MLB Player News

Horowitz has a strong working relationship with Nationals’ new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni as the duo worked together with the Red Sox from 2015 to 2023. Horowitz had spent two years with the Pirates as their director of amateur scouting and oversaw the drafting of top prospect Konnor Griffin with the top overall selection in the 2024 draft.

Taillon left down 4-0 before the Cubs offense let him off the hook. Three of the four runs came on a Will Smith homer in the second inning. Taillon struck out four and walked three. That he’s already given up seven homers in just 27 2/3 innings is most of the reason he has a 4.55 ERA. He’s due to make his next start Wednesday in San Diego.

Swanson’s triple should have been caught by Andy Pages, but it was a well-hit ball to the wall in left-center. His homer off Tanner Scott in the ninth went 413 feet to left. Although he’s mostly batting ninth at the moment, Swanson is tied for eighth in the majors with 21 RBI and tied for fifth with 22 runs scored.

It’s third career save for Martin. He had two in the second half of last year for the Orioles before getting cut on Sept. 2 anyway. Obviously, the ninth inning is wide open in Chicago right now, with the Cubs down arguably their top four short relievers and preferring to keep Ben Brown in more of a multi-inning role. Still, we wouldn’t recommend picking up Martin, who has a 6.21 ERA in 79 2/3 major league innings since debuting with the D-backs in 2019.

Looking the best he has all season, Sheehan struck out seven in three perfect innings to begin the night. His velocity dipped afterwards and the Cubs started making good contact against him, but they never could sustain a rally. Sheehan departed with a 4-0 lead in the seventh, only to watch Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen cough up the lead before Tanner Scott took the loss in the ninth. As a result, Sheehan remained 2-0 with a 4.78 ERA. He’ll get the Cardinals next week.

Dansby Swanson’s homer was the second allowed by Scott in 11 1/3 innings this season. He also gave one up to José Ramírez on Apr. 1 with the Dodgers already down in the game. Considering that those are the only two times he’s been scored upon this season, we’d still consider him the favorite for saves in the Dodger pen for now. However, since Scott has worked two days in a row, Alex Vesia could be the choice to close Saturday.

Boone seemed optimistic and was hopeful that they caught the issue early enough that it won’t be a lingering problem. The 36-year-old slugger will be reevaluated on Saturday. It’s still possible that the Yankees take a cautious approach and wind up placing him on the injured list for a couple of weeks.

Cornelio made his big league debut out of the bullpen on Friday night, giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits and four walks over two innings against the White Sox. It is believed that it’s not directly related to his performance in Friday’s game and that Cornelio would’ve been optioned back to Triple-A regardless of how he performed. Now he’ll bide his time and wait for another opportunity with the big league club.

Initially it was reported that the 34-year-old slugger was being held out of the lineup on Friday due to mid back pain, but it’s actually the dreaded oblique that he’s dealing with. The Reds are hopeful that he’ll only have to miss a couple of weeks’ worth of action. It’s unclear what the corresponding move will be on Saturday, though it could mean the return of Noelvi Marte from Triple-A Louisville.

It’s time to take notice of Cortes. His first inning home run was part of the three-homer onslaught the top of the Athletics’ order greeted Rangers’ starter Nathan Eovaldi with, but his second was more impressive. With two outs in the fifth inning of a 3-1 game after Eovaldi had settled in, Cortes hit a 409 foot moonshot that broke this game open. That blast came on the seventh pitch of that at-bat on a cutter that was about an inch off the inside edge. Cortes still found a way to get around on it and he launched it deep into the right field stands. Through 56 at-bats this season, he has a .339/.403/.625 slash line with more walks than strikeouts and solid underlying power metrics. He’s also hitting third against right-handed pitchers in this talented Athletics lineup. There are all the signs of a true breakout here.

Severino cruised through this one. His offense spotted him a three-run lead before he even took the mound and he was in control throughout. Outside of two doubles by Corey Seager and Josh Jung in the fourth inning, there was only one other instance of a Ranger reaching scoring position off Severino. And that came in the seventh inning when Hogan Harris relieved him and put out the fire. This was Severino’s second time completing six innings in his last three starts and he’ll try to keep that positive momentum rolling in his next start against the Royals.