MLB Player News

Kwan also went 0-for-4 on Sunday, so he’s back down to .217/.311/.279 for the season. He’ll surely get that average up in time, but he might not do well enough in any other category to be more than a fringe fantasy outfielder.

Murakami’s homer off Zebby Matthews in the first had a 41-degree launch angle, but it still made it a couple of rows deep in right field. It’s his second homer this year on 20 flyballs with at least a 40-degree launch angle. The others all turned into outs, although one was a sac fly. Murakami is the first American Leaguer with 18 homers this year. He’s two behind Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead.

Brooks Lee homered for the Twins as the second batter of the game, but it turned out to be the lone run Minnesota would score. Kay went on to strike out five and walk one. The average exit velocity of his 17 balls in play today was an unusually high 97 mph, but it didn’t much matter. He’ll take a 3.96 ERA into his start against the Tigers on Saturday.

It’s Domínguez’s first save since May 13. He blew a chance four days later and had pitched just once in the last week, getting some work in with a scoreless inning in Sunday’s loss to the Giants. Grant Taylor is definitely a threat to Domínguez in the White Sox pen, but ideally, Domínguez would do well enough to keep the job and leave the White Sox free to use Taylor in tie games and for two innings at a time on occasion. Domínguez thus far is 11-for-14, with the White Sox going 1-2 in his three blown saves. He and Taylor, who pitched a scoreless seventh today, might both need Tuesday off after working the last two days, possibly creating a save chance for Bryan Hudson. Or perhaps the White Sox would risk using Domínguez for a third straight day.

He struck out six and walked one. All three runs came on homers from Munetaka Murakami and Drew Romo in the first two innings. Very encouraging was that Matthews averaged 96.2 mph with his fastball today. He was at 94.8 mph in his season debut 11 days ago, but he boosted that to 95.8 mph last time out and got it even higher today. If he stays in this territory, he should offer some mixed league value, though he’ll contribute more in WHIP and in strikeouts than in ERA. He’ll next face the Pirates on Saturday.

The throw to retire Orlando Arcia was impressive from a rookie who played more second base and left field than right field in the minors. At the plate, Nishida had a 102-mph groundball single, a routine flyout and a strikeout. He doesn’t offer a ton of fantasy potential, but he’ll probably play against most righties for now.

Lee’s homer was his sixth of the year on just seven barrels. He’s been solid for the Twins in hitting .256/.313/.411, but it’s come with a slightly higher strikeout rate and weaker exit velocity numbers than last year. There still just isn’t much reason to think he’s going to be very good going forward, and now expectations are going to be a little higher offensively since the Twins seemed to have given up on him as a shortstop and moved him to third base in Royce Lewis’s place.

Kimbrel will presumably stick around as emergency organizational relief depth with the Mets after passing through waivers unclaimed. The 37-year-old tossed 2 2/3 innings during his final appearance for New York last week. He wound up allowing 12 runs — 10 earned — with a 15/6 K/BB ratio across 15 innings of work over 14 appearances.

García hits the open market in search of a new opportunity rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A St. Paul. The 39-year-old journeyman picked up a pair of saves while allowing 10 runs over 8 2/3 innings across nine appearances for the Twins.

Glasnow has progressed to playing catch again after being shut down last week following a setback in his recovery from a back issue. The hard-throwing 32-year-old starter will need a couple weeks to ramp up his throwing program, but it seems like there’s optimism he’ll make it back to Los Angeles’ rotation before the All-Star break.

Cease will hit the shelf after leaving Sunday’s start against the Pirates with mild left hamstring discomfort. The 30-year-old upper-echelon fantasy starter isn’t expected to face a lengthy absence, but he wasn’t going to be able to take the ball later this week against the Orioles. The Blue Jays don’t have a ton of starting pitching depth in the upper minors and they’ll have to piece things together against Baltimore later this week. There should be a definitive return timeline once Cease resumes throwing in the near future, but fantasy managers should anticipate a multi-week absence.