MLB Player News

Paredes homered during Monday’s exhibition at Daikin Park, formerly Minute Maid Park, pulling a ball into the iconic Crawford Boxes in left field. He’ll get the nod in the second spot on the lineup card over Jeremy Peña. The 26-year-old boasts strong on-base skills and should benefit exponentially from a counting stats perspective by hitting ahead of franchise cornerstone Yordan Alvarez. It’s a significant boost to his fantasy value and it wouldn’t be shocking if Paredes wound up finishing as a borderline top-10 third baseman this season for fantasy purposes.

Schwarber’s homer was a three-run shot off Brandon Pfaadt. It was his fourth of the year and 344th of his career, moving him into a tie with Jose Bautista and Curtis Granderson on the all-time list. He’ll move into the top 100 once he gets to 354. Harper is already there; his 366th today tied Lance Berkman for 89th place.

This seemed a very unlikely outcome for Walker after Ketel Marte homered to start the game and Corbin Carroll came around to score after a walk. Walker, though, allowed only two hits and one walk over the remaining four innings and finished with six strikeouts. He’s now 1-2 with a 7.36 ERA. It’s unclear if he’ll get any additional starts in the near future, as the Phillies won’t need him before Thursday’s off day and then could get Zack Wheeler back afterwards.

He struck out one in protecting a one-run lead. Duran is 5-for-5 in save chances, and he’ll be available again Sunday after throwing 12 pitches today.

All of the runs came in the third on back-to-back homers from Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. One was unearned because Alec Bohm started the inning with a grounder that ate up Geraldo Perdomo (based on the current standards, we were a little surprised it was ruled an error). Pfaadt’s velocity today was down about one mph from his season average. The cutter he added last year and his increased ability to generate grounders have kept him viable for the Diamondbacks, but his rotation spot is in jeopardy now with Merrill Kelly coming back. There’s a decent chance he’ll be sent down.

The double was a 190-foot popup in no man’s land down the left-field line, but good things are happening when Crawford puts the ball into play; he has a .452 BABIP that’s led to a .316 average in 42 plate appearances. The Phillies have kept him locked into the ninth spot in their lineup so far, but they might want to try something different soon. Just bumping him up to sixth or seventh might be a good call, since he could do more running in front of the likes of J.T. Realmuto and Bryson Stott than he’s been comfortable with when Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber are up.

Just an all-around tough day for Realmuto. He took a foul tip off his sore right foot, which he originally injured in similar fashion Tuesday before missing Wednesday’s game. He also had a throwing error on a steal, and his one ball in play was a weak grounder. We assume he’ll be back out there Sunday anyway, but if not, it’s probably because his foot remains an issue.

No exact word on the results of the MRI on Moreno’s back, but Lovullo said it’s a muscular issue and that it probably won’t result in a lengthy absence. James McCann will be the starting catcher in his place, with Adrian Del Castillo perhaps serving as his backup. Alternatively, the D-backs could add another catcher, probably Aramis Garcia. They don’t have any minor league position players currently on the 40-man roster as callup possibilities.

Anthony didn’t play Friday because the Red Sox are insisting on getting Masataka Yoshida into the lineup a few times per week whether it makes sense or not. Yoshida is on the bench today.

The Red Sox tried just stacking lefties at the top of the lineup after removing Trevor Story from the second spot in the lineup on Monday, but this figures to work better, assuming that Durbin starts performing more like he did last year. He’s still just 4-for-39 on the season, though at least all four hits have come in his last seven games after an 0-for-18 start.

MLB.com’s Mark Bowman is guessing that Strider will begin a rehab assignment Thursday or Friday. Three rehab starts followed by an early May return to the Braves rotation might be the plan here.