MLB Player News

Olivares was a fantasy darling at one point during his time with the Royals, but he was let go by the Pirates in 2024 and was unable to win a spot with the Mets in 2025. He went over to Japan, where he hit .213/.327/.301 with two home runs in 61 games. He would be a long shot to make the Rays.

Massey wound up missing just over one week after hitting his head when he fell down following a throw at second base. The 28-year-old has been on the periphery of fantasy relevance for a couple seasons at this point. He’s put together a solid effort overall, hitting .276/.310/.444 with 46 runs scored, 11 homers, 44 RBI and two steals in 366 plate appearances.

Waters was a notable prospect with Atlanta before being shipped to Kansas City nearly a half decade ago. The 27-year-old hasn’t been able to carve out a permanent spot in the majors, hitting just .234 with 14 homers and 21 steals in 684 plate appearances since 2022. He’s young enough that there’s probably an organization out there willing to roll the dice on Waters as a reclamation project.

Hagenman draws the starting assignment for Wednesday’s game against the Rays after missing the first five months of the season with a rib fracture. The 29-year-old compiled a respectable 4.56 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 23/2 K/BB ratio across 23 2/3 innings over nine appearances for the Mets last year.

Ross returns to the minors after tossing a scoreless inning against the Rays in his major-league debut on his 26th birthday earlier this week. He figures to return as middle relief depth in a couple weeks.

After a slow start to his MLB career, Rodríguez came into this game hitting .283/.345/.547 in his last 15 games with four home runs, nine runs scored, and 10 RBI. The 22-year-old was an intriguing prospect with a 42 percent hard-hit rate and .274/.347/.533 slash line in 455 Triple-A plate appearances with 27 home runs and six steals. He has been starting every day and leading off against righties, which gives him a decent amount of fantasy value in most league types.

Brito, who was called up on Tuesday, was hitting .232/.300/.341 in 22 games with Triple-A Louisville since coming to the Reds’ organization. He has started both games since being promoted, going 1-for-6 with the home run, steal, and two RBI. He’s likely off fantasy radars, but we should keep an eye on whether or not he is emerging as an everyday player.

France ambushed a first-inning pitch from Brandon Williamson and hit it for his 20th home run of the season. The veteran is slashing .292/.360/.512 with 62 RBI in what has been the best season of his career.

That’s now three rough starts in a row for Mize. The right-hander struck out four and walked one in this game, but he had just a 10 percent called strike rate, and the Reds got him for two home runs. His overall velocity was fine, but he lost two inches of vertical movement on his four-seamer and missed way up and out of the strike zone too often. On paper, his next three starts against the Nationals, Rockies, and Marlins are enticing, but it’s hard to be overly excited.

Williamson struck out five and walked two while throwing 67 percent of his pitches for strikes in his return from the injured list. The left-hander sat 90.3 mph on his cutter, which is up over one mph from his average, and posted an 11 percent swinging strike rate. That cutter was the only pitch that reliably missed bats in this outing, but another complicating factor for his fantasy value is that the Reds have said the plan for Williamson is to use him as a piggyback to Chase Burns, who is having his innings limited. That could give Williamson a decent shot at wins, but it’s unclear how many innings he’ll pitch.

Mesa Jr. was activated off the injured list on Tuesday and right back in the starting lineup against a lefty. He went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and is right back in there against a right-handed pitcher. Jonny DeLuca started on Tuesday, and Cedric Mullins is starting in center field and batting seventh tonight, so it appears that those two may be in a platoon.