MLB Player News

After going 1-for-18 to start the season, Contreras has really started to come around. He now has hits in eight of his last ten games and has eight RBI on the season. Your buy-low window may have closed, but it could be worth making an offer just to see.

Those just seeing the final score might have worried about Soriano’s ERA today, but all of those runs came against Sam Bachman, Nick Sandlin and Drew Pomeranz after he exited. Soriano allowed just two hits and walked three in his fourth career 10-strikeout game. He didn’t give up a single hit or hard-hit ball on any of the 62 sinkers and four-seamers that he threw today. Soriano is the first pitcher to win four times this year, and his 0.33 ERA is the best among qualified pitchers. Given that he still walks guys and allows quite a bit of hard contact (just not so much today), he’s probably not going to spend the entire season as a Cy Young contender. He’s never lacked for talent, though.

Abbott, now 0-2 with a 5.85 ERA, usually has had good fortune on balls in play, but not this season so far and especially not today, as he yielded eight hits despite giving up just five hard-hit balls to the Angels. Of course, it’s also not helping that he’s not missing bats. He struck out just one today and he’s fanned a total of 12 of the 90 batters he’s faced in four starts. While he’ll probably be better against the Twins next weekend, he seems very droppable in mixed leagues at this point.

It’s the 52nd time that Trout has scored three runs in a game, but just the third time since the beginning of 2023. For comparison’s sake, it happened 10 times in 2012 alone and six times as recently as 2022. Trout is still hitting just .208 on the season, but the 15/15 K/BB in 15 games is a nice improvement over what he’s done in recent years, and his EV numbers are pretty good, as well. He already has eight barrels, though just two have turned into homers.

Schanuel got his first start of the year against a lefty last night and went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, though both the hit and the walk came off righty relievers. He was back in there versus another lefty today and had a two-run single against Andrew Abbott. He’s much more interesting in fantasy leagues as an everyday player than he would be as a platoon guy, and now that Jeimer Candelario is gone, he’ll probably be in the lineup most of the time; his career numbers against lefties are basically the same as his numbers against righties.

The homer, De La Cruz’s fifth of the year, was pretty meaningless for the Reds, as the team was down by six runs with two outs in the ninth. Fantasy leaguers will take it, though. The Reds have had just a two-man offense this season, with De La Cruz and Sal Stewart both crushing it despite an extreme lack of help. The two have nine of the team’s 15 homers. After Stewart at 1.035 and De La Cruz at .924, the next highest OPS on the club is Nathaniel Lowe’s .664.

Ballesteros hit one of two homers for the Cubs in the third inning off Bubba Chandler — the other came from Dansby Swanson — and it was the second of the young season from the 22-year-old. He also singled, and he’s picked up multiple hits in three of his last five games. There’s a lot to like about Ballesteros in the long-term, but this version has relevancy in a host of fantasy formats, as well.

With the scored tied 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth, Kelly scorched a “single” that woulda been an extra-base hit if the runner at third wasn’t the winner. The 31-year-old has swung a nice stick to begin the year with a slash of .308/.426/.385, and he gets to call himself the hero of the Cubs’ comeback win as well.

Cruz continues to swing a hot stick, and he gave the Pirates an early lead with a 422-foot tank off Jameson Taillon to leadoff the game. That’s already the fifth homer for the 27-year-old, and the steal gives him a combo meal and six swipes on the year. Cruz has obviously been a relevant player since being called up. Is it possible this is the season where everything clicks? You need more sample than this to say for sure, but boy does Cruz look good to begin the year.

Lowe’s slam came in the second inning off Jameson Taillon to give the Pirates 5-0 lead in the second inning. He got Taillon again in the sixth to extend their lead to 6-2. That’s now five homers for Lowe in his first season with the Bucs, and he’s slashing .243/.372/.592 with nine RBI. A very solid start to Lowe’s 2026.