MLB Player News

Smith’s cold start has gotten him dropped from sixth to eighth in the Rangers lineup, but it’s partly been bad luck; he entered the day 3-for-32 with no extra-base hits in spite of having collected 10 hard-hit balls. That bad luck continued initially today, as he was robbed of a homer by Rob Refsnyder in the second inning. However, he did get two line drive singles afterwards, raising his average to .143.

It’s worth noting that Carroll left the game with the Diamondbacks trailing 9-1, so there’s a decent chance this is precautionary. It’s still concerning, however, and fantasy managers will likely have to await some testing before knowing Carroll’s status going forward. Jorge Barrosa took over in right and likely will play the position if Carroll needs to miss time.

Nico Hoerner won the game on a sac fly in the 10th. The Cubs never gave Conforto a start against his former team in the sweep of the Mets. In fact, he hasn’t been in the lineup for any of the team’s last seven games. Still, he came through nicely today against Devin Williams, and he’s hitting .304/.448/.435 in 29 plate appearances this season. He probably should be starting regularly against righties for some team right now, but the Cubs aren’t that team and no one else seemed interested in making it happen over the winter.

Assad did a great job of keeping the Cubs in the game, giving up only a solo homer to MJ Melendez, but it might not stop the Cubs from sending him down Monday. Expectations are that Matthew Boyd will return to take Assad’s rotation spot next time through.

The Cubs scored in the bottom of the inning to prevail today. Thielbar seems like he might have some fantasy value while Daniel Palencia is out, but he likely will be down tomorrow after this. Ben Brown also might get another day after throwing 38 pitches over two innings on Saturday, so it’s hard to say who might be in line to save Monday’s game if the opportunity arises.

Peterson left in line for the win today, but that was spoiled in the ninth inning. Maybe because he knew he wouldn’t be expected to throw 90-100 pitches, Peterson’s velocity was up 1-1.5 mph today. He had just one strikeout and one whiff, but he also allowed little hard contact. It’s unclear how the Mets will exactly proceed with Peterson now, but that he’s in line to pitch at home against the Rockies next weekend makes him a streaming possibility.

The Mets were two outs away from snapping a 10-game losing streak, but it wasn’t meant to be. The first hit Williams allowed was an opposite field single from Ian Happ on a really good changeup low and away. Michael Conforto then doubled into the right field corner to tie the game. Williams struck out the other three batters he faced, and there was nothing wrong with the way he was throwing today. It’s his first blown save in three tries.

Bichette crushed a 111.5-mph liner to center in the fourth today, but Pete Crow-Armstrong caught it pretty easily. It was the hardest-hit ball of the season for Bichette, so that’s something. Still, it hasn’t really been exit velocity that’s been his problem to date; that he’s striking out and hitting grounders more than usual are his issues. He’s also seemingly been pretty unlucky; he entered today with a .227 average but a .290 xBA.

Hicks had been hitting cleanup, but Stowers was back in that spot in his 2026 debut today. The homer was his fourth of the season, though it was first since he stunned everyone with three in his first five games. He came into today hitting .250/.288/.347 in his previous 15 games.