MLB Player News

Walker had a pretty quiet two series against the Guardians and Astros last week, but he’s still getting a knock every day; he’s now hit in 16 straight, though the last six of those have all been one-hit games. Of course, he’ll continue to fade some from his current .306/.372/.635 line, but there’s still good reason for fantasy leaguers to be optimistic going forward, one being that he’s now 4-for-4 stealing bases.

There has been some steady progress in the underlying metrics for Rafaela this season. He’s chasing less outside of the zone and making more contact, but the impactful swings have not been there, so it was nice to see this game from him today. He took Framber Valdez deep in the first inning for his second home run of the year and then added an RBI single in the third inning as well. He’s getting caught stealing too much to begin the season, but new Red Sox manager Chad Tracy has been hitting Rafaela near the middle of the lineup, so that should be a real boon to his counting stats. He remains a hold in all fantasy formats.

This didn’t look good at all. Pagán hobbled off the mound and went to the ground clutching his left hamstring after throwing his first pitch of the ninth inning of a tie ballgame. The 34-year-old was carted off the field after several minutes. There should be an update on his status after the contest. Tony Santillan or Graham Ashcraft would likely be next up for saves in Cincinnati.

Abreu got the start against left-hander Framber Valdez and has been getting far more playing time against lefties this season. He delivered too, with his fifth home run and second stolen base of the season. The 26-year-old is slashing .311/.393/.485 on the season and is a fixture in the middle of the Red Sox lineup. He looks like a major steal from fantasy baseball draft season.

Vierling started the game with a solo home run off of Red Sox opener Jovani Moran and then added a single later in the game. Since Moran is a lefty, Vierling was at the top of the order, but the 29-year-old is hitting .221/.279/.390. It remains to be seen if the return of Zach McKinstry from the injured list will impact Vierling’s playing time against right-handed pitching going forward.

For the first time this season, the Red Sox used an opener ahead of Brayan Bello this season. However, Jovani Moran struggled in that role, so when Bello entered the game in the second inning, he began with the ninth hitter and then immediately faced the top of the order. Perhaps it was more about facing a Tigers team that was downtrodden after losing their ace pitcher. Whatever it was, this was easily Bello’s best outing of the season. He threw 70 percent strikes and attacked lefties with more four-seam fastballs and fewer cutters. He also went to the sweeper more than usual against righties, and it had a 21 percent swinging strike rate on the day. The strikeouts are a bit unsustainable considering he only had 10 whiffs all game, so we wouldn’t go ahead and say that Bello is “fixed,” but he may be on the radar in the deepest formats this weekend against the Rays.

Lee’s exit velocity numbers remain pretty weak and he’s striking out more than usual (though still a bit less than the league average) this year, but he’s thus far produced a nice .270/.323/.435 line anyway. His .302 BABIP wouldn’t be particularly notable for most, but he’d come in at just .254 in 189 games over his first two seasons. Statcast thinks it’s actually this year’s mark that’s the bigger fluke, given his modest hard-hit rates.

Bradley’s velocity was up about one mph in this one, and he wound up generating 16 whiffs and finishing with a 36 percent CSW. He’s allowed two runs or fewer in all but one of his eight starts to open the year 4-1 with a 2.87 ERA. He’ll try to keep it going against the Guardians on Sunday, likely in a battle with Gavin Williams.

Cavalli, who entered with a 38/14 K/BB in 30 2/3 innings, struck out just two and walked three tonight. He also hit a batter for the fifth time in eight starts. The defeat leaves him 1-2 with a 4.15 ERA. Cavalli’s talent is obvious, but some inconsistency had to be expected, given that he entered the season having pitched a total of 82 innings over the last three seasons.

Keaschall is batting .313 with four doubles, six walks and three steals in his last 10 games. It’s been just enough to push his OPS up to .600 for the first time all season. The bat should continue to come around, which would make him pretty valuable if he keeps running; he’s 8-for-8 stealing bases so far.

Harry Ford is off to an awful start in Triple-A, so the Nationals probably aren’t ready for a catcher shakeup just yet. Still, Ruiz has been a disaster offensively, hitting .182/.203/.303 in 69 plate appearances. At least his defense is grading out a little better than usual, for what that’s worth.