MLB Player News

Garcia was removed from the Athletics’ 40-man roster back in late April and has now been released altogether. He got into 39 contests last year for Oakland and was hitting .263/.359/.532 with 12 homers and three steals across 198 plate appearances this season for Triple-A Las Vegas.

León will open the regular season back in the minors after going 6-for-26 with three RBI in 16 games this spring. The 27-year-old former top prospect was claimed off waivers from the Astros last November. His departure makes it abundantly clear that Dylan Moore and Otto Kemp will have bench roles with the Phillies to kick off the season.

Hoskins is hitting .222/.343/.481 in nine games after his late signing with the Guardians. He seems like a lock for Cleveland’s roster as a sure starter against lefties and maybe the primary DH against righties, too.

Bibee had been looking pretty strong this spring, but his fastball was down one mph today and the A’s really punished him for hanging around the strike zone. He threw 85 pitches to 30 hitters, with 25 of those getting put into play for 15 hard-hit balls and three homers. Hopefully, his velocity will return next time out.

The A’s gave Zack Gelof a start in the outfield today, so he might be a potential alternative to Thomas as a platoonmate for Lawrence Butler. Thomas, though, projects to be the better player of those two right now. He didn’t excel in hitting .225/.267/.417 in 132 plate appearances as a rookie last year, but the pop is legit and he’s a quality defender. We also don’t know for sure that Butler will be platooned, but given that he’s being slowplayed this spring while coming off knee surgery, it’d make sense to go that route initially.

His two hits left the bat at 113 and 109 mph. The Guardians still haven’t used Arias anywhere other than short this spring, even though they indicated months ago that the plan was to treat him as more of a utilityman. It’s good news for his chances of lasting as a regular that he’s ahead of Brayan Rocchio on the depth chart defensively. Rocchio is seemingly going to start at second base initially, but one imagines Travis Bazzana will get a chance there sometime this summer. Arias still seems like a poor bet offensively and should lack value outside of deep AL-only leagues.

Technically, it was a faulty tarpaulin that led to water flooding the field at Ed Smith Stadium as the content was unable to continue due to field conditions following a rain delay. Eflin was off to a nice start with four strikeouts on 32 pitches (22 strikes) over two scoreless innings before a downpour ended his night. He’ll presumably get some work in on a side session to continue building up his pitch count. He’ll open the season at the back-end of Baltimore’s new-look rotation.

Vogt added that Ramírez jammed his left shoulder on a head-first slide into third base, which led to his eventual removal from Sunday’s spring training contest against the Athletics. The 33-year-old fantasy superstar will presumably undergo precautionary imaging to rule out any structural damage, but it doesn’t sound like a serious concern. Regardless, fantasy managers should continue to monitor the situation closely in the coming days, especially since Opening Day is less than two weeks away.

Thomas has been a mostly forgotten outfielder in fantasy drafts this spring, going outside the top 400 in NFBC formats since the start of March. The 30-year-old speedster still offers 25-steal potential but it’ll be hard for him to deliver much else in a platoon role with the Royals, especially since he’ll be batting towards the bottom of the lineup when he does get a chance.

Ragans gave up a run-scoring single to Edgar Quero and uncorked a wild pitch, which accounted for all the damage against him in this one. The 28-year-old lefty has been hit hard this spring overall, but still owns an impressive 15/3 K/BB ratio across 10 2/3 innings of work. He’s widely regarded as a top 12-15 fantasy starter in drafts this spring, making him a borderline SP1 or strong SP2.

Smith, the fifth-overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, handed out one walk and needed just 30 pitches (18 strikes) to spin a pair of frames in this one. The 22-year-old lefty profiles as an impact fantasy arm once he ascends to the majors based on his sky-high strikeout rates. He’ll gain some additional seasoning in the upper minors to open the year but there’s a chance he reaches the big leagues at some point in the second half.