MLB Player News

The 28-year-old southpaw struck out five batters on the afternoon and did not allow a base on balls. The Pirates scratched out a run against him in the opening inning then broke it open with a three-run uprising in the fifth that included RBI knocks from Nick Gonzales and Bryan Reynolds. McClanahan got 11 swings and misses on 90 offerings on the afternoon, posting a CSW of 26 percent. Now 1-2 on the season, he’ll carry a disappointing 5.00 ERA, 1.33 WHIP and an 18/11 K/BB ratio (18 innings) into Saturday’s matchup against the Twins.

Alvarez appeared to be in some serious discomfort and limped off the field following a sixth-inning at-bat. It appeared to be some sort of right leg issue. He was 1-for-2 with a double and a run scored prior to exiting. He was replaced by Luis Torrens behind the plate. There should be an update on his status shortly.

Martínez homered off Angels starter Walbert Ureña in the third inning and nearly went deep for a second time in the contest his next time up, but was robbed at the right-field wall by a fantastic grab from Jo Adell. The 24-year-old power-hitting corner outfielder snapped a 15-game homerless drought in this one and is up to six round-trippers through 40 games this season. He’s also chipped in six steals as well. Martínez offers enough power/speed combo production that he’s a worthwhile middle infield option in extremely deep mixed leagues.

Smith got the call to protect a one-run lead in the eighth inning with the tying run already on-base and managed to strike out Sebastián Rivero to extinguish the threat. He came back out for the final frame and needed just four pitches total to retire Zach Neto and Mike Trout before winning an eight-pitch battle against Nolan Schanuel, getting him to chase a splitter in the dirt to end it. The 27-year-old elite fantasy stopper has converted 12 of 14 save opportunities and is tied with Mason Miller for the major-league lead this season.

Cecconi gave up five hits, walked one batter and needed 89 pitches to complete four frames, which prevented him from sticking around long enough to pick up a win. The seven punchouts were a season-high and just the fourth time in nine starts that he’s collected five or more this season. He’ll bring an underwhelming 5.60 ERA, 1.58 WHIP and 38/17 K/BB ratio across 45 innings into a road matchup against the Tigers on Monday to open a two-start week.

Ureña gave up three hits, including a third-inning solo homer to Angel Martínez, but got some help from right fielder Jo Adell when he took away a potential second round-tripper for Martínez in the fifth inning with a tremendous grab at the wall. The 22-year-old rookie struck out four and only issued one walk. He’s still walking too many batters, but he’s been a nice back-end rotation filler overall for the Angels with a 3.29 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and 26/17 K/BB ratio across 27 1/3 innings this season. He’ll face the Athletics at home in his next outing on Monday.

Valdez will get the ball for Wednesday’s showdown at Citi Field after completing a five-game suspension for throwing at Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story last week. The 32-year-old southpaw allowed a whopping seven earned runs in that start, causing his full-season ERA to balloon to 4.57 in the process.

Jones threw 36 of 52 pitches for strikes and scattered three baserunners over four highly impressive frames in his third rehab start. There isn’t publicly available Statcast data from this latest outing, but he’s been consistently sitting in the upper-90’s with his fastball since returning from last year’s elbow procedure. The hard-throwing 24-year-old figures to be ready to return to Pittsburgh’s rotation by the end of May or early June. He should be rostered in all fantasy formats based on his immense strikeout potential alone.

It’s been a bit of an odyssey since Woodruff hit the injured list with shoulder inflammation last week, but he’s received a go-ahead from Dr. Keith Meister to resume throwing. The 33-year-old could potentially skip a minor league rehab assignment and jump back into Milwaukee’s rotation, but that’ll likely depend how he’s feeling physically after ramping up his throwing program in the coming days.

Carlson heads to Philadelphia as emergency organizational outfield depth. The 27-year-old former top prospect went 0-for-4 in three games for the Cubs last month. He got into 83 games for the Orioles last year, hitting .203/.278/.336 with six homers and three steals in 241 plate appearances.