MLB Player News

Ortiz was making his fifth rehab appearance and could have been a candidate to join the Phillies pen later this month. That’s probably not happening now.

Bellinger launched a 394-foot home run at 105.5 mph off the bat against Max Meyer for his first home run of the season. The RBIs are also his first RBIs of the season, so it’s been a slow start to the season for the 30-year-old, but today was a good step in the right direction.

Perez was a DH in the second game after going 0-for-4 as a catcher in the afternoon defeat. His homer off Brandon Sproat was his second of the year. He also scored after one of the walks, which is more of a rarity for him than the homer.

The Royals didn’t bust out until the bottom of the sixth, so Lugo, who needed to throw 64 pitches between the third and fourth innings, wasn’t involved in the decision. He’ll be a solid play in mixed leagues with the White Sox next on the schedule.

Edwards is having a solid series and a good start to the season, slashing .467/.500/.633. He has just one steal and two RBIs, so there hasn’t been much value so far, aside from the batting average. Still, previous experience tells us that the steals will come.

Morgan was the Royals’ 27th man in the doubleheader, so he’ll be going right back to Triple-A. Given his showing tonight, though, he might not stay there long. Morgan struck out five and allowed just one hit.

This was probably about as long as Henderson was going to pitch regardless of how effective he was, but it would have been nice if he had performed a little better. Henderson is still working his way back after missing most of the spring with an elbow issue. He’ll return to the minors now after serving as Milwaukee’s 27th man. Come May or June, he might get a real rotation spot and offer mixed-league value.

Sproat pitched scoreless third, fourth and fifth innings. In the sixth, he gave up a one-out homer to Salvador Perez and then struck out Jac Caglianone. At that point, he gave up three straight singles to plate one run, and he was pulled in favor of Jared Koenig, who allowed both inherited runners to score. It seems like a better outing than his ERA suggests, but he might not be long for the rotation at this point. The Brewers have Thursday off, so it’s unclear if Sproat will get a chance next weekend.

Switching lineup spots with Jac Caglianone, Jensen was dropped to seventh tonight after batting fifth in his previous four starts. He’s 4-for-20 with four RBI in seven games.

Weathers struck out four and walked three while throwing 59 percent of pitches for strikes. The left-hander got plenty of called strikes on his four-seamer and sinker, and his changeup missed bats, but it also missed the strike zone a lot. The pieces are still there for Weathers to be a solid starter in New York, but he’ll need to find the strike zone a bit more regularly. He could still be on the streaming radar next week at home against the Athletics.

Meyer had a 13 percent swinging strike rate but a 35 percent CSW on the day. His slider was tremendous, posting a 24 percent swinging strike rate, and he got plenty of called strikes with his four-seam fastball, but he also had just a 58 percent strike rate overall. You’d love to see better command, but the stuff is there for Meyer to be an asset in fantasy leagues. He could be started in deeper formats for his start next week at home against the Reds.