MLB Player News

Vitello departs Tennessee with a 341-131 record and three College World Series trips in eight seasons. The 47-year-old has no professional experience as either a coach or player, making this one of the most fascinating managerial hires in memory. He was also very well compensated at Tennessee, so he’ll probably be earning more than many MLB managers right away.

Lee has mostly hit fifth, sixth and seventh of late, but he was up to second tonight with Luis Arraez and Heliot Ramos out of the mix and he came through with one of his best games as a major leaguer. That he should remain in an elevated spot in the lineup might give him a little extra fantasy value down the stretch, even though the Giants figure to really struggle to score runs.

Webb evened his record at 7-7 with his third scoreless start and 12th quality start in 19 tries. The Giants figure to be pretty bad the rest of the way, so wins could be hard to come by for Webb. His teammates got the job done tonight, though. Webb will next face the Tigers on Sunday.

Winn has the numbers of a closing candidate for the Giants, but manager Tony Vitello has bypassed him for that role at every opportunity. It looks like that’s happening again here after both Erik Miller and Caleb Kilian were traded today. The Giants didn’t need a closer tonight up while 5-0 in the ninth, but we’re guessing the job is Dylan Smith’s to lose.

That’s the best a team can hope for from Quantrill, but it wasn’t enough for the Rangers against Logan Webb. Quantrill dropped to 4-4 with a 3.62 ERA. He might be shifted to middle relief now with the Rangers set to get Jordan Montgomery and Cody Bradford back from the IL.

He’s surely happy to be playing regularly, but it still must be kind of frustrating for Duran to be the Rangers’ most valuable position player this year and be hitting seventh behind the likes of Evan Carter and Jake Burger. The other eight guys in the Texas lineup finished 3-for-29 while Duran was going 4-for-4 tonight. He’s batting .274/.326/.455 with 13 homers and 59 RBI.

Lombard will make his major-league debut against the Cardinals on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. The 21-year-old remains a work in progress from an offensive standpoint at this stage of his development, but he’s shown some real over-the-fence pop at the Triple-A level this season. He’s a phenomenal defender and projects as New York’s long-term answer at shortstop, which means they can finally end the bizarre José Caballero and Anthony Volpe timeshare once and for all. He may not provide an instant fantasy impact outside of deeper leagues, but Lombard in a prospect worth monitoring closely, even in shallow mixers.

It’s possible we’ve seen Volpe for the final time this season with top prospect George Lombard Jr. set to take over as New York’s shortstop until further notice. The 25-year-old drew constant criticism for defensive miscues and never quite lived up to the stratospheric hype he generated in the minors. He’s still only 25 years old, which means there’s probably another organization out there willing to roll the dice on him down the road.

Domínguez became expendable for New York after picking up corner outfielder Heliot Ramos from the Giants at the trade deadline. The 23-year-old former top prospect heads back to the minors with Spencer Jones remaining up with the big club.

Chivilli earns a ticket back to the minors after allowing six runs during his lone inning of work against the Cardinals on Monday.

Kim returns to Atlanta’s roster for Tuesday’s series opener against the Marlins. The 30-year-old has been out since early July with right middle finger inflammation. He’s been a complete non-factor at the plate this season and can be ignored for fantasy purposes.