MLB Player News

Rays pitcher Drew Smyly (shoulder) played catch on Monday at 90 feet. He's expected to play catch again on Wednesday, according to the Tampa Tribune. Smyly is working his back from left shoulder tendinitis, remains likely to miss the start of the season.

While the plans have yet to be finalized, it appears Rays starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi will move up from fourth to third in the rotation due to Drew Smyly's shoulder injury, per The Tampa Tribune. If that happens, Odorizzi would start the third game of the season against the Orioles instead of the fourth game against the Marlins.

“I have a lot of days between now and then that we can change the schedule. It’s not going to be that big of a deal,” Odorizzi said. “Realistically, regardless of Drew being down for a few weeks or not, I was still putting lofty goals for myself to go out and be better than I was last year. I think there’s plenty of room for improvement from last year to this year. Him being down doesn’t change the way I need to think about myself.

White Sox LHP Carlos Rodon , the third overall pick in last year's amateur draft, made his third start of the spring on Monday. 

Rodon had a shaky first inning, giving up two runs on a hit, two walks and a hit batter. After allowing a hit to start the second inning, he retired the final six batters he faced, striking out three and lowering his spring ERA to 6.14. He threw 49 pitches, 28 of them strikes, in the outing. 

Rodon took a rotation spot after Chris Sale went down with a foot injury in the spring. And, while Sale is expected to miss at least a few starts in the opening weeks of the season, Rodon may not be the one to fill the spot.

Veteran RHP Brad Penny , who has a 3.52 ERA this spring, may get the call instead, because the White Sox don't want to send Rodon back down after Sale returns to the rotation.

“The last thing you want is: bring him up when he’s not ready just to throw him into a game and send him back down,” manager Robin Ventura told JJ Stankevitz of CSN Chicago. “But a guy like him, he works so hard to get to this point, you don’t want it to be a short stint, you want him when he comes up he’s ready to go and you keep him there.”

“He’s a horse,” Ventura said. “He goes out there, he’s big and strong, there’s all those things that you like to see in a pitcher that he has.”

Rays pitcher Jake Odorizzi pitched four innings against minor leaguers in an intrasquad game Monday and said the outing went "really well," MLB.com reports.

"I thought today went really well, actually," Odorizzi said. "You never know how these things are going to go. But I thought overall, it was really beneficial, and I got to work on a lot of stuff that you wouldn't work on in a spring-training game. I think I threw eight first-pitch curveballs in a row, so that was something I wanted to work on today. And worked on a lot of cutters, too. So overall, it was a really good day."

Odorizzi believes he's on schedule this spring.

"Not behind, not ahead," Odorizzi said. "Today was a lot better than [against the Twins on Wednesday] just feel-wise and how everything was coming out. So I think I'm progressing how I need to be."

Odorizzi will likely open the season as the No. 3 starter.

Indians manager Terry Francona said Monday that pitcher Corey Kluber will start the team's regular-season opener April 6 against the Astros.

Kluber was the clear choice to start on Opening Day after winning the American League Cy Young Award last season. He went 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA and 269:51 K:BB ratio in 235 2/3 innings during 2014.

Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco will throw off a mound Monday and is set to make his next start Thursday, MLB.com reports.

Carrasco was scratched from Saturday's scheduled start due to illness. He's made just one appearance this spring, giving up one earned run in three innings.

Athletics manager Bob Melvin said Monday that Sonny Gray would start the team's regular-season opener April 6 against the Rangers, MLB.com reports.

Gray gets the call after going 14-10 with a 3.08 ERA and 183:74 K:BB ratio in 219 innings in 2014, his first full season in the rotation.

Melvin also indicated that Scott Kazmir would start either the second or third game of the season, but that the rest of the rotation has yet to be lined up. He did leave open the possibility of Barry Zito making the rotation, saying, "I don't want to exclude him," the Bay Area News Group reports.

Athletics pitcher Sonny Gray allowed two runs on six hits in four innings in his second start of spring training and he's feeling "a million times better" than he did at this point last spring, reports MLB.com.

Manager Bob Melvin liked that Gray turned in a better performance Sunday.

"I thought he threw the ball good," said Melvin. "He was throwing a lot of first-pitch heaters and they were swinging at a lot of them. Stuff was good. What we're looking out of him is to just get his endurance up and get him ready for the season."

Gray thought it was a lot better than five days ago/

"I thought it was night and day better than last time," said Gray. "I thought it was awesome. I felt great. I think it was big to be able to limit damage in the second inning there. Second and third with one out, to be able to get out of that was huge. I think, body-wise, stuff-wise, it was all really good. The whole focus today was to just come in and throw a ton of strikes. Last time, I got a little over-amped and I didn't throw as many. I know I was ahead of everyone today, which is awesome."

Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson gave up seven hits, six earned runs, two home runs and two walks in Sunday's 11-4 loss to the Phillies. 

Masterson's poor outing statistically followed a rather impressive game this past Tuesday, when he pitched three perfect innings against the Rays. This game raised Masterson's spring ERA to 6.48. 

Even though Masterson was hit quite often during his 3 1/3 innings, he felt he got some small things accomplished. 

"Honestly, I enjoyed this outing," Masterson said, via MLB.com. "I think it was my best outing as far as getting some solid work in, like you're supposed to in spring training."

Yankees pitcher Nathan Eovaldi threw four innings Sunday, recording three strikeouts and surrendering just two hits. Manager Joe Girardi couldn't ask for anything else from the right-hander, reports MLB.com.

"You can't expect much more," Girardi said. "We're really excited to have him in camp with us as one of our starters. We think he can do a really good job for us."