MLB Player News

Sale will start the Red Sox's Opening Day matchup with the Rays, Ian Browne of MLB.com reports.

This comes as little surprise, as the southpaw was one of the top pitchers in all of baseball last season. Sale produced a 2.90 ERA to go with a career-best 308 strikeouts in 2017. He'll take the hill opposite Rays ace Chris Archer to kick off the 2018 campaign.

Heaney is not concerned about his inflamed elbow, Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register reports.

Heaney says he already feels better but isn't sure when he'll be cleared to pitch. An MRI on his elbow came back clean Monday, but the team may be cautious with him due to his injury history.

Bergman (0-2) allowed four runs (one earned) on seven hits and a walk over 4.1 innings in Monday's 8-4 Cactus League loss to the Angels. He struck out three.

Although his final line appeared shaky overall, Bergman's troubles were primarily limited to his final inning and were exacerbated by a pair of errors behind him. The right-hander was signed to a minor-league contract in January and has the ability to serve as a long reliever, or as a starter in a pinch. In a 13-appearance stint last season with the Mariners -- his first with the club -- he logged eight starts and generated a 5.00 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and 33:15 K:BB over 54 innings.

Snell compiled nine strikeouts and allowed an earned run on three hits and three walks over 4.2 innings in Monday's 4-2 Grapefruit League win over the Yankees.

Snell's dominant spring may have reached its apex against a loaded Yankees lineup, with his nine whiffs easily a high-water mark across his four starts. The promising lefty has recorded less than four strikeouts only once in his appearances, and he encouragingly was just one out shy of upping his workload by two innings over that of his previous start. He did have some issues finding the strike zone Monday, but he's nevertheless flashed improved location overall during the exhibition slate. Snell's impressive showing thus far in camp is a byproduct of the attitude makeover he came into spring training with, Bill Chastain of MLB.com reports. "He's really grown up from maybe some of his struggles last year," manager Kevin Cash said. "But he's come in with a new and different mindset. Very focused. Very committed. You can watch his tempo on the mound when he's pitched, and it's translated into positive results."

Gray is slated to start the Yankees' fourth game of the season, April 1 against the Blue Jays, Lindsey Adler of The Athletic New York reports.

In order to split up the two lefties in the rotation -- CC Sabathia and Jordan Montgomery -- manager Aaron Boone will insert the right-handed Gray in between them in the pitching schedule. While splitting the past season with the Athletics and Yankees, Gray bounced back from a horrid 2016 campaign in a major way, finishing with a 3.55 ERA and 8.4 K/9 in 27 starts. While having a potent Yankees offense backing him for the entire year should help Gray improve on the 10 wins he notched last season, his ratios could take a hit while he makes roughly half his starts in the Bronx. Over his five outings in Yankee Stadium last season, Gray posted a 5.65 ERA and served up eight home runs in 28.2 innings.

Kopech was reassigned to minor-league camp Tuesday.

Kopech had a 11.57 ERA in seven innings with the big club this spring, striking out seven and walking seven. He almost certainly would have begun the year in the minors regardless of his spring performance, however, and not just for service-time reasons. The 21-year-old flamethrower has appeared in just three games at the Triple-A level and has walked 4.5 batters per nine innings in his minor-league career. He could be in the big-league rotation for the bulk of the season if his control satisfies the White Sox in his first handful of starts for Triple-A Charlotte.

Eovaldi was scratched from Tuesday's scheduled start against the Orioles due to threatening weather, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Eovaldi is not hurt; the Rays simply don't want his schedule disrupted by an abridged outing. The team is being extra cautious with the 28-year-old righty as he returns from his second Tommy John surgery, having already pushed back his first start by a day. That extra caution shouldn't necessarily be taken as a sign that Eovaldi's health isn't where the team wants it to be, as it's simply best practice to not push a player too hard in his situation. He's looked good so far this spring, striking out 10 batters and walking none through 10.2 innings.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons confirmed Tuesday that Stroman (shoulder) would start the team's fourth game of the season April 1 against the Yankees, Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com reports.

Stroman entered spring training as the leading candidate to pick up the Opening Day nod, but that will instead fall to J.A. Happ after the 26-year-old experienced shoulder inflammation early in camp. The injury prevented Stroman from making his spring debut until this past Saturday, so he'll be slightly behind the rest of his rotation mates while he looks to build up to a starter's workload over his final two outings before the season begins. With Stroman not set to miss any turns through the rotation, Joe Biagini won't be needed to make a spot start and could head to the bullpen or report to Triple-A Syracuse to begin the campaign.

Hamels threw 81 pitches in a minor-league game Monday and allowed six runs (five earned) on five hits and four walks over 5.1 innings, TR Sullivan of MLB.com reports.

Hamels was sent to the back fields for an outing designed to work on his fastball. The 34-year-old wants to get his velocity up to normal ahead of the regular season. The older he gets, the more work Hamels needs to get the fastball into the higher gears. He'll get one more start before taking the ball Opening Day, March 29, against Houston at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

Sale allowed four runs on five hits, three walks and two hit batsmen while striking out six over five innings in Monday's start against the Phillies. "One thing that really pisses me off is command," Sale told John Tomase of WEEI.com. "Walking guys, hitting guys with breaking balls. That kind of stuff can't happen."

Control is Sale's calling card -- he owns a career 5.12 K/BB mark -- but he didn't have it Monday. His fastball was fine, but the game-plan was to focus on his secondary offerings and the command was not there. He'll have another 10 days in camp to work on it and one more start before he presumably takes the ball Opening Day against the Rays.