MLB Player News

Montes De Oca was with Arizona over the weekend but didn’t pitch. He was briefly sent back to Triple-A but then recalled on Monday when Kendall Graveman went on the IL. However, Montes De Oca felt discomfort in his elbow on Monday and was not available to pitch. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said, “his concern is high.” We’ll have to wait for the MRI results to know more, but the Arizona bullpen is not in good shape right now.

Smith has been on a heater this month, batting .321 (18-for-56) with two homers, 10 RBI and one steal over his last 15 games to earn a shot in the middle of Houston’s lineup with Isaac Paredes and Yainer Diaz getting a breather during Sunday’s series finale in Los Angeles.

It’s worth noting that the temperature was hovering around 90 degrees at first pitch down in Tampa Bay, so it might be a heat-related departure. Mize exited after allowing a leadoff single to Junior Caminero in the sixth inning. He had limited Tampa Bay to just one run over five frames to open the contest. He struck out five and didn’t hand out a free pass. There should be an update on his status shortly.

It appears to be a routine off day for Hernández with Andy Pages moving over to right field and Hyeseong Kim patrolling center field. The other notable change for Los Angeles is rookie Dalton Rushing handling the catching duties with Will Smith getting a well-deserved day off.

It’s official. Ohtani will take the ball for his second start on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. He’ll likely only work an inning or two to kick off the contest since he’s continuing to build up his arm strength and pitch count on the fly. There’s very limited fantasy appeal at this point, but it’s undoubtedly extremely exciting to see him pitching in the big leagues again.

Not good. Carroll remains on the bench as he continues to recover from a left hand contusion that he suffered earlier this week on Wednesday when he was hit by a pitch. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told reporters the 24-year-old will undergo an MRI on Monday in Chicago to determine whether he’s dealing with any structural damage. The fact that he hasn’t been put on the injured list is an encouraging sign as it appears the organization is merely proceeding with an abundance of caution by giving their franchise cornerstone some extra time off to rest and recover. Hopefully he’ll be ready to return for Monday’s series opener against the White Sox, assuming the MRI comes back clean.

Sengers returns to the big leagues to serve as the primary caddy to starter Luis Torrens in the wake of the Mets’ decision to option Francisco Alvarez to Triple-A. The 28-year-old backstop can be safely ignored in all fantasy formats.

The writing has been on the wall for a couple weeks now as the Mets finally decided to ship Alvarez to the minors in an apparent effort to hit the reset button and give him a chance to iron things out after struggling to a .236/.319/.333 slash line with just three homers in 138 plate appearances over 35 games. The far greater concern for the 23-year-old former top prospect is that he’s gone from being a near-elite defender when he broke into the majors to merely league-average behind the dish over the last two seasons. Luis Torrens will take over as New York’s primary catcher with Hayden Senger coming up in a backup role.

It’s getting to the point where the Rockies should strongly consider putting Estrada on the injured list as he continues to recover from a right hand contusion that he suffered earlier this week when he was hit by a pitch. It’ll be veteran Kyle Farmer taking over at second base on Sunday afternoon as his absence continues.

Handley was led up the third-base line to field an off-target throw to the plate, which took him directly into the path of an oncoming Chisholm, resulting in a scary-looking collision. The 27-year-old backstop was clearly shaken up on the play and left with an athletic trainer. He’ll undoubtedly undergo further evaluation and testing for a possible concussion. There should be an update on his status following the contest. It’s an unfortunate development for the Orioles since Handley had just returned to the majors to replace an injured Adley Rutschman. It’s too soon to speculate, but the club would likely have to find some emergency catching depth or consider calling up top prospect Samuel Basallo if Handley winds up missing sigificant time.

Scherzer added that he’s feeling fine after completing a roughly 40-pitch bullpen session on Sunday morning and that he’ll return for Wednesday’s showdown in Cleveland. The 40-year-old future Hall of Famer has been on the shelf since late March working his way back from a persistent thumb issue that he’ll likely need to manage for the rest of the season. There’s some definite streaming appeal here for fantasy managers in shallow mixed leagues, but the persistent durability concerns aren’t going to vanish at this stage of his legendary career.