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That’s unexpected. It’d been clear for a couple of weeks that Nootbaar would open up on the IL following his heel surgeries, but it was supposed to be the 10-day. Nootbaar has been hitting and throwing since the beginning of the spring and recently resumed running, but we take it that didn’t go as well as hoped. Nathan Church, Thomas Saggese and José Fermín will divvy up his at-bats for at least the first two months.

The biggest concern for Peña, which could’ve led to a brief trip to the injured list to open the regular season, was the lack of live at-bats resulting from a fractured finger he suffered earlier this month. The 28-year-old shortstop homered in Tuesday’s exhibition contest and figures to be in Houston’s lineup for Thursday’s opener against the Angels. It might take him a few games to knock off the rust and get back to full speed.

Kelly will begin the season on the IL, but he returned to the mound for the final spring training game on Tuesday and pitched two innings against the Guardians. He’s still working his way back from nerve issues with his back, but his velocity was close to normal in that outing, which is good news. He will likely need more than one rehab start to build up to a pitch count that will allow him to go five innings in an MLB game. He should return in mid-April, which would push either Michael Soroka or Brandon Pfaadt out of the rotation.

Pena also had a 361-foot flyout to go along with his 394-foot homer. Expectations were that he’d open up on the IL after suffering a finger injury in the WBC, but he made his case to start at shortstop on Opening Day tonight. If he was successful, that means the Astros will need to play Yordan Alvarez in left if they want to include both Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker in their initial lineup.

All of the runs came in the fifth, when he allowed three straight singles to open the inning and then got pulled. None of the singles were hard-hit. Through the first four innings, he’d allowed just one hard-hit ball and struck out more than two-thirds of the batters he faced, even though his velocity was down about two mph from last year. He’ll make his season debut as a pitcher Tuesday against the Guardians.

This came up completely out of nowhere. It looks like Jordan Romano or Drew Pomeranz will open the season as Los Angeles’ primary ninth-inning option with Yates on the shelf and Robert Stephenson (elbow) done for the year. No word yet regarding how much time Yates is expected to miss. This entire closing situation is a borderline stay-away for fantasy managers outside of extremely deep mixed leagues.

This always seemed like the most likely outcome after Lodolo didn’t seem to be brimming with optimism after playing catch on Tuesday at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The 28-year-old southpaw won’t require a lengthy absence at the outset of the regular season but he’ll need at least a handful of minor league rehab outings to build up his pitch count and stamina. Top pitching prospect Rhett Lowder, who will start on Sunday against the Red Sox to open the season, seems like the clearest beneficiary from Lodolo’s departure from Cincinnati’s rotation mix since he’ll have a much clearer path to consistent innings, which gives him some fantasy appeal as a streaming option in shallow mixed leagues.

Passan adds that the long-term contract agreement, which ostensibly buys out Crow-Armstrong’s four remaining arbitration-eligible seasons and two additional free agent years, could be worth up to $133 million through performance-based escalators. The 23-year-old center fielder blossomed into a legitimate fantasy star last season, cobbling together a magnificent 31-homer, 35-steal breakthrough campaign. He’ll be at the epicenter of Chicago’s long-term roster build and projects as a perennial early-round selection in fantasy drafts as he approaches his physical prime.

It was extremely encouraging to see Burns completely dialed in after a mostly forgettable spring that left fanatsy managers with more questions than answers. He generated 13 swinging strikes and topped out at 99.8 mph on his four-seam fastball, limiting Milwaukee’s formidable lineup to just four hits, including a solo homer from Jake Bauers. More importantly, he didn’t hand out a free pass in this one and got hit pitch count up to 68 (53 strikes). The 23-year-old top pitching prospect will kick off the season with an extremely favorable home matchup against the division-rival Pirates on Monday night.

Is it too late for the Yankees to change their minds? Domínguez, who was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last week, took Cubs starter Edward Cabrera deep in the fourth inning for his fourth round-tripper of the spring as part of another multi-hit performance. The 23-year-old top prospect wraps spring training hitting .347 (17-for-48) over 17 games. It’ll likely take an injury or otherwise unexpected development for Domínguez to get another shot with the Yankees this season.