MLB Player News

Jim Callis reported the dollar value, which is right at slot. Irish, the 19th overall selection, was announced as a catcher on draft day, though he spent quite a bit more time in right field for Auburn this year, partly due to injury, and it sounds like the Orioles will be flexible in how they use him. The bat is there for him to move quickly if he’s moved out from behind the dish.

Arenado knocked a base hit in the first inning, then led off the third with a double before scoring on a double by Tim Tawa. He later gave the Diamondbacks an insurance run in the seventh, taking Zach Agnos deep for a solo homer. The 35-year-old third baseman is ending his resurgent season strong, with his seventh homer in the month. He’s hit .250/.325/.464 with 28 homers and 79 RBI across 577 plate appearances.

Miguel Ullola took over with a 4-0 lead against the Mariners. Javier was expected to make another start Sunday against the A’s, but that’s up in the air now.

Moniak put the Rockies on the board, leading off the third inning with a solo homer off Michael Soroka. The 28-year-old outfielder has hit 23 homers with 65 RBI while slashing .242/.282/.489 across 429 plate appearances. While the power has been valuable, his lack of full playing time and weak on-base skills have made it mostly empty power with low counting stats. Still, expect him to be a late-round power option for deeper leagues again in 2027.

Soroka tossed two scoreless innings in Colorado before giving up two runs, one earned, in the third, including a solo homer by Mickey Moniak. He settled back in to pitch four more scoreless frames, ending his day after seven with just the two runs allowed while striking out nine batters. The 29-year-old right-hander is due to take a 3.31 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and a 110/27 K/BB ratio into one final start against the Padres in San Diego on Sunday.

Abrams has hit 33 home runs this season. He hit a solo shot off Drew Anderson in the second inning and a two-run shot off Drew Anderson in the seventh inning. That accounted for all of the Nationals’ run scoring in the 3-1 victory over the Tigers. Abrams joined Pete Crow-Armstrong as the only players this season with at least 30 home runs, at least 30 steals and at least 100 RBI. He’s hitting .261 with an .835 OPS and 102 RBI heading into the last four games of the regular season.

The Diamondbacks jumped on Freeland in the first inning, bringing three runs home on five hits. Arizona brought another run in on two hits in the third. Freeland gave up a leadoff double in the fourth and was relieved at 69 pitches. The inherited runner would eventually score. He struck out two. The 33-year-old left-hander is in line to start the Rockies’ final game of the season on Sunday against the White Sox in Chicago.

Rasmussen struck out 11, which is the second highest total of his career. He had 13 against Boston earlier this year. Unless the Rays decide to have him make a cameo on Sunday, Rasmussen will end the regular season 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA and a 174/32 K/BB in 172 innings. He’s probably looking at finishing third or fourth in the AL Cy Young balloting.

Baker averaged 94.0 mph with his fastball tonight. That’s 2.4 mph off his season average and his second lowest mark of the year. He’s come in under 95 mph five times this month after doing so just twice in the first five months of the season. It hasn’t hurt him yet, but it should be a cause of some concern to the Rays ahead of the postseason, especially if they want to start asking him to come in with runners on and get more than three outs at a time.

Three of the runs came in the seventh, when Fried allowed three singles. The second was a 72-mph flyball and the third was a bunt from Taylor Walls on which Fried probably would have had an out at first, except no one was covering the base. Fried left with two outs and one run in, and John Schneider went on to give up a two-run single before finishing the inning. Fried’s regular season ends at 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA in 20 starts. Last year, he was 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 32 starts. Fried is likely to start in the Wild Card series against Boston next week.

The singles were his only hits in nine at-bats today, but they were very well timed. He had gone hitless in six straight games entering the nightcap, dropping his average from .301 to .290. He’s hitting .249/.297/.385 in 61 games since the All-Star break.