MLB Player News

The Rhode Island native inked a minor league pact with the Cubs last December and didn’t end up making it to Wrigley Field. The 30-year-old southpaw made one relief appearance last year for the Brewers and also made 49 appearances (13 starts) for the Blue Jays from 2018-2019. He posted a serviceable 4.37 ERA, 1.47 WHIP and 87/32 K/BB ratio across 90 2/3 innings (19 starts) this season for Triple-A Iowa.

The game, already halted for two hours in the third, was delayed for a second time as the bottom of the sixth was about to start and never resumed. De La Cruz’s homer off Kyle Bradish accounted for the only scoring prior to the first delay. He’s 9-for-20 with two homers in eight appearances since being summoned from Triple-A on July 21, which should ensure that he sticks around in the likely event that the Phillies add an outfielder before the deadline. That could result in Gabriel Rincones Jr. returning to Triple-A.

Wheeler was looking sharp today after his unusually short outing against the Marlins on Monday, but there was no way the Phillies could bring him back out after a delay that exceeded two hours. Wheeler fanned three and threw 24 of his 32 pitches for strikes before departing. His next turn is due to come Friday against the Blue Jays, but the Phillies could consider moving him up if he feels good Monday They currently have Andrew Painter lined up for Wednesday’s game against the Nationals.

Bradish surrendered a double to Justin Crawford and then a homer to Bryan De La Cruz in the third before a two-hour delay brought his day to an end. It was enough to get him tagged with his 10th loss of the year. He’ll probably make his next start Friday in Texas.

Sale won’t start at all against Miami, and instead is being pushed back to the weekend series against the Yankees. Atlanta will instead push up the other arms in the rotation, so Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and Martin Perez will be the arms who go instead. It’s disappointing Sale won’t get a two-start week this late in the fantasy season, but understandable.

After Patrick Bailey got the scoring going with a solo home run in the third inning, DeLauter plated Cleveland’s second run with an RBI single. He later delivered an RBI double in the fifth inning and also stole his seventh base of the season. After homering on Saturday, DeLauter is now hitting .278/.347/.444 with 12 home runs, seven steals, and 55 RBI. Not a bad rookie season.

Kelly struck out five and had a 13 percent swinging strike rate, but he also walked four and threw just 58 percent of his pitches for strikes. The 37-year-old hadn’t allowed more than two earned runs in a game since June 28th, so we’ll consider this an unfortunate speed bump. The bad news is that he’s set to face the Dodgers his next time out, which is likely a start you’d like to avoid.

Williams’ day might have been even better, but a rain delay chased him with two out in the sixth at 89 pitches. The right-hander sat 98.3 mph on his four-seam fastball with elite extension, as always. He also posted an absurd 24 percent swinging strike rate overall and 36 percent CSW while getting into two-strike counts on 79 percent of batters faced. Williams has now allowed just two runs on six hits over 19 2/3 innings in his last three starts while striking out 33 and walking two. It’s hard to find a pitcher throwing the ball better right now, so you have to just keep rolling him out there.

It was quite likely Stephenson’s final game with the Reds, as the free agent-to-be is likely to be shipped off prior to Monday’s trade deadline. He’s not quite in as high of demand as Hunter Goodman or Ryan Jeffers, but there’s a good chance those two will stay put, making Stephenson the top catcher moved. He is batting .256/.342/.417 with nine homers on the season.