MLB Player News

Valencia hit his 12th homer as part of a 2-for-4 game with three RBI Tuesday against the Twins.

Valencia is following up his career year from last season with almost identical production. After a .290/.345/.517 batting line last year, Valencia is now at .310/.359/.512. He set a career high with 18 home runs last season, and at 12 already, he's on pace to set another career high with 23.

Machado homered and walked in a 1-for-4 game with three RBI in Tuesday's win over the Dodgers.

Machado is now back atop the shortstop home run leaderboard, tied with Trevor Story with 19. He also leads the position with 53 RBI and ranks second in runs (59) and batting average (.324). Machado's OPS is up to .970 thanks to Tuesday's effort and he will be in the running for MVP if he can sustain this performance through the second half of the season.

Donaldson went 3-for-4 with two home runs , his 21st and 22nd of the year, and scored four times in Tuesday's win over the Royals.

Fresh off being named a reserve to the AL All-Star team, Donaldson blasted two in one game for the second time this season. He also pushed his average over .300 for the first time since April 18 by notching his 10th hit in the last four games (10-for-15). Donaldson has scored 77 runs, a franchise record for runs before the All-Star break. Carlos Delgado had 76 in 2003.

Reynolds, demoted to make room for Jose Reyes, will be a super-utility player when he is back up in the majors, ESPN New York reports.

Reynolds was caught in a numbers game, as the Mets have Wilmer Flores and Kelly Johnson as backup infielders and the team is not inclined to designate Alejandro De Aza for assignment yet. As such, Reynolds was the odd man out when Reyes was added to the active roster. Reynolds likely will play all over for Triple-A Las Vegas, including second, short, third and left field to prepare for the next time he is in the majors.

Escobar (hamstring) remains out of the lineup Tuesday against the A's.

Make it three straight absences for Escobar, who suffered a hamstring strain on a slide into home plate early in Saturday's game. The Twins reportedly view the injury as a day-to-day concern, but it's uncertain if Escobar will be available in any capacity for Wednesday's series finale.

McMahon, 21, is batting just .217/.305/.331 through 78 games for Double-A Hartford.

McMahon had an average hovering around .300 in the minors prior to this season. Not only has he struggled to hit for average, but McMahon has also been sapped of nearly all of his power. Curiously, he has just four home runs thus far in 2016. It has been a lost season for McMahon, who also continues to strike out at an alarming rate.

Through five games with Triple-A Fresno, Bregman is 10-for-21 with two doubles, four homers and 11 RBI.

It's a small sample size, but Bregman has a whopping 1.143 slugging percentage and 1.665 OPS with the Grizzlies. He's not going to overtake Carlos Correa as the Astros' starting shortstop and Luis Valbuena has hit .303 over the last 30 days at third base, but if Bregman continues to rake like this, Houston may have no choice but to find at-bats for him before their playoff push.

Segura went 3-for-5 with a run and two stolen bases in a loss to the Padres on Monday.

Segura also extended his hitting streak to eight games with the performance and elevated his batting line to .313/.358/.435. He now has 15 stolen bases to go with that solid line, and he seems likely to make his first All-Star appearance since 2013, and if he stays healthy, he will easily attain his fourth straight season with at least 20 steals.

Alvarez was placed on the bereavement list prior to Monday's matchup against the Dodgers.

Alvarez will be away from the team for a few days in order to attend to a family matter back in the Dominican Republic. While Alvarez is away, manager Buck Showalter will need to find another DH option against right-handed pitchers. One likely scenario would be Matt Wieters serving as the DH, while the recently reinstated Caleb Joseph takes reps at catcher.

Plouffe, who was placed on the 15-day DL earlier Monday, is expected to miss three-to-four weeks due to a cracked left rib, MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger reports.

Manager Paul Molitor indicated that timetable isn't necessarily firm, and considering Plouffe's personal history, it wouldn't be a surprised if he ended up missing more than a month. The third baseman said Monday that he's been only about 65 or 70 percent healthy all season while contending with multiple injuries, and with the Twins unlikely to make a serious run at playoff contention, it may make sense for the organization to give him some extra time off to fully recover from the injury. While Plouffe remains sidelined, Eduardo Nunez, Miguel Sano and Eduardo Escobar (hamstring) are all candidates to pick up extra at-bats at the hot corner.