MLB Player News

At this point, it feels like Kyle Tucker is a long shot to return to the Cubs, so the team will likely replace him by “reallocating resources to different parts of the roster.” Mooney suggests that Seiya Suzuki will play more right field, and the Cubs will use much of the extra money to bolster their rotation, which means young hitters Owen Caissie and Moisés Ballesteros will get a chance “to develop and improve at the major-league level.” As of now, Caissie, a top 100 prospect, appears to have the upper hand after putting together an .887 OPS in Triple-A over the last two seasons. He has more defensive value than Ballesteros, who is more of a DH right now than a 1B/C, but this may come down to a spring training battle between the two.

Candelario is in Angels camp as a non-roster invitee and will have to beat out someone like Adam Frazier or Vaughn Grissom for a bench role. That seems unlikely given his lack of defensive versatility, but stranger things have happened in the past.

It’s reassuring to see Woo looking like himself again after missing time late last year — and into the postseason — with pectoral inflammation. The 26-year-old profiles as a surefire top-10 starting pitcher off the board this spring, the kind of arm whose floor and ceiling feel uncomfortably close to one another in a way that makes draft-day decisions easier than they probably should be at a position where nothing is guaranteed.

Alex Bregman and Roman Anthony homered in the game. It’s debatable whether Harper was really Team USA’s best option at first base in the WBC — Pete Alonso and Matt Olson had pretty good cases, and upstart Nick Kurtz might outhit all of them again this year — but Harper looked the part today. Hit two hits left the bat at 111 and 110 mph, which is encouraging. Last season, just 14 of his 383 balls in play were hit at least 110 mph.

Willy Adames led off the top of the first with a double, the lone hit against Skenes, and then came around to score on a pair of groundouts. Skenes needed just 40 pitches to get through three, so he threw a few more in the bullpen afterwards. He’ll make his next start for Team USA against Team Mexico.

Boyd couldn’t get through his third inning, but that gave Giants minor leaguer R.J, Dabovich a chance to pitch for Team USA, as the club borrowed him for the day. Boyd averaged 94.1 mph with his fastball today, up 0.8 mph from 2025, and he got 13 whiffs on 34 swings in the 49-pitch outing.

Houser struck out three and kept the ball in the yard in a fine showing against a team that had Cal Raleigh batting sixth. It’s going to be quite the letdown when he’s back facing the Rangers next time out.

Given that Tidwell was facing an All-Star team, he has nothing to be embarrassed about today. He gave up two homers and five other hard-hit balls, but he struck out Roman Anthony and Gunnar Henderson on his way to finishing up with a 33% CSW. Tidwell is in the mix with Hayden Birdsong, Carson Whisenhunt and others to be the first alternate into the Giants rotation.

Italy also got homers from Kyle Teel and Owen Ayers, a Cubs prospect who was borrowed for the day. Between the Ramón Urías signing and JJ Wetherholt’s hot start, Saggese is facing increased competition to make the Cardinals. The team probably wouldn’t carry both Wetherholt and Saggese unless there was fairly regular playing time available for both.

Horton’s 26 fastballs today averaged 95.9 mph, ever so slightly up from his 2025 average of 95.7 mph. He has nothing to worry about in regard to his rotation spot, but he’s opened the spring with five scoreless innings and five strikeouts anyway.

The homer was a 418-foot shot off Jared Koenig. Ford probably isn’t helping his chances of making the Nationals by taking part in his second World Baseball Classic, but barring quite the upset by Great Britain in Pool B, he could be back with the team in a week. He could wind up Triple-A for a spell to start the year while the Nationals decide what they’re doing with Keibert Ruiz.