MLB Player News

The deal, which was first reported on Monday morning, is official now that the 35-year-old slugger has passed his physical. Ozuna will earn $10.5 million in 2025 and the deal includes a $16 million mutual option with a $1.5 million buyout for 2026. He should function as the Pirates’ regular designated hitter which will push Ryan O’Hearn to a corner outfield spot.

Jose Caballero went 2-for-5 and homered for Panama. Both Panama and Colombia finished 1-3 in Pool A play, leaving Puerto Rico (2-0), Cubs (2-0) and Canada (1-1) still alive for the final two spots. Bergner, 28, signed with the Rangers last month after seven years in the Tigers system and joined Colombia after pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings this spring. He’ll be Triple-A pitching depth for Texas.

The Dominican win also advances Venezuela to the quarters ahead of their showdown Wednesday, but that game still matters a great deal; the winner will face Korea in the next round, while the loser will have to take on Japan. Tatis is the third player ever to knock in six runs in a WBC game. Oneil Cruz also homered and reached base four times.

Bello faced just the one batter over the minimum. His velocity is still down 1-1.5 mph from last year, as it was in his two starts for the Red Sox before joining the Dominican team. He was plenty effective today against a lineup that included two MLB bats (Horwitz and Harrison Bader), but what he’s showed so far this spring probably isn’t going to result in a strong ERA versus major league lineups.

That is better than the 89.0 mph he came in at during his two spring outings for the Royals, but we certainly would have liked to have seen more. Estévez averaged 95.9 mph with his fastball last season, which was already down about one mph from 2024. He’ll probably keep adding from here, but five mph would be pretty drastic. There’s definitely extra reason to fade him in drafts right now and perhaps consider Lucas Erceg as an end-game or a reserve pick.

With a lot of lefties in the lineup for Baltimore, Liberatore went to his slider often, and the pitch had a 42 percent swinging strike rate and 63 percent CSW. He also continued to showcase his new changeup, which had just a 14 percent swinging strike rate but looked like a weapon against right-handed hitters. Liberatore also maintained his velocity gains on his cutter and threw 69 percent strikes in this one. Overall, it’s another encouraging effort from a young pitcher who looks poised to take a step forward this season.

Harris came into camp as part of an “open competition” for the starting third base job, but went 4-for-21 (.190) with six strikeouts. He will now head back to Triple-A, where he slashed .282/.369/.500 with 12 home runs and seven steals in 59 games last season.

The A’s protected Nett from the Rule 5 draft this offseason after he registered a 3.75 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, and 116/48 K/BB ratio in 105 2/3 innings at Double-A last year.

Barnett had a 6.85 ERA in his five-start audition last year with the Athletics, but also had a 6.13 ERA in 119 innings at Triple-A as well.

With Basso in Triple-A, it seems like the Athletics will carry only one left-handed pitcher in the bullpen, Hogan Harris. That also makes it less likely that Harris will get many save opportunities at the start of the season. Basso pitched just 11 2/3 MLB innings last season after recovering from an early-season shoulder injury.

None of them were likely to make the MLB team, but Joshua Kuroda-Graurer is the team’s 14th-ranked prospect, according to FanGraphs, and hit .296/.359/.372 with two home runs and 27 steals in 121 games between High-A and Double-A last year.