MLB Player News

Gelof is coming back from a dislocated shoulder that ended his 2025 season 10 days early. He has a lot to prove this year after failing to hit in 2024 and then missing more than half of last year due to injury. The A’s have replaced him with Jeff McNeil at second base, but they have third base open for him if he shows he’s worthy.

Sasaki continued building up his pitch count and stamina out of the Cactus League spotlight after some mixed results in a handful of early-spring outings. The 24-year-old’s velocity has been there but his fastball command remains elusive. With both Blake Snell and Gavin Stone (shoulder) opening the season on the injured list, the Dodgers are probably going to need Sasaki in their early-season pitching mix even if starting the year at Triple-A might benefit his long-term development. It certainly feels like both Sasaki and dynamic pitching prospect River Ryan, who has looked phenomenal this spring, are going to make Los Angeles’ season-opening roster.

Dominguez is hitting .333/.344/.600 in 32 plate appearances, though his 10/1 K/BB isn’t very inspiring. It probably doesn’t matter at this point; unless an outfielder ahead of him gets hurt, Domínguez is almost surely Triple-A bound. Randal Grichuk makes a lot more sense as a fourth outfielder, since the Yankees would just need someone to face lefties on occasion.

Gil’s own error on a pickoff throw led to the unearned run. Still, he had another fine outing, which included working around an error in the first and starting a double play to end the second. He’s not promised anything in the long run, but he should certainly be locked into the Yankees’ season-opening rotation with his 2.38 ERA and 15/3 K/BB in 11 1/3 innings to date.

Blackburn struck out four and lowered his spring ERA to 1.48 in 12 1/3 innings. It’d be rather odd if the Yankees employed both Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough in middle relief — a lot of teams won’t even carry one true long man — but that would seem to be the initial play. One of the two would likely sub in if a starter goes down in the short term, but if the current rotation stays healthy, things will get very cramped once Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole are back.

That’s probably his one for the month. Realmuto has participated in 15 Grapefruit League seasons and has hit 15 homers in 161 games. He’s off to a 4-for-17 start this time around as he enters the first year of a three-year, $45 million contract he received to re-sign with the Phillies in January.

Freeman heads north of the border as additional relief depth for the defending American League champions. The 28-year-old righty was jettisoned from Chicago’s 40-man roster last June following five appearances for the White Sox at the highest level. He’ll presumably open the year at Triple-A Buffalo.

Wallner was hitting sixth today against lefty Steven Matz. In his previous three starts against righties, he hit cleanup twice but also sixth once, with Trevor Larnach hitting cleanup then. One hopes Wallner will be hitting ahead of Larnach against righties in the regular season. Even in a down 2025, Wallner still out OPS+'d Larnach 110 to 99. Wallner has a 129 OPS+ the last three years, compared to 104 for Larnach. Wallner should also have a better chance of remaining in the Twins lineup than Larnach when the team is facing a lefty.

Ryan was making his spring debut after getting scratched due to back tightness just before his original opener on Feb. 21. He fared well today, but he was down 1.5-2.5 mph on his pitches after the layoff. One imagines he’ll get that back in the coming weeks.

Matz averaged 93.5 mph with his fastball, which is down one mph from a 2025 season in which he worked almost exclusively as a reliever. So, really, that’s right about where he should be. In a fine situation in Tampa Bay, he should provide some utility in deeper leagues.

The Rays never got specific about Lux’s upper body issue, but he missed nearly three weeks of spring games, which wouldn’t seem to make for a great first impression. Lux appears to be penciled in as Rays’ second baseman against righties after hitting .269/.350/.374 in more of a utility role for the Reds last year.