MLB Player News

The move clears room on the roster for Harrison Bader. The Phillies claimed de Geus off waivers from the Marlins at the beginning of the year, and the 27-year-old hasn’t made an appearance in the majors. He’ll hit the waiver wire, and likely report back to Triple-A if/when he goes unclaimed.

Ohtani apparently did something new with his splitter tonight, as the seven he threw were up 3.3 mph from his season average. Mostly, though, he used fastballs and sweepers, picking up all eight of his strikeouts with those two offerings. In seven starts this season, he’s allowed no earned runs four times, one earned run twice and two earned runs once. It’s only earned him a 3-2 record, but his ERA is sitting at 0.82. The plan still appears to be for him to get a second straight day off at the plate on Thursday. He’ll be back at DH for the series against the Angels on Friday, and he’ll likely make his next start Tuesday in San Diego.

Ray’s velocity was down about one mph from his season average tonight, and he finished with just two strikeouts and a 19 percent CSW. With Santiago Espinal and Mookie Betts taking him deep, he’s now allowed 10 homers in 50 1/3 innings, a significant rate increase from last year’s 22 in 182 1/3 innings. His catching situation got a big downgrade and he’s not likely to be particularly well supported offensively or defensively going forward, so his mixed-league value should be pretty limited. Maybe, though, it could pick up again if he’s involved in a deadline deal.

Espinal and Mookie Betts hit back-to-back homers off Robbie Ray in the third inning. Espinal went 451 plate appearances in between homers (417 as a Red, 34 as a Dodger), with his last coming on Aug. 30, 2024. He survived the return of Betts from the IL this week, but there’s the chance the Dodgers could give him the boot when Enrique Hernández is activated, which will likely happen on May 23. If he survives over Hyeseong Kim then, he’d still be in line to go if everyone is healthy once Tommy Edman returns, assuming that Tommy Edman returns.

The Giants gave Casey Schmitt the day off to get Eldridge in there tonight, but it obviously didn’t work. Eldridge is 2-for-21 with a homer and nine strikeouts while starting six of nine games since his callup. If the A’s want to play him again Thursday, it should be at the expense of Willy Adames, who forgot how many outs there were and got doubled off to end the seventh tonight.

There was a lot of good and also plenty of weird in this start from Meyer. First with the good, he forced 22 total swings-and-misses. That’s only the 16th instance so far this season of a pitcher recording that many whiffs in a single game. The bulk of those came from the combination of his slider and sweeper, which have each been borderline unhittable this season as he’s found some more velocity on each. Now for the weird, he didn’t get many called strikes and found himself hunting for the whiff a bit too often through the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings after his lineup had built him a big lead. He simply wasn’t in the zone enough, especially with his fastball, to give his team any length. Also, he could not figure out Byron Buxton who launched two home runs off him. All in all, this was an encouraging start, just one that felt like it could have yielded better results. Next, he’s lined up for a two-start week against the Mets and Braves with both starts coming at home.

After smoking two home runs in his first seven games of the season, Caissie hadn’t hit one since before this game. That was 28 games and 88 plate appearances ago for a player whose power is their carrying tool. He finally managed to get off the schneid here though with a 400 foot blast off Simeon Woods-Richardson, but still has a lowly .609 OPS and strikeout rate north of 40% as he tries to maintain his strong-side platoon role in the Marlins’ outfield.

When Buxton is hot, he gets really, really hot. This pair of home runs gave him 15 on the season. Seven of those have come in the 11 games he’s played in May. Zoom back a little bit further, and he has 10 over his last 15 games. Stretch it back a little bit further again, and all 15 of Buxton’s home runs have come in his last 26 games. That power surge has tied him with Munetaka Murakami for the third-most long balls in the league while Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber are the only hitters with more.

It’s another day that ends in “y” and another awful outing for Woods-Richardson. The Marlins had a run on the board against him before he recorded an out, partially due to an error, and he never settled in. After the Twins tried to stretch him through the fourth inning, he let the first four batters of the inning reach safely, was yanked, and both inherited runners he left came around to score. This latest blowup pushed him to an abhorrent 7.71 ERA on the season with 20 strikeouts and 20 walks through 42 innings. The Twins are likely thinking about anyone in the organization that could possibly take his rotation spot.

The slam off Matthew Liberatore was Kurtz’s third in 15 career at-bats with the bases loaded. It was also his first homer in 63 plate appearances against lefties this season. He’s previously gone 7-for-43 with two RBI in his 12 games in which the opposition started a lefty. Fortunately, he’s done plenty of damage against righties along the way, and he’s currently sporting a .267/.418/.453 line for the year.

Ginn gave up at least one hit each inning, but eight were singles and only four came on hard-hit balls. He induced a double play ball in the first, and the Cardinals went on to make outs on the basepaths in the fourth and sixth. Ginn, who opened 0-1 in five starts and three relief appearances, has pitched 14 innings with one earned run allowed while winning his last two starts. He’ll take his next turn in Anaheim against the Angels. It’s a two-start week, as he’ll also face the Padres on the road, but he’d make for a risky streaming pick.