MLB Player News

Welcome back, Mookie. Betts didn’t show any rust after missing eight weeks with his broken hand, and smashed a two-run homer off Freddy Peralta in the third inning. The 31-year-old also drive in a run with an RBI-single in the seventh. The steal was the 10th of the season, and the homer the 11th. Betts was enjoying a strong 2024 campaign before the injury, and there’s every reason to believe he’ll be outstanding for the final six weeks.

Misiorowski appears to be putting it all together right now. The omnipresent command issues will never vanish completely, but he’s cut back on the free passes and threw a whopping 68 of 99 pitches for strikes in this latest outing. The hard-throwing 23-year-old touched triple-digits 17 times, including 102 mph twice, while generating an eye-popping 21 swinging strikes. It’s potential front-of-the-rotation stuff, if Misiorowski can harness it. He holds an impressive 1.49 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and 54/18 K/BB ratio across 42 1/3 innings (eight appearances, seven starts) this season at the Triple-A level. It’s probably time for the Brewers to see if he can make it work in the big leagues.

McLean turned in an extremely impressive Triple-A debut with his four-seam, cutter and sweeper mix generated 10 swinging strikes and he recorded an elite 36 percent CSW. The 23-year-old former third-round pick is one of the fastest-rising pitching prospects in the fantasy landscape this season, reaching the doorstep of the majors after posting a 1.37 ERA and 30/12 K/BB ratio across 26 1/3 innings (five starts) to open the year at Double-A Binghamton. The sweeper is a true above-average offering and gives him a real shot at success in the majors. There’s a chance he’s ready to pitch in New York at some point in the second half.

Pham was feeling under the weather so Pirates interim manager Don Kelly elected to give rookie Alexander Canario a start in left field. The 37-year-old veteran figures to return to Pittsburgh’s lineup at some point this weekend once he’s feeling better.

Suárez also drew a pair of walks. He hit a two-run homer off Roki Sasaki to give him 11 on the season; four of those coming two weeks ago when he tied the MLB record for homers in a game. The 33-year-old is hitting a rough .210 on the season, but his 28 RBI and the aforementioned roundtrippers have kept him relevant — and then some — over the first quarter of the season.

Hernández also doubled. He obliterated his solo homer off a wholly ineffective Eduardo Rodriguez, with the ball traveling an estimated 438 feet. Hernández has not done much in the average category as a three-hit day still has him hitting .215, but the five homers and .468 slugging percentage are nice numbers. Maybe not nice enough, but nice regardless

Marte hit his first homer Thursday, and it didn’t take long for him to triple that total. He took Roki Sasaki deep in the first inning, and then homered off Alex Vesia to make it a 10-8 lead for the Diamondbacks in the eighth inning. Now that Marte is healthy from his hamstring injury, there’s zero reason to think he won’t be among the best fantasy infielders in the sport.

All grand slams are big, but grand slams that tie the game are a little more special. That’s what Gurriel did with his bases-clearing roundtripper off Anthony Banda in the fifth inning. He also had a fielder’s choice drive in a run an inning earlier. Gurriel has gone deep seven times while slashing .213/.238/.418

Ohtani also doubled twice. The defending NL MVP came up huge with a clutch three-run blast off Kevin Ginkel to give the Dodgers a three-run lead and ultimately seal a victory. He’s up to 12 homers on the season — which puts him tied with Yankees icon Aaron Judge for the major-league lead — and his four RBI on the night bump that total to 20. Ohtani has homered five times in May, with four of those coming over the last five games. He is an unbelievably special baseball player.

Scott didn’t allow a hit and picked up a pair of strikeouts while lowering his ERA to 1.93. He’s allowed just one run over his last 15 appearances, and he’s starting to miss bats at the level fantasy managers were hoping for. Scott will cede a few save chances in 2025, but there’s going to be more than enough chances over the final 120-plus games for him to be an excellent fantasy stopper.

It’s hard to give up eight runs and get no decision, but Rodriguez did just that thanks to an implosion by the Dodgers’ pitching staff. Still, this was an ugly effort from the 32-year-old that saw him allow nine hits, three doubles, three walks and a homer. Not ideal. Rodriguez now has an abhorrent ERA of 7.30, and he’d be a very risky streaming option against the Giants on Wednesday in San Francisco.