MLB Player News

He’ll likely make his first appearance Thursday. Willits, one of the youngest players in draft, doesn’t figure to put up big numbers right away as a pro. He doesn’t even turn 18 until December.

Smith struck out two and didn’t allow a baserunner. The 27-year-old now has 27 saves in his first year as a full-time closer and looks every bit the part of one of the best closers in the league.

It was his first major-league homer. The 25-year-old Jarvis has started to get more at-bats as Jorge Mateo has cooled down, and Jarvis is now hitting .292/.320/.458 on the season in a paltry 25 at-bat sample. Jarvis was hitting .313/.406/.461 at Triple-A Gwinnett in 348 plate appearances this year and had stolen 32 bases there, so it’s plausible he’s fantasy-interesting if he can keep a high average. Deep leaguers should at least keep him on the radar if the playing time continues to shift in his direction.

DeLauter hit five home runs in his first seven games of the season and then seemed to go on a power outage, not hitting his next one until May 3rd. He now has two home runs in his last four games and is up to nine on the season. The 24-year-old makes plenty of hard contact, so maybe the summer months will lead to a bit of a power surge.

The Twins had three hits on the day, and Lewis had two of them. The 27-year-old has looked good since returning from the minors, coming into today hitting .255/.320/.455 with five home runs, 13 RBI, and a 12 percent barrel rate since June 6th. He has one of the highest pull air rates in the league over that stretch and is clearly committing to pulling the ball for power. He needs to be added in fantasy leagues while he remains healthy.

He had three of the Pirates five RBIs and one of the runs — he was also the only player with more than one hit — and is building a case as a waiver wire find after Konnor Griffin hit the injured list earlier this week. Mangum has just two homers, but he does have 18 stolen bases and is currently hitting .311. That skill set and the run opportunities at the top of the lineup should make him a viable starter in most leagues.

The Brewers needed to clear a spot on their active roster for the return of Logan Henderson on Thursday and unfortunately for Stallings he was the odd man out this time around. The 28-year-old righty fired three scoreless frames with a 0.67 WHIP and a 4/1 K/BB ratio in two appearances for the Brewers. It shouldn’t take him long to get another opportunity with the big league club.

Olson played his 740th consecutive game, tying Dale Murphy’s franchise record for the Braves. Olson has played in 874 consecutive games overall, dating back to his time with the Athletics, the ninth-longest stretch in MLB history. He also hits a lot of homers, including one off Mitch Keller in this game that went out to right field 404 feet. Olson is slugging .862 over his last seven games and will look to keep it rolling against the Cardinals this weekend.

As expected, Henderson will return from the injured list to start on Thursday against the Cardinals. The 24-year-old hurler has been sidelined since May 22 due to a back issue. He only threw 68 pitches during his final minor league rehab start, so don’t expect him to take on a full workload in Thursday’s return.

Williams struck out 11 and walked one while throwing 71 percent of his pitches for strikes. He got ahead with his four-seamer and sinker and then had lots of success putting hitters away with a sweeper that had a 26 percent swinging strike rate. Unless Statcast updates its data, this will have been the first start that Williams didn’t use his cutter, which could be why his four-seam usage was up 13 percent. Regardless, he was fully comfortable with his arsenal today and looked great. He gets a tougher matchup against the Pirates after the break.

It was Ober’s first start since May 30th as he’s been on the IL with elbow inflammation. The 30-year-old struck out five and walked one on Thursday while throwing 65 percent of his pitches for strikes. His four-seam velocity was 88.2 mph, which is not great but actually not too far off from what we’ve seen from him this year. The calling card on Thursday was a sweeper that posted a 45 percent swinging strike rate. He struggled to miss bats with anything else, and his velocity still scares us, so we would not be adding him with the Cubs up next.