MLB Player News

Ober walked one batter and struck out one in the contest. He cruised through the first three innings virtually unscathed, but things fell apart in the fourth. There, he allowed a pair of singles before serving up a game-tying three-run blast to Tyler O’Neill. Ober got just two whiffs on 56 pitches on the day, posting a CSW of 21 percent. His average fastball in the game was just 89.8 mph (-0.5 mph), still slightly down from where he sat during the 2025 campaign. He’s a tough one for fantasy managers to trust for next weekend’s start against the Rays.

Contreras seemed to have former teammate Andre Pallente all out of sorts with the way he was crowding the plate today, and he had a homer and two singles within the first four innings. 15 games into his Red Sox career, he’s hitting .302/.448/.509 with three homers and 11 RBI.

Bello’s velocity was up about 0.5 mph today, giving him a little more of a chance to get in on the hands of hitters and generate some grounders. He still settled for just two strikeouts, however. He’s now 1-1 with a 6.14 ERA. He’ll likely match up against Tarik Skubal next weekend against the Tigers.

Inducing grounders is the name of the game for Pallante, but the Red Sox got the ball into the air against him today and collected eight hits on liners or flies. After two successful outings to begin the year, Pallante is now 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA through three starts. He’ll face the Astros next weekend, but it might be best for the Cardinals if a younger pitcher overtakes him in the rotation sometime in the coming months.

Story hadn’t had even a two-hit game this season before breaking out today. It was also just the second time in 15 games that he’s gone without a strikeout. He’s hitting .192/.188/.273. And, yes, his OBP is lower than his average; he has one walk and two sac flies in 69 plate appearances.

This is pretty ridiculous now. Walker has more homers in 15 games this year than he did in 51 games in 2024 (five) and 111 games last season (six). He’s still striking out plenty, so the early .327 average isn’t going to stick around. Still, he seems like a different player; he’s always tended to make hard contract, but now that hard contact is turning into liners and big flies instead of grounders to short.

Arozarena had a chance for a four-hit game, but instead drew a walk off Bryan Abreu. The power hasn’t been there outside of an absolute missile hit Saturday, but he’s now hitting .291/.426/.400 over the first 16 games. Arozarena should again be a solid — if at times frustrating — fantasy option in 2026.

It’s the first win of the season for Gilbert, and more importantly, it’s the first time that he’s been able to complete seven innings since Opening Day last year. The right-hander was excellent; generating 15 swings-and-misses to pick up seven strikeouts, and the only run allowed was a solo homer by Yainer Diaz that scraped over the left-field walk. After two shaky starts to begin the year, Gilbert has looked the part in his last two outings while allowing just three runs over those 13 frames. He’ll face the Rangers at home Friday in a matchup with Jacob deGrom.