MLB Player News

The Rays’ lineup would probably work best if one of their lefties from the group of Chandler Simpson, Gavin Lux, Cedric Mullins or Jake Fraley stepped up and took over the leadoff spot, but for now, it looks like they’ll go with Yandy Diaz leading off and Aranda right behind him. Still unclear is whether Junior Caminero will hit third, which he did Tuesday, or if he’ll occupy the cleanup spot, which is where he’s been in most of his starts. They Rays had Lux batting third in between Aranda and Caminero on Friday. Ryan Vilade was there today, but he’s only expected to play against lefties. Fraley and Mullins have hit fifth and sixth, respectively, behind Caminero the last two days.

Lee’s homer, which was nearly a splash hit, came off former big leaguer Justus Sheffield. The Giants experimented with Lee leading off and Luis Arraez hitting fifth on Saturday, but Lee has batted fourth and fifth, both times with Arraez in the leadoff spot, in his two starts since. He improved as last year went along, and his excellent exit velocity numbers this spring suggest he still might have something better in store. However, we’d like him a lot more hitting in the top third of the Giants order.

Roupp struck out six and was really effective with the cutter he’s been using more this spring; the 21 times he threw it tonight produced five whiffs, five called strikes, three fouls and no balls in play. If the cutter turns into a quality pitch this season, he might prove useful in mixed leagues. Roupp is expected to make his first start early next week against the Padres.

That’s the good news for Matthews. The bad is that Jeremy Peña came back from his finger injury and homered in the game. If Peña is on the Opening Day roster, that’ll probably take away Matthews’ spot, since even though he might be worth keeping as a speedy option off the bench, the team is going to want him getting regular playing time.

McCullers gave up six hits but just three hard-hit balls tonight, albeit against a Triple-A lineup. His upside isn’t nearly what it was and the chances of him making 25-30 starts are pretty slim, but the Astros will be content if he’s just an average starter when he’s able to take the mound. He’s expected to face the Red Sox next week in his first outing.

Pena also had a 361-foot flyout to go along with his 394-foot homer. Expectations were that he’d open up on the IL after suffering a finger injury in the WBC, but he made his case to start at shortstop on Opening Day tonight. If he was successful, that means the Astros will need to play Yordan Alvarez in left if they want to include both Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker in their initial lineup.

With Vaughn Grissom on the IL and temporarily out of the mix, the Angels will have Adam Frazier and Peraza split time at second base initially. Although Frazier is a lefty and Peraza is a righty, it won’t be a straight platoon initially, which is good. We don’t know that Peraza will turn out to be a quality option, but we can be pretty well sure that Frazier won’t be.

With his velocity up by 1.5 mph and some extra movement on his sinker, Kochanowicz might rank as one of the Cactus League’s most improved players. Still, he was so bad last year that he could take two steps forward and still be below average for the Angels. He’s in line to start in Houston against the Astros on Sunday.

The 74th overall pick in the 2024 draft, Johnson is going to make the Angels for the second year in a row, even though he spent the rest of the year in High-A ball after his demotion last May. He ends a nice spring with a 3.05 ERA and a 23/5 K/BB in 20 2/3 innings. We still doubt he’s ready to be an adequate major league starter this year, but he might get there someday.

All of the runs came in the fifth, when he allowed three straight singles to open the inning and then got pulled. None of the singles were hard-hit. Through the first four innings, he’d allowed just one hard-hit ball and struck out more than two-thirds of the batters he faced, even though his velocity was down about two mph from last year. He’ll make his season debut as a pitcher Tuesday against the Guardians.

Wrobleski had a 39% CSW against Angels backups in finishing off the 3-0 loss tonight. He’ll probably be asked to make a relief appearance of similar length his first time out, most likely after Roki Sasaki exits. He could be a nice source of wins in NL-only leagues while working in long relief.