MLB Player News

Twins shortstop Eduardo Escobar took over at shortstop late in Wednesday's game against the Tigers. He ended up playing the role of the hero. 

Escobar, who took over for Pedro Florimon, the starter, blasted a walk-off double to left-center field off Phil Coke in the bottom of the ninth to send the Twins to victory, 3-2. He drove in the game-tying and winning runs. 

Escobar went 1 for 1 in the game and is now 1 for 2 on the season. The 24-year-old has come off the bench in both games. 

Brewers shortstop Jean Segura has started the 2013 season with multi-hit outings in each of Milwaukee's first two games. Segura is batting .571 (4 for 7) with one walk through two games.

Segura is coming off a productive spring. He hit .367 (22 for 60) with three triple, five doubles, four RBI and five stolen bases in 21 spring games. He also accounted for 10 runs.

Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, who has never hit higher than sixth in his young MLB career, is embracing manager Buck Showalter's decision to bat him second in Tuesday's season opener at Tampa Bay.

"Buck does everything for a reason," Machado said. "He's trusting me and he has faith. He's going to put the best nine guys out there, nine guys who are going to help this team win, so that definitely boosts my confidence going into opening day, knowing that your manager and your teammates have faith in you. It's going to be great. I'm excited for it and I'm excited to get the season going."

The Orioles announced Monday third baseman Manny Machado will hit second during Tuesday's season opener at Tampa Bay. Machado never hit second as a rookie in 2012. He hit sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth.

Machado hit .268 (15 for 56) with one triple, three doubles, one RBI and seven walks in 21 spring games.

When Jean Segura suits up for the season opener Monday against Colorado, he will be the fifth different shortstop to start for the Brewers on opening day over the past five years. Segura, who was immediately added to the starting lineup after arriving in a trade from the Angels last August, will join a list that includes J.J. Hardy, Alcides Escobar, Yuniesky Betancourt and Alex Gonzalez.

The 23-year-old Segura shined during the spring, registering a glossy .367 batting average with eight extra-base hits, including three triples to rank tied for second-most in the Cactus League.

Brewers shortstop Jean Segura -- the pride of the Zack Greinke deal -- is hitting .365 with three steals (fifth among shortstops) and five doubles (third among SS) this spring. 

In the minors, Segura hit for power (.313) and showed some nice speed (career high of 50 steals), while flexing a little bit of power (career high of 10 home runs). His hot spring is encouraging because it's an improvement over his .258 average and four doubles in 45 games last year. Segura still comes with a lot of risk -- he's young, untested and the Milwaukee lineup isn't the most imposing -- but a decent average and 30 steals is well within reach this year. 

Granted, he did most of his damage early in the spring, when pitchers were still working with less than their full arsenals, but the fact prospect Nolan Arenado was even in the runnning for the Rockies' third-base job shows he made an impression. Coming into spring training, Chris Nelson seemed a slam dunk for the job after hitting .344 with an .881 OPS in the second half last year.

Nelson probably won't sustain that pace for a full season and lacks the power potential to emerge as the Rockies' long-term solution at third base. Arenado remains their future at the position, so as long as he keeps hitting for power at Triple-A Colorado Springs, like he did this spring, I have a feeling we'll see him before the All-Star break. I'm not stashing him in mixed leagues or anything, but I'm keeping him on my radar.

The Rockies have sent third baseman Nolan Arenado to the minor leagues, MLB.com reports.

Arenado is the Rockies' top prospect and is expected to reach the majors this season. He hit .288/.288/.596 in 52 plate appearances this spring. He will start the season at Triple-A Colorado Springs, and if he hits well, he'll have a shot at displacing Chris Nelson and Jordan Pacheco as the third baseman in Denver.

Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe snapped his nine-game hitting streak on Tuesday by recording an out in his only at-bat before going hitless in three at-bats as the Twins' DH Wednesday against the Pirates. Plouffe had managed hits in 11 of his first 12 games before his 0-for-4 performance over the last two days. Even after cooling off, he's still hitting .366/.386/.439 this spring but has yet to hit a home run.

Pedro Alvarez has had an encouraging enough turnaround over the past few days, including a 4-for-5 performance Wednesday, that he's probably worthy of a little more reflection at this stage of the game. I've been targeting as sort of my "Ryan Howard fallback" -- a corner infielder who I can trust to deliver 30-plus homers, but not much else. Still, at age 26, he might have some untapped potential.

The Pirates couldn't stop singing his praises when he showed up for the start of spring training, with manager Clint Hurdle telling MLB.com he "continues to have a better understanding of things he needs to do in the offseason to get himself in a good place for spring training, where he isn't trying to play catch up."

That's a decidedly different tone from last year, when Alvarez's conditioning was called into question.

Of course, a player who strikes out as often as Alvarez does is predisposed to a .250ish batting average no matter what shape he's in, I think, so for me, a Ryan Howard fallback is what he'll remain.