MLB Player News

Tigers’ skipper A.J. Hinch went to Tommy Kahnle in the eighth inning once again on Friday, leaving Vest to handle the middle of the Rangers’ lineup in the ninth. He made it look easy, getting Wyatt Langford on a ground ball to short, Jonah Heim on a swinging third strike and Adolis Garcia on a fly ball to center to end it. He has been terrific this season, posting a 2.12 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and a 19/7 K/BB ratio over 17 innings.

Merrill is scorching hot after coming off the injured list — he was pretty darn good before the injury, too — and has now picked up multiple hits in each game he’s played since returning to the lineup. One of those hits was a triple, and he’s now hitting an entirely unrealistic .467/.492/.767. Merrill looks like a star at the plate, and even if this isn’t a sustainable level of success, it’s proof of concept that he is capable of providing upper-echelon fantasy production in the coming years.

With the score tied at 5-5, Ward smoked a grand slam to left field off Adam Jacob that gave the Angels a 9-5 lead and ultimately a victory. It’s the ninth homer of the season for the 31-year-old outfielder, and his RBI total crept up to 21 with the salami. Ward has been much better in May, and it’s again worth pointing out how hot he can run when things are clicking.

Suarez was handed a 5-3 lead to protect, and to say he did not is quite the understatement. he walked four batters, and the last two free passes came with the bases loaded to tie the game at 5-5. Two more runs were charged to him when Taylor Ward hit the go-ahead grand slam, and it saw his ERA bump up from 0.51 to an even 3.00. The life of a reliever. Suarez has been excellent in 2025, and fantasy managers shouldn’t panic after his first — and probably not last — blown save of 2025.

Kikuchi walked two and struck out four. Outside of a third inning where he allowed three runs — and two of those due to an error — it was a solid start for the 33-year-old. In his first year with the Halos, Kikuchi now has an ERA of 3.72 with a solid K/BB of 43/22. He may have a hard time improving those numbers over the weekend, however, as he has a date scheduled with the Dodgers on Sunday.

King, 29, gave up two runs on a Zach Neto homer in the third, but outside of that it was another strong outing for the right-handed hurler. It’s the fourth time this season he’s reached at least eight punchouts, and he improved his K/BB to 56/16 while issuing just a pair of free passes. King deserved better than this result, but the Padres bullpen self-destructed Monday evening. He’ll take an excellent 2.32 ERA into a scheduled start Sunday against the Mariners.

Cabrera’s leg gave out on him on a non-contact play at home, and there’s a good chance he’s going to miss the rest of the season. The Yankees were already set to activate DJ LeMahieu this week, so he’ll take Cabrera’s spot. Jorbit Vivas, who had been set to lose much of his playing time to LeMahieu, figures to continue to start for now, and Pablo Reyes will keep his roster spot.

Levine adds that Ian Happ, who has missed three straight games with an oblique injury, is headed to the injured list as the corresponding move. The 21-year-old backstop has put up impressive numbers this season for Triple-A Iowa, batting .368/.420/.522 with four homers and three steals as one of the youngest hitters in the Pacific Coast League. He could make an impact for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues, especially if he’s playing regularly at DH, which makes him worthy of a speculative pickup. The biggest development for fantasy purposes here is that emerging star Pete Crow-Armstrong will continue leading off for at least a couple extra games until Happ returns.

Brito will miss the remainder of the season and most likely a significant portion of next season as well. The 27-year-old righty made a career-high 26 relief appearances last year for San Diego.

India had a pair of run-scoring singles in the second and third inning, respectively, to increase his RBI total on the season to 11. The 28-year-old got off to an awful start to 2025, but his fourth multi-hit game in the month of May has helped improve his slash to a still-disappointing — but not improving quickly — .233/.333/.311.