MLB Player News

Irvin had increased velocity on all of his pitches in his Grapefruit League debut Sunday versus the Pirates, Jake Rill of MLB.com reports.

Irvin's offseason training has apparently added some additional power to his pitches. He averaged around 92 mph on his fastball and sinker in 2023, with those two pitches combining to be nearly half of all he threw. He also has a curveball, changeup and cutter in his arsenal, and all of them saw velocity increases in his spring debut. The southpaw is in contention for a rotation spot with Kyle Bradish (elbow) and John Means (elbow) likely to miss the start of the campaign.

Olson allowed two runs on a hit and three walks across 1.2 innings in Saturday's Grapefruit League game against the Yankees.

It wasn't the smoothest spring debut for Olson, as he struggled with his command, throwing only 16 of his 39 pitches for strikes and issuing the three walks. The young righty posted a 2.9 BB/9 in his rookie season last year, an area he'll look to improve on in his sophomore campaign. Olson should get a chance to start this season, though the Tigers did add Jack Flaherty and Kenta Maeda in the offseason, which makes the rotation more crowded.

Plesac spent time at Driveline in the offseason and has replaced his four-seam fastball with a two-seamer while transforming his slider into "more of a sweeper," Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register reports.

Plesac is trying to get his once-promising career back on track following an awful 2023 campaign during which he posted a 7.59 ERA and 1.97 WHIP over five big-league starts and a 6.08 ERA and 1.49 WHIP over 94.2 frames at Triple-A. The Angels signed the right-hander to a one-year contract in late December with the hope that he can regain the form that helped him record a much more useful 3.32 ERA and 1.09 WHIP across 2019 and 2020 over his first 29 major-league starts. Plesac could insert himself into the conversation for a spot at the back of the team's rotation with a strong spring, though with Los Angeles moving back to a five-man starting staff and multiple arms vying for one of those spots, Plesac is more likely to begin the regular season in the bullpen or at Triple-A.

Whitlock allowed one run on one hit while striking out two over two innings in Saturday's spring start against Baltimore.

Whitlock allowed some loud contact during his opening frame, including an Adley Rutschman home run on a 3-1 changeup. Red Sox manager Alex Cora was largely pleased with the outing. "He fell into some deep counts," Cora told Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe. "Conditions were conducive to fly balls going out of the ballpark. But overall it was a good outing. The quality of pitches was good. So now we move on to the next one." Whitlock is in the mix for a spot in the rotation, but the right-hander said he's not as consumed with being a starter as he was the past two seasons, which have featured injuries and inconsistency. "I kind of took a page from Adam Warren (a former teammate), where he told me, once you adapt that mind-set of being a Swiss Army knife, where you can be thrown into anything and excel, it frees everything else up," Whitlock said. He's in the mix for one of two spots in the rotation along with Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck and Josh Winckowski.

Eovaldi allowed one hit and one walk over two innings in Saturday's spring start against the Royals.

Eovaldi worked around a leadoff single and two-out walk in the first inning, as the right-hander went unscathed during his Cactus League debut. His fastball sat at 96 mph and touched 97 mph, per Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News.

Manager Joe Espada said Sunday that Whitley (finger) has reduced inflammation but won't throw for the next week, Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports.

The right-hander was scratched from his bullpen session Saturday due to the right middle finger injury, and he'll be shut down for a week as a result. Whitley will need to ramp things back up after the shutdown period, so he likely won't be game-ready until at least mid-March.

Astros manager Joe Espada said Saturday that Whitley's right middle finger injury "doesn't look like it's something significant," Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle reports.

Whitley wasn't able to throw a scheduled bullpen session Saturday because of soreness in the finger. He's been sent for testing, but the expectation seems to be that this won't be a long-term absence. Injuries are unfortunately nothing new for Whitley, who was limited to just 30 innings in 2023 with a lat strain.

Whitley did not participate in his scheduled bullpen session Saturday due to middle finger soreness, Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle reports.

Whitley experienced soreness when warming up for his bullpen session and will be evaluated by doctors. An extended absence could severely impact his chances of landing a relief spot with the Astros to start the season. Whitley appeared in eight Triple-A games in 2023 and registered a 1-2 record with a 5.70 ERA, 1.33 WHIP and a 32:17 K:BB over 30 innings.

Dunning threw one scoreless inning in Friday's spring start against the Royals.

Dunning retired the side in order, inducing a flyout, groundout and lineout to kick off the Cactus League schedule. The right-hander tinkered with a new pitch during the offseason, the type of which he would not divulge to Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. He threw it once during Friday's outing and spiked it well short of the plate. It appears to be a variation of a splitter. Dunning's current arsenal includes a sinker (33.1 percent in 2023), slider (23.4 percent), cutter (20.0 percent), changeup (15.6 percent) and curveball (4.7 percent). He's penciled into the Opening Day rotation, but things could change in the second half of the season, when injured starters Jacob deGrom (elbow), Tyler Mahle (elbow) and Max Scherzer (back) are ready to pitch.

Carrasco (finger) will start Saturday's Grapefruit League opener against the Reds, Nick Camino of WKYC Channel 3 Cleveland reports.

Carrasco underwent surgery to repair a fractured finger in September but is ready for game action early in spring training. The 36-year-old joined the Guardians as a non-roster invitee after he posted a 6.80 ERA, 1.70 WHIP and 66:38 K:BB over 90 innings (20 starts) for the Mets last season.