MLB Player News

Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom told reporters the deal is now official. The hard-throwing 34-year-old middle reliever fortifies St. Louis’ bullpen after recording an underwhelming 5.30 ERA — 4.40 FIP — 1.57 WHIP and 58/32 K/BB ratio across 56 innings for the Mets last year. He’s been a durable innings-eater, making 55 appearances or more in each of the past five seasons, and has some experience in high-leverage spots. He isn’t a threat to close with the Cardinals but it wouldn’t be shocking if he wound up vulturing the occasional save from Riley O’Brien or JoJo Romero.

Stanton has not played in an MLB game since April 24th. He originally injured his right calf but then suffered a left calf injury during rehab. The 36-year-old has been taking live batting practice and could still give the Yankees a real boost, with the Red Sox set to start left-hander Payton Tolle in Game 1. However, if Stanton is at DH in Game 1, that means one of Luis Garcia and Ben Rice would play first base, and the other would likely sit. Given recent lineups, Garcia will almost assuredly be the one on the bench.

Grisham has been on the injured list with a hamstring strain since September 4th. The outfielder hit just .170/.261/.352 in 45 games since the All-Star break. With the Red Sox also set to use multiple left-handed starters, it remains to be seen if Grisham will be a regular starter for the Yankees in this series.

Despite Judge claiming that he was intending to play, it always seemed like a long shot. The 34-year-old has a calf strain that was expected to sideline him for 2-6 weeks, and he had not done any running in the days leading up to the announcement. Judge will continue to rehab and almost assuredly will be on the Yankees roster for the Divisional series, if they can get there.

He struck out against Ryan Weathers. Judge didn’t do any running during the live BP or afterwards. It seems like it would be quite the roll of the dice to put him on the Wild Card roster 13 days after he suffered a calf strain.

Smith started one of his 18 appearances after joining the White Sox in August, pitching two scoreless innings against the Pirates. He topped out at three innings in relief against the Twins on Sept. 6 and had a 1.29 ERA in 28 innings overall.

With Kevin Gausman’s status a little bit up in the air, Boyd seemed like the one certainty to get a start for the Cubs in the Wild Card. He’ll be pitching on four days’ rest after limiting the Marlins to one run over seven innings last time out. He also pitched Game 1 of last year’s Wild Card against the Padres, allowing one run over 4 1/3 innings in what turned into a 3-1 win for the Cubs.

Seager was limited to 102 games this year, but the elbow never kept him out. Still, it might have had something to do with his career worst .227/.312/.424 line. Seager could have surgery and still be ready in plenty of time for spring training.

There was little doubt Blubaugh would pitch tomorrow, but it’s a little surprising to see him get the ball first, just because that never happened all year. He led the majors with 96 relief innings, finishing with a 3.66 ERA in his 64 appearances. He’s been used in shorter stints lately than he was early on, so the Astros would be pushing it if they asked for more than two innings from him. The only two times he completed three innings both took place in May.

Thomas, trying to make his way back from an intercostal strain, resumed hitting last week and was seen running in the outfield today. Still, he won’t be activated prior to the NLDS.

Hampton was previously claimed off waivers from the Yankees a couple of weeks ago. He was regarded as one of that team’s top prospects before undergoing Tommy John surgery in Feb. 2025. He returned to the mound in May, but he struggled mightily in posting an 8.18 ERA in 55 innings, which is why he’s bouncing around like this.