MLB Player News

Fresh off a highly-impressive outing a couple weeks ago at the MLB Futures Game, Sproat authored one of the more dominant pitching performances of the season on Friday evening, piling up an eye-popping 21 swinging strikes, and striking out the final 11 batters he faced en route to his second double-digit strikeout effort of the year. The 23-year-old right-hander has been arguably the fastest-rising pitching prospect this season for fantasy purposes as he’s recorded a sublime 2.05 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and 110/31 K/BB ratio across 87 2/3 innings (17 appearances, 16 starts) between High-A Brooklyn and Double-A Binghamtom. It might be unrealistic to expect him to reach New York before the current season wraps up, but he’s going to enter the 2025 campaign as one of the top pitching prospects in the game.

Loperfido left Saturday’s game with adductor soreness, so it’s not a surprise to see the 25-year-old out of action a day later. With Daulton Varsho also out, Nathan Lukes is starting in center and hitting leadoff against St. Louis

He’s reportedly out of the lineup today — the Mets have thus far held off on posting it because they’re waiting on Francisco Lindor to get through workouts — but he might be ready to go Monday.

This time, he’s sitting even though the White Sox are facing a left-hander. No matter how badly Vargas has performed since being acquired from the Dodgers, we can’t imagine how it makes any sense for the White Sox to give Gavin Sheets at-bats over him against a lefty. Still, that’s what they’re doing. Sheets, for the record, has hit .162/.214/.222 in 168 career plate appearances against southpaws.

The Pirates probably figured they were getting a guy who would start in their outfield for a couple of years when they acquired De La Cruz at the deadline, but he’s performed poorly both offensively and defensively. They’ve also since moved Oneil Cruz to center, leaving them with just one outfield spot unspoken for going forward. As a first-time arbitration-eligible player, De La Cruz will be cheap enough that he shouldn’t be a non-tender candidate. He could be brought back to compete with Jack Suwinski, Cook and others for the right field job, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get sent elsewhere in a minor deal.

This is the last of a string of five straight left-handed starters the Marlins have been matched up against. Sánchez started two of the previous four games and finished hitless both times. For the season, he’s batting just .141/.194/.217 in 99 plate appearances versus southpaws, and he’s setting himself up to be a strict platoon guy if the Marlins return to contention at some point.

Bohm is returning one day earlier than expected after going 2-for-4 with a double in his lone rehab game Saturday. He’s playing third base and batting fifth against the Mets today.

Garcia went 0-for-7 while helping to fill in during J.T. Realmuto’s absence.

It’s not often in his career that Rizzo has been held out against a righty, but he’s hit just .191/.277/.262 in 47 plate appearance since coming off the injured list. Oswaldo Cabrera is playing first base today.

Before these five games, Rosario had been in the Reds lineup, mostly as a DH, in 10 out of 11 games. It appears the team has moved on now, though. Rosario has hit just .180/.212/.240 in 52 plate appearances since his signing, and it’s unlikely that the Reds will have much interest in bringing him back for 2025.

Casas started 17 games in a row, including four against lefties, after coming off the injured list last month, but he’s since been held out of the lineup versus southpaws five times in two weeks. Connor Wong is playing first base today.