MLB Player News

Giles pitched a perfect inning, striking out two batters in Saturday's game against the Mets.

The back end of Houston's bullpen made appearances Saturday with Luke Gregerson firing a scoreless inning prior to Giles, who will reprise the role of Houston's closer in 2017. The three-year veteran had a little trouble with the long ball in 2016, which was an anomaly compared to his first two MLB seasons. If Giles returns to a more normal home-run rate, we can expect improvement to the unsightly (for a closer) ERA of 4.11 from last season.

Fulmer suffered a sprained right ankle Sunday and is expected to miss his Monday start against the Orioles, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com reports.

It's being reported that this is a low-grade ankle sprain, and manager Brad Ausmus doesn't expect Fulmer to miss more than one start. Fulmer is, however, now unlikely to pitch in the World Baseball Classic as he tends to his ankle. The 23-year-old is coming off of a superb 2016 campaign in which he took home American League Rookie of the Year honors.

Gonsalves has retired 11 of 12 batters faced this spring, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com reports.

Gonsalves is coming off a dominant season at High-A Fort Myers and Double-A Chattanooga, where he used a high spin rate to great effectiveness. He's not going to overpower hitters with his low-90s fastball, but he's getting batters out. He's expected to start the season at Triple-A Rochester and could reach Minnesota at some point in 2017.

Graveman (1-0) struck out one and gave up one hit and one walk over two scoreless innings in Friday's 6-1 Cactus League victory over the Giants.

So far, so good for Graveman, who has now fired three scoreless frames over his first two trips to the mound. After an impressive first inning in which he set down Denard Span, Joe Panik and Buster Posey in order, the 26-year-old righty worked around a Brandon Crawford infield single and Jarrett Parker walk in the second, striking out Chris Marrero to close out his successful outing. Graveman encouragingly had his sinker working, with three of his six outs coming on grounders. "I thought the sink was much better today," Graveman said. "I mixed all my pitches today and threw them all for strikes."

McHugh could throw his first bullpen session "in the next couple days," according to Houston manager A.J. Hinch, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports.

If he can start throwing in a game by the end of next week, McHugh will have time to build up arm strength and pitch counts to get ready for the first turn of the rotation in the regular season.

Smith (elbow) is throwing out to 120 feet and is scheduled to throw off a mound in the next 10-to-14 days, Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe reports.

Red Sox manager John Farrell indicated earlier this spring that he was shooting for Smith to be on a mound by mid-March, so it looks like he's still on schedule. The conventional wisdom has Smith returning to the majors by June.

Covey made his first start of the spring Friday, needing just 16 pitches to get through two scoreless innings in Friday's game against San Diego.

Covey was selected by the White Sox during the Rule 5 draft this past winter after the right-hander impressed watchers of the Arizona Fall League. The rebuilding White Sox are in a position to maintain a project like Covey, who throws a four-seamer, a sinker (his best offering), a curveball and a changeup. If the 25-year-old is to make the roster, it would likely be as a reliever, presumably in low-leverage situations.

May gave up one run over 2.1 innings with two strikeouts in Friday's spring start. He has spotted an issue where he was tipping a pitch by closing his glove when preparing to throw a curveball, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

May is competing for the fifth starter job after working out of the bullpen last season. He looks healthy as he was throwing between 92-94 mph with his fastball, which is encouraging since he struggled with a stress fracture in his back last season. Even with the back issue that helped result in a 5.27 ERA, he had a 12.66 K/9 working out of the bullpen. He's given up one run in four innings with three strikeouts this spring.

Yarbrough fired two perfect innings in Friday's 5-2 Grapefruit League victory over the Tigers, striking out five of the six batters he faced.

Yarbrough recorded punch-outs of Alex Collins and Tyler Collins to start the game before striking out the side in the second. He allowed only Nick Castellanos to reach base, and that only came as a result of a misplayed fly ball by the debuting Mallex Smith. The dominant outing was a sharp departure from his spring debut on Feb. 26 versus the Red Sox, when Yarbrough had surrendered three earned runs on five hits in just one inning, and the improvement made an impression on manager Kevin Cash. "I thought Ryan Yarbrough was pretty impressive. Set the tone early. He even got a lot of compliments from the home plate umpire, Brian O'Nora. He kind of said, 'Who is that guy?' Just worked quick, efficient, had late action to his pitches."

Wilson (hamstring) threw off a mound without any reported issues Friday, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reports.

Wilson should keep plugging away at his rehab and seems on track to be ready for Opening Day, when he'd occupy a middle relief role with the occasional late-game setup opportunity.