Goodness gracious. DeLauter was struggling throughout this game; going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts before the tenth. Then he hit his fourth homer in the first three games of 2026, and it came on a 97 mph fastball on the outer-part of the plate from Andrés Muñoz for a two-run shot. There’s regression coming if only because baseball is too hard for a player to be this good, but it’s impossible to not be impressed — and intrigued — by these first three contests.

Well, that’s one way to celebrate your 31st birthday. With the Dodgers trailing 2-1, Smith smoked a two-run homer that had an expected batting average of .900 to give Los Angeles a 3-2 lead and ultimately the victory. It’s the second homer of the season for Smith, and he should again be one of the best fantasy backstops in baseball. It wouldn’t be a massive upset if he ended up in the top spot.

If you watched Estévez this spring, you had a pretty good idea this was coming. The 2025 AL saves leader averaged 91.2 mph with his fastball tonight, down 4.7 mph from last year. His hardest pitch, at 92.3 mph, was actually the one Dominic Smith hit for the game-ending grand slam. Smith gave up four hits, all on hard-hit balls, and walked two while getting just one miss on 10 swings. He simply can’t serve as a major league closer until he gets some stuff back, and unless the Royals are blinded by loyalty, they should turn to Matt Strahm and Lucas Erceg, in either order, in the eighth and ninth. We’d grab Erceg first, but best not to write off Strahm. Both pitched scoreless innings tonight, with Strahm getting the seventh and Erceg working the eighth.

Cease was outstanding in his debut with the Blue Jays. The 30-year-old right-hander dominated the A’s over five shutout innings before a walk and a double brought a run in to score in the sixth. Cease would end his day with one out in the inning at 90 pitches -- 61 for strikes. His fastball was sitting at 98.7 mph, up 1.6 mph from last season. He generated an incredible 24 whiffs to collect a dozen strikeouts, at one point striking out seven consecutive batters. Cease will look to follow his excellent start with a matchup against the White Sox in Chicago on Sunday.

Wetherholt also had a single and a stolen base earlier in the contest. He committed an error that played a small role in the Cardinals blowing a four-run lead in the ninth; he tried to glove flip the ball on a weak grounder from the speedy Chandler Simpson and missed badly, allowing Jonathan Aranda to score on what was correctly ruled an infield single (plus the error). Still, he more than made up for it with his own grounder an inning later. It looked like first baseman Aranda would have had a shot at it, but he retreated in the hopes that second baseman Ben Williamson would make the play. Instead, the ball went into right, allowing both the tying and winning runs to score. Wetherholt is 3-for-9 with a homer through two games.

Junior Caminero ended the no-hit bid immediately after Riley O’Brien replaced McGreevy to start the seventh. Still, it was a 4-0 game going into the bottom of the ninth, when Matt Svanson and Ryne Stanek combined to give up four runs and cost McGreevy the win. McGreevy’s velocity was down all spring and actually down a little further today — his 90.7 mph average with his sinker was 2.3 shy of his 2025 mark — but he obviously made it work. He got 21 called strikes for a decent 28% CSW and only five of his 14 balls in play were hit hard. Those five well-struck actually produced two 390-foot flies and had xBAs of .940, .870, .750, .540 and .360, but all were handled by the Cardinals defense. We’re still not very optimistic about McGreevy offering mixed-league value, especially without that extra two mph on his heater.

Vaughn is expected to miss 4–6 weeks after he undergoes hamate surgery on Monday. He suffered the injury during Thursday’s season-opening rout of the White Sox. The 27-year-old former third-overall pick hit .308 with nine homers in 64 games for Milwaukee last year to emerge as their everyday first baseman. It’s a significant loss for the Brewers since he’ll likely be sidelined until at least early May. It’ll be some combination of Gary Sánchez and Jake Bauers taking over at the cold corner with prospect Jeferson Quero coming up to fortify Milwaukee’s catching depth.

“He’s doing much better,” Vogt told reporters on Friday after Bibee was removed from Thursday’s season-opening start against the Mariners with right shoulder inflammation. The 27-year-old right-hander is officially day-to-day for now, but it sounds like there’s a realistic chance he takes the ball on Tuesday night. He’s scheduled to throw a bullpen session this weekend to determine whether he’s ready. It’s a tough spot for fantasy managers since Bibee is likely to have some workload restrictions while also facing an extremely challenging Death Star-caliber lineup. It’s a positive sign that he might avoid a trip to the injured list, but fantasy managers should probably leave him on the bench next week.

DeGrom added that he woke up with neck stiffness and underwent treatment in an effort to start on Saturday against the Phillies before the decision was made to not to take any risks by pushing it. It certainly sounds like things are trending towards the 37-year-old veteran fantasy ace making his season debut during a three-game road series against the Orioles, which gets underway on Monday at Camden Yards. The tentative plan is for him to take the ball on Tuesday after Jack Leiter starts the series opener. Fantasy managers should keep a close eye on the situation but initial reports seem to indicate that this isn’t a potential injured list situation. There should be some additional clarity on his status at some point later this weekend.

The move is now official. De Los Santos will see time at first base for the Marlins with Christopher Morel likely facing a multi-week absence with an oblique strain. The power-hitting 22-year-old’s fantasy stock tumbled last year when he managed just 12 homers in 106 games at the Triple-A level following a 40-homer campaign in the upper minors back in 2024. The massive over-the-fence power remains firmly intact but he’s going to strike out a fair amount, especially as he faces big-league arms for the first time. There’s enough power potential to make De Los Santos interesting in deeper mixed leagues, but a wait-and-see approach feels right in shallow mixers.