MLB Player News

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said Friday that Senga (shoulder) will not begin a throwing program for another 7-to-10 days, Tim Healey of Newsday reports.

It was reported earlier this week that Senga's throwing would be delayed one week, and it appears he might be held back even longer than that. The righty will undergo more imaging after resuming throwing before the club determines the next steps in his recovery. Stearns indicated that Senga has not had a setback with the moderate posterior capsule strain in his right shoulder, but rather the team's "internal pacing" points to a longer pause. An early May return for Senga now looks like it might be the best-case scenario.

The Rays re-assigned McKay to minor-league camp Friday, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

McKay looked solid this spring after re-upping with the Rays on a minor-league contract, but the club wants him to knock some rust off in the minors first after missing so much time due to injury. The left-hander should open the season in Durham's rotation.

The Rays placed Springs (elbow) on the 60-day injured list Friday, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The move frees up a spot on the 40-man roster for the addition of Jacob Waguespack. Springs will be out until around midseason while working his way back from Tommy John surgery.

Davies allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk over five innings in Thursday's Grapefruit League game against the Astros. He struck out five.

Facing most of Houston's likely Opening Day lineup, Davies kept the ball in the yard and counted Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker among his strikeout victims. The 31-year-old right-hander is in camp with the Nationals on an NRI, so he isn't even guaranteed a roster spot, but the rebuilding team can use innings-eaters at the back of the rotation, and Davies still seems capable of doing at least that much. He stumbled to a woeful 7.00 ERA, 1.66 WHIP and 19.1 percent strikeout rate over 82.1 innings for Arizona in 2023, but per Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports, Davies built up to 89 pitches Thursday, and over 10.1 innings this spring he has an encouraging 13:5 K:BB.

Cobb (hip) will throw two innings in a minor-league game Saturday, Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com reports.

The Giants had left open the possibility that Cobb would make his Cactus League debut that day, but they've elected to have him pitch in a more controlled environment instead. Cobb has made a rapid recovery from hip surgery and looks to be on track to rejoin the Giants' rotation sometime in April.

Parsons walked two and struck out one over three no-hit, scoreless innings of relief during Thursday's Grapefruit League game against the Twins.

The 31-year-old right-hander worked his longest outing of the spring, and it's perhaps not a coincidence it came just before Keegan Matheson of MLB.com reported that Blue Jays manager John Schneider was hinting that Kevin Gausman (shoulder) wouldn't be ready for Opening Day. Parsons likely isn't in the mix for a rotation spot, but Schneider is comfortable patching together a bullpen day when needed. Should the team decide none of the candidates for a temporary assignment as the fifth starter are up for the job, Parsons could win a spot on the 26-man roster as a long reliever instead.

Gray allowed three hits and struck out three over five scoreless innings in Thursday's spring start against Cincinnati.

Gray is healthy and was locked in for a second straight Cactus League start. Needing to get his pitch count up, Gray threw additional pitches in the bullpen after he was removed. He's yet to give up a run over eight innings in his two starts. The only run allowed this spring was in an intrasquad game, when Evan Carter took Gray deep.

Sale allowed two runs on three hits and a walk over 3.1 innings in Thursday's Grapefruit League game against Tampa Bay. He struck out six.

After a great beginning to his first spring with Atlanta, Sale has given up five runs over his last seven innings, albeit with a still-sharp 8:2 K:BB. The 34-year-old southpaw has been healthy though, which is the most important thing for a pitcher who hasn't thrown more than 102.2 innings in a season since 2019. Sale is on track for a mid-rotation spot to begin the year, and the reigning NL East champs can afford to go easy on his workload in 2024 given their pitching depth. Expecting more than 25 starts from Sale this season might be asking too much, but he should still be good for plenty of whiffs when he's on the mound after posting a 29.4 percent strikeout rate for Boston last year.

Gausman (shoulder) is unlikely to be available for Opening Day, Keegan Matheson of MLB.com reports.

Gausman has made nice progress since experiencing some right shoulder fatigue, but the Blue Jays just don't want to push him to be ready for Opening Day. The right-hander will throw one inning of live batting practice Friday and continue to build up from there. Regarding the pace of Gausman's buildup, manager John Schneider said Friday that "if that means 30 starts as opposed to 32, we'll be pretty happy with that." That would seem to indicate a rough timeline of mid-April for Gausman's season debut. Bowden Francis already looks like a lock for Toronto's rotation with Alek Manoah (shoulder) out, and now there's room for someone else to step in. Mitch White, Chad Dallas and Paolo Espino are the main candidates for that spot.

The Astros remain engaged in the starting pitching market and Snell might become their top target, Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports.

Rome notes that owner Jim Crane coveted both Josh Hader and Snell at last year's trade deadline. While a deal didn't come together for either at the time, the Astros signed Hader this offseason and it sounds like they could circle back on Snell. General manager Dana Brown was asked about the lefty Thursday and replied, "as long as Snell is on the market, we check in to ask what is the latest. Nothing new as of now." Snell would provide a major boost to a Houston rotation that will be without Justin Verlander (shoulder) at the start of the season.