MLB Player News

Stanton is not in the lineup for Wednesday's contest in Seattle.

Stanton will receive his first day off of the season after picking up exactly two hits in each of the Yankees' first five games. Ben Rice will get a day off from first base but will stick in the lineup at designated hitter in Stanton's stead.

Pederson is out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Orioles.

The left-handed-hitting Pederson has now hit the bench for each of the Rangers' first three matchups versus southpaws, which doesn't come as a major surprise with the 33-year-old having produced a 79 wRC+ over 668 career plate appearances against lefties. Andrew McCutchen is expected to serve as Pederson's primary platoon mate this season, but Brandon Nimmo will be in the designated-hitter spot Wednesday while McCutchen draws his first start in right field.

Ohtani (1-0) completed six scoreless innings in a win against Cleveland on Tuesday, allowing one hit and issuing three walks while striking out six batters. He also went 1-for-3 with a pair of walks as a batter.

The Dodgers opted to have Ohtani be the last of the team's five pitchers in the season-opening rotation to make a start, but he looked every bit an ace against the Guardians. The two-way star retired the first seven batters he faced and yielded just one hit (a Rhys Hoskins double) overall. Ohtani did put some additional runners on base with three walks and a hit-by-pitch, but he threw 54 of 87 pitches for strikes, so his control wasn't particularly shaky. In addition to the strong outing on the mound, he reached base three times, extending his regular-season on-base streak to 36 games dating back to last year. That's the longest active streak in the majors, as is his current regular-season 22.2-inning scoreless streak as a pitcher, per Sarah Langs of MLB.com. He hasn't hit a home run or stolen a base yet, but Ohtani continues to show why he's arguably baseball's -- and fantasy's -- most unique player.

Alvarez went 2-for-3 with a solo home run, two RBI, two runs scored and a walk in Tuesday's 9-2 win over the Red Sox.

Alvarez has now homered in back-to-back games after taking Brayan Bello deep in the fifth inning. He previously drove home Jeremy Pena with an RBI double in the first inning against Bello. Coming off an injury-plagued 2025 season, Alvarez looks back to his normal self in the early going this season, slashing .381/.536/.905 with three home runs, six RBI, six runs scored and a 6:4 BB:K across 28 plate appearances.

Alvarez went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run in Monday's 8-1 win over the Red Sox

Alvarez stayed hot Monday, extending Houston's lead with a two-run shot in the third inning, marking his second home run of the season. The star slugger has been pitched around early, drawing five walks through his first five games, but he continues to make pitchers pay when he gets something to hit. The 28-year-old boasts a 1.222 OPS across 24 plate appearances and so far, has reinforced his status as one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball.

Alvarez went 1-for-2 with three walks, an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base in Sunday's 9-7 win over the Angels.

Alvarez is off to a nice start this season, going 4-for-13 with a home run and five walks through his first four games. Health will be key for the slugger in 2026, and he is slated to alternate between DH and left field. Alvarez was limited to 48 games last year, when he batted .273 with just six homers, 27 RBI and a .797 OPS across 199 plate appearances.

McCutchen went 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, a double and an additional run scored in Sunday's 8-3 win over the Phillies.

Making his second start this season, McCutchen extended Texas' lead to 5-0 with a three-run blast off left Jesus Luzardo, his first home run this season. The 39-year-old McCutchen is expected to fill the short side of a platoon with Joc Pederson at DH after making the team out of spring training as a non-roster invitee. Through three games, McCutchen is 4-for-9 with four RBI.

Ozuna is out of the lineup for Sunday's game against the Mets.

The veteran slugger will receive the afternoon off after he started the Pirates' first two games of the season and went 1-for-9 with a walk. With Ozuna on the bench, Bryan Reynolds will cede left field to Jake Mangum and shift to designated hitter.

Pederson served as the designated hitter and went 0-for-1 with a walk in Saturday's 5-4 extra-inning win over Philadelphia.

Pederson, who was held out of the first game of the series with left-hander Cristopher Sanchez on the mound, got the start against righty Aaron Nola. As soon as lefty reliever Tanner Banks entered the contest, Texas manager Skip Schumaker sent Andrew McCutchen out to pinch hit for Pederson. It looks like DH will be strict platoon between the two.

Stanton went 2-for-4 with a solo home run Friday in a 3-0 win over San Francisco.

Stanton provided the final run of the low-scoring affair with a 414-foot solo shot in the sixth inning. The slugger had a great spring, belting four homers in just 29 plate appearances, and he's gone 4-for-8 with a pair of RBI in his first two contests of the campaign. Stanton hasn't reached the 30-homer mark in a regular season since 2022, but that's largely due to a plethora of injuries that have cost him over 200 games across the past three years.