MLB Player News

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.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday that Sheehan hasn't been throwing the past few days due to general body soreness, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports.

It's not believed to be a serious concern, but the Dodgers are still exercising some caution with the young right-hander early in camp. Roberts doesn't expect the issue to affect Sheehan's availability for the start of the regular season. The 24-year-old could earn a spot in the Opening Day rotation due to Walker Buehler (elbow) having a delayed start to the campaign.

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.

Williams reported to the Nationals' camp Sunday following the birth of his daughter, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports.

The veteran right-hander wasn't with the team for the start of spring training since his wife was due to give birth, but he's now joined the Nationals after spending some time with his family. Williams threw to high schoolers at home in San Diego, so he was still able to get some work in before reporting to camp and shouldn't be significantly behind the other pitchers.

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.

Spiers allowed three hits and struck out four over two scoreless innings in Saturday's spring start against the Guardians.

Spiers, who served dual roles as a starter and reliever in 2023, opened the Cactus League schedule for the Reds as a starter. The performance was an encouraging outing for Spiers, as two of his four punchouts came against players that rarely strike out -- Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez. It would be a surprise if the right-hander wins a rotation spot, but a strong spring could keep Spiers on a starter's trajectory and put hm atop the list of depth starters.

Megill gave up a run on two hits and struck out three over two innings in Saturday's Grapefruit League game against the Cardinals.

After a shaky first inning that saw him plunk Brendan Donovan to lead off the game before uncorking a wild pitch, Megill breezed through a 1-2-3 second frame. The right-hander came into camp looking to win the Mets' No. 5 starter role, but Kodai Senga's shoulder strain has opened up a second spot in the Opening Day rotation. Megill endured a rough 2023, but he worked on adding a splitter to his arsenal in the offseason and could offer more strikeout upside than the likes of Joey Lucchesi and Jose Butto, his main competition in the rotation battle.

Roby was scratched from his scheduled spring start Monday due to back tightness, Katie Woo of The Athletic reports.

Any spring injuries are concerning, but it doesn't appear to be a serious issue since Roby is still in consideration to start later in the week. The 22-year-old righty is one of the organization's top prospects and could make his big-league debut sometime in 2024 with a strong showing in the minors.

Nelson allowed two hits and struck out five over two scoreless innings in Saturday's spring start against the Rockies.

Nelson's 33-pitch performance was the talk of the post-game discussion. The right-hander threw mostly fastballs and sliders and induced eight swing-and-misses. "The velocity looked like it was spiking," manager Torey Lovullo told Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports. "He started mixing in a really quality secondary pitch with that slider, I know that was something I've been emphasizing. I know he's been working hard on it and he got a ton of swing-and-miss." It was an impressive showing for Nelson, who logged a 15.5 strikeout percentage (sixth percentile per Statcast) and 6.0 K/9 in 2023. It was also a timely response after Tommy Henry's impressive Cactus League debut Friday. Nelson and Henry are seen as the main competitors for the final spot in the rotation.