Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Adrian Houser will start the season on the injured list with groin tightness and is expected to miss three weeks.

Houser, 30, departed a late-spring game with the injury after going 2-0 with a 4.05 ERA in four Cactus League appearances (two starts). He was expected to be used at the back end of the Milwaukee rotation.

The former second-round draft pick by the Houston Astros in 2011 was 6-10 with a 4.73 ERA in 22 appearances (21 starts) for the Brewers last season. In six major league seasons, all with Milwaukee, he is 23-29 with a 3.97 ERA in 106 appearances (76 starts).

–Field Level Media

Now that the Seattle Mariners have snapped the longest postseason drought in the four major professional sports, they are hungry for more.

The Mariners, who will play host to the Cleveland Guardians in their season opener Thursday, made the playoffs last year for the first time since 2001.

They defeated Toronto in the American League’s wild-card round before being swept by eventual World Series champion Houston Astros in the division series, with the finale decided by a 1-0 margin in 18 innings.

Now the Mariners have their sights set on breaking another slump: They are the lone team among MLB’s 30 franchises to have never reached the World Series.

“Along with that are expectations. They get a little bit higher,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said of getting over the playoff hurdle. “I’ve said it early on and I’ll keep saying it, ‘That’s a good thing.’ We broke through the playoff drought in Seattle so the expectations are naturally much higher, which is a great thing. They should be higher.

“We have a very good team. We now have a team that has some postseason experience. We’ve got some young players that are continuing to get better. We’ve acquired some new players that are going to help us along the way. There’s a lot going in the right direction.”

AL Rookie of the Year Julio Rodriguez is the face of the franchise, and the Mariners boast one of the strongest starting rotations in the game. They added All-Star outfielder Teoscar Hernandez in a trade with Toronto and Gold Glove second baseman Kolten Wong from Milwaukee. They also signed two former All-Stars to platoon/backup roles in outfielder AJ Pollock and infielder Tommy La Stella.

Right-hander Luis Castillo, acquired by Seattle at last summer’s trade deadline from Cincinnati, is scheduled to start the opener. He went a combined 8-6 with 2.99 ERA for both teams last season and is 1-3 with a 5.04 ERA in six career starts against Cleveland.

Castillo isn’t taking the Opening Day start lightly.

“I think it’s something that every starter kind of works for,” Castillo said. “It’s something that they want. I’m thankful for Seattle to give me this opportunity. And it also lets me know that they have the confidence to start me in that big situation.”

The Guardians are set to send former AL Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber (13-8, 2.88 ERA last season) to the mound for the fourth consecutive Opening Day. The right-hander is 1-2 with a 3.19 ERA in five career starts against Seattle.

Bieber went 2-0 with 1.54 ERA in five spring-training starts but wasn’t satisfied.

“It’s the athlete’s curse or the pitcher’s curse,” Bieber said after allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings and striking out 11 in his last spring start Saturday against Colorado. “I guess I’m just perpetually frustrated. …You’re always trying to get better.”

Like Seattle, Cleveland’s season ended in the AL Division Series last year.

The Guardians surprised by winning the AL Central title with the youngest team in baseball. Now they’re focusing on winning their first World Series since 1948.

They added some power in the offseason in switch-hitting first baseman Josh Bell and catcher Mike Zunino to give AL Manager of the Year Terry Francona a few more weapons.

“The way we played last year, we had to play a pretty clean game,” Francona said. “If that’s the way it is, I’m OK with that. Just know that if someone hits a three-run homer every once in a while, it makes it easier.”

–Field Level Media

It will be a decade-long playoff participant against a team in a half-decade postseason drought Thursday when the Los Angeles Dodgers play host to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Opening Day.

Despite vast differences in the standings in recent seasons, both squads share certain similarities.

High-upside youngsters will take the field for both teams, while the closer spot appears to be a work in progress for each. They are each likely to have strong outfield defenses.

While the Diamondbacks hope to continue the upward trajectory that started last season, the Dodgers are out to prove they still are one of baseball’s top teams after a franchise-record 111 regular-season victories in 2022.

But with staff ace Walker Buehler expected to miss most of the season after Tommy John surgery, shortstop Trea Turner departing for a free-agent deal with the Philadelphia Phillies and his replacement, Gavin Lux, out for the season with a knee injury, Los Angeles’ intimidating exterior appears to have some weak spots.

The Dodgers will see what they can get from Trayce Thompson and 25-year-old rookie James Outman in center field, while rookie Miguel Vargas, 23, takes over at second base after never playing there as a minor leaguer and veteran Miguel Rojas starts at short.

The Dodgers will need plenty from veteran All-Stars like Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman at the top of the order, and Max Muncy in the cleanup spot after showing this spring that he is ready to rebound from a season that fell below expectations.

“Even though Mookie and Freddie are all-world baseball players, they don’t think they just have to show up and play,” Dodgers veteran left-hander Clayton Kershaw said, per the Orange County Register. “There’s that element with everybody. You don’t know if this is going to be somebody’s best year, you don’t know if it’s going to be somebody’s worst year.

“I think with that, it creates some optimism, some excitement that we have some unknowns with the team. Which I think might be good.”

Kershaw won’t be the Dodgers’ Opening Day starter this season, with that honor going to left-hander Julio Urias for the first time. Urias was the National League ERA champion last season with a 2.16 mark, and he was baseball’s only 20-game winner in 2021.

The Diamondbacks will send right-hander Zac Gallen to the mound on Thursday for his first career Opening Day start after left-hander Madison Bumgarner held the honor the past three seasons.

Gallen (12-4, 2.54 ERA in 2022) led the National League with a 0.913 WHIP and finished fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting. Gallen won’t have Carson Kelly behind the plate with the catcher out with a fractured forearm.

Gallen is 1-2 in nine career starts against the Dodgers with a 2.30 ERA, including a 0.64 ERA in 14 innings against them last season. Urias has dominated the Diamondbacks in his career, going 7-1 with a 1.38 ERA in 11 appearances (eight starts).

Arizona’s outfield defense will have plenty of range with Alek Thomas and top prospect Corbin Carroll, who has just 17 games of big-league experience, but whose ability earned him an eight-year, $111 million extension. Jake McCarthy, 25, will man the other outfield spot, with Kyle Lewis also an option.

“(Talent) has been percolating for a while and several of the young players are going to help lead the way with it for us this year at the big-league level and there’s more coming and we know it,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “The future looks really bright. It makes me smile.”

–Field Level Media

While it is not mandatory for the Chicago White Sox to open the 2023 campaign with a roaring start, early success would help soothe the lingering angst over last season’s disappointment.

Following consecutive postseason berths, the White Sox entered 2022 with thoughts of the World Series. What unfolded instead was a season ravaged by injuries and marked by underachievement by missing out on the playoffs.

This Opening Day comes with the White Sox stewarded by a new manager in Pedro Grifol and reinforced by new faces around a familiar core. Chicago opens the season on the road against the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros on Thursday, seeking not only a fresh start but a means to create distance from a season in which precious little went right.

“We’re creating new energy, we’re creating a new culture and I think it’s led by the right man as well,” White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson said. “I think the biggest thing is communication and getting guys prepared to continue to try to be successful and putting us in the right spot to be successful. The communication has been great.”

Grifol understood the need to start anew. Prior to the close of spring training, he implored fans to give these White Sox a chance without tying this roster to past failures.

That evaluation process will entail throwing support behind Anderson, catcher Yasmani Grandal, third baseman Yoan Moncada and outfielders Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert Jr. while also wishing each a healthy campaign.

It will start with White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, who was second in AL Cy Young Award balloting in 2022, on the mound. Cease (14-8, 2.20 ERA in 2022) finished with a career-high 227 strikeouts while emerging as the leader of the rotation last season.

The Astros counter with left-hander Framber Valdez (17-6, 2.82 ERA in 2022), who takes over staff ace duties from the right-hander who bested Cease for Cy Young honors. Justin Verlander signed with the New York Mets as a free agent during the offseason.

Valdez led the AL with 201 1/3 innings last season and went 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA and 18 strikeouts over two World Series starts against the Philadelphia Phillies this past fall to earn the No. 1 rotation spot.

Houston opened spring training with minimal roster concerns. The Astros will enter Opening Day with All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve sidelined for two months after a right thumb fracture during the World Baseball Classic and with right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. (elbow) and left fielder Michael Brantley (shoulder) also unavailable.

The Astros are equipped to deal with the delayed returns of McCullers and Brantley, both of whom could be activated sometime in April.

Losing Altuve is cause for greater concern, not only because of his production but also due to his place atop the lineup. Mauricio Dubon and David Hensley are the top candidates to fill the void, but the Astros are remaining flexible.

“Initially we’re going to let our guys play a little bit,” Astros general manager Dana Brown said. “We have some internal candidates that we’re excited about so we’re going to watch them play.

“We have engaged outside the organization but right now we’re very comfortable with what we have in the organization as we continue to talk to other teams.”

–Field Level Media

The New York Yankees signed outfielder Franchy Cordero to a split major league contract, putting the veteran in line to make the team’s Opening Day roster, multiple outlets reported Wednesday.

The deal will pay Cordero $1 million in the majors and $180,000 in the minor leagues, ESPN reported.

Cordero, 28, was released by the Baltimore Orioles on Monday after hitting .413 with an OPS of 1.099 in 18 spring training games. He also struck out 11 times in 47 plate appearances.

Cordero hit .219 with eight home runs and 36 runs in 84 games with the Boston Red Sox in 2022.

He’s a career .221 hitter with 21 home runs in six major league seasons with the San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals and the Red Sox.

–Field Level Media

Shohei Ohtani returns to the site of his Major League Baseball debut as both a power hitter and a starting pitcher, when the Los Angeles Angels visit the Oakland Athletics to open the 2023 regular season Thursday night.

The matchup features Ohtani, Mike Trout and a mostly familiar Angels looking to end an eight-year postseason drought against another new A’s edition seeking to lay the foundation for future success.

The right-handed Ohtani (15-9, 2.33 ERA in 2022) is scheduled to make his second consecutive Opening Day start. He was the loser last year at home against the Houston Astros despite allowing just one run in 4 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts. The Astros won the game 3-1.

Looking to erase memories of last year’s 73-89 season, the Angels lined up their Opening Day plans early by announcing Ohtani as the starter not long after spring training started. Ohtani finished fourth in the American League Cy Young Award balloting last season.

The 28-year-old, who can become a free agent at the completion of his current one-year, $30 million deal, went just 2-2 despite a 1.09 ERA in four starts against Oakland last year. He held the A’s to just 14 hits with 28 strikeouts in 24 2/3 innings.

He is 4-4 in 10 lifetime starts against Oakland, including his first MLB start in his fourth career game at Oakland in April in 2018, when he got the win with six innings of three-hit ball. He was the team’s designated hitter in the 2018 season opener at Oakland, recording a hit in five at-bats in his first MLB action.

Ohtani, one of the heroes of Japan’s championship run in the recently completed World Baseball Classic, hopes his personal momentum carries over into the Angels’ season.

“When I saw the faces of my teammates for the first time in a while, I felt like I want to win a title with this team, too,” Ohtani said through an interpreter.

Ohtani is expected to be backed in the field Thursday by at least two newcomers — shortstop Gio Urshela and first baseman Brandon Drury. Regular first baseman Jared Walsh will open the season on the injured list after experiencing headaches and insomnia.

Urshela, who played with the Minnesota Twins last year after three years with the New York Yankees, won the Opening Day nod at shortstop after hitting .382 in the spring with a .417 on-base percentage. Drury had two homers among his 12 spring hits.

The A’s selected left-hander Kyle Muller as their Opening Day starter.

Acquired as part of the package when Oakland dealt catcher Sean Murphy to the Atlanta Braves in December, Muller (1-1, 8.03 ERA in 2022) has never faced the Angels in his two seasons. In fact, he’s gone head-to-head with just two AL teams — the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers.

The decision to start Muller meant avoiding a potential matchup of Ohtani and countryman Shintaro Fujinami, who will pitch only on Saturdays to begin his MLB career.

James Kaprielian, another member of the Oakland starting staff, was excited to see an improved A’s offense in the spring, one that teed off on the rival San Francisco Giants for 12 runs in the exhibition finale Monday.

“Guys are hammering the ball,” Kaprielian said. “When you’re sitting on the bench and you just hear a crack of the bat, I mean, it’s exciting. Anytime you have an explosive offense, it does take a little bit of pressure off the staff and the bullpen.”

–Field Level Media

Daniel Murphy is coming out of retirement to play ball — for the independent Long Island Ducks.

Murphy retired from Major League Baseball after the 2020 season. He turns 38 on Saturday.

The Ducks play in the Atlantic League. Murphy will be reunited with former New York Mets teammate Ruben Tejada. Another former Met, Wally Backman, manages the team.

“This game is part of my soul, and my passion for playing grew as great as ever when I discovered certain things that I believe will enable me to be productive on the field again,” Murphy said in a news release Wednesday, adding he was grateful to team leadership “for allowing me to live my dream for a second time.”

Murphy finished his major league career with averages of .296/.341/.455 and 138 home runs to go with 735 RBIs in 12 seasons with the Mets (2008-15), Washington Nationals (2016-18), Chicago Cubs (2018) and Colorado Rockies (2019-20).

He was a three-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger and the 2015 National League Championship Series MVP.

–Field Level Media

Right-hander Pablo Lopez won’t have to wait long to make his debut with the Minnesota Twins.

After he was traded to the Twins in late January, Lopez will look to make a positive first impression Thursday when he takes on the host Kansas City Royals on Opening Day.

Lopez (10-10, 3.75 ERA in 2022) came over from the Miami Marlins, with whom he spent the first five seasons of his career. Minnesota also acquired a pair of prospects in the deal, but it came at a cost, as the Twins dealt reigning American League batting champion Luis Arraez to the Marlins.

“I could see why so many fans were upset in a way because they traded such a good player,” Lopez said. “That’s just encouraging. They traded Luis Arraez to bring me in. … It made me want to try harder.

“I think every day just has been very encouraging how easy the Twins made the transition for me. Every day I keep raising my own bar.”

Even though Minnesota’s rotation features the Opening Day starters from each of the past two seasons in Joe Ryan and Kenta Maeda, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli went with his newest starter in the new season.

“I feel like Pablo’s a guy that’s come in and had such an immediate impact on everyone around here, staff and player alike,” Baldelli said. “I think he’s an extraordinarily talented individual who will rise to that occasion of pitching the first game of the season for us.”

While Arraez might not be there to provide offensive support for Lopez, shortstop Carlos Correa will be after he saw free-agent deals with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets fall through due to concerns with his physical.

Correa came back to the Twins on a six-year, $200 million contract after hitting .291 with 22 homers and 64 RBIs with Minnesota a season ago. He will be one of the many challenges for Royals right-hander Zack Greinke (4-9, 3.68 ERA in 2022).

Greinke is seeking better results against the Twins in 2023 after going 0-4 with a 4.07 ERA in five starts against them last season.

It wasn’t just Greinke who struggled against Minnesota, as Kansas City went 7-12 against its division rival last year. The Twins were one of many teams to find success against the Royals, whose 65-97 record led to a fifth-place finish in the AL Central. It was the second worst record in the entire AL.

But with a young lineup featuring shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., catcher MJ Melendez and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino — all of whom are under the age of 26 — first-year manager Matt Quatraro sees better days ahead.

“We all kind of came up together, so you want to go out and prove that you’re supposed to be here,” Witt said. “You want to keep going, keep working to get better each and every day. We have some things to prove, for sure.”

Quatraro, who served as the Rays’ bench coach for the past three seasons, was impressed with how his team established chemistry during the spring.

“A lot of things have been cool to watch — how the staff has kind of gelled quickly, how the players have responded to the staff, how everybody’s kind of gotten along,” Quatraro said on Bally Sports Kansas City. “Really couldn’t be happier with the way things have gone.”

–Field Level Media

In his decade managing the Oakland Athletics, Bob Melvin developed a stellar reputation for doing more with less.

Now he gets to operate with talent aplenty in his second season with the San Diego Padres after the front office went on another spending spree this past winter. San Diego is bidding to put a dent into the Los Angeles Dodgers’ dominating run in the National League West.

The Padres put their shiny new look on display at home Thursday in the season opener against the Colorado Rockies.

“Expectations are high and they should be,” Melvin said. “Everyone in the clubhouse knows that.”

Everyone, including Melvin.

“This is a team with a lot of stars, which I have not had a lot of,” he said. “And it’s a team with a very high payroll, which I have not had a ton of.”

The goal of Padres owner Peter Seidler was simple: “I want to give San Diego its first (championship) parade. We want the Padres to be good year in, year out … for a lot of years.”

During the offseason, the Padres extended the contract of third-baseman Manny Machado through 2033 and signed free agent shortstop Xander Bogaerts to a 10-year deal. Right-hander Yu Darvish got an extension that will take him through the end of his career and Joe Musgrove is committed to pitching in his hometown for another five seasons.

And then there is Fernando Tatis Jr., who returns from an 80-game PED suspension on April 20. His contract runs through 2034.

The Rockies’ commitment to splashy roster building is spotty at best. They signed third baseman Nolan Arenado to a huge contract then traded him away. Two offseasons ago, they signed Kris Bryant.

Not only were there no big moves for the Rockies this offseason, there was a rash injuries in spring training to players like outfielders Randal Grichuk (sports hernia) and Sean Bouchard (biceps), left-hander Lucas Gilbreath (elbow) and most crushing of all, second-baseman Brendan Rodgers (shoulder).

“What the Padres are doing, I don’t 100 percent agree with, though I know that our fans probably agree with it,” Colorado owner Dick Monfort said. “We’ll see how it works out. I look at the Padres and they have a really talented team, but they have some holes too. They have spent a lot of money and they will have to spend a lot more if they want to keep (outfielder) Juan Soto. But it does put a lot of pressure on you. Yes, it does.”

Rockies additions include right-hander Michael Wacha and utility man Rougned Odor. Former Padre Jurickson Profar was signed late in the spring.

The Padres open the season with the third-highest total payroll in the major leagues at $237 million, according to Spotrac, while the Rockies are 15th at $166.3 million, which is just above the MLB average.

The Rockies will send right-hander German Marquez to the mound Thursday, while the Padres counter with left-hander Blake Snell.

The 28-year-old Marquez was 9-13 with a 4.95 ERA in 31 starts last season for Rockies. He is 9-3 lifetime against the Padres with a 4.47 ERA and is 5-2 at Petco Park with a 3.71 ERA, a 1.069 WHIP and an .216 opponents’ batting average over 53 1/3 innings.

Snell is not the Padres’ first choice for Opening Day starter, but Darvish needs more preparation time after pitching less than expected for champion Japan in the World Baseball Classic. Musgrove isn’t ready after a left big toe fracture.

A notorious slow starter Snell, 30, closed strong in 2022 and finished 8-10 with a 3.38 ERA.

–Field Level Media