MLB Player News

It’s a brutal development for Encarnacion, who was in the midst of a strong spring at the dish before suffering the injury earlier this week during a Cactus League contest while attempting to make a diving catch. He’s facing a multi-week absence, and will undergo additional testing and evaluation this weekend to determine whether surgery is required, according to a team statement. There should be some clarity on his status later this weekend, but fantasy managers should anticipate him remaining on the shelf until at least late April or early May. His absence should result in an uptick in playing time for Luis Matos and Grant McCray, but their fantasy-relevance is limited to extremely deep mixed leagues and NL-only formats.

Cecconi suggested the injury a little over a week ago, so this move is procedural. There has been no set timeline for his return, but, once he’s healthy, he’s likely to get a few starts in Triple-A before the team decides if he’s ready to fill a spot in the big league rotation or not.

Sabrowski has already gotten an anti-inflammatory injection to deal with his elbow pain, but there is no timeline yet for his return.

Bibee will be replaced by Ben Lively, but there is no word yet on where Bibee will slot into the rotation. Bibee said in an interview this offseason that he always has to eat Chipotle when he starts, but it’s unclear if he had already had his ritual meal before the food poisoning struck.

Bieber has been targeting the All-Star break for his return, but it’s noteworthy that the Guardians chose not to put him on the 60-day IL. We wouldn’t yet expect him back before the All-Star break, but we should keep an eye on his recovery.

It will be Higashioka and not Jonah Heim who gets the first start of the season behind the plate. This will likely be a close timehsare but given how good this Rangers lineup could be, it’s worth monitoring how the team splits up this workload. The full Rangers lineup is: Marcus Semien 2B, Corey Seager DH, Wyatt Langford LF, Adolis García RF, Jake Burger 1B, Josh Jung 3B, Kevin Pillar CF, Kyle Higashioka C, Josh Smith SS.

Not bad for a guy who was close to retiring just months ago. The Red Sox are throwing left-hander Garrett Crochet, so Pillar was likely always going to be in the lineup, but with Corey Seager taking the DH spot, that means Pillar got bumped to center field and Leody Taveras was pushed to the bench.

Seager is battling a calf injury but was able to go through on-field workouts before the game, and the Rangers clearly decided that he could suit up. With Seager at designated hitter against a left-handed pitcher, that will push Josh Smith into the lineup at shortstop and batting ninth.

With left-hander Cole Ragans on the mound, it will be Noel in the starting lineup and Nolan Jones on the bench. This is how we expected the platoon to work, but now we’re getting confirmation of it. Expect to see Jones in the starting lineup tomorrow.

This is only news because left-hander Cole Ragans will start for the Royals on Thursday. This means Rocchio is going to be an everyday player for the Guardians, hitting leadoff against righties and ninth against lefties. The 24-year-old slashed .319/.360/.468 in 50 plate appearances this spring and stole 25 bases in Triple-A in 2023, so there is some fantasy upside here for deeper formats.

This seemed like a foregone conclusion after Juan Brito was sent to the minor leagues, but we now have confirmation. The Guardians are high on Arias, and the 25-year-old did hit three home runs and slug .469 in 51 plate appearances this spring. He’s probably only an option in AL-only leagues at this point. The full Guardians lineup is: LF Steven Kwan, 3B José Ramírez, CF Lane Thomas, Carlos Santana, DH Kyle Manzardo, Jhonkensy Noel, Bo Naylor, Gabriel Arias, Brayan Rocchio.