San Francisco Giants left-hander Blake Snell will pitch either in Arizona or "something somewhere else" on Friday, according to manager Bob Melvin. Snell pitched three innings on Sunday and could get up to five innings later this week. Due to the late nature of his signing with the Giants during spring training, last year's National League Cy Young winner won't be ready to be in the team's Opening Day rotation. We should have a better idea of when the 31-year-old southpaw will be able to make his Giants debut once he gets stretched out a bit more. While Snell has lots of strikeout upside for fantasy managers, he led the league with 99 walks last year with the San Diego Padres and was fortunate to have a league-low 2.25 ERA, as evidenced by his 3.44 FIP. He's moving to a great pitcher's park, but fantasy managers should expect some regression.

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani faced the media on Monday and said he's never bet on sports or knowingly paid any gambling debts accumulated by his long-time interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who was fired by the Dodgers five days ago in the wake of media inquiries surrounding at least $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from Ohtani's bank account to a Southern Californian bookmaking operation that is under federal investigation. "Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has been telling lies," Ohtani said. "I never bet on sports or have willfully sent money to the bookmaker." Federal prosecutors and Major League Baseball are conducting investigations into the matter, but Ohtani is expected to continue to play while it all unfolds.

Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo stopped short of saying that outfielder Randal Grichuk (ankle) will open the year on the injured list, but the skipper left little doubt. Lovullo said that Grichuk would be ready to serve as the designated hitter but that "just having a DH and not giving somebody a chance to play on the other side of the ball would not be fair to him or the team." The 32-year-old is recovering from surgery to remove a bone spur from his right ankle in February and is unlikely to be on the Opening Day roster. When Grichuk is healthy, he'll serve as outfield insurance for the Snakes after hitting .267/.321/.459 with 16 home runs and 44 RBI in 118 games with the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Angels in 2023. Grichuk hasn't hit 20 homers since 2021 and lost most of his fantasy appeal when he left Colorado last year.

Kansas City Royals right-hander Michael Wacha (finger) is fine and isn't expected to miss any time to open the 2024 regular season. Manager Matt Quatraro said Wacha woke up Monday morning and even "forgot about it." Wacha is the club's No. 4 starter in his first year in KC, joining Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Brady Singer and Alec Marsh. The 32-year-old veteran suffered a bruised right middle finger during an intrasquad game on Sunday, but it won't impact his availability for the start of the 2024 campaign. He's expected to make his Royals debut on April 1 in a tough matchup against the defending American League East-champion Baltimore Orioles. Fantasy managers should expect regression from Wacha after two straight fortunate seasons in 2022 and 2023.

Seattle Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo (elbow) will begin the season on the injured list due to elbow inflammation. Woo is an option for rotation depth in deep-mixed fantasy leagues after he went 4-5 with a 4.21 ERA (4.36 FIP) and 1.21 WHIP with 31 walks and 93 strikeouts in 87 2/3 innings in his first 18 major-league starts for the Mariners in 2023. However, his stock has now dropped with him starting the year on the shelf. The former sixth-round pick in 2021 out of Cal Poly will settle into the back end of Seattle's rotation whenever he does make his 2024 debut. The 24-year-old has a diverse arsenal of pitches and could improve his strikeout rate, but if he's inconsistent, the M's have other interesting starting arms that could bump him from the rotation.