MLB Player News

Kerkering has missed the start of the season while dealing with a forearm strain. The right-hander will provide multi-inning relief while he’s with the club. Nick Nelson was already optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to make room for Kerkering.

The operation was performed by Dr. Steven Shin in Los Angeles, widely regarded as one of the best in the business. Oliva is expected to be shelved for four-to-six weeks while recovering.

Cardinals’ president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom announced the unfortunate news on Friday. While he’s expected to make a full recovery, he’ll miss the entirety of the 2026 season. Any fantasy managers in deeper redraft leagues that were hanging onto Fitts thinking he’d get an opportunity to work out of the Cardinals’ rotation can safely cut bait now.

The 22-year-old outfielder finally appears to be making some tangible progress toward a return to action, though he’s still not expected to rejoin the Brewers until early May provided everything continues to go smoothly in his recovery. The next step should be for him to face live pitching.

Hayes hasn’t had a hit since April 5 and is slashing a pitiful .064/.137/.064 with one RBI and a 4/4 K/BB ratio in 51 plate appearances on the season. It doesn’t matter how good he picks it at third base, that level of offense isn’t going to cut it. Nathaniel Lowe will start as the team’s designated hitter and bat sixth while Eugenio Suarez mans the hot corner.

Cabrera labored early in the game, and allowed eight hits, but avoided the gopher ball with the wind blowing out at Wrigley and came away with a win. The Mets were all over Cabrera’s fastball, but generated six whiffs on 21 swings against his changeup. His ERA skyrockets to 2.38. Cabrera should continue to be fired up with confidence against the Phillies next week.

He allowed two homers, one a wind-aided fly to left from Moises Ballasteros, and the second a no-doubter from Nico Hoerner. He left with a runner on first base, and the Mets eventually booted enough balls to get that runner to score as an unearned run. Senga’s velocity seemed fine, and he got whiffs on 9-of-28 swings while only allowing three hard-hit balls. Some of this was about the wind blowing out at Wrigley, but that’s back-to-back starts he’s struggled in and he seemed to rely heavily on his cutter in this one. He’ll be hard to trust against the Twins next week.

He also walked. Both hits were infield singles, somehow. Alvarez has been the one hitter actually playing well for the Mets so far, now carrying a .294/.410/.549 line with four homers. He’s actually fourth in baseball in xWOBA at this point, and he’s steadily getting pushed up the lineup after hitting ninth most of the year -- he hit fifth for the second straight day today. He has some high-ceiling upside runouts at the catcher position.

Ballesteros only got two at-bats, as Matt Shaw took over at DH when the Mets went to Sean Manaea. But he made the most of them. Ballesteros continues his tear, he’s now up to a .375/.409/.625 line on the season. Nothing he’s shown so far has proven he can’t hit. It’s all a matter of playing time with a Cubs team that needs to get Shaw at-bats as well.

He drilled a no-doubt 392-foot homer to left field off Kodai Senga to extend Chicago’s lead early in the game. Hitting .342/.420/.553 with six steals and three homers, Hoerner is one of the most valuable players in fantasy baseball to this point. The power surge probably won’t last -- his career high is 10 -- but this has been an incredible start for Chicago’s stalwart second baseman.

While the 30-year-old slugger has shown improvement, it sounds like he’s still at least a few days away from a potential return to the Orioles lineup. O’Neill has been shelved since April 9.