Betting

Cease was outstanding in his debut with the Blue Jays. The 30-year-old right-hander dominated the A’s over five shutout innings before a walk and a double brought a run in to score in the sixth. Cease would end his day with one out in the inning at 90 pitches -- 61 for strikes. His fastball was sitting at 98.7 mph, up 1.6 mph from last season. He generated an incredible 24 whiffs to collect a dozen strikeouts, at one point striking out seven consecutive batters. Cease will look to follow his excellent start with a matchup against the White Sox in Chicago on Sunday.

Pérez tossed a scoreless first inning before giving up a solo homer to TJ Rumfield in the second. He hung a slider to Ezequiel Tovar in the fourth, who sent it over the left field wall for a two-run shot. The two home runs were the only blemishes on an otherwise impressive first start for Pérez as he generated an impressive 17 whiffs to strike out eight batters. The talented 22-year-old right-hander will draw the Yankees in New York for his next start on Friday.

McGonigle will get his first start in the big leagues at shortstop. The 21-year-old has been sensational over his first two games of the year; going 5-for-8 with one of his outs being a robbed homer by Jackson Merrill. With McGonigle at short, Javier Báez will begin Saturday’s game on the bench.

Wetherholt also had a single and a stolen base earlier in the contest. He committed an error that played a small role in the Cardinals blowing a four-run lead in the ninth; he tried to glove flip the ball on a weak grounder from the speedy Chandler Simpson and missed badly, allowing Jonathan Aranda to score on what was correctly ruled an infield single (plus the error). Still, he more than made up for it with his own grounder an inning later. It looked like first baseman Aranda would have had a shot at it, but he retreated in the hopes that second baseman Ben Williamson would make the play. Instead, the ball went into right, allowing both the tying and winning runs to score. Wetherholt is 3-for-9 with a homer through two games.

Junior Caminero ended the no-hit bid immediately after Riley O’Brien replaced McGreevy to start the seventh. Still, it was a 4-0 game going into the bottom of the ninth, when Matt Svanson and Ryne Stanek combined to give up four runs and cost McGreevy the win. McGreevy’s velocity was down all spring and actually down a little further today — his 90.7 mph average with his sinker was 2.3 shy of his 2025 mark — but he obviously made it work. He got 21 called strikes for a decent 28% CSW and only five of his 14 balls in play were hit hard. Those five well-struck actually produced two 390-foot flies and had xBAs of .940, .870, .750, .540 and .360, but all were handled by the Cardinals defense. We’re still not very optimistic about McGreevy offering mixed-league value, especially without that extra two mph on his heater.

Refsnyder will hit at the top of the lineup in his first start as a Mariner with left-hander Joey Cantillo on the bump for the Guardians. It’s intriguing if only because Refsnyder has handled southpaws so well in his career, and he’ll get a chance to be driven in by some very good baseball players. Brendan Donovan will move down to sixth with Refsnyder at the top, and Dom Canzone is out of the lineup.

Vaughn is expected to miss 4–6 weeks after he undergoes hamate surgery on Monday. He suffered the injury during Thursday’s season-opening rout of the White Sox. The 27-year-old former third-overall pick hit .308 with nine homers in 64 games for Milwaukee last year to emerge as their everyday first baseman. It’s a significant loss for the Brewers since he’ll likely be sidelined until at least early May. It’ll be some combination of Gary Sánchez and Jake Bauers taking over at the cold corner with prospect Jeferson Quero coming up to fortify Milwaukee’s catching depth.

“He’s doing much better,” Vogt told reporters on Friday after Bibee was removed from Thursday’s season-opening start against the Mariners with right shoulder inflammation. The 27-year-old right-hander is officially day-to-day for now, but it sounds like there’s a realistic chance he takes the ball on Tuesday night. He’s scheduled to throw a bullpen session this weekend to determine whether he’s ready. It’s a tough spot for fantasy managers since Bibee is likely to have some workload restrictions while also facing an extremely challenging Death Star-caliber lineup. It’s a positive sign that he might avoid a trip to the injured list, but fantasy managers should probably leave him on the bench next week.

Caglianone came off the bench during Thursday’s season opener against the Braves with veteran southpaw Chris Sale on the mound. The 23-year-old former top prospect was one of the more popular middle-round fantasy sleepers in drafts this spring but he’s probably going to keep sitting against tougher left-handed starters. The other notable change for Kansas City is Carter Jensen moving up to the fifth spot after hitting eighth on Opening Day.

DeGrom added that he woke up with neck stiffness and underwent treatment in an effort to start on Saturday against the Phillies before the decision was made to not to take any risks by pushing it. It certainly sounds like things are trending towards the 37-year-old veteran fantasy ace making his season debut during a three-game road series against the Orioles, which gets underway on Monday at Camden Yards. The tentative plan is for him to take the ball on Tuesday after Jack Leiter starts the series opener. Fantasy managers should keep a close eye on the situation but initial reports seem to indicate that this isn’t a potential injured list situation. There should be some additional clarity on his status at some point later this weekend.