MLB Player News

Castillo appears on track to take the ball this weekend against the Guardians to kick off the regular season after wrapping up spring training with a lackluster 7.80 ERA and 13/4 K/BB ratio across 15 innings. The lack of big-time strikeout upside at this stage of his career limits his fantasy appeal to more of a back-end rotation stabilizer capacity.

Adames also worked a walk for a three-reach evening. The shortstop came around to score on a two-run triple by Matt Chapman in the third inning for his third run of the season. After a disappointing 2025 campaign, Adames has not come out hot despite Monday’s contest as seen in a .214 average and .664 OPS over the first 11 games.

Harper also drew a walk for a four-reach night. He cut the lead to 4-2 with an RBI double in the fifth, and two innings later he lashed a two-run single to tie the game at 4-4. The 33-year-old was caught stealing for the first time in 2026, but that’s a fair tradeoff. Harper was awful to begin the campaign as seen in a slash that still underwhelms at .200/.273/.385, but the two-time MVP is as good a bet as anyone to see those numbers continue to climb over the next couple months — if not weeks.

Duran did allow a hit and didn’t pick up a strikeout, but he was able to keep the Giants from scoring while procuring his fourth save of the season. It’d be more surprising if he wasn’t among the league leaders in the category than if he was.

The Giants are now 1-7 at home. That’s not good. Houser was solid over the first four innings, but he gave up a pair of runs in the fifth and two more in the seventh — the latter without getting an out in that frame — while striking out three and walking two in the contest. This is a pretty typical Houser start, and without the win, it doesn’t offer much fantasy value. He’s a risky option Sunday when he faces the Orioles or any other lineup.

After an impressive first start of his MLB career, Painter wasn’t nearly as effective against San Francisco. He allowed nine hits, and after fanning eight Nationals in that debut, he struck out one while generating only four swings-and-misses. It wasn’t a case of down velocity — he averaged 96.8 mph with his four-same fastball, up 0.1 from the previous outing — but he just didn’t fool the San Francisco lineup at all. He’ll look to rebound against the Diamondbacks on Sunday.

That’s the fourth homer of the season for Neto, and two of those have come leading off the game. The 25-year-old went hitless in his other four at-bats, but his impressive pop makes him one of the best — and certainly one of the most underrated — fantasy shortstops in the sport.

Adell robbed three homers Saturday against the Mariners, but he was able to hit his first of the campaign with a solo blast off Chris Sale. The 26-year-old outfielder bashed 37 of them in 2025, and assuming good health, he’s a lock for another 25-plus roundtrippers in 2026.

Baldwin’s homer came in the first off Jose Soriano, and it was the only run — and one of only three hits total — that Atlanta was able to pick up off Soriano. That’s already five roundtrippers for Baldwin with a slugging percentage of .682 and 13 RBI over 11 games.

The Orioles could have rearranged things to get Dean Kremer into the rotation after Zach Eflin went on the IL, but they decided against doing it immediately and Young, who dealt with back tightness in the spring and was one of the Orioles’ earliest cuts, came through nicely. That said, he wasn’t exactly dominant in finishing with two strikeouts, He had a 23-percent CSW and a 50-percent hard-hit rate. It’s unclear if he’ll get another start.

Helsley walked the first two batters he faced and missed again on his first pitch to Colson Montgomery before Montgomery grounded out on the second pitch. Lenyn Sosa also grounded out afterwards, scoring a run in the process. After the softest of all possible hits from Andrew Benintendi, Edgar Quero came up with two on and two outs. Helsley chose then to make probably his three best pitches of the night and got a game-ending strikeout. He’s 3-for-3 in save chances despite having allowed two runs in 3 1/3 innings.