MLB Player News

Caglianone has been the talk of the Texas League for the past few weeks, going deep four times over his last three games, while also notching five multi-hit performances over his past seven contests. The 22-year-old slugging prospect is hitting an astronomical .330/.406/.606 with eight round-trippers, 31 RBI and one steal through 28 games this season at the Double-A level. The critical takeaway for fantasy managers to note is that he’s making strides with his defense in right field, which is that variable that could expedite his timeline to the big leagues. He figures to arrive in Kansas City at some point in the second half, but he’ll make it challenging for the Royals front office to keep him in the minors by continuing to launch tape-measure moonshots.

Bibee completed a 26-pitch bullpen session over the weekend without any issues and has been cleared to take the ball against the two-time defending World Series champions in Los Angeles. It’s such a daunting matchup that fantasy managers were likely strongly considering alternatives to begin with this week. The positive news is that Bibee won’t require a trip to the injured list after exiting his season-opening start against the Mariners last week with shoulder inflammation.

“We spotted a few things and we’ll be able to get him back on track here for his next outing,” Espada told reporters on Monday. He also confirmed that Abreu isn’t dealing with any physical issues, which is an encouraging development. The 28-year-old high-leverage specialist, who is filling in for injured Astros closer Josh Hader (biceps), averaged just 93.2 mph on his fastball during Sunday’s outing against the Angels in a save situation after averaging 97.3 mph last year. He was ultimately pulled in favor of lefty Bryan King after issuing a pair of walks and recording only one out. It doesn’t sound like the Astros are overly concerned. King would be the clear stash for fantasy managers in the event that Abreu doesn’t turn things around.

Thomson was served an automatic ejection for arguing a first-inning call that was overturned by replay review. The Phillies were trailing 4-0 already when he was booted from the contest. It’s worth noting here because the challenge extended Joey Wiemer’s remarkable on-base streak to nine consecutive plate appearances.

Strider remains without a definitive return timeline after hitting the injured list at the conclusion of spring training with an oblique strain. The polarizing 27-year-old former fantasy ace will need at least a handful of minor league rehab starts to build up his pitch count and stamina before he’s ready to rejoin Atlanta’s injury-ravaged rotation. It’s possible he’ll be ready by the end of April, but that might be an optimistic assumption.

Matt Wallner’s homer accounted for the only damage, even though Bubic surrendered seven other hard-hit balls, walked three and threw a wild pitch. Fortunately, he was facing a Twins lineup that figures to have problems against lefties all season long. Bubic finished with four strikeouts, generating 12 whiffs on 34 swings. He will make another start at home this weekend against the Brewers.

Lucas Erceg and Matt Strahm were both given the day off after pitching the last two days, and Carlos Estévez went unused, presumably due to his ankle injury. Those are supposed to be the Royals’ top three relievers, but the team still got scoreless innings from Daniel Lynch IV, Nick Mears and Schreiber to finish off the Twins. Erceg figures to be the choice to close if the Royals have another save chance Wednesday after the odd day Tuesday.

He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out two. Woods Richardson has shown himself over the last two years to be perfectly competent at pitching five innings at a time, but he just hasn’t demonstrated much upside beyond that, and given that the Twins have a mediocre offense and seemingly a well below average bullpen, pitching five solid innings at a time doesn’t figure to produce many wins. He’ll make his next start Sunday against the Rays.

Isbel settled for just four homers in 135 games last season, but he’s already on the board this year after taking Simeon Woods Richardson deep. And it even came with a man on base! Isbel hit a respectable .272/.314/.386 with the bases empty last year, but that dropped all of the way to .229/.279/.300 with runners on. It’s been an issue throughout his career, which is why he entered the day with just 144 career RBI in 1,516 plate appearances over 498 games.

Woo adds that the Dodgers haven’t explicitly stated it publicly, but the expectation is that Wrobleski will be ready to pick up the slack, if Sasaki struggles out of the gate in his season debut. The lack of a clear-cut rotation spot limits Wrobleski’s appeal to extremely deep mixed leagues and NL-only formats, but there’s some definite win potential pitching the middle innings with Los Angeles’ loaded lineup providing run support.

It was a bit of a surprise when Adam hit the injured list at the end of spring training considering he looked sharp in a handful of late-spring relief outings coming off last year’s quad surgery. He’ll make a couple appearances for Double-A San Antonio later this week before presumably heading to San Diego to make his season debut.