MLB Player News

“I’m looking forward to seeing how we go 150-plus innings,” King told the New York Post earlier this month. The 28-year-old right-hander converted to a full-fledged starter in mid-August and wound up compiling an impressive 1.88 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 48/9 K/BB ratio across 38 1/3 innings (eight starts) to close out the regular season. It’s an extremely small sample size, and there will be some workload limitations due to his injury history, but King showed some serious promise as a potential back-end rotation stabilizer. He’s going to be a sneaky under-the-radar late-round pickup for fantasy managers in drafts next spring.

He managed a deep enough sacrifice fly against Garrett Acton to get Jake Rogers in during the seventh inning. Torres is hitting .234/.383/.319 through his first 13 games of the season and is a fringe fantasy starter in 12-team leagues at this point due to the lack of stolen-base upside and ho-hum batting average.

Lee didn’t start the game and appeared as a defensive replacement after Austin Martin pinch-hit for Tristan Gray. But with the bases loaded in the eighth, he was able to slap a single past Zach McKinstry at second base to give the Twins the lead. Lee’s not much of a fantasy play at this point, especially in losing starts to Gray, but it was good to see him come through in the clutch. The 25-year-old is now carrying a .436 OPS on the season.

Flaherty allowed eight hard-hit balls and walked three, so he probably deserved a few more runs on the ledger. He was outdueled by Mick Abel in a game that eventually went down to the bullpens. Still, it’s good to see him battling his ERA down below six. Flaherty will be a fringe 12-team starter next week against the Royals.

Unfortunately the bullpen quickly blew the 1-0 lead he left with, leaving Abel with a no-decision. He allowed four hits, walked three, and averaged 94.9 mph with the fastball. When the secondaries play as well as Abel’s did today -- he generated six whiffs on 31 swings against non-fastballs -- his fastball is hard enough to hit that it ties together well. Now carrying a 6.08 ERA through two starts, Abel is probably a fringe start against the Red Sox next week.

Fleming, 29, was designated for assignment on Tuesday after giving up four runs on six hits over three innings in his lone appearance for the Blue Jays. He’s now free to explore opportunities elsewhere.

Of course he did. Cole Sands and Justin Topa had both pitched in each of the last two games, and this means that four different Twins relievers saved games against the Tigers in a four-game sweep. The closer committee has been established hard in Minnesota. Orze has a 1.69 ERA in his first five games for the Twins.

The 33-year-old hurler was designated for assignment earlier in the week. He passed through waivers unclaimed, then rather than accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Buffalo, he chose to peddle his wares on the open market instead. Look for him to latch on elsewhere on what will presumably be a minor league pact.

He hit a leadoff triple off the center field wall in the seventh inning and came in to score on Tyler Soderstrom’s RBI single. Muncy has played 12 games and is off to a .319/.333/.574 start in his first 47 at-bats as (usually) the starting third baseman for the Athletics. Still just 23, there’s plenty of fantasy upside here if everything comes together, especially playing most of his games in a minor league park in Sacramento.

Sproat had been scheduled to pitch on Saturday, but instead they’ll move up Kyle Harrison to pitch in his place on Saturday while Brandon Woodruff will get the ball on Sunday. It’s unclear if Sproat will then work back in for their series against the Blue Jays next week, or if they’ll utilize Monday’s off day to skip him this turn through the rotation.

He had New York’s lone hit against left-handed starter Jeffrey Springs. Rice remains red-hot, hitting .324/.479/.676 in his first 37 at-bats of the season, with three homers and a stolen base. It’s broadly encouraging to see him playing and hitting fifth against left-handers, even if he won’t do that in every matchup.