MLB Player News

Mikolas tossed four scoreless innings in Friday's 4-2 Grapefruit League loss to the Astros, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out three.

The right-hander put together what was easily his best appearance of the spring thus far, looking much more like the pitcher that turned in a 31-13 record in the Japanese Central League while toiling for the Yomiuri Giants the last three seasons. Mikolas scattered four harmless singles across his quartet of frames and escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth by retiring Brian McCann and J.D. Davis on a popup and groundout, respectively. The veteran stretched out to 68 pitches (45 strikes) overall, Glenn Sattell of MLB.com reports, and got up as high as 98 mph with his fastball. He's looking to refine his slider change ahead of his next outing in an effort to continue keeping quality bats as off balance as he did Friday against the defending World Series champions. "That should make [the slider] a little more effective, get some more drop out of it as well as more of a timing pitch to use it as a changeup so that I can vary my speeds from the fastball and the slider/cutter, curveball, changeup/split change," Mikolas said.

Gray has allowed nine earned runs on 13 hits in 8.1 innings this spring.

Health issues aside, the Rockies' ace made major strides as a starter last season, producing a 3.67 ERA in 20 starts. He even found success at hitter-friendly Coors Field, sporting a 3.13 home ERA by season's end while allowing just four homers on the season in Denver. Gray is getting shelled this spring, but it's likely a result of some mechanical tweaks he's making. Nick Groke of The Denver Post reports that Gray is adjusting the grip on his changeup and experimenting with different windups this spring, albeit without the results one would hope for. At this point, the young right-hander seems to be more focused on adding to his repertoire and seeing what works and what isn't. If he can command his altered offering by the end of spring training, it could be a boon to his value.

Musgrove (shoulder) will take the mound for three innings against the Yankees on Thursday, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic reports.

Musgrove was able to throw 31 pitches over two innings of an intrasquad game against minor leaguers Friday and said that everything went well without any issues. His status for the beginning of the regular season remains a little uncertain, but more should be known regarding his status following Thursday's outing.

Matz tossed four scoreless innings in Friday's Grapefruit League game against the Tigers, allowing two hits and a walk while striking out two.

It wasn't exactly a sharp outing, as Matz threw only 21 of 53 pitches for strikes, but he did get six swinging strikes and the outing was a marked improvement over his prior two awful spring performances. The left-hander is still in the mix for the Mets' fifth starter spot, but he'll need to keep improving through the rest of camp if he wants to fend off Zack Wheeler for the job.

DeSclafani threw three scoreless innings Friday against the Rangers, inducing seven ground balls while retiring eight of his final nine batters, including a big double play in the first inning, MLB.com's Mark Sheldon reports. "I was able to kind of catch my groove," DeSclafani said. "I was throwing a lot of strikes and they were just hitting it on the ground. I had some quick innings after I got that double play. I thought it was about to be a long inning for a second [in the first]. It ended up turning out great."

DeSclafani is getting closer to being ready for the start of the season. This was especially encouraging after his previous outing went poorly.

Milone (personal) is back with the team and scheduled to pitch in Saturday's Grapefruit League game against the Astros, Jamal Collier of MLB.com reports.

Milone spent the last few days away from the team following the birth of his child. The left-hander will try to earn a spot on the Nationals' Opening Day roster, but it seems more likely that he will begin the 2018 campaign at the Triple-A level while serving as organizational depth.

Ray surrendered one run on two hits and two walks while striking out six batters across 3.1 innings Friday in the Diamondbacks' 7-2 win over the Royals in Cactus League play.

Ray was lights out through three innings and threw 24 of his 33 pitches for strikes, with his lone mistake coming on his final pitch of the afternoon, when Paulo Orlando connected on a solo home run. The outing represents a dramatic step forward for Ray after he failed to escape the first inning and was charged with five earned runs in his second start of the spring March 3 against the Dodgers. Per Craig Grialou of ArizonaSports.com, Ray credited his between-starts bullpen session for getting the timing of his pitches back on track Friday, and he's hopeful to carry that form into the regular season.

Maeda gave up one run on three hits while walking one and striking out four over three innings in a spring win over the Royals on Friday.

Maeda worked around a leadoff home run to Whit Merrifield to turn in a solid pitching line. The veteran has seen his workload increase with each spring outing -- including an additional inning in the bullpen following this start -- which suggests he will begin the 2018 campaign in the Dodgers' rotation. We saw mixed results from Maeda in his sophomore season (primarily as a starter) after he posted a 4.22 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and a 9.4 K/9 over 134.1 innings. The key difference between his rookie year and last season was a sharp increase in home runs allowed (1.5 HR/9). If he can keep the ball down, Maeda has a chance to hold down his rotation spot all season.

Musgrove (shoulder) threw 31 pitches in two innings of an intrasquad game at Pirate City on Friday. "Joe got off the mound in good form," manager Clint Hurdle told DK Pittsburgh Sports. "We'll see how he feels Saturday, but I think he's on his way now."

Because Musgrove has yet to pitch in the Grapefruit League, Pittsburgh's challenge will be to get him stretched out prior to Opening Day. The team would like to start him during the first homestand sometime between April 1-8.

Manager Mike Matheny remarked that Martinez is likely going to take the mound for Opening Day against the Mets on March 29, Joe Trezza of MLB.com reports.

This will be Martinez's second-consecutive Opening Day start. He took the hill 32 times in 2017, posting a 3.64 ERA and 1.22 WHIP with a career-high 217 strikeouts in 205 innings. The 26-year-old will look to lower his home-run rate -- which sparked to 1.2 per nine innings last year -- in order to take another step forward as the Cardinals' ace.