MLB Player News

Smith will be temporarily shut down with elbow inflammation, Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area Sports reports.

The positive news is that the MRI came back clean and manager Bruce Bochy is confident his reliever will be ready for opening day. The Giants plan to have Smith make six appearances before the season opener, but will likely exercise caution with the lefty. The 27-year-old made 26 appearances with San Francisco after being acquired at the trade deadline, posting a 2.95 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP.

Melancon said that he feels where he wants to be physically heading into spring training, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Melancon threw a bullpen session Tuesday and reportedly felt great physically afterwards. He mentioned that he normally feels a "slowness" when beginning spring training but that was not the case this year. This is good news for both the Giants -- who recently signed their new closer to four-year deal this offseason -- and fantasy owners hoping for another solid season from one of the game's top closing options.

The Reds still want to go with a four-man closer committee, rather than committing to Iglesias as the closer.

Ultimately the Reds hope that their plan won't be decided in spring training. "I would really like to see this particular game plan we have in place work out," manager Bryan Price said on Sunday. "We want to look at the end of the year and we see Storen and Iglesias and Lorenzen, in particular, with some saves. That may mean Cingrani as well, if he's the best guy we have for that situation in the ninth inning.

Neris is using the offseason to polish up and implement his slider, Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly reports.

Neris is coming off a breakout year in 2016, where he posted a 2.58 ERA and an 11.4 K/9 in 80.1 innings, the third-most among National League relief pitchers. He did so while relying heavily on two pitches, a fastball he threw 46 percent of the time and a splitter he threw 49 percent of the time. He's working on improving his slider, which he threw 2.9 percent of the time in 2016, so he will be able to diversify his pitch repertoire further and build on his success. The third pitch could help the 27-year-old grab hold of the closer job that he is currently competing with Jeanmar Gomez and Joaquin Benoit for.

Rusin has a leg up on other competitors for spots in the Rockies bullpen since he is out of minor league options, Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports.

The 30-year-old lefty was a largely underrated member of the Rockies pitching staff last year, switching between starting and relieving all season en route to posting a 3.74 ERA and 1.25 WHIP, both career bests. Rusin still isn't a lock to break camp with the big league squad, but given his recent success, lack of options, and left-handedness, he seems like a good bet to be present when Opening Day rolls around. That being said, it's tough to see him making much noise in the fantasy realm, as he doesn't strike out nearly enough batters to be worth anything as a reliever and doesn't start enough games to be anything more than a streaming option when he lands a start away from Coors Field.

Estevez is not a lock for a spot in the Rockies bullpen to start the season, Nick Groke of the Denver Post reports.

The young reliever spent a chunk of the summer as Colorado's closer, converting 11 of 18 save opportunities. However, his 5.24 ERA left much to be desired, and given the multitude of veteran options brought in to bolster the bullpen, Estevez is on the fringe of the major league roster. It seems most likely that the 24-year-old will start the year at Triple-A Albuquerque and shuttle up to the big leagues as needed.

Manager Andy Green said that Hand will make the Opening Day roster as a member of the Padres' bullpen.

Hand had his best season as a professional last season in San Diego (2.92 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 21 holds), something that many pitchers experience when becoming a Padre. It was more than just ballpark factor that contributed to his newfound success, as his strikeout rate (11.2) and FIP (3.12) experienced tremendous growth while the rest of his metrics remained relatively constant. The biggest change Hand made last season was relying on his curveball more than he has in year's past. He threw his bender 31.4 percent of the time last season compared to 15.1 percent the year prior. Hand will look to repeat his 2016 success and should be a decent source of holds in either a seventh or eighth inning role this year.

Stoffel did not participate in Sunday's team workout due to right shoulder discomfort, Stephen Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Stoffel signed a minor league deal with the Pirates this offseason which included an invitation to spring training. He's being listed as day-to-day with his shoulder discomfort, so the injury does not appear to be overly serious.

Vizcaino (shoulder) will set up Jim Johnson if he's healthy to begin the season, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Braves manager Brian Snitker squashed any thought of a spring competition for the ninth-inning role Friday, naming Johnson his closer and saying the focus for Vizcaino was just to stay off the DL, something the 26-year-old has yet to do in his big league career. "(Vizcaino) hasn't done it in a long time. Viz has just got to be healthy. We just hope we get him through [the spring], and he's healthy and back to being like he was when I got here last year in May," Snitker said. Johnson is far from an elite closing option and could always get traded, so Vizcaino might yet rack up some saves in 2017, but at this point you should wait and see how he looks in Grapefruit League action before considering him even as an option to stash on your reserve list.

Beede is one of several starters vying for the Giants' fifth spot in the rotation and VP of baseball operations Brian Sabean expects he will be in the majors sooner rather than later, CSN Bay Area reports.

Matt Cain is still considered the favorite to win the fifth starter job out of spring training, so Sabean's statement was more than likely made to suggest that Beede is next in line should one of the Giants' veteran starters go down to injury or falter out of the gates. A dominating season at Double-A Richmond (2.81 ERA, 8.3 K/9 and 0.55 HR/9) proved that his poor 2015 was more of an outlier than a sign of things to come. He could certainly surpass expectations this spring and force the Giants' hand in putting him in the rotation, but the expected path for Beede would be to start the year with Triple-A Sacramento and then moving to the majors if and when the team needs a starter.