Kevin Pillar

Crochet got squeezed on a handful of borderline pitches in the early stages of the contest, which led to a pair of walks, but he managed to prevent things from spiraling out of control in his Red Sox debut. An early run-scoring single from Kevin Pillar and a fourth-inning RBI double from Kyle Higashioka accounted for all the damage against him. It wasn't the dominant performance fantasy managers have grown accustomed to from Crochet, but he fared well considering he was on the road against one of the better lineups in baseball. He'll get his first taste of the AL East on Wednesday when he faces off against the division-rival Orioles at Camden Yards.

Not bad for a guy who was close to retiring just months ago. The Red Sox are throwing left-hander Garrett Crochet, so Pillar was likely always going to be in the lineup, but with Corey Seager taking the DH spot, that means Pillar got bumped to center field and Leody Taveras was pushed to the bench.

It will be Higashioka and not Jonah Heim who gets the first start of the season behind the plate. This will likely be a close timehsare but given how good this Rangers lineup could be, it's worth monitoring how the team splits up this workload. The full Rangers lineup is: Marcus Semien 2B, Corey Seager DH, Wyatt Langford LF, Adolis Garcia RF, Jake Burger 1B, Josh Jung 3B, Kevin Pillar CF, Kyle Higashioka C, Josh Smith SS.

Pillar has officially made the Rangers' Opening Day roster in a bench role. The 36-year-old outfielder is a valuable depth piece for a contending roster, but he can be safely ignored in all fantasy formats.

The Rangers released outfielder Cody Thomas from his minor league contract. Texas also officially selected Kevin Pillar onto the 40-man roster after announcing yesterday that he’d make the team. They had an opening after outrighting Dane Dunning earlier in the week. Additionally, the Rangers reassigned a number of minor league signees to Triple-A Round Rock: Joe Barlow, Tucker Barnhart, Caleb…