MLB Player News

Ouch. That’s never the news that you want to hear to open spring training. The last update that we got from Braves’ president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos back in November was that Schwellenbach was pain-free. The Braves are hopeful that he’s just dealing with bone spurs, but it’s going to cost him the first two months of the season at a minimum. It’s a tough early break for the Braves and for fantasy managers who may have invested in Schwellenbach in early drafts.

Monasterio led off the 10th with his sixth homer of the year. There was certainly no plan for him becoming Boston’s starting shortstop at the beginning of the year, but he’s been quite valuable in hitting .259/.320/.459 in 204 plate appearances. Barring a big trade acquisition, he should continue to play regularly until Trevor Story returns and maybe beyond that.

The runs both came on solo homers. Sandoval allowed only three other hits and finished the night with 18 whiffs and a fine 36 percent CSW. In four turns to date, he’s done a nice job of keeping the Red Sox in games without showing a ton of fantasy potential. He has a 3.32 ERA and a 20/6 K/BB in 19 innings. That has yet to get him a win, but Boston is now 4-0 with him on the mound. He’ll likely face the White Sox next week.

The Red Sox used Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock in regulation, so Weissert was handed the 10th and wound up with his sixth career save in 207 relief appearances. He’s been plagued by inconsistency this season, which is why he was mostly used with the Red Sox down in games early on. However, with the team streaking, he’s managed three wins and now a save while making all 10 of his appearances in victories this month.

The unearned run was kind of sneaky. Third baseman Tommy White dropped an easy foul popup from Romy Gonzalez with none out and one on. Gonzalez went on to fly out to right, seemingly erasing the error from the scoring, but Caleb Durbin tagged up from first on the play and made it to second, which is something that obviously wouldn’t have happened in the foul pop had been caught. Durbin later scored from second on a Nick Sogard single, so the run was unearned. Lopez’s eight strikeouts were a new season high. He did that eight times in 21 outings last year, but he’d topped out at six in 13 starts and three relief appearances this season. His ERA still stands at 5.79, but this makes three decent showings in a row. He’ll face the Reds next.

Butler got lucky in the bottom of the ninth, when he thought his opposite-field double was a walkoff homer off Aroldis Chapman and he waited several seconds to start running. Fortunately for him, the ball bounced far enough away after hitting the wall that he made it to second anyway. It still was a nice showing offensively. His homer off Patrick Sandoval in the fifth was his first since June 19, and he had two extra-base hits for the first time in a game this season. He’s batting .204/.306/.320 in 311 plate appearances, but his seven-year, $65.5 million contract ensures that the A’s won’t give up on him.

This was supposed to be a really easy year for Heim. He was just going to back up Drake Baldwin in Atlanta while Sean Murphy was hurt and then he was going to fill in behind Shea Langeliers, who figured to play nearly every day, after being traded to the A’s. Now, though, he finds himself starting regularly for a team playing half of its games in a minor league ballpark with the temperature still in excess of 90 degrees even in night games. Maybe another trade is on the way, but since the A’s wouldn’t get much in return, it seems likely that they’ll just keep forcing him to suffer the rest of the way.

Lauer averaged 92.1 mph with his fastball tonight, matching his season high. and allowed only three hard-hit balls. He’s now 5-0 with a 2.96 ERA in nine outings for the Dodgers after going 1-5 with a 6.69 ERA with the Blue Jays, and the Angels are already preparing to make him a three-year, $39 million offer in November. First, though, he’ll face the Cubs on Tuesday.

The Dodgers had a 4-0 lead going until the eighth. Tanner Scott pitched that inning and allowed one run to create the save situation. Diaz then gave up a double to Dominic Canzone with one out and another to Josh Naylor with two outs before Luke Raley’s 86-mph liner to first ended the game. It’s definitely a good sign for those rostering Díaz that he got the ball in the ninth right away in his first game back. He averaged 96.9 mph on his five fastballs, which was 1.2 mph better than his April average prior to surgery. Scott is probably worth holding on to for now in most formats, but that would change if Díaz looks good the next couple of weeks.

Three runs in five innings on the road against one of the game’s best offenses probably doesn’t do much for Hancock’s trade value either way. He gave up one homer, though that was hit just 95.4 mph off the bat by Andy Pages. The other runs scored on three straight singles in the third and a single, a double and an infield single in the fourth. A better third baseman than Weston Wilson might have made the play on the last hit in the fourth to prevent the run. Hancock dropped to 6-5 with a 3.26 ERA. If he stays put, he should face the Tigers next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Emerson Hancock struck out Shohei Ohtani to begin the bottom of the first, but Pages immediately followed with a homer. He later picked up another RBI on an infield single in the fourth. That puts Pages up to 71 RBI on the season. He’s tied for eighth in the majors there, even though he’s mostly hit second and seventh.