MLB Player News

For the second straight game, Cruz homered off a left-handed pitcher, crushing a 407-foot home run at 107.4 mph off the bat against Andrew Abbott. After struggling mightily against left-handers last season, Cruz hired a left-handed pitcher to throw him batting practice all offseason, and perhaps it’s working. The much-maligned 27-year-old is now hitting .304/.333/.696 on the season with three home runs and six RBI. Yes, the batting average will come down, but if Cruz can sustain some of these gains against left-handed pitching, he could be in for a nice bounce-back season.

Smith blistered a pair of doubles and singled twice. The 23-year-old was in a mini-slump with a 1-for-11 mark over his last three games, but this is more inline — to a higher extent, of course — to what we’ve seen to begin the 2026 season. He’s now up to an OPS of .941, and it’s a wonderful reminder of why fantasy managers were so excited to see what he can do in 2025.

Crawford lashed a single with the bases loaded to give him his third RBI of the night and the Mariners a comeback win. The 31-year-old hit at the top of the lineup with Brendan Donovan (illness) unavailable, although Donovan did appear as a pinch-hitter in the ninth and drew a walk. Crawford has hit .217/.419/.261 since coming off the injured list last week.

Trammell just missed a grand slam with a three-run double off Luis Castillo in the second. The 28-year-old isn’t all that far removed from being one of the top prospects in baseball, but at this point, he’s much more likely to be organizational depth than a consistent fantasy producer.

Alvarez is just scorching hot over the first two-plus weeks of the year, and he shellacked a Luis Castillo offering for his sixth homer of the season. He’s hitting .316 with an .800 slugging percentage, but it is worth noting he popped out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning in a time game. Still, fantasy managers have to be thrilled with the early production from Alvarez, who remains as good of hitter as there is in baseball when he’s healthy enough to show off those skills.

Abreu has been awful to begin the 2026 season, and it just continued Saturday. He walked three, and while he did pick up a strikeout, he gave up a scorching line drive to J.P. Crawford with the bases loaded to take the loss. His ERA is now a reprehensible 20.25, and no matter how small the sample, it’s at least a smidgen concerning. Josh Hader isn’t far behind, and to say he doesn’t have to worry about his closer job being usurped is an understatement. Not now, anyway.

Raleigh also drove in a run on a sacrifice fly for a three-RBI night. The 29-year-old backstop has “only” homered twice this year, and is well off the 60-homer mark he reached last year. Expect plenty more roundtrippers for Big Dumper going forward, and 40-plus homers are well within reason for a player with his pop.

Not only did Rodríguez get his first homer of the season with a 426-foot tank to center, it was a big one as it tied the game at 7-7. He also doubled for his first multi extra-base hit game of the season. Rodríguez has been a notorious — maybe the most notorious — slow starter in baseball, but there’s simply no denying that he’s among the best talented players regardless of position. Cal Raleigh also homered, and it appears the big boys for Seattle are starting to pick it up.

Muñoz should have been able to get out of the inning without allowing a hit, but Leo Rivas flailed on a play he should have made that turned into a double. He then walked two batters to load the bases for Yordan Alvarez, but he was able to get Alvarez to pop out to second base. It’s the second win of the season for Muñoz, and his ERA drops to 3.60 with the scoreless — albeit busy — inning.

McCullers got into immediate trouble, as he gave up a two-run homer to Cal Raleigh with no one out in the first inning. He settled down over the next three innings, but fell apart in the fifth, and he was charged for a run after Julio Rodríguez blistered a two-run that tied the game at 7-7 after he was handed a 7-2 lead. McCullers was excellent against the Red Sox, and has been anything but since. He’ll get the Rockies on Thursday in Houston.

Castillo did generate 13 swings and misses and struck out three before leaving, if you are looking for any positives. He allowed 10 hits and plenty of hard contract to make it hard to take any kind of positive. After dominating the Yankees in his first start, Castillo now has allowed 10 earned runs while not getting out of the fourth inning in his last two outings. Not great. He’ll have a chance to rebound Thursday in San Diego against the Padres.