MLB Player News

Davis was optioned to Triple-A Fresno on Thursday, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic Houston reports.

Davis made the Opening Day roster as a reserve player and collected six hits in his 28 at-bats. He'll be sent back to the minors with starting first baseman Yulieski Gurriel (hand) set to return from the disabled list Friday. Davis will likely play every day at Fresno with the hopes of returning to the bigs before long.

LeMahieu is the leadoff hitter for Thursday's bout with the Nationals, Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post reports.

LeMahieu normally hits second, but he'll move up a spot in the order to replace Charlie Blackmon (quad) at the pole position. He will likely move back to the two-hole once Blackmon is healthy, though the second baseman still provides good fantasy value as long as he's in a tablesetting role around the top of the Colorado lineup.

Urshela (hamstring) played in an extended spring training game in Arizona on Thursday, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com reports.

Manager Terry Francona admitted that Urshela remains about 4-to-5 days out from going on a minor-league rehab assignment, though this marked the first time that the 26-year-old returned to game action since going down with a right hamstring strain near the end of spring training. Upon his return to the big leagues, it's expected that Urshela will be utilized out of a reserve role all around the infield.

Chapman went 2-for-6 with a home run, two runs scored and three RBI in Wednesday's 16-6 rout of the Dodgers.

The 24-year-old's blistering start to the season continues. Chapman is now slashing .347/.418/.653 through 13 games with four homers and 11 RBI, and his 18.2 percent strikeout rate is a huge improvement on the 28.2 percent mark he managed as a rookie. His minor-league numbers suggest there will be whiffs and cold spells at the plate coming, but if he has taken a step forward with his plate discipline, Chapman could avoid being a liability in batting average while still supplying the big power numbers expected of him.

Bregman, who entered Wednesday's game on a 3-for-18 slide, went 4-for-6 with a home run, a double and two runs scored in a 9-8 loss to the Twins.

Bregman has been making contact all year, but wasn't getting balls to drop -- until Wednesday. "I felt good really all year, barreling up the baseball," Bregman told Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. "[In the] first series in Texas, I hit a lot of balls at people and kind of started to chase some hits after that instead of chasing some good pitches to hit, and today I was just looking for some good pitches to hit and was fortunate enough to put some good swings on the ball." It was the first four-hit game of his career, and the homer was his first of the season. He had a similarly cold start in 2017 and managed to turn things around.

Donaldson is out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against Baltimore, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports.

Donaldson will spend the series finale on the bench for a standard maintenance day, his first of the 2018 season. In his place, Yangervis Solarte gets the nod at third base while batting third in the order.

Riley is hitting .333 with three doubles and a 5:3 K:BB in five games for Double-A Mississippi.

He is probably ready for Triple-A, but for now the Braves want Rio Ruiz getting everyday at-bats there. Riley's strikeout rate is worth keeping tabs on, but his power and patience should allow him to flourish for as long as he remains at Double-A.

Anderson went 2-for-3 with a walk in Tuesday's 8-6 loss to the Mets.

The 24-year-old continues to bang out base hits, and Anderson now has a robust .317/.462/.488 slash line through 11 games with one home run, eight runs and nine RBI. He's also shown a dramatically better approach at the plate, posting a 17.3 percent walk rate and 11.5 percent strikeout rate so far after managing 10.5 percent and 29.5 percent marks in 25 games during his big-league debut in 2017. The sample size is of course very small, but if he can maintain even a portion of those improvements, he could prove to be a surprisingly useful fantasy asset.

Bregman went 1-for-3 with a walk and was picked off in Tuesday's 4-1 loss to the Twins.

Bregman led off the fifth with a single and was promptly picked off in yet another game where the Astros' offense was quiet and runs were dear. The 24-year-old third sacker is hitting just .186 over 12 games. He has similar batted-ball characteristics as last season, but has had little to show for it -- his .216 BABIP a testament to that. Struggling hitters tend to expand the strike zone, but his swing rate and swing rate outside the zone do not indicate he's chasing bad pitches. The quirks of BABIP should correct, but you'll need to be patient with Bregman.

Segura went 3-for-5 with one double, one triple, two runs scored and two RBI Tuesday against the Royals.

Segura continued his excellent start to the 2018 campaign, recording his fifth multi-hit game of the season. He has hit exclusively in the second spot of the Mariners' lineup this season, and while he won't continue to get on base at a .415 clip, he should be in a prime position to score plenty of runs. He's attempted only one stolen base on the season, but given that his lowest stolen base total in a full season at the major-league level is 20, that shouldn't be a concern.