MLB Player News

Duarte is expected to be sidelined for 14-16 months after undergoing UCL revision reconstruction surgery. The 27-year-old righty has a shot at making it back during the later stages of the 2025 campaign.

He also struck out three and walked one while posting a 20 percent whiff rate and 20 percent CSW. You rarely see a pitcher get just seven called strikes in five full innings of work, but that’s what May did today. The right-hander threw 55 strikes on the day today, and the Nationals swung at 46 of them. Perhaps Washington was simply being aggressive, or perhaps May wasn’t really fooling hitters, which might be why Washington had eight hard-hit balls. Regardless, he maintained his fastball velocity throughout the outing, which is good news. That puts him on the fantasy radar, but until we start seeing consistent whiffs, it’s hard to get too excited.

Irvin posted a 24 percent whiff rate and 30 percent CSW, but he did allow five hard-hit balls on the day. It’s been a solid spring so far for Irvin, and he beat out Mitchell Parker for the final spot in the rotation. He has also showcased new movement profiles on his curve and slider; although, only the curve missed bats today. Irvin is likely not on the fantasy radar in any formats, but we have seen him produce value as a streamer when his curveball is effective, so he’s a name to at least keep an eye on early in the season.

He also struck out twice but has a perfectly fine 4/4 K/BB ratio in six games this spring. So far this spring, Cruz is swinging way less and chasing far less often than we’ve seen from him in the past. He’s also continuing to hit the ball hard when he does make contact. It’s unclear if swinging less will actually benefit Cruz because it gives him fewer chances to do damage, but he’s clearly trying to make adjustments at the plate after hitting .200/.298/.378 last season, and that’s something we like to see. He still feels like a decent value at his ADP, but don’t expect a batting average far over .230.

Loperfido now has seven walks to just six strikeouts this spring, which is certainly something to note from a player with a 4.6 percent career MLB walk rate and 33.3 percent career MLB strikeout rate. He also has two steals this spring while hitting .355/.474/.484 in 14 games. He will start against all right-handed pitching and could be worth a flyer late in drafts in case this plate discipline carries over.

McCullers had an impressive 36 percent whiff rate, but he also only threw 53 percent of his pitches for strikes on the day. Hes trigged to get ahead in the count with his four-seamer and had to go to his changeup often to begin at-bats. However, his changeup looked good, and his sinker took some pressure off his four-seamer and allowed a fair amount of weak contact. McCullers threw 58 pitches in this one and could be up to around 75 pitches in his first start of the season, which keeps him on the fringe of fantasy relevance.

Keller also walked four and struck out six while throwing just 58 percent of his pitches for strikes, but registering a 39 percent whiff rate. Keller’s best pitch on the day was his sweeper, which he threw for strikes and had a 50 percent whiff rate on, but he really struggled to command his fastballs. His four-seamer was also down over one mph from where we saw it last season. Given Keller’s inconsistencies over the years and the young arms emerging in Pittsburgh, it’s hard to feel comfortable drafting Keller in most fantasy formats.

Verlander also struck out six and didn’t walk a single batter while posting a 29 percent whiff rate and a 28 percent CSW. His velocity is already on par with what we saw from him last season, and he actually threw his four-seamer harder as the game went on, which suggests that his arm is certainly ready to go for the season. The 40-year-old will have some rough stretches during the season, but he has still shown the ability to get swings and misses, which will keep him on the streaming radar this year.

It was not as dominant an effort as the line might suggest. Bassitt threw 63 percent of his pitches for strikes, but had just a nine percent whiff rate and 16 percent CSW. He allowed five hard-hit baseballs, but most of his success today came by inducing weak contact as the average exit velocity of balls in play was just 80.2 mph. The veteran was down almost one mph on all of his pitches from his 2025 averages, and it’s just hard to get excited in fantasy baseball about a veteran pitcher who really struggles to miss bats.

It had been thought that Garrett was a shoo-in for a rotation spot after missing last year with an injury, but the left-hander has not looked crisp this spring, allowing three runs on two hits in four innings while walking three and striking out three. Meanwhile, the Marlins have kept Junk stretched out, and he pitched well for the team in 2025, posting a 4.17 ERA in 21 total appearances.

Vasil was injured during a strong performance this Saturday against the Dodgers, and, unfortunately, it was the worst-case scenario. The soon-to-be 26-year-old will spend the year rehabbing and hope to get another shot to compete for a roster spot in his age-27 season.