MLB Player News

Aguiar was diagnosed with a shoulder strain back in September, but clearly there was more to the injury than first believed — or at least first described. The surgery will keep him from being able to pitch in 2025, and he’ll battle for a roster spot in 2026 if all goes well.

Espino was one of the top pitching prospects in baseball roughly a half-decade ago, but injuries, including two shoulder surgeries, derailed his trajectory and cost him nearly four full seasons in the minors. The 25-year-old deserves plenty of credit for persevering and completing his journey to the big leagues, though he’s unlikely to offer much immediate fantasy appeal in a low-leverage relief role. The long-term durability questions linger, but the off-the-charts raw stuff is still there, giving him a chance to eventually grow into a high-leverage role down the line.

Roycroft has allowed nine runs over 5 1/3 innings across seven appearances this season. The Cardinals will make a corresponding roster move prior to Thursday’s series opener against the Royals.

Porter heads back to the minors to make room for newly acquired veteran backstop Tyler Heineman. The 30-year-old was called up last week after Sebastián Rivero hit the injured list with a hamate fracture.

Kerry returns to the minors after allowing two runs over four innings in relief against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday in his big-league debut. The 27-year-old’s departure allows Los Angeles to bring up a fresh arm ahead of Thursday’s series opener against the division-rival Athletics.

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.