MLB Player News

Levine mentioned that White Sox manager Will Venable said Smith is “one of the team’s options” for Saturday against the Dodgers. It would certainly be a tough first test for Smith, who was the fifth overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. The left-hander has back-to-back Triple-A outings with nine strikeouts and just threw 92 pitches in his last outing, which was his most ever in a professional game. His strikeout upside is immense, with 72 strikeouts in 47 2/3 innings at Triple-A this season, but he also has 33 walks and posted a 17.6 percent walk rate last year as well. That has made it hard for him to pitch deep into games and could limit his fantasy ceiling in redraft formats.

The homer off Connelly Early in the second just barely made it over the Green Monster for his fifth of the year. He had been 1-for-12 in four games since Danny Jansen went on the injured list.

Eovaldi gave up two homers to Willson Contreras, but no one else did much damage. He allowed six hits, walked one and struck out six in all. It’s the seventh time in 14 starts this season that he’s completed seven innings. He’s now 6-7 with a 4.23 ERA, and he’s due for a home start against the Padres next weekend.

Latz struck out two while also getting a weak groundout and a foul popup. In five appearances in June, he’s pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings with two hits allowed and 11 strikeouts, picking up four saves and a win in the process.

Early also walked two in a really sloppy outing. He’s given up five homers and 12 runs over 14 2/3 innings in his last three starts, leaving him 5-5 with a 3.83 ERA on the season. Coming into June, he was 5-2 with a 2.95 ERA, though that was with peripherals that suggested the league would catch up to him at some point. He’ll remain in the rotation for now and face the Mariners next weekend.

Langford drove in runs all three games against the Red Sox, including the team’s lone run on Friday. He finishes the series 6-for-13, raising his OPS from .606 to .682.

It sure would be nice if the Red Sox could get more runners on for Contreras, but he entered today 76th in the majors in plate appearances with RISP. It’s actually pretty impressive that he’s tied for 21st in RBI anyway, but a lot of those are just him driving in himself; he has 16 homers and 43 RBI on the year. He’s now two-thirds of the way to his career high of 24 homers from 2019.

Javier was slated for his third rehab start after throwing three scoreless innings on Tuesday. There’s no minor league action on Monday, so Javier will either have to wait until Tuesday to pitch or get his work in on the side instead. The right-hander is in line to return from a shoulder strain at the end of the month or in the first week of July.

Junior Caminero homered to start the scoring in a five-run eighth, and Mesa went on to finish it, making it an 8-3 game with the second homer of the inning off Sam Bachman. Mesa is at .200/.319/.350 in 48 plate appearances since being called up on May 24. He’ll probably wind up back in Triple-A at some point,

Casey Legumina allowed one run in 1 2/3 innings an opener today. Seymour then entered and got through the fourth scoreless before giving up two runs in the fifth. Donovan Walton homered to start the scoring, and Seymour went on to walk two batters before allowing an RBI single with two outs. Seymour has a 4.93 ERA and a 41/19 K/BB in 38 1/3 innings this season. He’s in line to start or again pitch in a bulk role against the Nationals on Saturday, but it’s possible the Rays could try something different.

Bachman has emerged as one of the Angels’ most trusted relievers and was working on a streak of 12 straight scoreless appearances before giving up his third and fourth homers of the season today. It seems like a setback for his chances of earning saves and probably gives Kirby Yates’ scant fantasy value a little boost.