MLB Player News

Athletics pitcher Sonny Gray matched a career high with nine strikeouts in a quality start Friday night against the Indians in Cleveland, earning his fifth win of the season.

Gray (5-1) permitted a solo home run to Nick Swisher in the opening frame for his only damage of the night. He yielded one run on two hits and three walks in six innings of an 11-1 victory. He tossed 90 pitches, 55 for strikes.

Gray's ERA improved from 2.17 to 2.10 on the year. Over his last four starts covering 28 innings, the right-handed hurler has surrendered only six earned runs. He will make his next start Thursday at Tampa Bay.

White Sox pitcher Chris Sale began his minor-league rehab assignment Friday for Triple-A Charlotte at Durham.

Sale looked sharp in his first rehab work, striking out 11 hitters in four innings of work. He allowed just one hit and two walks. He tossed 68 pitches, 43 for strikes. Sale is expected to need one more rehab start before he returns from the disabled list.

Blue Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman has yet to be tabbed as the replacement for Dustin McGowan in the rotation, but he speaks optimistically about his potential in that role.

"I think I'd be ready for it," he told the National Post. "I haven't been told anything so I'm still thinking I'm a reliever. But if that were to happen, I'd be prepared because I did that the majority of my career anyway."

Stroman, who made five starts with Triple-A Buffalo before his May 4 promotion, has not pitched longer than 1 2/3 innings this year with Toronto. He also gave up eight earned runs in his last three innings pitched out of the bullpen, which could have John Gibbons leaning toward veteran Todd Redmond as his new starter instead.

Rangers pitcher Martin Perez confirmed to The Dallas Morning News Thursday that he plans to have Tommy John surgery to repair a partially torn ligament in his elbow.

Perez will meet with the Rangers' front office staff Friday, to finalize the plans, and he has a few possible options to consider. He could undergo a platelet-rich plasma injection and try to rehab the injury, but surgery still might be needed down the road, so it seems inevitable he will undergo surgery sooner rather than later.

“I don’t want to miss this year; I want to get out there and compete,” Perez said. “But I can’t just think about this year. If I do the other option, I might not get back or the ligament might get hurt again. If I have the surgery, at this time next year, I can be back and doing what I was doing before – helping the team.

Justin Verlander wasn't great for most of 2013. He was fine, perhaps even must-start, but he wasn't the ace everyone drafted him to be.

Most everyone, myself included, thought he'd get back to that level in 2014 since he pretty much already did down the stretch last year, posting a 0.26 ERA, 0.74 WHIP and 13.6 strikeouts per nine innings over his final five starts, including the playoffs.

But now nine starts into 2014, that doesn't seem to be happening. Instead, everything that plagued Verlander in the first few months last year is plaguing him again.

His control has only gotten worse since last year, when he turned in his worst walk rate since 2008. Now averaging 3.6 walks per nine innings, one of his strengths has become a liability.

And the stuff itself isn't what it used to be. Averaging 93.9 miles per hour on his fastball, he's still one of the hardest-throwers in the game, but sitting in the mid-90s instead of the high-90s gives him a lower margin for error. He's more hittable, and it shows in both his WHIP and strikeout rate.

My goal here isn't to cause you to panic and trade Verlander for 50 cents on the dollar, but to give you the chance to adjust your expectations. For all but a handful of his last 56 starts, Verlander has been a good, but not great, starting pitcher. He'll give you innings, wins and most likely strikeouts, but as I said on Thursday's Fantasy Baseball Today, I'm prepared to move him below David Price and Masahiro Tanaka in my rankings.

Triple-A Charlotte's game Thursday was delayed because of rain, pushing back the start of two White Sox's players' rehab assignments back a day.

Both Adam Eaton (hamstring) and Chris Sale will now begin their assignments Friday at Charlotte, with a doubleheader on the schedule. 

The Blue Jays are considering moving Marcus Stroman or Todd Redmond into the rotation, according to the National Post. 

The club announced Thursday that Dustin McGowan would move to the bullpen. Though it hasn't been announced who will take his spot in the rotation, it's assumed either Stroman or Redmond will get the job. Stroman entered the year as one of the team's top prospects. Redmond started 14 games with the club last season, but has been used primarily as a reliever in 2014.

When Jake Odorizzi struck out 11 batters in five innings against the Indians Friday, it seemed like an aberration. He had been knocked around all season up to that point, with command so poor he seemed destined for a return trip to the minors.

But when he followed it up with six one-hit innings at the Mariners Wednesday, striking out seven and walking two, I was compelled to investigate.

As I mentioned on Thursday's Fantasy Baseball Today, I found something in the Pitch F/X data. His turnaround has coincided with an increased reliance on breaking balls -- specifically, a curveball and slider. He threw them 30 percent of the time in this latest start and 25 percent of the time in the 11-strikeout effort. That's more than twice as often as before.

He wasn't getting by on the fastball-changeup combo alone. Now that he's incorporating his full arsenal, he has a better chance of meeting the potential that made him a legitimate sleeper coming into the year.

If Drew Pomeranz, Dallas Keuchel, Rafael Montero and Josh Beckett have already been picked up in your league, you might give Odorizzi a shot. Last year at Triple-A Durham, he compiled a 3.33 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings in 22 starts.

Orioles pitcher Kevin Gausman has been optioned back to Triple-A Thursday.

Gausman had a rough first start with the club, giving up five runs over four innings. The team recalled Evan Meek to take his place. Gausman has a 2.08 ERA in six starts at Triple-A.

The Rangers are planning to use pitchers Yu Darvish, Robbie Ross and Nick Martinez as their starters for the team's series against the Blue Jays this weekend, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Ross had been scheduled to be skipped this time through the rotation, but injuries to multiple Texas starters have put him back in the mix to start Saturday. Martinez, who is tentatively slated to make Sunday's start, threw 39 pitches in relief Monday and another 34 in relief Wednesday.