MLB Player News

McTaggart adds that the procedure to remove fluid from a wound between his toes was relatively minor in nature and Altuve is expected to be ready for the start of spring training. The veteran franchise cornerstone, who dealt with lingering right foot pain during the final two weeks of last season, split time between second base and left field during his age-35 campaign, hitting .265/.329/.442 with 26 homers and 10 steals over 155 games. He’s averaged 24 homers and 13 steals per-season for the last half-decade and has shown zero signs of slowing down as he approaches his late-30’s. He’ll be an early-round selection in all fantasy drafts next spring as a top-five option at the keystone.

Soto had to leave Wednesday’s game after fouling a ball off his ankle, but the Mets were never overly concerned with the injury and it appears he won’t miss any time. Get him back into your lineups as you would normally.

Kreidler was 3-for-14 with two home runs in his five games with the Twins earlier this season. He will most likely resume a super utility role off the bench.

This is a bit of a surprise since Wallner figured to be a core member of the Twins’ lineup this season, but the 28-year-old is hitting .167/.259/.292 with a 39 percent strikeout rate, so he wasn’t providing enough value to be on the active roster. There is a chance that he can hit well enough to return over the summer, but he needs to get the swing-and-miss back to the levels that allowed him to hit .250 with 14 home runs in 76 games in 2023.

The 24-year-old is now hitting .348/.435/.598 with nine home runs and 25 RBI in 39 Triple-A games. The power is intriguing, and a clear improvement from his 15 home runs in 128 games last year. He does have a 13 percent swinging strike rate and 72.6 percent contact rate overall; however, both of those were improvements on what he did last year. The bigger news is that Morales has been playing more first base lately, and the Nationals don’t have a clear first baseman at the MLB level. We could be on promotion watch.

Melton threw 33 of his 54 pitches for strikes and sat 95.9 mph on his four-seam fastball. That’s down a little over one mph from where he was last year, but that’s not unexpected when coming back from an elbow strain. Melton was sitting at 96.4 mph in the first inning and then dialed it back from there. He got plenty of whiffs on his splitter and had a 40 percent whiff rate overall. Melton can’t be activated from the injured list until the end of May, so he will make at least one more rehab start where he will likely push over 60 pitches. There’s a chance he could return after that and become an intriguing arm in fantasy leagues.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today had reported earlier in the week that the Giants would love to trade away some of their biggest contracts, including Devers, Chapman, Adames, and Jung Hoo Lee. Murray’s report seems to counter that and suggests that the Giants, who are just six games out of a playoff spot, believe there is “plenty of time between now and the deadline for them to climb out of this hole.” If the Giants are not able to do that, perhaps “further subtractions” would be on the table, but that doesn’t appear to be the case right now.

Cole was the hero for the Astros here after smacking a single past a diving Josh Naylor to win the game. Also, he nearly doubled his hit total on the season in this game, going from four before it to seven now. He’s still tyring to find his footing in the Astros’ outfield since being called up in early May and is yet to draw a walk with a predictably high strikeout rate.

King completely lost his command here while also falling victim to some horrific batted ball luck. Three walks in one inning is completely inexcusable, no doubt about that. At the same time, J.P. Crawford hit a knubber up the first base line that set up the third and final walk which forced in a run. Funny enough, Josh Naylor hit another squeaker up the line that King made a tough play on and beat Naylor by about two inches. Had he been safe, the Astros may not have come back to win it in the 10th inning. These three walks were his first free passes in six outings – which was his last blown save – so this shouldn’t be a problem moving forward.

Coming off a fingernail issue, McCullers worked around constant traffic on the bases to deliver a solid start here. He led with his cutter against a very left-handed heavy Mariners lineup and it forced plenty of weak contact to bail him out of some jams. Ironically, despite all the base runners, the only runs he surrendered came via two solo home runs. The first of which came against J.P. Crawford, the first batter of the game. McCullers threw him three fastballs, none were thrown harder than 90 mph, and he didn’t throw one for the rest of his outing after Crawford’s tank. That’s one heck of an adjustment right there and it worked because the velocity on the rest of his pitches did not dip. Keep an eye on that fastball velocity in his next scheduled start against the Twins.

Arozarena is on first with multiple hits in his last three games and a seven-game hit streak. During that time, he’s raised his batting average from .265 to .306, which is tied for 15th-highest in the league. On top of all these hits, he’s also running wild with four steals in his last nine games as he contributes to our teams in a multitude of ways.