MLB Player News

Both CES and McLain were technically on rehab assignments in the Arizona Fall League, and since they were expiring, the Reds needed to activate them now, as opposed to after the World Series like the rest of the 60-day IL guys.

Schlittler is on another level right now. He’s still yet to allow a run or even walk a batter this season to go along with 15 punchouts across nearly 12 innings of work. In this start, he threw his three fastball variations a combined 88% of the time and the Mariners were completely helpless against them. His four-seamer led the way with 11 swings-and-misses and both his cutter and sinker played off it perfectly. Combined, those pitches had nearly an 80% strike rate as he had no fear challenging the Mariners’ hitters in the zone because they couldn’t touch him. At this rate, Schlittler looks like he could be on his way to ace-status. He’s scheduled to face the Athletics at home in his next start.

This was a hairy save for Bednar. He came on in the eighth inning to try and clean up Camilo Doval’s mess and allowed two of those inherited runners to score. Then, the Mariners put up another run in the ninth and got the tying run to the plate before Bednar finally nailed it down. His velocity was down a tick across the board too, so keep an eye on that next time he’s out there.

Rice is one of the toughest outs in baseball at the moment. He started the scoring in the first inning with a two-out double and blasted a 427 homer that gave the Yankees a valuable insurance run in the ninth. He’s sporting a five-game hit streak to start the season and has reached base safely in 11 of his 21 plate appearances to date. This guy can really, really hit and should be in for a monster season in the heart of the Yankees’ strong lineup.

It was a quiet day for the Mariners offense as Raleigh’s two-run single in the eighth inning was the extent of their offensive output as Cam Schlittler shut them down. Regardless, it feels good to see a few go through for Raleigh after his dreadful start to the season. Here’s to hoping his walk-off knock from Tuesday night got him off the schneid. Yet, his two strikeouts from this game brought his total to 15 on the season in just seven games. That’s good for an unsightly 54% strikeout rate, the highest among any full-time player to this point.

Kirby was not his sharpest here, but still practically got through a quality start with just one run on his ledger. That is, until he served up a belt-high fastball to Paul Goldschmidt that he parked in the seats. He probably deserved that though because he struggled with his command all afternoon. With that, he only forced six swings-and-misses while the Yankee bats were all over him with nine hard-hit balls among the 15 they put in play. He’ll have a chance to get back on track next time out against the Rangers.

Holman heads to his third different team in less than two months after being waived by the Athletics in mid-February. The 25-year-old righty holds a pedestrian 4.66 ERA and 33/13 K/BB ratio across 38 2/3 innings in the majors since 2024. He’ll head to Triple-A Oklahoma City as organizational relief depth for Los Angeles.

The procedural move frees up a spot on Los Angeles’ 40-man roster for reliever Grant Holman. Stone will remain sidelined until at least late May as he continues to recover from shoulder inflammation that put him on the shelf in spring training. The 27-year-old righty hasn’t pitched in the big league since making 25 starts with a 3.53 ERA back in 2024.

Wisely remains with Atlanta as emergency infield depth after passing through waivers unclaimed. The 26-year-old’s defensive versatility makes him a decent stopgap option at the highest level but he doesn’t offer enough offensive potential to be considered in an everyday capacity.

Coming off a rough first outing, Boyd generated 20 whiffs today, with 11 of those coming on his fastball. He gave up just three hard-hit balls. Although Boyd was an All-Star last year, he hadn’t struck out 10 in a game since doing so seven times in 2019. He has a pretty good matchup next week against the Rays in Tampa Bay.

Kikuchi got 12 whiffs and had a 34-percent CSW, but he struggled to finish off Cubs hitters and walked four. After two starts, he has a 17-percent strikeout rate to go along with an 0-1 record and a 6.52 ERA. His stuff hasn’t changed much, so there’s no more reason to be down on him than there was a week ago. Still, pitching for the Angels isn’t going to help anything. He’ll face the Braves next week.