{"id":608817,"date":"2026-03-06T01:38:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/608817\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T01:38:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:38:31","slug":"mlb-news-mccutchen-to-rangers-astros-pena-to-miss-wbc-kershaw-cheered-in-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/608817\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB News: McCutchen to Rangers, Astros\u2019 Pena to Miss WBC, Kershaw Cheered in Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"

A very pleasant good evening to you, Dodgers fans. The World Baseball Classic action has begun, and there\u2019s no judgment here if you\u2019re looking to get to bed early and wake up in time for Samurai Japan\u2019s 2 a.m. matchup with Chinese Taipei<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yeah, it\u2019s early, but seeing Shohei Ohtani hit and Yoshinobu Yamamoto take the mound might make it all worth it.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

In either case, here are some of the big headlines from around the sport.<\/p>\n

Former MVP Andrew McCutchen Signs With Rangers<\/p>\n

Andrew McCutchen, the longtime Pittsburgh Pirate and 2013 National League MVP, signed a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n

McCutchen, 39, was thought to retire as a Pirate, but the team\u2019s addition of Marcell Ozuna seems to have ended that thought, report Stephen J. Nesbitt and Katie Woo of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Astros\u2019 Jeremy Pe\u00f1a Will Miss WBC<\/p>\n

Houston Astros\u00a0All-Star shortstop\u00a0Jeremy Pe\u00f1a\u00a0will miss the WBC and perhaps Opening Day after fracturing the tip of his right ring finger, ESPN reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Before the injury was determined to be a fracture, Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters that \u201cPe\u00f1a suffered damage to the nail area on the finger after fielding a hard ground ball for the Dominican Republic national team during an exhibition game on Wednesday,\u201d ESPN added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to be out for two weeks. So, we\u2019ll have to make a replacement,\u201d Dominican Republic general manager Nelson Cruz said at the team\u2019s workout on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/p>\n

Mar 3, 2026; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Team USA pitcher Clayton Kershaw against the San Francisco Giants during a spring training game at Scottsdale Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Clayton Kershaw Gets Cheers, Not Jeers, in Denver<\/p>\n

Dodgers great Clayton Kershaw didn\u2019t necessarily play well for Team USA on Wednesday, giving up a home run against the Colorado Rockies.<\/p>\n

That said, he\u2019s not letting that get him down, Jesse Rogers of ESPN reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Even after years of torturing the Rockies, the fans in Denver gave Kershaw a standing ovation as he exited an MLB mound for what could be the last time in his Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being on this team was a bucket list thing for me from the beginning,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cObviously, I thought I was never going to throw a baseball again. So to get to do it with Team USA across your chest and come back to that dugout, that team is really special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A very pleasant good evening to you, Dodgers fans. The World Baseball Classic action has begun, and there\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2389],"tags":[1151,42,5,42502,1147,52,39,139,54,3211,5828,78,4,320,32640,66,468,69,4820,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-608817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-andrew-mccutchen","9":"tag-astros","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-chinese-taipei","12":"tag-clayton-kershaw","13":"tag-colorado-rockies","14":"tag-dodgers","15":"tag-houston","16":"tag-houston-astros","17":"tag-houstonastros","18":"tag-jeremy-pena","19":"tag-marcell-ozuna","20":"tag-mlb","21":"tag-nelson-cruz","22":"tag-pittsburgh-pirate","23":"tag-san-francisco-giants","24":"tag-shohei-ohtani","25":"tag-texas-rangers","26":"tag-world-baseball-classic","27":"tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116179679426689036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}