MLB Player News

The Cardinals announced Wednesday that Liberatore will start the team's March 26 season opener against the Rays in St. Louis.

It will be Liberatore's first career Opening Day nod, and it comes against the team that selected him 16th overall in the 2018 Draft. After working mainly as reliever in 2024, Liberatore started all 29 games in which he appeared last regular season, posting an 8-12 record, 4.21 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and 122:40 K:BB across 151.2 innings. He's been stellar this spring, with a 2.70 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 14:1 K:BB across 10 innings.

Hassell went 1-for-3 with a stolen base in Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Cardinals.

Hassell showed off his defensive versatility, playing all three outfield spots over the course of the game. The 24-year-old will likely open the season as the Nationals' fourth outfielder behind James Wood, Dylan Crews and Jacob Young, and if Young's weak bat costs him playing time, Hassell would be the most likely beneficiary. He's far from a finished product, however, batting .286 (8-for-28) this spring with one double, two steals in four attempts and a sketchy 1:9 BB:K.

Irvin allowed three hits and a walk over five scoreless innings in Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Cardinals. He struck out five.

The right-hander appears to be on the outside looking in for a spot in the Nationals' rotation, but Irvin isn't going down without a fight. He tossed 42 of 66 pitches for strikes against a young St. Louis lineup that featured top prospect JJ Wetherholt as well as Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker, lowering his spring ERA to 1.35 with a 15:4 K:BB over 13.1 innings. Irvin still has minor-league options remaining, so despite his strong camp he's likely to begin the year with Triple-A Rochester after Washington added Zack Littell, Miles Mikolas and Foster Griffin to the rotation mix this offseason.

Bichette went 2-for-3 with a walk, a double, a home run and five RBI in Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Marlins.

He took prospect Robby Snelling to school in the seventh inning, driving an 0-2 slider over the right-field fence when it caught too much of the plate. The homer was Bichette's first of the spring, and he appears to be rounding into form with Opening Day a little over a week away, batting .267 (8-for-30) on the spring with a 4:5 BB:K. His adjustment to third base also seems to be going well -- Bichette hasn't committed an error since his first Grapefruit League game Feb. 21, and he ably started a 5-4-3 double play March 12 against the Cardinals.

Sasaki gave up three runs on four hits and four walks while striking out five batters over 3.1 innings in a Cactus League outing against Kansas City on Tuesday.

Sasaki struck out two of the first three batters he faced and got through two frames without being scored upon. In the third, he fanned the first batter of the inning but then walked three straight before being pulled. Under spring training rules, Sasaki was allowed to return for the fourth and faced two batters (giving up one hit), before coming back out for the fifth and yielding a double to end his day for good. Overall, the right-hander threw just 38 of 71 pitches for strikes, and he's now walked a whopping nine batters over just 6.2 spring frames. Sasaki said after the game that the loss of command in the third inning was caused by him trying to work on his sinker, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, but his lack of control during the spring slate is somewhat alarming. Still, manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday that Sasaki "is going to be one of our starters" to begin the regular season, according to Ardaya, so it sounds like the Dodgers are going to at least give the Japanese hurler a chance to show that his results in Cactus League action aren't representative of the campaign that lies ahead of him.

Freeman was scratched from Wednesday's Cactus League lineup against the Reds due to lower-back tightness.

With Freeman idle for Wednesday's exhibition, Cole Carrigg will enter the lineup in center field and bat second, while leadoff man Jake McCarthy moves to left field. Freeman has an .840 OPS across 25 plate appearances this spring. Consider him day-to-day.

Caissie went 0-for-1 with two walks, a run scored and a stolen base in Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Mets.

Fresh off an impressive WBC stint with Team Canada in which he batted .412 (7-for-17) with three doubles and a homer, Caissie didn't get much of a chance to show off his power, but he did swipe his first bag of the spring. The 23-year-old went 11-for-13 on steal attempts at Triple-A Iowa in 2024, but that's not likely to be a big element of his game in the majors. Acquired from the Cubs this offseason in the Edward Cabrera trade, Caissie remains the favorite to open the season as the Marlins' starting right fielder after slashing .285/.384/.546 with 22 homers in 99 contests for Iowa last season.

Snelling gave up three runs on six hits and a walk over three innings during Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Mets. He struck out five.

The 22-year-old southpaw entered the game in the sixth inning and immediately ran into trouble by serving up back-to-back singles, before things really fell apart for him in the seventh thanks to a three-run homer by Bo Bichette. Snelling did get stretched out to 64 pitches (45 strikes), but he remains on track to begin the season back at Triple-A Jacksonville, where he posted a dazzling 1.27 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 81:17 K:BB over 63.2 innings in 2025. Snelling should make his big-league debut this season, but it may not come quickly, especially if the Marlins elect to begin the year with Janson Junk as their fifth starter -- which would position Braxton Garrett as the next man up once he's proven he's fully recovered from his December 2024 elbow surgery.

The Nationals reassigned Adams to minor-league camp Wednesday.

Adams was booted from the 40-man roster in January and is slated to begin the season at Triple-A Rochester. While Adams has elite bat speed, he strikes out too much at the plate. He slashed .186/.252/.308 with eight home runs, 24 RBI, 29 runs scored and an 18:110 BB:K across 286 plate appearances for Washington last season.

Alcantara allowed two runs on three hits and one walk over four innings in Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Mets. He struck out five.

The veteran righty built up to 70 pitches (46 strikes) as he continues to get ready for an Opening Day assignment March 27 against the Rockies. Alcantara topped out at 97.2 miles per hour with his four-seamer on a first-inning strikeout of Jorge Polanco and was comfortably maintaining 96 mph in his final inning of the day, further suggesting he's not far away from being in midseason form -- he averaged 97.7 mph with the pitch in 2025. Through eight spring innings, Alcantara has a 10:2 K:BB and 0.88 WHIP, but an unlucky 5.63 ERA.