MLB Player News

Sabol will likely be with Triple-A Pawtucket to open the season. With the 27-year-old in the minors, Connor Wong and Carlos Narvaez will be the catchers to open the season for Boston.

No word yet on a corresponding move from the Rockies, though Mickey Moniak (finger) is eligible to come off of the injured list on Friday and could be activated for the team’s home opener. Ritter went 1-for-7 (.143) with a run scored during his limited action with the Rockies.

He’ll take the roster spot of the injured Jose Quintana (hamstring). What’s still unclear is whether the 26-year-old hurler will take Quintana’s spot in the Rockies’ starting rotation or if he’ll work as a long man out of the bullpen. Either way, he’s unlikely to carve out any mixed league fantasy value and should be ignored.

The 37-year-old southpaw suffered the injury during his season debut against the Marlins on Sunday. Valente Bellozo was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque in a corresponding move. It’s unclear if Bellozo will assume his spot in the rotation or if perhaps he’ll work as a long man in the bullpen while Chase Dollander slides into the rotation.

The 22-year-old has made a major impact in his first two starts for the Diamondbacks but he’ll take a seat in this one with Carlos Santana starting at first base and Corbin Carroll functioning as the club’s designated hitter. Jorge Barrosa will draw a rare start in right field and bat ninth against Reynaldo Lopez and the Braves on Thursday evening.

The Pirates needed to clear a spot on their active roster for the arrival of Konnor Griffin on Friday and unfortunately Cook was the odd man out this time around. The 27-year-old appeared in three games and scored a run during his stay with the Pirates, though he didn’t get a plate appearance. He’ll continue to function as extra outfield depth at the Triple-A level.

Clemens has been leading off against righties, but he sat out the last two games because the Twins were facing lefties. Today, he was inserted into the seventh spot against Cole Ragans and had the game’s biggest hit through seven innings, singling to right with none on and Victor Caratini on first in the second. Alas, Caratini forgot he was a catcher and was thrown out easily trying to take third on the hit. On the plus side, that allowed Clemens to get to second. Clemens then went on to score the only run until the eighth when he was caught napping with two outs. He thought strike two was an inning-ending strike three and was in no-man’s land when Salvador Perez botched the throw to second, sending it into center and allowing Clemens to score. From there, Clemens continued to involve himself by dropping a foul popup and struggling to handle a couple of bouncing throws to first, which, on one occasion, nearly led to him getting trampled by Perez. In the fifth, he walked and tried to steal second base, only to have his helmet fall off and cut him on the nose during his head-first dive, He was out, though it looked like he might be safe because Bobby Witt Jr. initially tagged the unattached helmet. Finally, Clemens hit one of the Twins’ three consecutive homers off Steven Cruz as Minnesota put the game away in the ninth. He’ll likely be back leading off Friday against Joe Boyle and the Rays.

Bradley was 0-2 with a 6.61 ERA in his six starts for Minnesota last year and was pulled with a lead in the fifth in his season debut last week. He touched 100 mph on the gun today, but he still settled for three strikeouts and eight whiffs on 51 swings. He gave up 10 hard-hit balls, three of which actually topped 110 mph. Still, the results were great for a second straight outing, leaving him with a 0.87 ERA to date. We’d be more optimistic is his CSW and EV numbers weren’t just as mediocre as usual. He’ll face the Tigers on Tuesday, probably in a matchup against Tarik Skubal.

It was 2-0 when Cole Sands took over against the top of the Royals order in the eighth. He gave up a run on singles from Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr. and a Vinnie Pasquantino sac fly before exiting with two outs. Taylor Rogers then struck out Joc Caglianone to end the inning. That seemed to set up Topa’s first save chance, but the Twins hit three homers in the top of the ninth to make it 5-1. It seemed the bottom of the ninth still might get interesting after Royce Lewis committed an error on a Jonathan India grounder and Isaac Collins walked to start the frame, but Lane Thomas grounded into a double play and Kyle Isbel struck out to end it. We’re guessing the Twins would have gone the other way here and used Topa in the eighth and Sands in the ninth if it weren’t all the Royals’ best hitters due up in the eighth. Still, it’s a fluid situation at the moment. We wouldn’t be excited about rostering any Twins relievers in a standard league, but Sands is probably the best bet for now.

The run was quite a fluke. Kody Clemens drifted off second base thinking a strike-two pitch was actually an inning-ending strike three and should have been a dead duck. Salvador Perez, though, airmailed the throw to second, sending it to center field, and Clemens, who at least was alert enough to take off for third instead of returning to second, was able to score easily. Ragans generated 16 whiffs and had a 39-percent CSW today. He gave up four hits but only one hard-hit ball. Still, he left down 1-0 in spite of the much more dominant showing than what Taj Bradley put together. He’ll face the Guardians next week.

Royals manager Matt Quatraro took his foot off the pedal today. After using his second and third best relievers to keep the game close in the seventh and eighth, Quatraro declined to go to Lucas Erceg in the ninth. Erceg worked Wednesday, but it was just seven pitches and he’d had Monday and Tuesday off. With the Twins having probably the worst ninth-inning situation in the AL, it seemed very much worth it to try to keep it 2-1. Instead, in came Cruz, who also worked Wednesday and is only in the majors because of Carlos Estévez’s injury. The three homers from Matt Wallner, Kody Clemens and Josh Bell turned into a 5-1 game entering the bottom of the ninth. The Royals ended up not scoring, though again, Quatraro could have helped there. Letting Lane Thomas, who is terrible against righties, bat with two on and none out against Justin Topa produced a double play that doomed the Royals’ chances. One imagines Cruz will be sent down after this, especially since he’ll be unavailable Friday anyway.