MLB Player News

Hernández’s return last summer after a year in Korea didn’t result in any fanfare, but he’s currently sporting a little more velocity than ever before — he averaged 92.6 mph with his fastball and 92.9 mph with his sinker today — and he’s always had quality secondary stuff. He’s probably not going to break camp as the Braves’ fifth starter, since he’s on a minor league deal and the team has several out-of-options arms in the mix — but he might eventually prove useful to the Braves if the velocity sticks around.

The homer off Keaton Winn was Amaya’s second this spring. Coming into 2026, Amaya had never homered in 154 major league plate appearances or 104 plate appearances during spring training, though he does surprisingly have 71 homers in 3,103 minor league plate appearances. A defensive-minded utilityman, he’s trying to beat out local favorite Ildemaro Vargas for a spot on Arizona’s bench. It’s probably not going to happen, but he might be the team’s best choice to play short if anything ever happens to Geraldo Perdomo.

Gallen was pulled after giving up three hits in the third. He returned for the fourth, only to immediately surrender a homer to Daniel Susac and get yanked again. Gallen’s velocity has been great this spring; his 94.8-mph average on his fastball today was a gain of 1.3 mph from last year. His career-high average fastball velocity was 94.1 mph in 2022, and he’s been above that all three outings this spring. In spite of the results today, his stock is up a bit.

Ginkel gave up three singles, none of which were hard-hit balls, and then a three-run homer to Rafael Devers before exiting. Ginkel entered the game having allowed three runs — one earned — over 3 2/3 innings in four appearances. He’s struck out four and walked one, and his velocity has been fine after he missed the final two months of 2025 with a shoulder strain. He should be in the running for saves in Arizona’s pen at the start of the year, but it doesn’t seem likely that the team will name a closer initially.

Houser had a 36% CSW today, getting 10 whiffs and 16 called strikes in the 73-pitch outing. The velocity bump he enjoyed last year has held up this spring, and there could be some fringy mixed-league potential here. The Giants just might want to use Casey Schmitt at second base and Luis Arraez at DH when Houser and Logan Webb are on the mound.

Devers, who missed 10 days with hamstring tightness before returning earlier this week, had been 0-for-18 this spring coming into the day. He struck out against Zac Gallen in his first at-bat, but he connected on a 104-mph liner for his first hit in the third and then followed with a 406-foot blast in the fourth.

Susac is hitting .345/.406/.517 in 32 plate appearances this spring, so if he doesn’t make the Giants as a Rule 5 pick, it won’t be because of his offense. The determining factor, though, always figured to be his defense. Eric Haase is his main competition for a job as Patrick Bailey’s backup.

The third of those was the second of back-to-back shots with Nick Kurtz in the fourth. The A’s are poised to have Langeliers bat second in between Kurtz and Tyler Soderstrom at the beginning of the season, even though he’d seem to be the clearly worst bet of their top six hitters when it comes to OBP. He did come in at a respectable .325 there last year, but he was at .276 through his first 2 1/4 big-league seasons. Of course, it’ll be fine if he maintains that 2025 performance, and he’s looking the part with his six homers this spring.

Lopez walked one, but 36 of his 52 pitches today were strikes. Given his success for the A’s last year (4.08 ERA in a rotation that came in at 4.85 overall, 113/37 K/BB in 92 2/3 IP), it was surprising that Lopez entered spring training without a rotation spot locked up. Still, he’d seem to be in good shape now, and he could remain useful in AL-only leagues.

Shea Langeliers hit three of those, with Nick Kurtz also chiming in. Bergert entered the day having allowed two runs in six innings this spring, and the one bad game probably won’t change much for him. His only real hope of making the Royals is if a starter goes down.

The 34-year-old infielder delivered a two-run double in the eighth inning of this one that capped off the scoring. Frazier has not only played his way onto the Angels’ roster this spring, but it seems like he could wind up being the team’s starting second baseman on Opening Day. He’s hitting .368 (7-for-19) with five RBI and a stolen base during Cactus League play.