MLB Player News

He said he’s accepted a coaching spot in the Rockies organization. Wolters never did hit much, but he was an excellent defensive catcher. The incredible thing there is that he actually spent his first two pro seasons as a middle infielder before making the move behind the plate. Wolters got all but 34 of his plate appearances as a major leaguer with the Rockies and hit .262/.337/.329 in 411 plate appearances in his one full year as a starter in 2019. Overall, he came in at .235/.321/.314 in 407 games.

O’Hearn’s double in the first, which knocked in two runs, would have been a homer in 16 ballparks. He also plated two with his home run and with his single in the seventh, besting his previous high RBI total by two. O’Hearn had been pretty quiet since coming off the injured list at the end of May, but going 6-for-10 the last two days has boosted him back up to .290/.351/.475 for the year.

All four hits he allowed tonight were singles. Ashcraft notched his first win in three starts this month to move to 6-3 with a 3.18 ERA on the season. The Pirates are probably going to have to do something about his workload in the second half, but he should remain plenty valuable in the meantime. He’s lined up to face the Mariners next Wednesday.

For some reason, the A’s chose to bring Civale back out for the fourth, only to pull him following a leadoff walk to Brandon Lowe. Civale, who was activated from the injured list before the game, has given up 18 runs over 12 innings in his last three starts, talking his ERA from 2.70 to 4.91. Perhaps he’ll go back to being serviceable, but there just isn’t any reason to expect more than that. He’ll face the Giants next week.

Horwitz scored three runs for the first time this season. He’s far from a prototypical leadoff man with his fourth-percentile sprint speed, but he’s hitting .281 with a .389 OBP this season. He’s even getting the job done in limited action against lefties, amassing a .383 OBP in 47 plate appearances.

Ozuna hit the homer a season-high 448 feet off of Scott Barlow in the seventh. He is 6-for-20 in limited action this month. The Pirates could up his playing time with Oneil Cruz on the IL. It’d at least seem to be a good idea to see what he can do in Coors Field this weekend.

Gelof’s homer, which left the bat at 96.8 mph, barely got over Jake Mangum’s glove in left field. It was his fifth homer during the hitting streak, which has seen him go 30-for-82 with a 23/4 K/BB. He’s not yet locked into regular playing time for the rest of the season, but that things are going so well for him at the moment seems like bad news for Max Muncy and Jeff McNeil.

Butler was 9-for-20 in his previous six games, so maybe this is just a little setback. Still, he’s at just .186/.266/.284 for the season, and with Henry Bolte and Carlos Cortes performing so much better to date, there’s going to have to be some thought given to sending down Butler when Brent Rooker returns.

This guy is on fire. Crow-Armstrong has now homered in three consecutive games, four times in his last five, and eight times already in June. This one was funny too, sneaking just inside the right field foul pole. At the time, this gave the Cubs an 8-1 lead in a game they eventually only won 8-6. Nevertheless, Crow-Armstrong’s slow start to the season feels like a distant memory as he’s now one of the only players in the league on a 30 homer, 30 steal pace with a .276 batting average that’s nearly 30 points higher than where it wound up last season. He is a bonafide superstar.

The Cubs called on Webb for their first save opportunity in more than a month and in the wake of Daniel Palencia’s latest trip to the injured list. Before he came on, Ethan Roberts let this game get off the rails in the eighth inning and trusted lefty Caleb Thielbar had to come in and to settle things down. Then, Webb let up a home run to Kyle Karros before closing it out and it’ll be interesting to see who gets the next save chance between these two.

Pitching with a seven-run lead after the second inning, Assad cruised through this matchup with the Rockies at home. He lived in the zone with both his sinker and four seam fastball letting the opposing hitters make contact. In fact, those two pitches didn’t force a single whiff on 32 combined swings and Assad only forced two whiffs in total. His contact-heavy approach is perfect against poor lineups like this one. He’s scheduled for a two-start week coming up against the Mets and Brewers.