MLB Player News

Hader remains without a definitive timetable to return as Houston’s closer, which opens the door for elite high-leverage specialist Bryan Abreu to open the season in the ninth-inning role. The 31-year-old southpaw has been working his way back from biceps inflammation that cropped up earlier this month and should progress to throwing a bullpen session in the near future. He’s a virtual lock to open the year on the injured list, which has caused his fantasy stock to crater in re-draft formats.

Nelson allowed six hits and three walks while striking out three, lowering his ERA to 4.65. He had a brutal stretch in April, allowing 14 earned runs over two starts covering 5 1/3 innings. He now has a 2.36 ERA in May, rewarding fantasy managers who have held throughout. Homers are an issue for him given his lack of grounders, but he’ll look to finish the month on a high note when he visits Seattle for his next scheduled start.

Carroll’s first RBI triple came in the first inning, pulled down the right-field line. The second came in the sixth and split the right-center gap. Each one scored Ketel Marte. Carroll, still 25 years old, is now one of just four active players with 50 career triples according to Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports. The other three are Mike Trout, Starling Marte, and Andrew McCutchen. It’s only a matter of time until he’s the sole active leader. Carroll is off to the best offensive start of his career, sporting career-bests in BB%, AVG, OBP, and SLG. The only nitpick is that he’s running less than ever, but it’s worth remembering he significantly picked up his stolen-base pace in the second half last year. Either way, he’s rewarding fantasy managers who used an early-round selection on him.

Waldschmidt’s triple was a shot that Jake McCarthy couldn’t quite get to, scoring Ildemaro Vargas in the process. The rookie center fielder is already up to five stolen bases in just 57 plate appearances, and he’s sporting an OBP over .400. That will likely come down given an unsustainable BABIP, but he’s impressing early in his career. Waldschmidt hit sixth in Sunday’s contest after batting ninth in every previous game he started.

Baddoo was out due to a quad strain. He played in six rehab games for Nashville prior to today’s announcement, going 4-for-20 with two homers. He could see time with the Brewers as a bench guy later this season.

No comment yet from MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger, who was the source of Taylor’s unretirement on Saturday. That appears to be a case of getting some wires crossed. The 35-year-old Taylor was hitting .255/.382/.321 in 32 games for Triple-A Salt Lake in the Angels organization before suffering a fractured forearm when he was hit by a pitch Wednesday.

A three-game sweep for Houston concludes with what shall always be known as the Nick Allen game. Making his first start in a week, Allen hit a 367-foot homer off Shota Imanaga that was his first in 488 plate appearances dating back to 2024. It’s the fourth time in 407 career games that he’s both homered and collected three hits, and the first time he’s done both of those things and stolen a base. He raised his season OPS from .562 to .771 with the performance.

Lambert allowed five hits, walked four and struck out five in an erratic outing. He also hit a batter. This makes him 3-4 with a 3.79 ERA through seven starts. That he’s allowed only one homer in 40 1/3 innings has made him a viable fantasy starter to date, but his luck figures to change some there. He’s due to pitch at home against the Brewers next weekend.

With Bryan King resting, Pearson got the call over Bryan Abreu, who worked a scoreless eighth to set him up. Pearson walked Pete Crow-Armstrong to start the ninth, but he retired Nico Hoerner, Michael Busch and Alex Bregman afterwards. Pearson topped out at 100.4 mph today, but it’s kind of surprising the Astros have been so quick to trust him after he walked 11 in 8 2/3 innings during his minor league rehab assignment. Ability has never really been the question with Pearson, but we wouldn’t rush to pick him up at this point.

Aside from the homers, of course, Imanaga was pretty good today. He allowed just two other hard-hit balls, and he finished the game with 16 whiffs and a 33 percent CSW. It was definitely a less discouraging performance than when he gave up eight runs to the Brewers on Monday. Still, his ERA has suddenly jumped from 2.32 to 4.04 in the span of a week. He’ll certainly keep giving up some homers, but with his velocity and groundball rate back to where they were in 2024, he figures to remain a valuable fantasy starter.

The 86-mph double to right-center looked like an out off the bat, but center fielder Jake Meyers had him played to pull and wound up having to run a long way before coming up just short on a diving attempt. Before drawing the start at second today, Ramírez had just one at-bat in his first two days on the Cubs’ roster. It’s hard to see a path to significant playing time here without an injury, but he’d be interesting as a starting infielder.