MLB Player News

The deal is now official. Higashioka is coming off the finest offensive campaign of his career last season when he launched 17 round-trippers in 263 plate appearances for the Padres. The 34-year-old veteran backstop provides the Rangers with an excellent complement to pair with Jonah Heim, who has started at least 127 games in each of the past three seasons, in a timeshare moving forward. It’s a nice landing spot in a hitter-friendly ballpark, but he’s unlikely to play enough to make a significant impact for fantasy purposes outside of extremely deep two-catcher formats.

Not great news. The Brewers and Priester will likely consider all options going forward, but it appears unlikely he’s going to contribute this year if he’s got to halt his comeback momentum again. Further updates to come when the Brewers have them, but this has all the makings of a lost year for Priester.

Chivilli hadn’t allowed a run in Triple-A before being recalled to the big leagues and getting hurt. The 23-year-old figures to get another look with the Yankees before too long. He managed a 3.86 ERA in two games (2 1/3 innings pitched) before getting hurt.

Valdez did get consistent playing time with the Pirates during his recall in May, hitting two homers in five games. That’s about all he did — they were his only two hits. He’ll probably be hard to trust even with consistent playing time, but the power is worth dreaming on in deeper leagues. Shallow league managers should likely just wait and see.

Brandon Lowe turned out well enough to keep playing after his leg injury, so Wendzel had just four plate appearances in two games with the Pirates this time around. He returns to Triple-A Indianapolis as a depth piece for the Pirates.

He’ll replace Jalen Beeks in the bullpen for the time being. Curvelo has a 4.91 ERA in 7 1/3 innings over seven appearances with the Rangers this season. He’ll likely be riding the Round Rock-Arlington shuttle often this year.

Beeks won’t necessarily have to rehab if he keeps this stint short, the 32-year-old left-hander has a 3.81 ERA in 26 innings out of the Rangers bullpen this year, striking out 21 and walking eight while allowing six home runs.

Not good. Isbel was already placed on the 10-day injured list, but it sounds likely he will miss more than just the minimum amount of time. Kameron Misner and Lane Thomas could form a platoon in center field in Isbel’s absence.

Fantasy managers should anticipate the possibility that Lugo misses a start or is pushed back a few days after he left yesterday’s game, where he was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Brandon Nimmo. He also mentioned that his left elbow is sore from falling. All and all, this is a positive update considering how scary the injury looked in the moment.

It’s cost him two days now. Sterlin Thompson is starting in left field against RHP Edward Cabrera and the Cubs in McCarthy’s place today.

The ironman sat out both games over the weekend with a minor thumb injury and will get a blow on Thursday after catching last night. It appears he’s still being handled cautiously. Carter Jensen is playing catcher and Lane Thomas has taken over in the 5-hole for Perez in a rare start against a right-hander in Rangers starter Kumar Rocker.