Fantasy Sports

Story had four hard-hit balls and even a walk in his five plate appearances today, so his early slump seems over. That still doesn’t mean the Red Sox should put him back into the two hole, though. Maybe having him bat cleanup instead of sixth, as he did with Willson Contreras out today, and moving Contreras up to second would be a fair compromise. Story is up to 17 RBI on the season. No one else on the Red Sox has more than 11.

O’Brien was great here, throwing 11 of 15 pitches for strikes and securing his fifth save of the season. There was some concern that O’Brien’s role as the best reliever in the Cardinals’ bullpen wouldn’t mean much on a rebuilding team, but the Cardinals are now 10-8 on the season. If they can keep games close, they are likely going to squeak out close victories, which should mean more save opportunities for O’Brien than many anticipated.

Freeland winds up requiring a trip to the injured list after being scratched from last Sunday’s start against the Padres with shoulder tightness. The Rockies gave him a couple days to see if he could work through the issue, but it clearly wasn’t responding the way they hoped. The 32-year-old southpaw has compiled a respectable 2.30 ERA and 13/4 K/BB ratio across 15 2/3 innings over three starts this season. He should be back by early May.

Antonacci made the transition to left field look fairly seamless at Triple-A Charlotte this season, but he’ll make his big-league debut at his natural defensive home, while also batting in the middle of Chicago’s lineup. The versatile 23-year-old has flashed some emerging over-the-fence power over the last few weeks, batting .313 (15-for-48) with two homers and five steals in 14 games on the doorstep of the majors. He boasts some of the strongest plate skills in the minors, which should help ease his transition to the big leagues. He’s at least worthy of a speculative roster spot in all fantasy formats.

Jackson launched a 387-foot home run off of Eduardo Rodriguez at 110.4 mph off the bat for his fifth home run of the season. He’s now slashing .340/.345/.604 with 14 RBI and has emerged as a full-time player for Baltimore. With Coby Mayo struggling and Jackson Holliday (wrist) still working his way back from offseason surgery, Jackson seems likely to remain in the starting lineup and should be rostered in pretty much all formats while he’s swinging it this well.

On one hand, Yesavage’s fastball velocity was down, sitting 93.3 mph on the day. He also got hit around a little bit and threw just 59 percent of his pitches for strikes. On the other hand, he threw 71 pitches and seemed to come out of the game healthy. Given all the injuries in this Blue Jays rotation, that’s the most important thing. We’d imagine Yesavage gets one more rehab start before possibly joining the Blue Jays rotation.

It’s understandable that the Pirates would want to give their top prospect some days off from the grind of an MLB season, especially when he’s hitting .189 through 11 games. However, Griffin went 2-for-4 with a double in a loss to the Nationals yesterday, so now feels like an odd time to bench him. In fact, Griffin has gone 2-for-4 twice since being recalled, and he has sat the next day both times. Curious. Nick Gonzales will play shortstop and bat sixth.

Pagán felt his hamstring get a little tight last night on his final pitch, but it never felt like a major injury. He is in no pain but still saw a doctor and did some treatment this morning. He also played catch fine and feels that he “dodged a bullet.” The team will talk to decide if he’s available tonight, but it looks like Pagán will avoid the injured list. It still might not be a bad idea to stash Tony Santillan if you have a roster spot, just in case Pagán’s hamstring acts up again the next time he pitches.

And so ends the Soler suspension drama. The 34-year-old was suspended for seven games last Wednesday, but appealed the suspension and continued playing. While fantasy managers waited to see when the suspension would be official, Soler went 6-for-29 with three home runs, eight RBI, and six runs scored. Soler can return on Sunday against the Padres, but get him out of your lineups now if you can.

It was reported last week that Antonacci was going to be promoted, and then he wasn’t, but now he is again. The 23-year-old was moved to the outfield this season to expedite his path to the big leagues and has hit .313/.500/.479 with two home runs, seven RBI, and five steals in 14 games at Triple-A. He has just a 29 percent hard-hit rate this season with just a 22 percent fly ball rate, so don’t expect too much power production right away. However, he has a tremendous feel for the strike zone, good contact ability, and posted 48 steals last season, so there could be tons of batting average and speed value here. Just remember that he doesn’t play for a great team, so the counting stats may also leave a little to be desired.