MLB Player News

That’s the fifth game of the season. Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt, and Eduardo Rodriguez will start the first four games of the year versus the Cubs. The reason Burnes will be held back is so that he can stay on a five-day pitching schedule. To stay on that schedule, he’ll throw a simulated game Wednesday. It’s a little irritating that fantasy managers will have to wait four games to see him on the mound, but it’s ultimately harmless.

Schanuel already topped his career-best exit velocities at least a couple of times in spring training, but he was all of the way up to 109.8 mph on his single tonight. That’s four mph harder than he ever hit a ball last year. Schanuel probably isn’t going to turn into a mixed-league stud right away this year, but the added strength certainly makes him a lot more interesting for the long haul.

Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan hit solo shots in the first two innings. Anderson allowed four other hits and a couple of walks, but he limited the damage otherwise. There’s nothing much at all here to like fantasy-wise. He’ll face the Guardians next time out.

Even though Kenley Jansen and Ben Joyce were unavailable after working the previous two days, the Angels got five quality innings from the bullpen tonight. Brock Burke, who seemed like the favorite to close, pitched a scoreless ninth in a tie game and wound up with the win after the Angels scored twice in the top of the 10th. Johnson, making his second professional appearance after giving up five runs Thursday, allowed only a single and a sac fly in the bottom of the 10th.

Mikolas gave up just three hard-hit balls and two hits tonight, but he didn’t last long enough to get a quality start. He wound up with three strikeouts, which is par for the course with him. He struck out exactly three in 14 of his 32 starts last year.

Nootbaar isn’t only hitting everything hard and typically more in the air this year, but he’s struck out only once in 19 plate appearances. Now that he’s playing every day and batting leadoff, he doesn’t need to maintain this kind of pace to be very useful in mixed leagues. Of course, his durability issues could always pose problems at some point.

Chapman gave the Giants a five-run cushion with a two-run single in the ninth. He also drew a pair of walks. Chapman was spectacular this spring, and so far it’s carried over into the games that actually count.

He also drew a walk. It’s the first two RBI of the season for Paredes, and his first runs driven in wearing a Houston uniform. The 26-year-old is hitting a less-than-ideal — but far from panic-inducing — .167/.375/.250 over the first three games of 2025.

Flores essentially put the game away with a three-run blast in the sixth off Luis Contreras. That’s already the third homer of the season for Contreras, which puts him one behind his total of 2024 in 242 plate appearances. Don’t expect the power supply to continue throughout the campaign, but Flores is obviously picking up the baseball well right now.

Blanco only allowed three hits, and he issued three walks. The southpaw saw one of the runs score after he left the game on a three-run blast by Wilmer Flores, and he pitched better than this line indicated. It wouldn’t have mattered from a win-loss standpoint because of how good Jordan Hicks was. Blanco is scheduled to face the Twins on Sunday.

Impressive. Hicks has had control and command issues at times as a starter, but the right-hander was able to throw 51-of-72 pitches for strikes against the Houston lineup while striking out six and walking two. Hicks looked good over the Cactus League as well, and it clearly carried over to his first start of 2025. Hicks is set to face the Mariners on Sunday at home.