MLB Player News

Stewart is coming off a strong spring and a good end of the season in his MLB debut last year. If he continues to hit in the middle of this lineup, he’s going to have tremendous value this season. The rest of the Reds’ Opening Day lineup is: T.J. Friedl CF, Matt McLain 2B, Elly De La Cruz SS, Sal Stewart 1B, Eugenio Suarez DH, Spencer Steer LF, Tyler Stephenson C, Noelvi Marte RF, and Ke’Bryan Hayes 3B.

What were we thinking being worried about the Nationals offense? Jacob Young and Brady House joined Wiemer in homering today. Wiemer’s blast off Matthew Boyd was recorded at 110.5 mph, his hardest-hit ball in the majors or in Triple-A since he reached 110.0 mph in 2024. The Nationals figured to primarily play him against lefties, but there’s plenty of upward mobility possibilities in D.C. Maybe he’ll get the nod Friday against Cade Horton after his showing today.

The Nationals gave Cavalli a 7-2 lead by scoring six times in the top of the fourth, but he couldn’t finish the bottom of the inning, much less stay in for the fifth to qualify for the win. Cavalli struck out five and walked three while throwing 75 pitches to get his 11 outs. With his ability to generate grounders, he’ll start getting quicker outs at some point. However, he’s probably not going to offer mixed-league value in the short term. He’ll make his next start Wednesday in Philadelphia.

It looks like the Nationals were setting things up for Cole Henry to get the save chance today, though he went unused in the bottom of the ninth after the team upped its lead from four runs to six runs in the top of the inning. It’s just a tiny bit of a surprise, as it looked like Beeter might have the edge over Henry at the end of the spring. Still, this is situation that figures to continue evolving over the course of the season, and because the Nationals still figure to be pretty bad, neither Beeter nor Henry seems like a must-roster guy right now.

Boyd struck out seven and walked only one, but the contact against him was very loud. Seven of the nine balls in play against him were hard-hit, with four of those topping 105 mph. He gave up a 111-mph homer to Joey Weimer and a 111-mph shot to right to CJ Abrams that would have been a homer in 29 ballparks (Abrams wound up being thrown out at second after watching his single). Boyd’s velocity was fine today. He also had some issues with hard contact this spring, but he still seems like a fine bet at the moment. He’ll get the Angels next.

Abrams absolutely crushed the hit off Matthew Boyd in the fourth, with the 110.8 mph liner sailing a projected 361 feet down the right-field line. That would have made it a homer everywhere except Wrigley, which, unfortunately for Abrams, is where the Nationals happened to be playing today. Abrams stood and watched it, resulting in him being thrown out at second by Matt Shaw. The Nationals didn’t respond by sitting him afterwards, but they couldn’t have been pleased by this poor judgment.

This after Wood hit .125/.222/.250 with a 35% strikeout rate this spring. The Nationals sent down fellow building block Dylan Crews this spring. They dropped former All-Star CJ Abrams to the sixth spot in the lineup. They haven’t, though, taken any actions with Wood. One imagines that will change if he keeps racking up strikeouts like this.

Neither of Busch’s first two hits were well struck, but the third was a sharp opposite-field liner. With the injured Tyler Austin no longer a threat, Busch figures to start against most lefties, adding to his fantasy value even if he’s dropped from the leadoff spot in those situations.

The 21-year-old phenom came to the dish with the bases loaded in the opening inning and laced the first pitch that he saw from Nick Pivetta for a two-run single into right field that increased the Tigers’ early lead to 3-0. In the third inning, he worked his way back from an 0-2 count before crushing a 2-2 fastball (105.9 mph EV) off the top of the wall in right field for another double. He also reached on an infield single in the fifth — exhibiting elite speed with a sprint speed of 30.2 ft/s — before riding home on Dillon Dingler’s two-run blast. If he keeps this up, he won’t be hitting sixth in the Tigers’ lineup for very long.

Dingler capped off a four-run uprising in the first inning with an RBI single off of Nick Pivetta. He then broke the game wide open with a 403-foot (106.0 mph EV) two-run blast in the fifth that made it 8-0. The 27-year-old backstop looks poised to build upon a strong 2025 campaign and makes for a solid mid-tier catching option in two-catcher formats.

Meadows dinked a two-run single into shallow left field as part of a four-run rally against Nick Pivetta in the third inning. He also struck out and flew out to left field in the ballgame. Given how poorly he performed offensively during the spring, there’s pressure on Meadows to produce at the dish during the first weeks of the season or he could ultimately risk demotion to Triple-A Toledo. This was a nice first step toward doing so.