MLB Player News

Soler is back at designated hitter and batting second on Tuesday night following a five-game absence due to right hip tightness. The 31-year-old slugger holds a strong .843 OPS with 35 homers and 71 RBI in 125 games this season.

Angels rookie manager Kurt Suzuki will give the ball to Soriano to kick off the season after he posted a respectable 4.26 ERA (4.03 xERA), 1.40 WHIP and 152/78 K/BB ratio across 169 innings over 31 starts last year. The 27-year-old righty is a borderline top-75 range fantasy starter heading into the year.

Avila was granted his release to pursue opportunities elsewhere after being informed that he wasn’t going to make Cleveland’s season-opening bullpen. The 29-year-old reliever was in Guardians camp as a non-roster invitee. He spent all of last year pitching for the Yakult Swallows in Japan. He’ll likely have to settle for a minor league deal if he’s going to remain stateside.

Meyer suffered a relatively minor hamstring bruise during his last throwing session, which led to him being scratched from Tuesday’s scheduled Grapefruit League outing. The 27-year-old former top prospect has shown flashes of massive fantasy potential but he’s been hit-or-miss from a results standpoint at the highest level. He’s a worthwhile zero-risk, late-round flyer in shallow mixed leagues on the chance that he’s finally unlocked something.

Williams and Melton are viewed as long-term building blocks up the middle for Tampa Bay. The pair of top prospects will open the season back in the upper minors with veterans Taylor Walls and Cedric Mullins starting at shortstop and center field, respectively. Williams is a phenomenal defender but his power/speed combo is muted somewhat by persistent contact issues that have followed him throughout his ascent. Melton came over from the Astros as part of the Brandon Lowe three-team deal in the offseason and shouldn’t have to wait too long for an everyday opportunity with the Rays.

The rest of the Phillies went 3-for-26 today, but Garcia crushed it, knocking in both of the game’s runs. All four of his balls in play were hit at least 102.5 mph, and he topped out at 112.4 mph on his final single. García came into the day 5-for-26 with one extra-base hit this spring, so that’s not very notable. However, he’s now up to 37 plate appearances and has struck out just twice. That’s a 2/6 K/BB for a guy who came in at 135/28 for the Rangers last year. He was at 29/2 in 94 plate appearances over the previous two springs.

Venezuela checked back in to see if Luzardo might be available to pitch in the championship round of the WBC, but he again declined. Had he changed his mind, he likely would have gotten the nod over Eduardo Rodriguez to face Team USA tonight. Luzardo, though, didn’t want to risk overdoing it ahead of the long season. His velocity today was down from last year by about one mph on his fastball and three mph on his changeup, but it seems like it’s part of the process for him.

Ober’s fastball velocity continues to trend in the wrong direction, as he averaged just 88.2 mph today. He was 89.9 mph in his spring debut and 88.8 mph last time out. This is all way down from the 91.7 mph he averaged last time he was an effective starter in 2024. Expectations for Ober should be pretty low at this point.

Marsh missed a week at the beginning of the spring with a hand injury sustained while sliding, and one can’t help but wonder if it still might be a problem. He’s 3-for-27 with no extra-base hits since returning two weeks ago.

There was speculation that Miller would be unavailable after throwing 22 pitches during Sunday’s save appearance against the Dominican Republic. With fellow high-leverage arm David Bednar shut down for workload reasons, Miller is the overwhelming favorite to get the ball to close out the international showcase. Garrett Whitlock is the other late-inning arm with some workload questions but all indications are he’s good to go. The electrifying 27-year-old Padres stopper will be pitching for the third time in the last five days, if he makes an appearance on Tuesday night at loanDepot park. He’s the top closer off the board in all fantasy drafts this spring.

Suárez was one of Venezuela’s heroes during Monday’s comeback win over Italy to reach the WBC final, launching a solo homer off starter Aaron Nola to jump-start a four-run outburst. He’ll get the nod at DH after appearing in just four of the six games for Venezuela to this point in the tournament. Here’s the full lineup: Ronald Acuña Jr. (RF), Maikel Garcia (3B), Luis Arraez (1B), Suárez (DH), Gleyber Torres (2B), Ezequiel Tovar (SS), Wilyer Abreu (LF), Salvador Perez (C) and Jackson Chourio (CF).