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No word yet on the exact type of surgical procedure or how long Naughton will be sidelined, but there’s a strong possibility he’s done for the year. He was shut down earlier this month after experiencing renewed left forearm discomfort during his minor league rehab appearance.

Mize gave up four hits and handed out one free pass in an outing that was all over the place against a group of mostly minor leaguers. The 28-year-old former first-overall pick will open the season at the back-end of Detroit’s overhauled rotation and offers minimal fantasy appeal for shallow mixed leagues.

Loperfido has been an interesting young slugger for a couple seasons now but he’s probably going to strike out too often to be an everyday player. The 26-year-old former top prospect makes sense for Houston in a platoon role against right-handed pitching. It caps his realistic fantasy upside but it gives him a chance at sustained success, which is probably the more important variable at this stage of his career.

Paddack piled up two strikeouts and scattered a pair of hits, requiring an economical 40 pitches (27 strikes) to get through three frames. The well-traveled 30-year-old has reeled off six straight scoreless frames this spring and appears locked into Miami’s season-opening rotation. There’s some fantasy intrigue pitching in cavernous loanDepot park but recent history suggests a wait-and-see approach in-season before committing a fantasy roster spot.

The game was called in the bottom of the sixth. Oviedo, who was facing a Rays lineup without any projected starters, went without a walk today, even though he threw first-pitch strikes to just four of the 12 batters he faced. He also had a just a 21% CSW. It’s a really nice outing in the box score, but a major league lineup probably would have fared better against him.

Johnson has allowed just one hit and the one run in 5 1/3 innings this spring. The 24-year-old, who was picked up from the Cubs in the Isaac Paredes trade in 2024, finished up last year 7-6 with a 2.61 ERA and a 149/38 K/BB in 110 1/3 innings for Double-A Montgomery. He’s going to need to come up with a better third pitch to make it as a starter, but he could surface as a middle reliever at some point in 2026.

Williams isn’t really excelling in terms of results this spring, but he’s smacking the ball. This was the second straight game in which he’s played that he’s had the top EV of the contest. Today, it was a 110.2-mph groundout. On Thursday, it was a 109.5-mph groundout. He also had a 106.3-mph single in his previous game Tuesday. Williams is probably going to open 2026 in Triple-A if Taylor Walls proves healthy, but if he can cut down on the strikeouts some and maybe hit .250 or so for Durham, he should earn another look.

Albies finished 2-for-4 and accounted for all four of the Netherlands’ runs in this back-and-forth affair. The 29-year-old second baseman saved his loudest moment for last, detonating a 411-foot blast to right-center with two outs in the ninth after Ceddanne Rafaela and Xander Bogaerts reached to keep the inning alive. It was the first walk-off homer in World Baseball Classic history. There are round-trippers that vanish from memory instantly, and there are iconic blasts that live on for years to come. On an international stage, moments like Albies delivered don’t just decide games — they imprint themselves on the next generation watching back home.

thought he had given Nicaragua the lead earlier in the game, launching a towering drive to left that died just short of the wall. A couple innings later, he removed the ambiguity, crushing a 397-foot blast that left no doubt and put Nicaragua ahead. Unfortunately, the lead wouldn’t hold up as the Netherlands rallied for a walk-off victory. The 27-year-old former top prospect — one of the centerpiece returns in the Mookie Betts trade earlier this decade — hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2023, spending the last two seasons with the SoftBank Hawks in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Careers rarely unfold in straight lines, and Downs’ path has bent more than most — but for one swing on Saturday, the narrative felt momentarily uncomplicated.

Ramírez did everything possible to put Nicaragua in position for their first-ever win in the international tournament but they ended up falling short, thanks to a walk-off homer from Ozzie Albies. The 35-year-old journeyman has expressed a desire to continue pitching and could wind up getting a look somewhere based on this performance against a Netherlands lineup that featured a ton of big-league talent.