MLB Player News

Kiermaier announced his retirement in November after a 12-year career, and it’s not a big surprise that he’s already found work in a front office. The 34-year-old will work in Toronto and could be used to help in the defensive development with several outfielders.

That means that the 35-year-old southpaw won’t be eligible to return until Game 3 of the NLDS at the earliest. Braves’ skipper Walt Weiss told reporters that realistically, he probably won’t be an option until the NLCS should the Braves advance there.

The Rays haven’t said anything about Aranda, but something must be up for him to be sitting out for the third time in five games and this time against a righty. But we’re guessing that whatever it is, he’d be playing through it if the Rays hadn’t clinched the AL East. They have Ryan Vilade starting at first base for a third straight game tonight.

Acuña left Tuesday’s game and was held out of Wednesday’s game because of a shin contusion.

He’ll be pitching in Fort Myers because of the expected bad weather in Boston. Crochet’s performance in that session and how he feels afterwards will determine whether he’s on the Wild Card roster as he tries to come back from his shoulder injury.

The AL Central is still up for grabs with the White Sox 82-77 and the Guardians 82-76 ahead of Thursday night’s game, but both teams are in. Teel’s homer today was his fifth. He’s batting just .196 in 136 plate appearances, but his OBP is a solid .333 with his 19 walks and four HBPs.

The White Sox prevailed 9-1 today, making this the most competitive of Sandlin’s three wins; the previous victories were 15-2 against the Twins in May and 22-1 against the Royals in June. It’s left a rather odd situation in which the White Sox have gone 3-5 in Sandlin’s outings despite outscoring the opposition 68-44. Sandlin ends the year with a 5.58 ERA, though his 40/13 K/BB in 40 1/3 innings isn’t too bad. He should have a chance to compete for a rotation spot next spring, but he’ll probably end up back in Triple-A for a spell.

That’s a tough way to end a comeback campaign for Dobnak, but he still has a fine 3.51 ERA in 13 starts and two relief appearances. He’ll be a weird arbitration case after finishing his five-year contract with the Twins in 2025 and playing 2026 on a deal at the minimum, but the Royals will probably be able to keep him for $2 million-$3 million or maybe even less. That’d seem to be worth doing even if the plan might be to use him in middle relief initially.

Montgomery’s strikeout today moved him past Adam Dunn’s White Sox record, set in 2012, and into a tie with Mark Reynolds’s 2009 major league record. The White Sox have clinched a postseason spot, so Montgomery could do some sitting this weekend. However, there’s no way he’ll sit out all three games in an attempt to avoid breaking the record. It’s just not that big of a deal, especially for a 24-year-old with 31 homers and 87 RBI as a shortstop and third baseman for a playoff team,

Perez gets his 10th 20-homer in spite of his struggles. Still to be determined is whether he’ll reach 50 runs scored for the 10th time; the homer today put him at 49 in 616 plate appearances. Because of a bad elbow, Perez last caught on Aug. 12, leaving him to finish out the season as a well below average DH and first baseman. That hasn’t really mattered on a Royals team destined for failure this season, but it might be a problem next year as he enters his age-37 season.

With Brock Rodden (knee) landing on the injured list, Rivas gets another shot to show the M’s what he can do over the final four days of the 2026 season. The 28-year-old infielder has hit .147/.270/.190 with no homers and nine RBI in 139 plate appearances with the M’s this season. He can continue to be ignored for fantasy purposes.