Chicago White Sox All-Star closer Liam Hendriks is making progress in his battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and will not be placed on the 60-day injured list, general manager Rick Hahn said Wednesday.

Hendriks, who turned 34 in February, announced his diagnosis in early January and has been undergoing treatment. Hahn said the team has received a promising update on Hendriks’ health.

“In recent days we’ve received positive news on Liam’s progress,” Hahn told reporters. “He remains in treatment. He still has some work ahead of him.

“However, he is making very good progress, and while we don’t currently have a specific timeline available to share with you on his potential return, those of you that pay close attention to our roster will notice that we have not placed him on the 60-day IL, and that is on purpose.”

Hahn said the White Sox may be able to offer a timeline for the right-hander’s eventual return around the end of April.

Hendriks recorded 75 saves over his first two seasons with the White Sox, making the All-Star team both years. His 38 saves in 2021 led the American League and he followed up with 37 last season.

Hendriks, a native of Australia, also was an All-Star in 2019 when he was a member of the Oakland Athletics.

In 471 career games (44 starts) for the Minnesota Twins (2011-13), Kansas City Royals (2014), Toronto Blue Jays (2014-15), Oakland Athletics (2016-20) and White Sox, Hendriks has a career 3.81 ERA with a 31-34 record and 115 saves. He has 724 strikeouts against 158 walks across 645 innings.

–Field Level Media

San Diego Padres third-base coach Matt Williams has been diagnosed with colon cancer and will be away from the team beginning Friday when he is scheduled to have surgery.

Williams, 57, is starting his second season with the Padres and will be on hand for the season opener Thursday against the visiting Colorado Rockies. There is no timetable for his return. Former St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, now with San Diego as a senior advisor, will coach third base in Williams’ place.

Williams said Wednesday that the cancer was discovered during routine blood work earlier this spring. He continued his coaching duties before letting the organization know he was taking a leave of absence.

He said he wasn’t experiencing any symptoms or issues.

“It’s a strange thing, because I wouldn’t have known otherwise,” Williams said. “I feel as good as I’ve felt in 20 years, able to continue to still do my job and everything else.

“It’s just a question of: It’s there, and we have to go get it. So now we start that process.”

Williams said the initial scans were positive in that medical staff didn’t see the cancer spread anywhere else.

“He might be the toughest guy I’ve ever come across in baseball,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said of Williams, a former teammate with the San Francisco Giants. “We know, I know in particular, that he’s gonna give this the fiercest effort of his life, and he’s going to beat it. Our players have been fully supportive of him, but it’s hard, being so close to somebody and knowing that he has to deal with it. But I know he is, and I know he’s gonna beat it.”

Williams played 17 years in the big leagues from 1987-2003 as a member of the Giants, Cleveland Indians and Arizona Diamondbacks. He was a five-time All-Star and winner of four Gold Gloves and four Silver Sluggers as a third baseman.

He coached under Melvin with the Diamondbacks before taking the helm for two seasons with the Washington Nationals, winning National League Manager of the Year in 2014. He served as Melvin’s third-base coach with the Oakland Athletics in 2018-19 and rejoined Melvin last season in San Diego.

–Field Level Media

The Philadelphia Phillies acquired center fielder Cristian Pache from the Oakland A’s on Wednesday in exchange for minor league pitcher Billy Sullivan.

To make room for Pache on the 40-man roster, the Phillies placed star Rhys Hoskins on the 60-day injured list. Hoskins will undergo surgery Thursday for a torn ACL and is out for the season.

Pache, 24, hit .166 with three home runs and 18 RBIs in 91 games for the A’s in 2022. But it’s his defense the Phillies want.

Pache tied for fifth among American League center fielders with five defensive runs saved in 2022, per the Phillies’ press release. He posted a .995 fielding percentage.

Sullivan, 23, went 5-1 with a 4.59 ERA in 44 games (two starts) for Double-A Reading last year. The 6-foot-2 right-hander was drafted in the 17th round by the Phils in 2017.

–Field Level Media

Top Los Angeles Angels prospect Logan O’Hoppe will be the catcher on Opening Day at Oakland on Thursday with Max Stassi headed to the injured list with hip soreness, manager Phil Nevin said.

O’Hoppe, acquired in last year’s trade that sent outfielder Brandon Marsh to the Philadelphia Phillies, made his MLB debut late last season and played in five games for the Angels.

Los Angeles has a trio of catching options in O’Hoppe, Stassi and Matt Thaiss, who also will be named to the Opening Day roster, according to Nevin.

“Yeah, it’s super humbling,” O’Hoppe said about being in a lineup with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. “I’d be lying If I didn’t say I looked at it and thought, ‘What the hell am I doing there?’ But I’m settling in now and I feel more comfortable and really happy to get going.”

O’Hoppe batted .281 in 12 games this spring with a .799 OPS after he batted .306 with a 1.147 OPS in 29 games with the Angels’ Double-A affiliate Rocket City last season.

Stassi had been away from the team for personal reasons toward the end of spring training and sustained his injury during a minor league game at Arizona on Sunday.

O’Hoppe, 23, will catch Ohtani in Tuesday’s opener against the A’s.

“He worked his tail off all winter to be in this position and he’s earned it,” Nevin said of O’Hoppe, who is the No. 42 overall prospect at Baseball America and No. 53 at mlb.com. “A guy like Ohtani is saying this guy can really catch and I don’t mind throwing to him.”

Nevin also revealed that left-hander Tucker Davidson will make the roster. He was in a battle for the No. 6 starting spot with right-hander Griffin Canning, who is experiencing groin discomfort.

–Field Level Media

The Tampa Bay Rays are placing three right-handed pitchers on the injured list ahead of Thursday’s season opener.

Setup man Shawn Armstrong is dealing with neck issues, while Shane Baz is recovering from Tommy John surgery and fellow starter Tyler Glasnow is sidelined with an injured left oblique.

Armstrong is expected to be out two weeks and Glasnow could miss the season’s first month. Baz will likely sacrifice the entire season after September surgery to repair his right elbow.

Armstrong, 32, went 2-3 with a 3.60 ERA and two saves in 43 appearances (three starts) with the Rays last season.

Baz, 23, was 1-2 with a 5.00 ERA in six starts for Tampa Bay in 2022, strikeout out 30 batters in 27 innings.

Glasnow, 29, posted a 1.35 ERA in two starts after missing most of last season following Tommy John surgery.

–Field Level Media

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