Fantasy Sports

Whitley, a former top prospect and first round selection in the 2016 MLB Draft, will finally get his first taste of the majors. The 26-year-old has dealt with multiple injuries during his career which included Tommy John surgery in 2021. He also missed several months with a lat strain during the 2023 season while with Triple-A Sugar Land. Whitley will get work as a reliever for a Houston’s bullpen that has been worked more than they would like in the early portion of the season.

The 23-year-old right-hander is scheduled to start on Thursday in the series finale against the Tigers. Leiter, the Rangers’ No. 8 ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline, is coming off an impressive 10 strikeout outing for Triple-A Round Rock this past weekend and has an insane 25/3 K/BB ratio and a 3.77 ERA in his three appearances (two starts).

Pages is the third-ranked prospect in the Dodgers organization and the 94th overall prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline. The 23-year-old has gotten off to a hot start at the Triple-A level slashing .371/.452/.694 with five home runs and 15 RBI in his first 15 games with Oklahoma City. It will be interesting to see how the Dodgers implement the young outfielder into lineups, but he’s an exciting talent that will join the odds-on favorites to win the World Series.

The 32-year-old journeyman lands in Minnesota’s organization after he started the season with the Orioles. Kemp was released by Baltimore after the team called up top prospect Jackson Holliday and failed to record a hit in his five games this season. He’ll be a solid veteran presence and have an opportunity with the Twins given the injuries to their infield.

With a quick turnaround, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy is giving his 31-year-old outfielder a rest. With García not in the lineup, Wyatt Langford will move into the cleanup spot for the first time in his career.

Cabrera made a serious statement in his return to Miami’s starting rotation, generating 17 swinging strikes and finishing with an elite 42 percent CSW in a highly impressive season debut. It was just his third career double-digit strikeout performance. The 26-year-old former top prospect, who looked outstanding during spring training before landing on the injured list in mid-March with a right shoulder impingement, has dealt with serious control issues in the past, which made it even more impressive that he handed out only one free pass in his highly-anticipated return. The strikeout upside has always been there for Cabrera, which means he could rapidly evolve into an upper-echelon fantasy contributor, if he’s solved his omnipresent control issues. He should be rostered in all fantasy formats until further notice and will aim to keep the momentum going this weekend in a home start against the Cubs in Miami’s pitcher-friendly loan Depot park.

Parker didn’t dominate with his six missed swings on the night, but he was pretty impressive in walking none against a high-powered lineup. He gave up nine hard-hit balls, but they weren’t the kind of hard-hit balls that turn into hits; just two had xBAs over .500. We wouldn’t say there’s mixed-league potential here, but he looks like he’ll be able to hold his own if the Nationals stick with him.

He needed just 72 pitches to get through six. Gray defeated his original organization for the second time in six starts since he was traded to the Yankees seven years ago. He’s thrown 11 scoreless innings in two outings since returning from a hamstring injury suffered in spring training.

Ruiz’s homer off JoJo Romero accounted for Oakland’s lone run in a 3-1 loss. We’re not sure whether the A’s recalled Ruiz intending to give him regular playing time, but one imagines this will probably earn him a start Tuesday versus Lance Lynn. He’s definitely going to be in the lineup Wednesday against a left-hander in Steven Matz.

On top of allowing four runs, this outing came in a non-save situation, so fantasy managers who roster Hader have the right to be doubly perturbed by how the southpaw pitched. Some of the damage occurred after the 30-year-old exited the game, but to say he was deserving of a poor result is an understatement. Hader should be fine, but fantasy managers will need a load of scoreless innings in order to make up for this one.