MLB Player News

The 26-year-old right-hander struck out two batters in the ballgame. It took him 49 pitches to record seven outs in this one and he only threw 26 of those offerings for strikes. The lone tally against him came on an RBI single by Greg Jones in the second inning. Sheehan got six whiffs in the ballgame — three of them on his slider — while posting an underwhelming CSW of 22 percent. He’s still likely to open the season in the Dodgers’ rotation, but he’s going to have to be better than what we have seen in Cactus League play to hold that job once the Dodgers’ start to get reinforcements to their rotation.

Season No. 18 for McCutchen, who wound up 9-for-21 with a homer and six walks this spring. He did play left field a couple of times in Grapefruit action, but he’ll likely mostly be employed as a DH against lefties for now.

The Rangers needed to free up a 40-man spot for Andrew McCutchen, but they did that by DFAing Dairon Blanco instead of putting Bradford on the 60-day IL. It suggests they have a pretty good feeling he’ll be back before the end of May. He might be a middle reliever then, but if he’s needed to start, he could be of interest in deeper fantasy leagues.

Freeman was shut down for 4-6 weeks about five weeks ago now. There haven’t been any updates since, but if things are going as hoped, he should be playing in minor league games before long, and he could be a threat to Ezequiel Duran’s spot on the Rangers bench in a month or so.

The Rangers claimed Blanco off waivers from the Royals on March 8 and then reassigned him to minor league camp only a day later. He has option years left, so another team could pick him up without being forced to keep him on the roster. He could have real value to a contender as a September/October pinch-runner, and it’s not like he’s been overmatched at the plate while having hit .257/.312/.416 in 285 career plate appearances with Kansas City.

It looked like Sborz had a real chance of making the team after a decent run this spring in his return from shoulder injuries, but Rule 5 pick Carter Baumler got the nod over him. Texas will go with a bullpen of Robert Garcia, Chris Martin, Cole Winn, Jakob Junis, Jacob Latz, Jalen Beeks, Tyler Alexander and Baumler. It doesn’t leave them much flexibility that Garcia and Latz, their two best lefties, are the only guys there who can be sent down.

There was some hope that De Los Santos would be ready for Opening Day, but that will not be the case. The 30-year-old is already facing hitters, so he shouldn’t be sidelined for too much longer.

Pearson will eventually get a look in the Astros’ bullpen, but he had a cleanup surgery on the elbow in the offseason and is still not fully recovered.

Wesneski is recovering from Tommy John surgery, which he had in May of last year. He will be an option to return to Houston’s roster at some point over the summer.

This opens up a spot on the 40-man roster for Christian Vázquez, who made the team as a backup catcher.

There had been some thought that Cole could break camp with the team, and he did hit four home runs this spring; however, he also had a 38.5 percent strikeout rate. The 25-year-old will begin the season in Triple-A to work on making more consistent contact. That means that Brice Matthews has made the Astros as a backup outfielder, with Cam Smith likely starting in right field