MLB Player News

Welcome back, Mookie. Betts didn’t show any rust after missing eight weeks with his broken hand, and smashed a two-run homer off Freddy Peralta in the third inning. The 31-year-old also drive in a run with an RBI-single in the seventh. The steal was the 10th of the season, and the homer the 11th. Betts was enjoying a strong 2024 campaign before the injury, and there’s every reason to believe he’ll be outstanding for the final six weeks.

McDougal has been sidelined since late April with forearm tightness. The 86th-ranked prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America, should be back in games around the end of the month and could be an option for the White Sox near the end of the summer if all goes well.

Zuber had posted a 5.20 ERA and 43/16 K/BB ratio in 27 2/3 innings at Triple-A this season. He had posted two saves but should provide some length out of the bullpen in the short-term. Griffin Conine (hamstring) was moved to the 60-day injured list to open up a spot on the 40-man roster.

Brzykcy has a 5.24 ERA in 22 1/3 innings at Triple-A this season with a 26/12 K/BB ratio. He’s in his first season with Miami after spending his whole career in Washington. Andrew Nardi (ribs) was moved to the 60-day IL to create a roster spot.

White allowed five runs on one hit with four walks in 2/3 of an inning on Sunday. He will go back to an impressive Triple-A statline of a 1.33 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and a 28/15 K/BB ratio across 27 innings.

Ekness was seen on crutches in a team video after Sunday’s game, so this would make sense. The 24-year-old has a 1.69 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, and a 5/5 K/BB ratio across 5 1/3 innings in his six appearances. He was just called up on Friday and didn’t appear in a game over the weekend, so it’s unclear when/how he suffered the injury.

Waldrep walked two, but he threw all six of his pitches during his 26-pitch outing. He was also consistently around 97 mph with his fastballs, so this was a positive outing overall. He can take up to a month on this rehab assignment, so we still wouldn’t expect him in Atlanta until the end of June.

VanWey threw a scoreless inning, striking out two over the weekend. However, the Astros are set to bring Josh Hader (biceps) back off the injured list on Tuesday, so this frees up a spot for them to do that.

No word yet on who he is replacing, but it could be Bryce Johnson, unless maybe someone is IL-bound. Bowen, 25, is hitting .292/.362/.600 with 13 homers and seven steals for Triple-A El Paso in his first year in the Padres organization. While the power and speed numbers are intriguing, he also has a 15.2 percent swinging strike rate and just a 79 percent zone contact rate at Triple-A. Both are those are well below average, which creates some concerns around his contact ability at the big league level.

Morris, 24, presumably will replace Jacob Lopez in the rotation. He had a 4.45 ERA in 11 starts for Triple-A Las Vegas, which is pretty good considering the environment. Neither his 19 percent strikeout rate nor his 10 percent walk rate were very encouraging, but he is a strong groundball pitcher, who might allow him to hold his own for the A’s.

Kelenic was cut by the Rangers last week after hitting .226/.305/.321 and striking out 20 times in 59 plate appearances. That’s obviously not very impressive, but it’s interesting that he did have eight barrels and a 55 percent hard-hit rate. Statcast gave him an xSLG of .526. He’ll head to Triple-A for now, but he could see time in the Texas outfield later.