MLB Player News

Bieber is aiming to build up to roughly 75 pitches in his next rehab outing and appears to be close to returning to Toronto for his season debut. The 31-year-old looked sharp his last time out, striking out four over five shutout innings last Thursday. He’s isn’t too far away from making it back to the majors.

Rasmussen only allowed five hard-hit balls, but one of them scraped just over the fence off the bat of Ben Rice. Nothing under the hood looked especially troubling today, but Rasmussen allowed seven of eight Yankees to reach base to start off the third inning, and the Yankees also stole a pair of bases in the frame. Reliever Cam Booser allowed an inherited run to score. Rasmussen’s ERA is up to 3.26, but we’re not especially down on him based on this start as we enter the All-Star break.

Rice’s first homer barely scraped over the fence -- in fact it was reviewed by the umpire crew to be sure it crossed the yellow line -- but his second was a no-doubter to right-center that almost hit the Rays aquarium. The Yankees haven’t hit much of late, but Rice has been carrying them with five homers in his last seven games. He’s got a few more warm-up acts before the Home Run Derby -- the two homers he hit here made his total of 28 a career high. He still has a whole second half of the season to play.

Sunday will be a bullpen game due to a career-high workload for Meyer in the season’s first half. He’ll also sit out the All-Star game despite being selected. Meyer has been phenomenal in working to a 2.58 ERA in the season’s first half, going 9-1 and striking out 116 batters in 108 innings pitched.

He’s “obviously going to miss weeks” per DiComo. Vientos has struggled this year, hitting .211/.253/.388 with 11 homers — and just .169/.215/.297 in 158 plate appearances against right-handers. The Mets may do the simple thing and add Ronny Mauricio back to the roster here for the weekend, but it’s possible they’ll look for a replacement first baseman.

The 26-year-old has hit .267/.353/.486 this season for the Mud Hens. It’s possible he plays some catcher in the short term while the team deals with Dillon Dingler’s hand injury.

Jones has been shockingly bad for the Tigers this year, hitting .137/.219/.221 in 105 plate appearances, including .154/.250/.256 against left-handers. He hit .288/.393/.577 against lefties last year in 122 plate appearances. Still just 28, it’s possible he gets claimed off waivers.

Gusto could potentially mix in behind Janson Junk today in Junk’s return from the injured list, as he hasn’t pitched since July 2.

Walker had allowed 11 earned runs in his last six appearances while walking four and striking out just one. He’s far removed from the closer role in San Francisco and can be dropped in any leagues where you were holding out for a rebound.

Brzykcy only got into one game with the Marlins, throwing two innings in a 14-3 win over the Rockies at the end of June. He’ll look to hone his craft with the Jumbo Shrimp while he awaits his next opportunity.

He’ll start tonight’s game against the Rockies. It’s not a pretty stream — Whisenhunt carries just a 4.42 ERA in 15 starts for the RiverCats — but the Rockies at home are a team worth picking on in deeper leagues.