MLB Player News

Rafaela gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning when he took a first-pitch slider from Jesse Scholtens to left field for his third homer of the season. Rafaela has now hit safely in four of his last five games and is slashing .321/.387/.536 in his last seven games with two homers and six RBI.

Voth heads overseas to pursue a more lucrative financial opportunity after let out of his minor league pact with the Rangers last week. The 34-year-old journeyman righty allowed 11 runs over 10 innings between the Blue Jays and Twins earlier this season. He’s made 210 appearances in the big leagues since 2018.

Kotsay noted that might be a bit of an accelerated timeline, but Kurtz appears to be making a rapid recovery from a thumb sprain that put him on the shelf just prior to the All-Star break. The 23-year-old first baseman has begun ramping up baseball activities and it sounds like there’s a real possibility Kurtz is back either later this week or early next week.

Hendriks tossed four scoreless innings for Triple-A Iowa before presumably triggering the opt-out clause in his minor league deal with Chicago last week. The 37-year-old former closer should be able to latch on somewhere if he chooses to continue his career.

There’s no word yet on the reason for the move. It’ll be Colt Emerson drawing the start at shortstop on his 21st birthday. There should be an additional update on his status shortly, especially if he’s dealing with an injury-related issue.

Pivetta is slated to face hitters for the first time since landing on the injured list with a flexor strain back in mid-April. He made it through an up-and-down bullpen session last Friday without any issues. The expectation from the start was that Pivetta would pitch again this season and he appears to be on track to make that a reality. There should be a definitive return timetable once he’s ready to make his first minor league rehab start at some point in August.

Anthony will continue his rehabilitation at the club’s spring training complex in Florida as he works his way back from a partially torn tendon in right ring finger that sent him to the injured list in early May. The 22-year-old needs to be symptom free before he’s cleared to swing a bat again. There is no timetable for his return. At this point, it’s challenging to envision a scenario where he makes it back before late August or early September.

Waldrep’s velocity dipped significantly and he was lifted after throwing just 36 pitches during Sunday’s start for Triple-A Gwinnett. The 24-year-old has shown some flashes of potential at the highest level over the last two years, but hasn’t been consistent enough to stick in the big-league rotation. The general thought when he was drafted was that his excellent splitter would make him a quality reliever if the starter experiment didn’t work. His absence would be a hit to Atlanta’s pitching depth down the home stretch.

It’s a rare intra-division trade that is now official. Halvorsen is a hard-throwing reliever with command issues, but he represents a worthwhile dice roll for a Dodgers organization that has found success with similar projects in the past. The 26-year-old will head to Triple-A Oklahoma City after posting a lackluster 4.31 ERA, 1.54 WHIP and 66/38 K/BB ratio across 71 innings for Colorado since 2024.

Frasso is the big pickup for Colorado in the deal as he was one of the more prominent pitching prospects in the Dodgers’ ever-expanding Death Star just a couple years ago. The 27-year-old’s trajectory was derailed by shoulder and hip issues that cost him the entire 2024 campaign. He simply hasn’t gotten back on track over the last two years in the upper minors, but the Rockies are going to take a chance that they can unlock something as a low-risk lottery ticket. This is the exact type of deal that previous Colorado front offices wouldn’t have made.

Vidourek is the type of all-or-nothing slugger capable of displaying surreal feats of strength with big-time exit velocity numbers to back it up. He’s tumbled down Los Angeles’ organizational depth chart with a lackluster campaign in the lower minors this season, hitting .170/.332/.311 with six homers and nine steals in 256 plate appearances for Low-A Ontario. His ongoing struggles, combined with the Dodgers’ glut of outfield talent in the upper minors, are the most likely reason why he was expendable in this deal.