MLB Player News

Rea lost to the Phillies on Wednesday, but he did only allow one earned run on five hits over seven innings. He also struck out five and walked two.

After allowing five runs in 3.2 innings during his last outing, Rea needed a quality start to keep his spot in the rotation. He should remain the Padres No. 4 starter for now.

Eickhoff pitched seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits while striking out nine and walking none in a victory against the Padres on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old has shown great promise in his short big league career. In his final four starts last September, Eickhoff went 3-1 with a 0.96 ERA and .170 batting average against. He also struck out a combined 20 batters and walked only two in his last two outings last year. Through two starts this season, Eickhoff has 6.0 K/BB ratio.

Clemens was dinged up Saturday, giving up six earned runs on seven hits and two walks over 1.2 innings in Triple-A New Orleans 11-8 loss to Omaha.

Clemens compiled a 4.05 ERA over 6.2 innings this spring as well as limiting opposing batters to a .130 average. Last year, the 28-year-old bounced between High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A and compiled a 5.73 ERA over 48.2 innings of work. The righty also holds a rather blemished 4.67 ERA over 659.1 career innings at the minor league level. He'll need to produce an ERA lower than that with Triple-A New Orleans this year if he hopes to receive a call up to the big leagues sometime in 2016.

Sulbaran pitched five innings against Colorado Springs on Friday. He only allowed one earned run and struck out four to earn a win in his first appearance this year.

Sulbaran has never appeared in a major league game since he was drafted in 2008 and will start this season with Triple-A Memphis after splitting time between levels last season within the Royals organization. The 26-year-old struggled mightily during his eight starts with Triple-A Omaha in 2015, posting a 3-3 record with a 6.17 ERA. Even though Sulbaran has provided strikeout potential throughout his minor-league career, he will most likely spend all of 2016 in Memphis trying to improve upon the other aspects of his game.

DeSclafani (oblique) said he felt great in Wednesday's 45-pitch bullpen session, the Cincinnati Enquirer's C. Trent Rosecrans reports.

It sounds like DeSclafani is itching to get back into the big league rotation, but the team has not announced what the next step will be for the young righty. Look for DeSclafani to go out on a rehab assignment next week, and if everything goes according to plan, he could join the big league rotation shortly after that.

Bergman will have his start pushed back to Saturday when the Rockies take on the Cubs, Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports.

Manager Walt Weiss is shuffling his rotation a bit this week, moving Jorge De La Rosa up to start Thursday's game against the Giants while Bergman will take the ball for Saturday's game at Wrigley Field. Saturday marks Bergman's first start of the season after being used as more of a long reliever to begin the year. In four starts last season, Bergman struggled his way to a 6.89 ERA over 15.2 innings of work.

Gonzales (elbow) will require Tommy John surgery and he is out for the season, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Gonzales had some soreness crop up in his pitching elbow late in spring training, and it was announced last week that he'd need to miss the beginning of the minor league season. After getting a second opinion on his elbow from team doctors, it was decided that Gonzales would need Tommy John surgery. He will miss the remainder of the 2016 season and is unlikely to be back on a mound until the second half of the 2017 campaign.

The Nationals are hoping Strasburg (illness) will be able to start Thursday against Atlanta, Chase Hughes of CSN reports.

Strasburg was scratched from his scheduled start Wednesday due to illness, but there is some optimism that he'll be able to give it a go for Thursday's series finale. Tanner Roark will start in his place Wednesday and if Strasburg is unable to start the series finale, swingman Yusmeiro Petit could make a spot start.

Strasburg has been scratched from his start Wednesday due to illness.

It's unclear what illness has hit the right-hander, but it appears to have Strasburg feeling bad enough that he'll take the night off. It's also unknown whether Strasburg will simply pitch Thursday or if he'll wait until his next scheduled start, but that should become clearer as the day goes on and once we know exactly what ailment has hit him. Tanner Roark will start in his place Wednesday.

Anderson (oblique) threw a 25-pitch bullpen session Tuesday at the Rockies spring training complex, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reports.

It's good to see that the left-hander has progressed to pitching off a mound. This means that Anderson could pitch in a rehab start fairly soon, which could be the final hurdle before returning from the disabled list.