MLB Player News

Barria heads to Cleveland to compete in spring training for a spot on the Guardians’ season-opening roster. The 27-year-old right-hander struggled to a lackluster 5.68 ERA, 1.47 WHIP and 62/30 K/BB ratio across 82 1/3 innings (34 appearances, six starts) this past season for the Angels. He’ll likely operate in a versatile swingman-type role for Cleveland this upcoming season.

Raley has homered in back-to-back games, but he’ll begin Saturday’s — and any game that is started by a left-hander — game out, with Victor Robles getting the start in right.

Refsnyder will hit at the top of the lineup in his first start as a Mariner with left-hander Joey Cantillo on the bump for the Guardians. It’s intriguing if only because Refsnyder has handled southpaws so well in his career, and he’ll get a chance to be driven in by some very good baseball players. Brendan Donovan will move down to sixth with Refsnyder at the top, and Dom Canzone is out of the lineup.

Castellanos is in the starting lineup for the first time as a member of the Padres. The 34-year-old vet will get the nod over Miguel Andujar, who will head to the bench against Jack Flaherty and the Detroit bullpen.

Rice took a seat on Friday with lefty strikeout machine Robbie Ray on the mound for San Francisco. The 27-year-old first baseman will continue ceding the occasional start to veteran Paul Goldschmidt against southpaws but he’s still going to play enough to be an upper-echelon fantasy backstop. The big question is whether he’ll spend enough time behind the plate this season to retain catcher eligibility into next year.

The only thing more surprising than seeing Luis Arraez out of the leadoff spot is that he’s batting third in this one behind Matt Chapman and ahead of Rafael Devers. It’s a perplexing lineup from Giants manager Tony Vitello after Arraez led off in back-to-back games to kick off the season.

Peña went 2-for-5 with a stolen base on Friday during his season debut after sitting out Thursday’s opener. Fantasy managers should anticipate the Astros continuing to closely manage his workload after missing a couple weeks earlier this month recovering from a fractured finger. It’ll be Carlos Correa handling shortstop with Isaac Paredes at the hot corner to face Angels lefty Reid Detmers on Saturday night.

Quero has been called up to fortify Milwaukee’s catching depth in the wake of Andrew Vaughn suffering a hamate fracture that will require surgery. It’ll be backup catcher Gary Sánchez helping fill the void at first base, which makes it necessary to have Quero around as additional catching insurance. The 23-year-old backstop hit .271 with 11 homers in 69 games at the Triple-A level last year after missing most of the previous season recovering from shoulder surgery.

Vaughn is expected to miss 4–6 weeks after he undergoes hamate surgery on Monday. He suffered the injury during Thursday’s season-opening rout of the White Sox. The 27-year-old former third-overall pick hit .308 with nine homers in 64 games for Milwaukee last year to emerge as their everyday first baseman. It’s a significant loss for the Brewers since he’ll likely be sidelined until at least early May. It’ll be some combination of Gary Sánchez and Jake Bauers taking over at the cold corner with prospect Jeferson Quero coming up to fortify Milwaukee’s catching depth.

Stubbs opted to remain with Philadelphia after passing through waivers following his removal from the club’s 40-man roster earlier this week. It’ll be Rafael Marchán handling the backup catching duties behind J.T. Realmuto moving forward.

Smith latches on with Minnesota as organizational relief depth after failing to make the Nationals’ season-opening bullpen earlier this spring. The 32-year-old veteran tossed 5 1/3 scoreless frames with a 7/2 K/BB ratio in Grapefruit League action. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him operating in middle relief for the Twins at some point later this year.