MLB Player News

Pineda has been removed from Washington’s 40-man roster to make room for newly-signed Joey Gallo. The 23-year-old backstop didn’t have much of a clear path to playing time with the Nationals with Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams in the big leagues. There’s a chance he gets scooped up off waivers in the coming days.

Chafin was cut loose by the Twins at the end of spring training despite their lack of compelling bullpen options. Now, he’ll try to catch on with the Reds as an additional lefty to add to their mix. He probably still has something in the tank too after putting up a 2.41 ERA across 42 appearances with the Nationals and Angels last season while still displaying strong swing-and-miss stuff. Walks became an issue for him though with 19 over 33 2/3 innings.

Fernando Cruz, Tim Hill, Camilo Doval and David Bednar finished up with 3 2/3 hitless innings. The Yankees wanted to keep Schlittler at 70 or so pitches today, yet he was able to get 16 outs anyway. He recorded four strikeouts with his fastball, which averaged 98.5 mph, and only two of the nine balls in play against him were hit hard. Based on how he’s looked since day one this spring, he should be one of the AL’s better pitchers if he remains healthy.

Bednar walked Matt Chapman with two outs in the 3-0 game but then retired Rafael Devers to end things. Bednar’s velocity was down all spring, including in the WBC, but he was up to 96.3 mph on average with his fastball tonight. That’s back to within 0.7 mph of last year. He was at 94.6 mph in his five Grapefruit League appearances.

Ray kept the Yankees scoreless until Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer in the sixth. He got Cody Bellinger to ground out afterwards and then exited. Ray’s early spring velocity boost hasn’t really held up, but control is more important for him anyway and he went without a walk today. He’s due to face the Mets next week in his second start.

Judge took advantage of the ABS system on what was called a 1-0 strike from Robbie Ray, getting it overturned when it turned out to be 0.1 inches low. He later homered with a full count on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, sending the ball 405 feet to left.

Rafael Devers also fanned three times in an 0-for-4 day, and only Heliot Ramos had a hit in the 3-0 loss. The Giants did quite a bit of lineup experimenting this spring before going with a top six of Luis Arraez, Matt Chapman, Devers, Adames, Jung Hoo Lee and Heliot Ramos in each of their first two games here. Given that they’ve totaled four hits while being shut out both games, there might be a bit of a shakeup Saturday, though the names figure to stay the same. There were a couple of times in Cactus play in which Ramos hit cleanup and Adames hit sixth, so that might be one possibility.

Taylor was with the Angels in spring training as a non-roster invite, but opted out of his contract when he didn’t make their Opening Day roster. Now, he’s back and will report to Triple-A Salt Lake City. He hit .179 across 90 plate appearances with Anaheim last season and will likely only be called upon if there are multiple injuries to their major league outfield options.

This is the second time the Angels have brought Strickland back into their organization on a minor league deal since the beginning of February. The 37-year-old had a 3.27 ERA in 22 innings for them in the first half of last season before shoulder inflammation shut him down for the remainder of the year. He will report to Triple-A Salt Lake City be organizational depth for the club.

The Mariners promoted Emerson aggressively last year as he reached Triple-A during his age-19 season where opened up at High-A and played just 34 games at Double-A. He passed every test with flying colors with 16 home runs and a 129 wRC+ in 130 games split across all levels after a 2024 campaign that was marred by injuries. A hot start to the season could put him on the doorstep of a promotion at some point this summer.

The Tigers seem to be favoring a lineup with better infield defense in Framber Valdez’s debut with the team. That has sent Keith to the bench — despite his platoon advantage — in favor of utility man Zach McKinstry, who will be playing second base while Gleyber Torres shifts to the designated hitter spot. It will be worth watching how playing time shakes out amongst these Tigers infielders moving forward.