MLB Player News

Schafer sprained his left hand making a diving catch during Sunday’s game against the Mets. He has had plenty of issues with his left hand in the past, so the Astros are playing things safe for now.

The 33-year-old outfielder was designated for assignment on Wednesday. He passed through waivers unclaimed and rather than accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Jacksonville, he’ll explore the open market instead. Slater hit just .174 (4-for-23) with one RBI and one stolen base in his limited action with the Marlins.

The right-hander is already with the team in Los Angeles and will either be activated on Sunday or Monday. Maton struggled through his first five outings with the team before landing on the injured list with right knee tendinitis on April 10. Given the current state of the Cubs’ bullpen though, he’ll almost immediately be thrust into high-leverage situations upon his return. He could be worth a look for those speculating on saves in deeper leagues.

He’ll take the mound for Triple-A Gwinnett with the intention of pushing his pitch count to around 80 pitches after throwing 65 over 4 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball his last time out. If all goes well with this one, there’s a chance that he could then be cleared to join the Braves’ rotation as early as next weekend.

The former top prospect had been stationed at High-A Eugene where he flailed to a miserable .107/.286/.214 slash line with one homer, one RBI and an unbelievable 23/6 K/BB ratio in just 35 plate appearances. He may need to explore opportunities overseas if he has any intentions of continuing his playing career.

Fortunately, the 31-year-old right-hander noted after the game that it’s just bruised and that he was able to avoid any significant injury. His performance on the field showed a bit of rust, allowing two runs on two hits and three walks over his 2 2/3 frames. He did punch out four batter in the contest though and threw 40 of his 63 pitches for strikes. He’s going to need at least another couple of starts in the minor leagues before he’s an option to join the Padres’ rotation.

He’ll throw at least one more time off of a mound before he progresses to facing live hitters. He appears to be right on schedule and the Rangers remain hopeful that he’ll be able to return at some point around the All-Star break.

Ragans gave up the lone run, a fourth-inning solo shot from Jo Adell. The game didn’t turn into a rout until after Ragans left and the Royals scored three runs in the seventh and four in the eighth. It was Ragans’ 11th career 10-strikeout game and first of 2026. An especially good sign was that his fastball averaged 96.5 mph tonight, an increase of 2.3 mph from where he was in his first five starts. He’ll pitch against Seattle next time out.

Urena gave up just three hard-hit balls tonight, but one of those was a 111-mph homer. The bigger problem, though, was that he was simply all over the place. He now has a 13/10 K/BB over 11 1/3 innings in his four appearances this season. The Angels might send him down after this, especially since they won’t need a fifth starter next time through the rotation.

Ouch. Brought in with the Angels down 8-0. Romano gave up a single, a double, a walk, another single and a HBP before being pulled. Second baseman Adam Frazier replaced him before his pitch count could get too high and, as you might imagine, allowed both inherited runners to score. Just one of the three hits against Romano came in a hard-hit ball. It wasn’t the nightmare performance that the line suggests, but that doesn’t change the fact that his ERA now stands at 10.13. He’s still probably the favorite for saves in the Angels pen for now, but it wouldn’t take much at all to change that.

The runs batted in all came in different at-bats. Two scored on the two singles, but he also had one on a fielder’s choice and the other on a bases-loaded walk. It was his first career four-RBI game. He’s simply filling in for Maikel Garcia right now, but he’s angling for more playing time with his .286/.400/.381 line in 25 plate appearances.