MLB Player News

Cabrera, sidelined since March 10 when he suffered a strained patellar tendon, will return to game action Sunday, SNY.TV reports.

Cabrera has made a faster than expected recovery, progressing from hitting soft toss and off a tee in the cages to live batting practice and then a minor-league game. He has a week until Opening Night to show he is fully healed. The goal over the next week for the Mets' new double-play combination of Cabrera and Neil Walker to get as many reps as they can to build up chemistry before the regular season starts.

Flores will make his spring debut at first base Friday, and should serve as the team's backup there this season, in addition to his other duties, MLB.com's Anthony DiComo reports.

While the Mets clearly wanted to upgrade from Flores defensively at shortstop by acquiring Asdrubal Cabrera, Flores will get plenty of at-bats this season as the top backup at all of the non-catcher infield positions. Considering that Cabrera (knee) and David Wright (back) are currently banged up, Flores could get a handful of starts in the first couple weeks on the left side of the infield.

Cabrera (knee) will is set to play in a spring training game Sunday and the team believes that he'll be ready for Opening Day, ESPN New York's Adam Rubin reports.

Cabrera has been sidelined since March 10 when he suffered a strained patellar tendon, but he has been able to ramp up his baseball activity in recent days and should be ready to appear in a Grapefruit League game by the end of the weekend. He'll likely serve as a DH on Sunday before getting back into on-field work. Collins said that once Cabrera is healthy, the Mets will need to get him up to speed and comfortable with his double-play counterpart at second base, Neil Walker.

Votto hit his second home run of the spring in Monday's loss to San Diego. "He's doing a lot of good things," manager Bryan Price told MLB.com. "He's playing with a lot of energy. It's always fun to see him get to his power. He just looks good. He looks advanced for this time of spring."

While Votto has no other extra-base hits besides the two homers, he seems to be seeing the ball well as he typically does, posting an 8:6 BB:K over his first 13 spring games. Votto doesn't have to hit for a ton of power to be highly valuable in fantasy even at first base, but there's reason to think he could approach 30 homers again given the hard-hit rate from a season ago (13th among qualifiers).

Manager Terry Collins said he hopes Cabrera (knee) is able to DH in a game by the end of the week, Matt Ehalt of The Record reports.

Cabrera is still in the process of rehabbing a strained patella tendon, and while he's yet to take live batting practice, he hit from indoor cages both Saturday and Sunday. The Mets are hoping to have Cabrera by Opening Day, and if he's able to DH by the weekend, that would certainly be a step in the right direction.

Cabrera (knee) hit from the indoor cages Saturday and Sunday, and there's still a belief that he'll be available for Opening Day, Marc Carig of Newsday reports.

Cabrera mainly hit from the tee and off soft toss, as he works his way back from a strained patella tendon. With two weeks until Opening Day, he'll need to progress to full batting practice and then game action, likely by next weekend, to be ready for April 3.

Blandino is nursing a right thigh injury, but the Reds do not believe it's serious at this point, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

The 23-year-old went 5-for-20 with a homer in 10 Cactus League games before leaving to play for Nicaragua in the World Baseball Classic. It's uncertain when Blandino may return to action, but the Reds will be cautious. Blandino made the jump to Double-A last season after batting .294/.370/.438 with seven homers and seven steals in 80 games with High-A Daytona to begin the year.

Wilkins was optioned to minor league camp Saturday.

Wilkins spent most of last season at the Triple-A level, and that's likely where he'll spend the bulk of 2016 after failing to crack the Brewers' 25-man roster.

The Pirates reassigned Bell to Triple-A Indianapolis on Friday. "For me, it's becoming the best player I can be no matter where I'm playing," Bell told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "If it's in Triple-A all year I have to continue to grow and be better for it. If I do get that call this year I want to be ready for it."

Bell went 3-for-19 with four walks and seven strikeouts in Grapefruit League action. He'll continue to work on his defensive transition from the outfield to first base. Bell got his first taste of Triple-A play in 2015, batting .347/.441/.504 in 121 at-bats and will look to gain further experience before potentially making his big-league debut later in the summer.

Howard went 2-for-4 with his first home run of the spring Thursday against the Rays.

The home run is notable because it came off lefty Matt Moore. Manager Pete Mackanin said Howard will open the year in a platoon with Darin Ruf at first base if he does not show improvement against lefties. Thus far this spring, Howard is 3-for-6 with two doubles, a home run, one strikeout and no walks against lefties. It's a small sample size, but if Howard keeps it up he might be able to open the year with a chance for some additional at-bats. He has hit just .184 with 22 home runs against lefties since the start of the 2012 season.