MLB Player News

Knack will take the rotation spot of Clayton Kershaw (toe) for at least one time through the order. The right-hander has pitched well in his 10 appearances with the Dodgers — eight of those appearances starts — with a 3.00 ERA over 48 innings and 44/12 K/BB in that timeframe. He’s absolutely worth roster consideration for those needing help in the SP categories.

Smith’s cold start has gotten him dropped from sixth to eighth in the Rangers lineup, but it’s partly been bad luck; he entered the day 3-for-32 with no extra-base hits in spite of having collected 10 hard-hit balls. That bad luck continued initially today, as he was robbed of a homer by Rob Refsnyder in the second inning. However, he did get two line drive singles afterwards, raising his average to .143.

No word yet on the reason for the move. Leo Jiménez takes over at shortstop in his place to face Reds starter Brady Singer.

The five-game ban, which was reduced from seven originally, goes into effect immediately. The 32-year-old righty won’t be eligible to start again until next week’s series against the Marlins after being involved in a wild on-field brawl with former teammate Jorge Soler where the two traded punches before being separated during the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game in Los Angeles.

Carpenter is back in right field and batting cleanup on Wednesday night at Target Field following a two-game absence due to a stomach bug. The 28-year-old slugger is off to a slow start at the plate, hitting .188 (6-for-32) with two homers and six RBI through 10 games this season.

Happ is available off the bench but remains out of Chicago’s lineup for the second consecutive contest while dealing with a bruised left heel. It doesn’t sound like a massive concern. Fantasy managers should consider him day-to-day for now. Michael Conforto takes over left field in his absence.

Gray struck out only two, but a Brewers lineup minus William Contreras, Brice Turang and Jackson Chourio just didn’t put up much of a fight. Greg Weissert, Tyler Samaniego (in his MLB debut) and Ryan Watson finished the shutout. Gray is 2-0 with a 2.76 ERA in three starts against his old National League foes. He’ll take on his first AL team this year next week against the Twins.

Drohan opened up with two scoreless innings, but his wildness cost him in the third after the Red Sox got a bunt single and David Hamilton couldn’t handle Wilyer Abreu’s one-hopper to second. He walked two that inning, including one with the bases loaded, and was pulled after 63 pitches, only 28 of which were strikes. Drohan will most likely return to Triple-A now. The Brewers have Thursday and Monday off, so they’re not going to need a fifth starter for a while.

He would have had an easy steal in the eighth, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa swung and fouled the pitch off. Kiner-Falefa went on to pop up the next pitch between first and second, but it dropped in on a windy day. Unfortunately, that still left Rafaela as a dead duck at second, as opposed to both being safe if the force play had been off. Rafaela is up to .324/.378/.412 in 37 plate appearances, which seems extra important with the Red Sox constantly trying to squeeze Masataka Yoshida into the lineup.

Especially after Andrew Vaughn joined Jackson Chourio on the IL, the Brewers really needed for Bauer’s big spring (.462/.571/1.154 in 49 PA) to carry over to the regular season. And it mostly did for a week; he went 6-for-19 with two homers in his first five games. However, he’s 1-for-18 since the calendar flipped to April. Getting to face Nationals pitching for three games this weekend should help.

It sounds like the Marlins are going to give Stowers a look at first base during his upcoming minor league rehab assignment. It’s an interesting solution to Miami’s outfield glut since they have a hole at the cold corner with Christopher Morel (oblique) on the shelf for a couple weeks. Stowers has been out since the late stages of spring training recovering from a right hamstring strain. The 28-year-old put together a breakout campaign in his full-season Miami debut last year, slashing 288/.386/.544 with 25 homers in 117 games.