MLB Player News

The 34-year-old right-hander opted out of the final four years and $144 million that he had remaining on his contract with the Yankees, but the club has the option to void that opt-out by adding a fifth year and $36 million to the contract. Multiple sources have indicated that the Yankees are likely to retain Cole, but nothing is official just yet. If they do add the extra year, they’ll owe him $180 million over the next five seasons. Cole looked especially sharp during the Yankees’ postseason run and would be very difficult for them to replace on the free agent market.

Meyers has been on the bench for the last two days as Brice Matthews has started four straight games for the Astros, but Matthews will head to the bench on Wednesday. Since June 1st, Meyers is hitting .189/.250/.297 in 40 plate appearances, which has opened the door for Matthews to take more playing time. Neither one of them has been a great fantasy option, but Matthews does have more power and speed upside.

Taylor has gone 9-for-31 (.355) with one home run, six runs scored, eight RBI, and three steals in nine games since being recalled from Triple-A, so the Padres will reward him by moving him up in the order. Those stats are great, and Taylor can certainly fly, but he also had just a 27 percent hard-hit rate in Triple-A and a league-average 85 percent zone contact rate. He’s hitting the ball on the ground 60 percent of the time and has the speed to beat out infield singles, the batting average and stolen bases could be there, but he’s a career .250/.313/.327 hitter in 118 MLB plate appearances, so don’t expect him to keep producing at this level.

The Astros are going with Tatsuya Imai, Spencer Arrighetti, and Kai-Wei Teng for the Guardians series this weekend. There was some question surrounding what the Astros would do with their rotation when Hunter Brown came off the injured list, and it appears, for now, that Burrows may be the odd man out. With a 5.86 ERA through 14 starts, he doesn’t need to be held in most league types.

Mahle threw just 33 of his 63 pitches for strikes and got three whiffs on 20 swings. His velocity was fine, sitting 93.2 mph on his four-seamer, which is better than we saw in recent MLB starts. However, given how inefficient he was, it would be shocking if the Giants brought him back later this week. We’d expect him to make at least one more start at Triple-A, which should allow Trevor McDonald to take another turn in the rotation.

The Yankees’ top prospect was applying a tag on a stolen base attempt at second base when his wrist appeared to bend backwards. He immediately dropped his glove and held onto his wrist in clear pain. We will await word from the Yankees on the severity of the injury, but it didn’t look good on Tuesday.

García is inching closer to a return to the Blue Jays bullpen. With Louis Varland emerging as a top-tier closer, García should help Toronto in the middle innings when he does return.

Encarnacion-Strand now has 16 home runs and 46 RBI to go along with a .292 average and .924 OPS. His swinging strike rate at Triple-A with Baltimore is almost 16 percent, which is not ideal, but his zone contact rate remains around league average. He’s also sporting a nearly 50 percent hard-hit rate. He’s just 26 years old, so it may not yet be time to fully write him off.

Pena was hitting .311/.354/.673 with 26 home runs and three steals in 61 games at Double-A this season. He’s an aggressive hitter who doesn’t walk much and also had a contact rate around 70 percent at Double-A with a swinging strike rate over 16 percent. The power is nice to see, but his contact profile is going to need to improve as he climbs into the higher minors.

This was Herz’s first rehab start outside of the complex league, and it went pretty well. The left-hander also struck out three and didn’t walk a single batter while throwing 29 of his 38 pitches for strikes. We don’t have Statcast data at Single-A, but seeing that level of command is nice for Herz coming off Tommy John surgery. There’s a chance that his next start is at Double-A.

It seems the quick turnaround of the day game following a night game is playing a role here. It’s unclear who will DH in Ohtani’s place, but Max Muncy could be a possibility with Tommy Edman slated to play third.