WASHINGTON — Washington Nationals right-hander Michael Soroka went on the 15-day injured list with a strained biceps in his pitching arm after hurting himself in his first start with the club.
The 27-year-old Soroka left his start against the Toronto Blue Jays with what he called “a feeling that shouldn’t be there” after spiking a slider in the sixth inning.
Soroka gave up four runs and took the loss in Washington’s 5-2 setback that day, part of a 1-5 start to the season for the Nationals entering a home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
This is the latest in a long string of health issues for the pitcher, who finished second behind New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso in NL Rookie of the Year voting and sixth in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2019 with the Atlanta Braves.
Soroka tore his right Achilles tendon in 2020, then later injured the same tendon while walking into Atlanta’s ballpark. He missed the entire regular season in 2021 and 2022.
After going 0-10 with a 4.74 ERA in 79 2/3 innings across 25 appearances for the Chicago White Sox last season, including nine starts, Soroka signed a one-year contract for $9 million with Washington.
To take Soroka’s spot on the roster, Washington recalled right-hander Jackson Rutledge from Triple-A Rochester. Rutledge was a first-round pick in the 2019 amateur draft and began this season in Rochester’s bullpen.
He made three appearances for the Nationals in 2024, including one start.
Which makes his current occupation, as the CEO of Quebec-based bat company B45, a little more than ironic.
“Now my job is to make sure the bats don’t break anymore, make sure the ball goes farther,” Gagné said in a phone interview this week. “That was my enemy back in the day.”
Where Gagné was once a hitter’s menace, collecting 161 of his 187 career saves with the Dodgers from 1999-2006, the retired 49-year-old right-hander is now one in the business of helping them hit.
Ten years ago, he helped front an ownership group that bought B45, long among the more innovative manufacturers in the world of bat-making. And, a little more than a year ago, it put him on the cutting edge of the sport’s newest hitting creations.
Last spring, B45’s pro sales rep, Kevin Young, was making an annual tour of Major League Baseball’s spring training complexes to visit clients. During his stop at New York Yankees camp, Young was approached by team analyst Aaron Leanhardt, a former MIT-educated physics professor who had come up with a distinctly original idea.
“He was like, ‘Hey, do you guys do this?’ ” Young recalled.
In Leanhardt’s hand was an early prototype of the so-called torpedo bat.
Originally conceived of by Leanhardt while working in the Yankees’ front office, the bowling-pin-shaped torpedo model eschews the typical characteristics of traditional bat designs. The fattest part of the barrel is actually closer to the handle, with the idea of redistributing more mass to an area where some hitters make more frequent contact. The rest of the lumber is rounded into a more tapered shape at the end.
Former Dodgers reliever Eric Gagné is the CEO of the Quebec-based bat company B45, which produces torpedo bats. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
In the early days of this year’s season, torpedo bats have become all the rage for big-league hitters. They burst into the public consciousness after a torpedo-heavy Yankees lineup mashed 15 home runs in their season-opening series. And now, they are showing up in almost every big-league clubhouse.
“They had 100 different bat models [already], shaped this way, shaped that way,” said veteran Dodgers slugger Max Muncy, one of many MLB hitters who placed an order for his own torpedo bat this week. “But nothing’s ever been as drastic as what this is.”
In the baseball world, however, such innovations require the help of equipment companies to gain a foothold.
And while torpedo bats might just now be making their first public splash, Gagné’s company has been manufacturing them ever since Leanhardt first approached Young last spring.
“It looks a little awkward … but it makes total sense,” Gagné said. “When you do make contact in the sweet spot, you want the best results. And when you’re hitting two circular things together at 100 mph, you want to make sure that impact zone is greater.”
B45 is no stranger to cutting-edge bat design.
Two decades ago, the Canadian company was the first to bring birch-made bats to what was then a maple- and ash-dominated market; using yellow birch lumber harvested in Quebec to design bats that lasted longer and, thanks to the physical characteristics of the wood type, would actually get firmer over time, resulting in fewer breaks and long-lasting barrel strength.
“We were the first company to start [making bats with] yellow birch,” said Olivier Lépine, the company’s longtime production manager. “If we can improve the game a little bit, we’re always willing to do something like that.”
Gagné entered the picture in 2015, joining a group of investors to buy the company as he looked for opportunities to remain involved with baseball in his post-playing career.
Now, as he described it, he’s an “ideas guy” within the B45 operation, using his knowledge of getting hitters out over a 10-year MLB career to innovate improvements to what they swing at the plate.
“I always thought the extension of us [players] was our equipment,” Gagné said. “I wasn’t really interested in the business side of it. I was just more interested as a player in: What fits right? What’s cool? What’s not cool?”
And right now, nothing is cooler than the newfangled torpedoes.
“I think guys will try it. I mean, how do you not, right?” Dodgers co-hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said, noting how the offensive outburst from the Yankees — whose list of torpedo-bat hitters includes Giancarlo Stanton, Jazz Chisholm and Cody Bellinger among others — immediately captured the attention of the rest of the league.
“You see those kinds of outcomes, of course,” Van Scoyoc added.
Behind the scenes, however, the rise of the torpedo bat has been a long time coming. As far back as last spring, companies like B45 have been putting them into production.
Using measurements and design specifications provided by Leanhardt, B45 crafted the awkwardly shaped barrels with the use of computer-programmed automatic knives. They shipped the bats to their Yankees clients, but were unsure if the idea would catch on in baseball’s mainstream.
“The [initial] feedback was good, but after that, we didn’t hear anything,” Lépine said. “We didn’t know if players would like it or not.”
That’s why, this year, Young brought torpedo samples with him on his spring training tour to showcase to a wider range of players. For many, it was the first they’d heard about the idea — even before the Yankees’ season-opening home run explosion.
“I was one of the first guys going through spring training with torpedo bats,” Young said. “So everywhere I went, people were like, ‘Oh shoot, what is this?’ They had a lot of questions about it.”
Now, Young said, more than 50 of B45’s big-league hitters have placed orders for their own torpedo-bat models.
And while B45 doesn’t have any current Dodgers clientele, several members of the team’s lineup have received torpedo shipments from their personal manufacturers.
“We’re gonna learn about it and study it,” Van Scoyoc said. “All the players want hits, so they’re gonna do anything they can to get a hit.”
It still remains to be seen just how game-changing the torpedo model proves to be. Dodgers personnel have emphasized that a hitter’s technique remains the biggest factor in success at the plate. Lépine echoed those sentiments, noting that, “I doubt that a 25-home run guy is gonna become a 40-home run guy because of the bat, or if a .225 hitter will become a .300 hitter or something like that.”
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy hit a two-run double to tie Wednesday's game against the Braves in the eighth inning with his old bat after using a torpedo bat for his first three at-bats. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Muncy, the first Dodgers player to use a torpedo bat during Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, needed only three at-bats to learn the new design wasn’t for him, switching back to his standard model before hitting a game-tying double in the eighth inning.
“I felt like the bat was causing me to be a little bit off-plane, a little bit in and out of the zone,” said Muncy, who noted he usually hits the ball closer to the end of the barrel, and might have been thrown off by the torpedo bat’s different weight distribution. “This is something that takes the weight out of the end of the bat, so maybe it's just not for me.”
But as long as some players find the torpedo bat to suit their swing, companies like B45 will continue to make them — hopeful the sport has found at least one innovative breakthrough to help hitters counter-balance the sport’s significant recent advancements in pitching development, with increases in pitching velocity and movement on breaking balls putting a drag on offense in the modern game.
“The technology, the data, has been really a huge advantage for pitchers, for sure,” said Gagné, now on the other side of the hitter-pitcher dynamic through his work with B45. “So we’re trying to create the bat that makes [hitters] feel good at the plate, that they can trust. It’s really an extension of their own body. So we’re trying to make it where they’re comfortable with it.”
The excitement level is high. You can almost taste those fantasy winnings.* But it's still important to check everything. Because things sometimes require attention so you're not relying on the hope it'll automatically go the way you planned.
(*I think this goes without saying, but please DO NOT actually try to taste the winnings.)
Take charge. Get it done. And check the recommendations below to see if any of them can help push you over the line.
(Rostered rates as of Apr. 4)
Forwards
Logan Cooley, UTA (Yahoo: 44%)
Other than a couple of minor drop-offs and a lower-body injury, Cooley's second season has been superb. The 56 points — including 17 on the power play — and 144 shots represent decent totals, with nine and 22 of each coming in the last 10 games. Cooley also upped his hit count during that stretch by dishing out 13 while logging big minutes and operating as Utah's top center in all attacking situations. His fantasy profile has recently been boosted by improving on faceoffs, though you're really adding him for his offense.
Mason Marchment, DAL (Yahoo: 33%)
Some probably forgot about Marchment while he was out for a month after taking a puck to the face and undergoing surgery. It may have taken him some time to get back into form, but he's been on a heater since the start of March by racking up six goals — three of those PPGs — nine assists, 32 shots and 24 hits. Based on a top-six spot with Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund while joining forces with them on the Stars' strong backup PP unit, Marchment is primed to keep the stats flowing.
Ryan McLeod, BUF (Yahoo: 9%)
McLeod pulled off a hat-trick and another three-point performance back in January, and the fantasy world didn't think much of it. Fast-forward through the next 25 contests where he reeled off 24 points, 36 shots and 217 FW on an 18:56 average that also involved two PPAs and three shorthanded goals. And all that … has barely increased McLeod's coverage numbers. He's enjoying a career year, and barely anyone is paying attention even though he's in the upper-half of the Sabres' depth chart while participating on both special-teams groups.
Trevor Zegras, ANH (Yahoo: 7%)
The fact that we've reached April for Zegras' season debut in this column speaks to how far he's fallen as a fantasy commodity since recording back-to-back 60-plus point efforts (either that or he's been really, really good). Multiple ailments destroyed his production last year and carried over to the current campaign, where inconsistency eventually turned into another significant absence.
Zegras' fortunes — other than a three-game suspension — have turned around in the form of six goals, 12 assists and 46 shots at 17:20 per outing with a 13.0 shooting percentage that's not much higher than his normal averages. He's also found the scoresheet in nine of the last 13 matchups. Zegras has started to prove he's getting back to his better days, so you may want to grab a share of this upswing.
Sean Couturier, PHI (Yahoo: 5%)
It only took the Flyers firing John Tortorella for the offense to explode, though maybe part of that has something to do with them facing three weaker defensive sides in Montreal, Buffalo and Nashville. And even before Torts was let go, Couturier had been hot by way of 12 points from 12 games in addition to 37 shots with three and 10 of each since the personnel change. He's not the only one benefiting, as linemates Matvei Michkov (48%) and Travis Konecny (92%) have been equally unstoppable of late. Yet Couturier somehow remains available in 95% of Yahoo leagues. Go figure.
Jackson Blake, CAR (Yahoo: 5%)
It was a month and a half ago when Blake was first mentioned here on the heels of a multipoint appearance and a move up to the Canes' lead even-strength trio. He's also received time on the first power play, where he tallied four PPPs from the last five — including a pair of PPGs on Wednesday. Blake seems to be growing into his game and reaping the benefits. Maybe adding him can do the same for you.
Joel Eriksson Ek has been out since Feb. 25, though could be back soon. In the meantime, Gaudreau has inherited a larger role with better attacking wingers while recently jumping on Minnesota's first man-advantage and delivering an assist there last Thursday. Add on adequate amounts of shots and blocks to a hefty dose of faceoff wins and major minutes, and you've got a pretty good fill-in forward.
Andre Burakovsky, SEA (Yahoo: 1%)
It's been a different type of year for Burakovsky in that he's been overlooked due to underperformance rather than a series of injuries. He's made a surge the last two weeks, notching three goals and six assists — two of the PPA variety — while skating at a modest sub-14 clip. Burakovsky plays with a few serviceable linemates at both five-on-five and while up a man, so let's see if he can keep this going the rest of the way.
Defensemen
Brandt Clarke, LA (Yahoo: 23%)
Clarke's 31 points represent a decent haul for a rookie season, yet he's struggled to retain elevated ice times while enduring a few healthy scratches. The latter hasn't come up recently as the Kings have regularly used seven defensemen, though there's always a chance. Clarke still lines up on the second power play and has posted eight PPPs, with the last one coming on Sunday. That may come in handy, as LA's remaining matchups are against opponents ranked no higher than 15th in penalty-kill percentage. Even as Drew Doughty debuted in late January, he may not be pushed too hard, as the team is fairly safe to make the playoffs. Either way, there's an opportunity for Clarke to accumulate some scoring.
Ryan McDonagh, TB (Yahoo: 16%)
Congrats to McDonagh for reaching the 1,000-game mark, and this section will focus on the last 14. During that stretch, he's produced 10 points, 15 shots, 26 blocks and a plus-6 on a 20:18 average. One of the scoring plays came on the man-advantage, yet that's not a normal occurrence for McDonagh, as he's better known for his shorthanded skills. As the Bolts are in the hunt for the Atlantic Division crown, he should be provided with enough opportunities to maintain current form.
Matt Grzelcyk, PIT (Yahoo: 5%)
Grzelcyk has eclipsed his career-high with 36 points thanks to 13 PPAs and a prominent workload that usually sees him sharing the ice with Kris Letang. He had his four-game assist streak snapped on Saturday, but has averaged 22-plus minutes the last few weeks while supplying some blocks and a couple shots/hits. Grzelcyk may not be flashy, though he's reliable — and that's what you're ultimately looking for in a fantasy player.
Dante Fabbro, CLS (Yahoo: 5%)
Fabbro had a nice run going when he was originally discussed during November soon after being acquired on waivers from Nashville. The offensive output hasn't been consistent since and there was a brief injury, yet he's mainly dependable when it comes to the physical categories. And if we look at Fabbro's last four outings, he's registered 2 goals, 5 assists, 8 shots, 4 hits, 2 blocks and a plus-6 at 20:32 per night. With an even-strength partnership alongside Zach Werenski and a secondary PP role on a team that's recently been finding the back of the net like the 1980s Oilers (or pretty much any team from that decade), Fabbro needs to be on more rosters.
Goaltenders
Cam Talbot, DET (Yahoo: 37%)
Talbot has reclaimed the No. 1 job in Detroit after Petr Mrazek initially excelled and then got hurt while Alex Lyon has been erratic all season. Despite a 1-1-1 record last week, he only allowed a total of four goals and made 76 saves. The Red Wings still have a fighting chance for a Wild Card and will probably provide Talbot with all the action he can handle until they clinch a berth or are out of contention.
James Reimer, BUF (Yahoo: 4%)
Not many could've predicted Reimer would hold fantasy relevance in 2025, though the 37-year-old has recently reappeared on the radar by notching five straight wins and starting six of the last eight. Meanwhile, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has struggled since Feb. 27, going 3-7 with a 4.26 GAA and .845 save percentage — including the last outing on Saturday, where he gave up seven goals at Philly. He may be given another chance with the Sabres long out of the playoff race, though it's tough to go away from the hot hand. And as the Buffalo offense has been surging of late, Reimer is a solid streaming option.
MILWAUKEE — The Cincinnati Reds’ re-creation of the dead-ball era has them doing something that hadn’t happened in the major leagues in 65 years.
Cincinnati has lost 1-0 in each of its last three games. According to Sportradar, no team had lost by that score three straight times since the Philadelphia Phillies did it in May 1960.
It’s only occurred six times in MLB history, and four of those instances were over a century ago. Nobody has ever lost 1-0 in four straight games.
The other teams to lose 1-0 in three consecutive games were the Brooklyn Superbas in 1908, the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators in 1909 and the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1917.
“Nobody’s happy with what’s happened the last three games,” Reds manager Terry Francona said after the string of 1-0 losses continued in the opener of a four-game series at Milwaukee. “We’ll figure It out together. I feel strongly about that.”
Cincinnati’s lineup showcased its potential in a 14-3 victory over the Texas Rangers, but the Reds haven’t scored since.
Texas’ Nathan Eovaldi outdueled Carson Spiers. Jack Leiter and four Texas relievers combined for 10 strikeouts as the Reds wasted a brilliant performance from Hunter Greene.
Cincinnati’s Nick Lodolo gave up four hits and one unearned run in 6 2/3 innings, but he took the loss because the Reds mustered just two hits.
“It’s part of the game, you know?” Lodolo said. “I’ll be honest with you. Obviously I want us to score, but I’m not really thinking about it. I’ve got to do my job at the end of the day, regardless. We’ll turn it around. I guarantee that.”
That’s the attitude Francona wants to see from his pitchers as Cincinnati’s hitters try to break out of their slump.
“We’re not going to have a situation where it’s ‘us’ when we win and it’s ‘they’ when we lose,” Francona said. “We’ll do this together.”
Francona said there’s no common thread between the games that explains his lineup’s struggles. The Reds have faced different styles of pitchers each time.
Eovaldi is a veteran right-hander who went the distance while allowing four hits and no walks. Leiter’s a hard-throwing rookie right-hander. Cortes, a veteran left-hander, doesn’t have the velocity of Eovaldi or Leiter but effectively mixed his cutter and changeup with his fastball.
Cincinnati’s struggles may have been particularly frustrating because Cortes looked so awful in his last start, a 20-9 loss to the New York Yankees. Cortes allowed homers on each of his first three pitches that day and ended up yielding eight hits and five walks in two innings of a game that drew attention to the Yankees’ use of “torpedo bats.”
The Reds made Cortes look like an entirely different pitcher.
“It was embarrassing, what happened to me last time,” Cortes said. “I think, as a starter, you’ve got 30 or 32 of these. There’s going to be a lot of bad ones throughout the way. You’ve just got to learn how to brush them off and go to the next one. That’s what I did.”
The Reds’ lone hit off Cortes came from Jose Trevino, who delivered a one-out double in the third off his former Yankees teammate. Cincinnati’s only other hit was a single by Jeimer Candelario off Elvis Peguero in the seventh.
Cincinnati has a combined nine hits, three walks and 27 strikeouts during the skid.
“To be totally honest, you see this all the time throughout a baseball season,” Trevino said. “Pitchers will pick up the hitters and the hitters will pick up the pitchers. It will all switch at some point. We’re going to need them. They’re going to need us. And at some point, we’re all going to be together. That’s just how the baseball season goes.
“Right now, our pitchers are doing really well and our hitters, we’re grinding. It’s not like we’re out there trying to give outs away. We’re out there putting some good at-bats together. We’re going to turn this thing around. I have full confidence in this team.”
RALEIGH, NC - APRIL 2: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals stops in front of the net during a game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on April 2, 2025 in Raleigh, NC. (Photo by John McCreary/NHLI via Getty Images)
John McCreary/NHLI via Getty Images
Wayne Gretzky is expected to be in attendance Friday night in Washington with Alex Ovechkin two goals from tying and three from breaking the Canadian great’s NHL record.
The Capitals’ game against Chicago marks the start of Gretzky joining the chase in person.
“It’s great,” Ovechkin said after his team’s morning skate. “He’s been supportive all the time to me. It’s a fun time right now. We’ll see what’s going to happen, but right now it’s all attention to a hockey game. It’s a pretty cool moment.”
Commissioner Gary Bettman, Ovechkin’s wife, Nastya, and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis were in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday night. Ovechkin scored his 892nd goal in that game, putting him a hat trick on home ice away from passing Gretzky’s mark of 894 that long seemed unapproachable.
“It’s going to be fun,” said winger Tom Wilson, who like Gretzky is from Ontario. “It’s bigger than the game right now. It’s bigger than hockey. It’s the ‘Great One.’ I mean, no one would have ever thought that would happen. The energy around this thing the whole year, it’s been second to none, and it’s been something no one’s ever gone through.”
Not at least in 31 years, since Gretzky passed “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe’s all-time mark of 801 career goals. Gretzky is accompanying Ovechkin on the approach to 895 like Howe did for him on the way to 802 in 1994.
“The greatest player of all time is coming to follow us for however long it takes, so it’s exciting,” Capitals center Dylan Strome said. “I think Ovi and Gretzky have a pretty good relationship. And obviously the ambassador that he’s been for the game for as many years as he has, he does a ton for hockey and a ton for Canada, so it’s cool.”
The anticipation is building around hockey for what’s being billed the “GR8 chase,” and Gretzky being in the building is the latest piece of that.
“It just shows you how close the players are in the game and how much respect there is between both of them,” said retired defenseman Jason Demers, an NHL Network analyst who will also be at the game with “NHL Live” moving on site for the occasion. “Having Wayne be there and support Ovechkin, who’s going to basically break his record and take him out of the record books, I know he’s got 20 or 30 more of them, but it’s just wild to think about the support that guys have for one another, and that’s what makes our sport so great.”
Here's today's NHL Nugget – this Weekend's Way Back When heads back to April 4, 2004, when one player's league debut had special significance.
Brad Fast played the only NHL game of his career for the Carolina Hurricanes. He played over 20 minutes in a goals fest against the Florida Panthers.
No other NHL game ended this way since that match, when Brad Fast got on the scoreboard.
Brian T. Dessart takes fans on a distinctive ride through the historic-laden NHL with the #NHLNugget. Check out NHLNugget.com to find where to follow NHL Nugget on social media. And for past NHL Nuggets, click here.
A decade ago, Bruce Pearl of Auburn and Kelvin Sampson of Houston were emerging from exile — two coaches who had been handed the harshest sanction imaginable by the NCAA and were looking to resurrect their once-successful careers.
The NBA came down on Morant Friday with a $75,000 fine "for twice making an inappropriate gesture on the playing court... Morant was previously warned by the league office that this gesture could be interpreted in a negative light."
Morant said after the Heat game, "I'm well aware" of the controversy and headlines the gesture was drawing.
"I was pretty much a villain for two years now. Every little thing, if somebody can say something negative about me, it's going to be out there," Morant said. "So, yeah. I don't care no more."
The league now needs to be consistent with this warning and fine, because Morant is not the only player who has used it, multiple players have done so throughout the season.
The gesture drew attention when Morant did it because of his history. Morant was suspended for eight games near the end of the 2022-23 season after he showed off a gun on Instagram Live while at a strip club in Colorado. Just a couple of months later, Morant was seen again on Instagram Live with a gun while riding in a friend's car, and this time the league suspended Morant 25 games at the start of the 2023-24 season.
Bruce Pearl has turned Auburn into a basketball school and may have his best team yet. Rick Pitino has done what he does best at St. John's, ushering in a quick turnaround. Pearl and Pitino each received 20 votes in balloting released Friday from the national media panel that picks the AP Top 25 during the season.
Collins is the only coach in the program’s 120-year history to lead Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament. Collins has a 194-190 record in 12 years. “Northwestern is my family’s home," Collins said in a statement.
