Michael

Wacha

It was another solid start for Wacha, whose two earned runs set a new high for him on the season. The veteran righty struck out five Yankees through 3 1/3 innings of scoreless ball before a two-run homer by Ben Rice broke the scoreless tie. Wacha would stay locked in for the rest of the night and picked up the no-decision thanks to Vinnie Pasquantino tying the game at 2-2 in the eighth inning on a solo homer. Now sitting at 2-0 on the season with a 1.00 ERA, Wacha will look to pick up his third win in his next start, which is scheduled for Wednesday against the Orioles.

Wacha was outstanding on Saturday, spinning eight shutout frames against the White Sox. He scattered four hits and one walk while tossing 63 of 88 pitches for strikes and generated 15 whiffs to collect seven strikeouts. The 34-year-old right-hander ends the day with an excellent 0.43 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, and a 17/5 K/BB ratio across 21 innings. Wacha will look to keep it going when he takes on the Yankees in New York on Friday.

The lone run came on a Steven Kwan homer. Rhys Hoskins also made a bid for one, but his fly to right in the second went just inches foul. Wacha settled for three strikeouts and six whiffs on the Guardians’ 41 swings, but only two of the Guardians balls in play in excess of 100 mph turned into hits. He’ll take a 0.69 ERA into a nice matchup against the White Sox on Monday.

The 34-year-old hurler is feeling a bit under the weather, so Luinder Avila will be recalled from Triple-A Omaha to start in his place on Friday night. The rest of the Royals’ rotation for the weekend remains unchanged, with Seth Lugo toeing the slab on Saturday and Kris Bubic getting the ball in their series finale on Sunday.

Wacha got 17 whiffs tonight, and his 37.5% CSW was a full 50% better than his 2025 mark of 24.9%. His strikeout rate took a hit last year, dropping from 22% in 2023 and 21% in 2024 to 18% in 2025. A rebound there would go a long way towards making him a viable mixed-league option this season. He’ll face the Brewers next week.

It had already been announced that Cole Ragans would pitch against the Braves in Atlanta on Opening Day. He’ll be followed by Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo, with Noah Cameron rounding out the rotation and pitching on Wednesday against the Twins. It’s possible that Cameron could actually get pushed back to Thursday with Ragans working Wednesday on regular rest, but they may not want to push their ace so early in the season.

He allowed six hits, walked one and struck out four. Wacha’s four spring outings have produced an 8.44 ERA, and he gave up three runs in three innings in his lone WBC appearance for Team USA. On the brightside, he had a 7.64 ERA last spring and still opened up with a 2.98 ERA in his first eight starts.

The only two likely major leaguers Wacha faced tonight were bottom-of-the-barrel-types Jorge Barrosa and Ildemaro Vargas, so this is a particularly poor result, even if Wacha did wind up with six strikeouts. His velocity is down about 1.5 mph from last year, and he doesn’t seem like a very good bet for at least the beginning of the season.

Team USA could not guarantee Holmes enough innings to stay ready for the regular season, so back to Mets camp he goes. Also exiting the Team USA roster for the quarterfinal round are Michael Wacha, Ryan Yarbrough, and Tarik Skubal. Replacements for those three are Will Vest, Tyler Rogers, and Tim Hill. The team has not yet announced a replacement for Holmes, but Joe Ryan is expected to be in the mix.

Wacha struck out five over two scoreless frames to start his outing, but he gave up two hits and a homer to Victor Mascai in his third inning of work. In all, he threw 39 pitches, 31 of which were strikes.