MLB Player News

Freeman was shut down for 4-6 weeks about five weeks ago now. There haven’t been any updates since, but if things are going as hoped, he should be playing in minor league games before long, and he could be a threat to Ezequiel Duran’s spot on the Rangers bench in a month or so.

We’re unsure if he’ll be reporting directly to Triple-A Sacramento or if he’ll join the Giants bench, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he got a shot to show something in the bigs towards the end of a lost season.

Both benches cleared after Stewart pointed at Martin and indicated he was head-hunting. Martin allowed two homers -- one to Stewart and one to Eugenio Suarez -- and left with a 4-3 lead. Erick Fedde replaced Martin and allowed Stewart to score. Martin has an 8.79 ERA in his last seven starts and has allowed six homers in his last four appearances. 12-teamers can probably avoid him against the Cubs next week, assuming he avoids any discipline for the incident.

Martin has a 3.97 ERA in 11 1/3 innings with the Ray this year and is only 25 — we figure he’ll at least draw some interest on waivers.

With Jesse Scholtens up to give innings while Griffin Jax (elbow) is on the injured list, Grove will likely return in the near future.

Scholtens has a 3.82 ERA in nine appearances with the Rays, mostly working as a starter or bulk reliever, with 30 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports he’ll “likely” pitch Friday, we’d assume in a bulk reliever role, against the Orioles.

He’ll be on the major league roster with Carson Williams optioned down. Mateo lost starting work to Jim Jarvis in early July and had mostly been a bench option since. He’ll probably be much the same in Tampa, though perhaps he’ll join a platoon.

Jorge Mateo will take his roster spot. Williams has mostly been an up-down replacement rather than anything resembling a top prospect this year, hitting .108/.154/.216 in 40 plate appearances for the Rays and .226/.318/.329 for the Bulls.

He’ll serve as the 27th man for today’s game in Iowa, and we’re presuming will stick around afterwards. Buxton missed about two weeks with his latest hip impingement and has been hampered by the hip all season; start him while he’s healthy.

Cruz had five hitless plate appearances for the Tigers in mid-June and will try to do better than that this time around as a replacement for James Outman.

Often players take longer than seven days on the concussion injured list, so don’t expect an instant return for Outman. Outman had just six plate appearances in his last 12 appearances as he’d mostly been used as a defensive sub. He’s hit .172/.235/.318 this season.