MLB Player News

Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune adds that he’ll get a $1 million base salary for 2026 and the deal will include a $5 million mutual option ($225,000 buyout) for the 2027 season. The 34-year-old right-hander earned $1 million during a 2025 campaign in which he registered a 3.90 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and a 49/18 K/BB ratio over 60 innings for the Twins. He’ll once again function in a middle relief role for the Twins in 2026.

Arrighetti offers some immediate streaming appeal, even in shallow mixed leagues, when he takes the ball against the Rockies in Daikin Park on Wednesday night. The 26-year-old righty was limited to just seven starts due to injuries last year and has been rather hit-or-miss from a performance standpoint in the majors over the past two seasons. It’s a strong enough matchup that he’s worth embracing the volatility, especially in deeper mixed leagues.

May struck out four and walked one, but posted just a six percent whiff rate and threw only 55 percent of his first-pitches for strikes. You might get away with streaming May next week against the Marlins, but it’s really hard to trust a pitcher in fantasy baseball who misses so few bats.

O’Brien was great here, throwing 11 of 15 pitches for strikes and securing his fifth save of the season. There was some concern that O’Brien’s role as the best reliever in the Cardinals’ bullpen wouldn’t mean much on a rebuilding team, but the Cardinals are now 10-8 on the season. If they can keep games close, they are likely going to squeak out close victories, which should mean more save opportunities for O’Brien than many anticipated.

Quintana draws the starting assignment for Wednesday’s showdown against the Astros at Daikin Park. The 37-year-old veteran hit the injured list after suffering a hamstring strain during his season debut back in late March. His fantasy appeal is strictly limited to NL-only formats at this advanced stage of his rather remarkable career.

The rookie now has his first steal of the season to go along with six RBI and seven runs scored. He’s slashing just .205/.238/.308 on the season, so he doesn’t belong on fantasy radars yet, but he showed good batting averages and speed in the minors so perhaps he works his way into the discussion.

Freeland winds up requiring a trip to the injured list after being scratched from last Sunday’s start against the Padres with shoulder tightness. The Rockies gave him a couple days to see if he could work through the issue, but it clearly wasn’t responding the way they hoped. The 32-year-old southpaw has compiled a respectable 2.30 ERA and 13/4 K/BB ratio across 15 2/3 innings over three starts this season. He should be back by early May.

Antonacci made the transition to left field look fairly seamless at Triple-A Charlotte this season, but he’ll make his big-league debut at his natural defensive home, while also batting in the middle of Chicago’s lineup. The versatile 23-year-old has flashed some emerging over-the-fence power over the last few weeks, batting .313 (15-for-48) with two homers and five steals in 14 games on the doorstep of the majors. He boasts some of the strongest plate skills in the minors, which should help ease his transition to the big leagues. He’s at least worthy of a speculative roster spot in all fantasy formats.

It was not an efficient outing for Cecconi, who threw just 55 percent of his first pitches for strikes and 60 percent strikes overall. He did post a 26 percent whiff rate, but almost all of that was on his four-seam fastball. He got few chases on his cutter and didn’t throw his sweeper and curve much at all. It’s probably best to avoid him next week against the Astros.

Both Morillo and Paul Sewald pitched on Tuesday, and Morillo actually threw more pitches, but the Diamondbacks went with him to close the door in extra innings here. We wouldn’t read into this. It’s likely just an opportunity to give Sewald, who has dealt with injuries in recent seasons, an extra day off. Sewald remains the league leader in saves, but it’s nice to know that it would likely be Morillo who gets a shot if Sewald were to be sidelined.