MLB News Blog

Alberto Callaspo may not be ready for the Kansas City Royals season opener April 5 with Detroit because of an irritation in his right side. Callaspo has been held out of all baseball activities since the injury, which occurred Friday while taking batting practice. Callaspo hit .300 last season with 41 doubles and 11 home [...]

Baltimore Orioles reliever Koji Uehara is preparing for another trip to the disabled list — this time with a strained left hamstring. Uehara hasn’t thrown off the mound since March 18, when he left an exhibition game against Toronto with hamstring tightness. The Japanese native has been slow to recover from the injury, and conceded [...]

Red Sox pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka, whose spring training has been delayed by back and neck problems, threw 62 pitches in a simulated game. The right-hander is slated to pitch next in an exhibition game Saturday against the Nationals in Washington. He threw 41 pitches for strikes over three innings Monday.

Barack Obama will throw out the ceremonial first ball at the Washington Nationals’ opener, marking the 100th anniversary of a presidential pitch to start the season. William Howard Taft first did it on April 14, 1910. This will be the 48th time a president has made an opening-day pitch in the nation’s capital.

Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo says right-hander Stephen Strasburg will make his minor league debut for Double-A Harrisburg against Altoona on April 11. That’s the same day that the fifth starter in the Nationals’ rotation is slated to pitch for the first time during the regular season.

Cliff Lee will have to keep waiting for a hearing on his appeal of a five-game suspension. The Mariners’ co-ace said Monday that a hearing by teleconference with the league that had been scheduled for the morning from Phoenix was postponed because a league official could not make the appointment.

Pirates manager John Russell plans to begin the season with his pitcher hitting eighth, a move that will shift Andrew McCutchen from leadoff to second in the batting order. When the Pirates start the season April 5 against Los Angeles, Russell plans to hit shortstop Ronny Cedeno ninth, followed by second baseman and lead-off hitter [...]

Jose Reyes is a step closer to appearing in a game for the first time this spring. The New York Mets’ shortstop took batting practice against minor-league pitchers Monday morning and said the session went better than expected. Reyes has participated in six workouts since returning to camp Wednesday, following a three-week absence with a [...]

Toronto right-hander Brandon Morrow threw 52 pitches in a simulated game after being shut down for a week due to a “dead arm.” He allowed one hit, walked one and struck out four of 14 batters. He says he “felt great, could’ve kept going.” Morrow, projected as the No. 3 starter in the Blue Jays [...]

Erik Bedard is back on a mound for the Mariners — albeit at less than half speed. The oft-injured left-hander took his first step to rejoining Seattle’s jumbled rotation by tossing about 20 pitches off the mound out of the stretch position Monday morning. General manager Jack Zduriencik, special assistant Tony Blengino, manager Don Wakamatsu, [...]