MLB Player News

The Nationals released Strickland on Saturday, and it not only clears up a spot on the 26-man roster, it also makes room on the 40-man. That is necessary to add Guerra, who was re-signed in December to a minor league contract. Dougherty also mentions that the Nationals could go with a third catcher like Welington Castillo, or utility-man Emilio Bonifacio.

Fraley suffered a setback in rehab in the middle of July. There’s no timetable for when he’ll be ready to return, but this opens up a spot on the 40-man roster to make room for the Rays recent deadline acquisitions.

Pereira, who was in the lineup against a righty because Braden Montgomery couldn’t go, probably isn’t ever going to make enough contact to be a major contributor, but he does run into a ball now and again. His 393-foot double off Craig Kimbrel today would have a homer in five ballparks. His actual homer was hit 410 feet to left center in the ninth. The White Sox are due to face lefties in four of their six games against Boston and Cleveland this week, so Pereira should have a little chance here to see if he can get a hot streak going.

In both the fourth and sixth innings, the Rays were able to string together three hits against Kay, but they were all singles and none produced any runs. Kay improved to 8-5 with a 4.01 ERA. He’s certainly not overwhelming anyone, but he’s gone six straight starts without allowing more than three runs. He’ll face the Guardians next weekend.

Ryan Vilade started the game with an error at second base and Jax later made an error of his own on a tapper back to the mound in the White Sox’s two-run first inning. The lone earned run was produced by an Andrew Benintendi 378-foot home run. It’s the fourth time in five starts that Jax has allowed exactly one earned run. He’ll be a fine option in mixed leagues with a road start in Seattle coming up.

No steals, though. All three hits were on grounders. He’s up to .404/.411/.462 with five steals since the All-Star break, though that’s only amounted to six runs scored and three RBI in 15 games.

Misiorowski gave up a two-run homer to Wade Meckler, and that was it. He was dominant after that roundtripper, but the Brewers could not solve Walbert Ureña, so it’s a hard-luck loss for the 24-year-old flamethrower. Perhaps just as impressive as the 10 strikeouts are — with 17 swings and misses — Misiorowski only needed 83 pitches to get through those seven frames. He’ll be back at it next weekend against the Twins.