MLB Player News

It doesn’t look like the move is coming tonight, but it won’t be long. Nick Ahmed has been the Dodgers’ starting shortstop with Rojas out, but he’ll probably get bumped from the roster to make room for him.

Díaz was let go by the Royals last week after going 5-for-22 with two homers in 23 plate appearances over 10 games. Barring a surprising decision to place Danny Jansen or Kyle Higashioka on the IL, it appears that he’ll be joining the Rangers as a third catcher, freeing up the top two catchers to start between catcher and DH against lefties. Justin Foscue or Michael Helman could be bumped from the roster.

That’s just never good. Fitzpatrick was hurt while warming up for his second inning of relief work Friday against the Rockies. He’s allowed two runs — one earned — in 6 2/3 innings for the Brewers this season.

Strowd was making his first appearance since being called up Thursday. It sounds like he’s destined for the IL, which might give Yilber Díaz a shot.

Paredes has homered in three straight games and is now at .241/.333/.415 with nine homers and 32 RBI in 59 games for the season. He still figures to get at least a little better from here on in, and while he’s not a good enough bet in average, runs scored and steals to rate as a top-10 third baseman, he is fairly underrated at this point.

Lambert stranded the bases loaded in the second and kept the A’s scoreless until the sixth, when he gave up a Brent Rooker homer, a walk and then a double with one out. Enyel De Los Santos entered and retired Zack Gelof and Jeff McNeil to strand both inherited runners. It went as Lambert’s third straight win, even though he’s walked 11 over 15 1/3 innings during the span. He’s 5-4 with a 3.55 ERA in nine starts overall. The big thing that he has in his corner is that he’s allowed just three homers in 50 2/3 innings, but he’s not a strong groundball pitcher and his walk rate is an increasing concern. Those relying on him in mixed leagues can feel free to use him against the Angels next week, but it’s still not rather likely that he’ll be a long-term solution.

It wasn’t a save situation for Hader, but he was very effective once again. The A’s swung at five of his nine sinkers and missed very time. We’re guessing he’ll be down Saturday after pitching Wednesday and tonight, so that might open the door for Bryan King to get a save.

Perkins was ineffective, but rather fascinating is that his velocity was actually up tonight in his first start of the year. He’d averaged 96.2 mph with his fastball and 85.9 mph with his sweeper as a reliever. Tonight, even though he was being expected to throw two or three times as many pitches as usual, he came in at 96.8 mph with the heater and 87.4 mph with the sweeper. He struck out six and produced 13 whiffs, so that’s not bad. He’ll probably stay in the rotation and face the Brewers next Wednesday. For fantasy purposes, though, in a very tough situation in Sacramento, he was only intriguing as a possibility for saves out of the pen.

Barnett seemed to be the likeliest choice to join the A’s rotation when Luis Severino went down last week, and he became an even better bet with the decision to demote Jacob Lopez a couple of days later. Instead, the A’s went to Jack Perkins and Kade Morris and brought up Barnett as a reliever, instead. Tonight, at least, Barnett looked like the easily superior choice to Perkins as a starter, as he took over after Perkins gave up five runs in four innings. He went on to allow just one hard-hit ball and generated 12 whiffs on 26 swings. Perhaps it’s too soon for the A’s to make another change right away, but Barnett could be starting before long.

Bolte was hardly a sure thing as a 22-year-old callup last month, but he’s hit .328/.397/.391 through 73 plate appearances. His .457 BABIP is surely something of a fluke, and his contact numbers are worse than his 26 percent strikeout rate might suggest. However, he’s hitting the ball plenty hard — he had an 111-mph single and a 112-mph double tonight — and his defense should help keep him in the lineup. He really just needs to start getting the ball into the air more often in order to ensure that he sticks around.

Both the Dodgers and Angels were shut out through eight innings of a pitcher’s duel at Dodger Stadium on Friday. Freeman had drawn a walk and had one hit before stepping in to bat in the bottom of the ninth, leading off against Kirby Yates. The 36-year-old first baseman delivered with a solo blast to center field to walk it off with his tenth home run of the season.