MLB Player News

Duffy (heel) will join the Rays' instructional league team Thursday and is scheduled to play his first game Monday in Bradenton, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Duffy will thus take his first step toward eventually stepping on a major-league field next spring after missing all of the 2017 campaign. Following his instructional league tenure, he's scheduled to also put in time in winter ball, with both stints intended to thoroughly prepare him to participate in spring training without restrictions.

Machado, who is out of the Wednesday's lineup against the Red Sox, is dealing with an illness, Jon Meoli of The Baltimore Sun reports.

He is 3-for-29 (.103) over his last eight games, and it is unclear exactly when the illness popped up. It sounds like he is just day-to-day. Ryan Flaherty will start at the hot corner and hit ninth.

Bregman is not in the lineup Wednesday against the White Sox.

Bregman will receive a rare night off Wednesday and give way to Marwin Gonzalez at third base. Bregman, who's hit .279 with an .809 OPS over 144 games this season, figures to rejoin the lineup for Thursday's series finale against the White Sox.

Devers is out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Orioles, Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe reports.

Devers has started 13 straight games, over which he's posted a solid .314/.352/.392 line. However, he's been a liability on defense and committed in error in each of Boston's last five contests. He'll get the night off while Deven Marrero fills in at third base.

Machado is out of the lineup Wednesday against the Red Sox.

Over the last 10 games Machado has slashed a bleak .162/.220/.243. He'll get a rare day off as Ryan Flaherty draws a start at the hot corner. Machado should be back in the lineup for Thursday's series opener against the Rays.

Chapman went 1-for-4 with a solo home run and a walk in Tuesday's 9-8 win over the Tigers.

The 24-year-old's round tripper was his first since Sept. 10 and helped snap a 1-for-21 slump over the previous six games. Chapman has seven extra-base hits (three doubles, a triple and three homers) overall in September, which has partly made up for an unsightly .217 average over that span.

Moncada went 3-for-4 with a stolen base and a run scored in Tuesday's loss to the Astros.

Moncada raised his season batting average from .227 to .241 with Tuesday's three-hit performance and is now hitting an impressive .302 during the month of September. The toolsy second baseman is still striking out in nearly a third of his plate appearances, but he's been making enough solid contact recently to make his strikeout rate more palatable. The 22-year-old now has 10 hits in his last five starts and is on pace to turn in a very encouraging final month of the regular season.

Ramirez (hamstring) is in the lineup for Tuesday's game against the Angels.

Ramirez sat out the Indians' last two games to give his sore hamstring a rest, but he will be back in action Tuesday following a team off day. As he has done regularly of late when in the lineup, Ramirez will man the keystone and hit third in the Indians' batting order. He will look to pick up where he left off, having tallied eight hits over the last four games he started.

Duffy (heel), who officially confirmed last Friday that he will not play before the end of the regular season, believes he'll be ready to go for the 2018 campaign, Bill Chastain of MLB.com reports. "The plan is looking toward instructional league," said Duffy, who began the season on the disabled list while trying to recover from Achilles surgery and later had a second surgery. "The goal is to not have any reservations going into Spring Training, and having as normal an offseason as possible."

Duffy had come into spring training last March with high expectations following September 2016 heel surgery, as he'd figured on being ready to play by the middle of that month and serve as the team's everyday starting shortstop. However, issues started to crop up by late March and led to Duffy's recovery undergoing a series of fits and starts over the next several months. A late-June follow-up procedure that removed a calcium deposit from the heel appears to have been pivotal to finally eliminating the discomfort Duffy had persistently felt, and he's now set to test himself in both the instructional league and winter ball over the coming months.

Alvarez went 3-for-3 with a solo home run, two runs and two walks in Monday's loss to Boston.

For the first time in his eight-year career, Alvarez reached base five times in a single game. He's hitting .333/.429/.667 through 14 plate appearances since being recalled earlier this month. The once prominent MLB slugger has only two starts in his eight games thus far, but Alvarez is a decent value option in daily formats when the veteran is in the lineup.