MLB Player News

Smith sustained the injury while making a terrific stretch at first base during Friday’s game against the Dodgers. Given the timing of the injury, there’s a chance that it could wind up costing him the remainder of the season. Jerar Encarnacion was activated from the injured list in a corresponding move on Saturday.

Triples are easier to come by in Arizona than other parks, but it’s still pretty impressive that Vargas now has five of them in 375 at-bats at the age of 36. The veteran infielder has put together easily his best season of his career with an OPS of .714 and an RBI total of 65 that doubles any previous campaign.

Brandyn Garcia was given the first crack at the save, but after Garcia gave up a single and another runner reached via error, the Diamondbacks turned to Ginkel to get the final out, and he did just that. It’s just the second save for Ginkel, and it’s probably one of the last.

The boxscore here is a little misleading, at least in terms of how well Abbott pitched for most of the game. He blanked the D-backs for the first five innings, and gave up just a sac fly in the sixth. Unfortunately, the seventh was a disaster that saw Abbott charged for three runs without getting an out. The line is what the line is, but this was more encouraging than you might think if you just saw the stats. He’ll face the Cubs next weekend and take a 4.15 ERA into that outing.

Bratt looked like he was going to pick up a loss Sunday, but the Diamondbacks were able to score five unanswered to prevent that from happening. Another mediocre — at best — outing wasn’t prevented, however, and that’s the second straight outing that Bratt has gone three innings and given up as many runs. He has a friendly matchup on paper next weekend against the Giants, but he’s pretty hard to trust in redraft leagues right now.

Lee was responsible for the only run for the Twins as Minnesota was swept by San Diego over the weekend. The 25-year-old is now up to 21 homers on the season with 69 RBI and a relatively-solid .735 OPS.

The homer gives Crow-Armstrong 33 on the season, and nine of those have come in his torrid August. The 24-year-old MVP candidate also singled and walked while scoring a second run. A remarkable season for Crow-Armstrong that has shown that 2025 wasn’t just not a fluke, but a mere appetizer of what he’s capable of.

Arozarena hit two homers Saturday in the comeback victory over the Cubs — including the walk-off — and he went deep to leadoff the game for the second day in the row. That gave Seattle a 1-0 lead, and they were outscored 19-1 from that point on. Arozarena has enjoyed a very solid (probably last) season with the Mariners with 20 homers, 58 RBI and an .836 OPS.