make a couple of minor league starts.

It helped that Anderson was facing mostly backups initially and then backups to those backups as the outing went along. He still seems all set to open up as Atlanta’s fifth starter, but if things continue apace, he’ll get bumped once Spencer Strider comes off the IL.

Martinez picked up the bone bruise when he was hit by former teammate Jordan Romano with a 96 mph fastball. Martinez will likely sit until the soreness subsides, but this shouldn’t affect his availability to begin the year. It doesn’t seem likely he’ll be a part of the Opening Day roster, but Martinez is worth keeping an eye on as a potential power producer.

Goldschmidt got only two at-bats during Monday’s game, and the soreness was the reason. The 37-year-old believes he’ll be ready for Opening Day, but this is a situation to monitor for those considering a draft pick on the first baseman.

Winker got just one at-bat before leaving in what manager Carlos Mendoza called a precautionary decision. The 31-year-old may miss a day or two, but this shouldn’t effect him for the regular season.