MLB Player News

That means two of the club’s three pitching acquisitions will jump directly into their starting rotation, leaving out only Stephen Kolek who will either work out of the bullpen or head to Triple-A Omaha to begin his Royals’ tenure.

Marsee reached base safely in two of his three plate appearances out of Miami’s leadoff spot and is the presumptive favorite to serve as their primary table-setter in the regular season. The 24-year-old center fielder is a top-30 range fantasy outfielder this spring after slashing a robust .292/.363/.478 with five homers and 14 steals during a 55-game big-league debut last year.

Snelling set down Marcus Semien, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette in a flawless 10-pitch opening frame. The 22-year-old southpaw toeing the rubber for Miami’s spring opener qualifies as a notable fantasy storyline. Yet, his path to a spot on the club’s season-opening rotation appears slim after the club brought in former top prospect Chris Paddack as a reclamation project to fill out the rotation. He figures to arrive in the big leagues at some point later this season after compiling an impressive 2.51 ERA and 30.3 percent strikeout rate across 136 innings last year in the upper minors. He’s a name to watch as a potential in-season pickup for fantasy managers.

Lewis connected on a 96-mph heater from Red Sox top pitching prospect Peyton Tolle, launching a titanic blast to left field with two outs in the opening frame. He also tacked on a run-scoring single and collected a stolen base later in the contest. The oft-injured 26-year-old third baseman has always possessed elite over-the-fence pop but physical issues have limited him to just 106 and 82 games, respectively, in each of the past two seasons.

Tolle served up a two-out homer to Royce Lewis in the opening frame before responding with a flawless second inning to close out a strong spring debut. The 23-year-old top pitching prospect averaged a crisp 96.5 mph on his fastball in this one. He’s technically in the mix for the final spot in Boston’s season-opening rotation, but that spot seems likely to go to a veteran arm like Johan Oviedo or Kutter Crawford. Tolle offers enough strikeout potential that he should remain on fantasy manager’s radar screens as an in-season pickup.

It was surprising when the Braves signed Yastrzemski for $23 million while possessing a full outfield, but putting him in left field against righties and using Jurickson Profar as a DH definitely seems like an upgrade. Because Yastrzemski won’t play much against lefties and doesn’t offer much in terms of batting average or steals, his fantasy ceiling is quite low.

Carrasco, who turns 39 in 10 days, finessed his way to six outs today, as his hardest pitch checked in at 90.5 mph. He’s in the mix for a spot in Atlanta’s rotation, though it hurts his case that the club has so many out-of-options candidates (Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, José Suarez and Joey Wentz, to be specific). Carrasco is in camp on a minor league deal, though he will have the right to become a free agent if he doesn’t make the team.

Both hits were very hard grounders, checking in at 114.1 and 111.7 mph respectively. Caminero hit second today, though that was with Yandy Díaz out of the lineup. He typically batted third or fourth last year, with Díaz two spots ahead of him and a lefty separating them. If the Rays stick with that, Jonathan Aranda would seem to be the favorite to bat between them.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told reporters that his level of concern is minimal after Kelly was scratched from facing hitters in a scheduled live batting practice session. The 37-year-old veteran will undergo some testing out of an abundance of caution to rule out any structural damage. There should be an update on his status at some point next week. He doesn’t appear to be in danger of missing next month’s Opening Day start, even if he temporarily scales back his throwing program.

Suwinski is a worthwhile lottery ticket for the Dodgers player development machine since he’s just a couple years removed from a 26-homer campaign at the highest level. The 27-year-old will need to improve his plate discipline to return to fantasy relevance but Los Angeles represents a fascinating landing spot if injuries ever opened up an opportunity. He’ll slot in behind Kyle Tucker, Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages as quality organizational depth.

The deal, which includes an additional $2 million in playing time incentives, is now official. Urías heads to St. Louis as a natural southpaw-mashing platoon partner at the hot corner for left-handed slugger Nolan Gorman. The 31-year-old veteran batted .241/.292/.384 with 11 homers and three steals in 391 plate appearances between the Astros and Orioles last year. He remained effective against left-handed pitching, posting a solid .743 OPS. He can be safely ignored for fantasy purposes.