MLB Player News

Rasmus has gone 1-for-12 at the plate in three rehab games with Double-A New Hampshire, who is battling in the Eastern League playoffs. But, the important thing is that his wrist evidently feels fine. “It’s likely that Colby is back to us for the weekend series against New York,” Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. “We’re just looking at the schedule. With tonight’s game, and then being off, we still need to see Colby with us, and it’s a natural break in the schedule.”

Eder was once a high-upside prospect with the Marlins, but an injury in 2022 changed the trajectory of his career. He wasn’t able to latch on with the White Sox or Angels after that and was traded to the Nationals back in July. He did have a fine spring, allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits in 6 2/3 innings while striking out six and walking six. The Nationals will keep working on getting him back to his old self in Triple-A.

The 26-year-old was solid in spring training, allowing two runs on five hits in nine innings while striking out 11 and walking five. He also posted a solid 2.31 ERA in 23 1/3 innings with the Nationals in 2025. He will head to Triple-A to continue to work on refining his command, but he should make MLB starts this season.

Gott, Lipscomb, and Mervis all have prior MLB experience but were unable to win an Opening Day job with the Nationals. As a 33-year-old veteran, Gott has no more minor league options remaining, so it remains to be seen where he goes from here. Seaver King is the Nationals’ 5th-ranked prospect and is coming off a strong Arizona Fall League season. He was 6-for-16 in MLB spring training with five singles and a stolen base, and he will now either head to Double-A or Triple-A to try and continue his strong run of production.

The veteran was encouraged by being able to throw four “ups,” and he felt like this stuff performed close to how he wanted to, but he admitted that his status for Opening Day is still “up in the air.” His “main goal is the end of the year,” so he and the Brewers will not push for him to be on the mound to start the season if he’s not clearly ready to do so. With Quinn Priester (nerve issue) likely starting the season on the IL, that could mean there are three rotation spots for Kyle Harrison, Logan Henderson (elbow), Robert Gasser, Brandon Sproat, DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, and Shane Drohan to fight for. Woodruff also mentioned that he may need to pitch on six days’ rest throughout the season, which means the team may need to use spot starters throughout the year to keep him on schedule.

Birdsong impressed in his last relief outing this spring by throwing harder than he ever has. Now he’s feeling elbow soreness and is going to be evaluated. That timeline of events does not inspire a lot of confidence, but we will wait to see what the results of the evaluation are. Regardless, Birdsong was unlikely to pitch high-leverage innings for the Giants right away if he made the opening day roster, so his fantasy value was more of a long-term possibility.

Generally, players do not often return on the optimistic timeline, which means we could be looking at mid-May or later for Priester. However, this whole situation is a bit murky since we know that he is dealing with a nerve issue that’s “in the T.O.S. [thoracic outlet syndrome] family,” but we have little other information. It’s best to avoid him in redraft fantasy leagues right now.

Painter didn’t allow a run on just two hits through his first two innings while striking out four. He then retired the first two batters of the third inning before allowing a single, a home run, and a double, and being pulled from the game. Painter registered a 33 percent whiff rate and 27 percent CSW on the day, with his slider and changeup being particularly effective. However, he also had a 63 percent strike rate and just a 38 percent first pitch strike rate, so command remains an issue that the 22-year-old will need to iron out if he’s going to be effective this season.

Rasmussen also walked two but struck out four on the day. The 30-year-old threw plenty of strikes and got ahead in the count regularly, but he had just a 15 percent whiff rate and struggled to miss bats with any pitch other than this cutter. Still, Ramussen worked his way out of trouble regularly and has pitched well all spring. He could easily reach 170 or more innings this season and is still going far too late in fantasy drafts.

Oviedo struck out five and posted a 23 percent whiff rate and 30 percent CSW; however, he also walked three and threw just 57 percent of his pitches for strikes. The upside is that Oviedo had a 67 percent first pitch strike rate with his four-seam fastball, so he didn’t really struggle to get ahead of hitters; he just couldn’t execute with his breaking stuff as often as he would have liked after he did. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible start for Oviedo, and he remains the favorite to open the season as Boston’s fifth starter.

Henderson has been shut down due to elbow soreness, which is a concern since elbow inflammation ended his season last year. As of now, it appears Henderson is feeling good and could even pitch in a Cactus League game this weekend. It remains to be seen if that will be enough time for him to be considered for the fifth spot in the Brewers’ rotation.