MLB Player News

The 29-year-old lefty has spent four seasons in the majors, playing for five different teams during that stretch. In 2023, he appeared in 11 games for three different squads, pitching 11 innings with a 7.36 ERA. His 2023 campaign ended in mid-September after being struck in the head by a 100.6 mph line drive that resulted in a hospital appearance and a trip to the IL (concussion).

Pasquantino’s bat speed numbers are still well down from the last two years, but he managed to hit a couple of balls 107 mph tonight, including one that turned into a 404-foot homer. They were his third and fourth hardest-hit balls of the year. His high this year is 108.1 mph, which would have checked in as his 31st highest last year. He topped out at 114.4 mph then. He’s currently batting .176/.279/.352 with four homers in 129 plate appearances.

Ragans fanned eight in the game. He allowed just four hard-hit balls, but three of them turned into homers, including a 359-footer from Randy Arozarena that, according to Statcast, would have stayed in play in 22 of 30 ballparks. With tonight’s barrage, Ragans has given up 10 homers in 32 1/3 innings. In his lone full season as a starter in 2024, he allowed a total of 15 in 186 1/3 innings. He’ll almost surely fare better going forward, but his stock is definitely down a bit from the start of the year. He’ll take a 5.29 ERA into his next start versus the Guardians.

Erceg had some velocity issues last weekend against the Angels, but he’s been fine there in his last two outings, earning saves both games. If Carlos Estévez looks good during his rehab assignment, it’s pretty likely that he’ll get another chance to close for the Royals. Still, we’d say Erceg is the better bet of the two for the rest of the season.

Woo gave up 11 hard-hit balls and most of them were in the air, leading to a couple of homers. He also gave up a couple of more barrels that fortunately turned into outs. Woo’s velocity is as good as it has ever been, and his walk rate remains excellent. His strikeout rate is well down, but he’s still missing a fair number of bats. Although his ERA is up to 4.61 after this, he still seems like a good bet to be a top-10 SP the rest of the way. He’ll face the Braves at home next week.

Rodríguez was off to another one of his patented slow starts, but he might be getting it together a little earlier than usual this year. He already hit .350 over the final nine games of April, raising his OPS from .592 to .678, and now he’s up to .733 after his eighth career two-homer game. That’s a nice improvement on his .638 OPS as of May 1, 2024 or his .681 mark on this date last year.

Schultz walked three and generated just two strikeouts and six whiffs on 38 swings tonight, but he gave up only two hits and maintained the shutout by stranding Fernando Tatis Jr. after his one-out triple in the sixth. It makes Schultz 2-1 with a 2.53 ERA since getting the call. His control issues should catch up to him at some point, and it’ll be interesting to see how he fares next week against an Angels offense that’s currently fifth in the majors in walks.

Márquez walked three and gave up a three-run homer to Munetaka Murakami as part of a six-run second inning. In all, he issued five walks for the fifth time in 206 career starts. The loss takes his ERA to 5.76, and he could be vulnerable to losing his spot if the Padres add both Griffin Canning and Lucas Giolito in the coming weeks. He’s due to face the Giants on Wednesday.

Murakami’s blast off Germán Márquez gave him sole position of first place in the league with 13 homers. He’s also in the top 10 in RBI with 26 and walks with 27. In part because of those walks, he currently has an OPS more than four times his batting average (.967 to .239). That’s a feat accomplished just six times by batting-title qualifiers in MLB history: Mark McGwire in 1998 (70 HR) and ’99 (65 HR), Barry Bonds in 2001 (73 HR), Joey Gallo in 2017 and ’21 and Kyle Schwarber in 2023.

Tatis had as many hits as his teammates combined tonight. The triple was his first of the year and just his fifth extra-base hit. It’s actually a pretty rare occurrence for him. He had six triples in 84 games as a rookie in 2019, but tonight’s was his seventh in six seasons since.

Down 3-0 through five, the Mets rallied to tie the game in the sixth before Mauricio’s 111.3-mph solo shot off José Fermin. The homer was Mauricio’s only hit of the day, but all three of his balls in play were hit at least 100 mph. With nine homers and 11 steaks in 321 career major league plate appearances, he might have something to offer in deeper mixed leagues while Francisco Lindor is on the injured list.