MLB Player News

Gomes is out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Rays.

Chris Gimenez will take over behind the dish for the Indians on Wednesday with Gomes getting the day off. Gomes had made four consecutive starts at catcher coming into Wednesday, so manager Terry Francona likely wanted to get Gimenez some playing time. The Brazilian native, Gomes, is slashing .220/.250/.360 through 50 June at-bats.

McCann will get the day off Wednesday as Jarrod Saltalamacchia will start behind the dish for the Tigers.

McCann, hitting just .202 on the season, has collected five RBI over the last 10 days for the Tigers. He'll continue to get the majority of starts at catcher for the Tigers.

Perez (thumb) has begun throwing and swinging a fungo bat, MLB.com reports.

Perez's rehab has gone according to plan thus far and should be trending towards a return in July based on the initial diagnosis.

Vazquez is not in the lineup Tuesday against the White Sox, Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald reports.

Vazquez has been showing signs of life at the plate of late, collecting a pair of multi-hit games over his last three starts, but he'll get the day off Tuesday. Sandy Leon will get the start behind the plate in his place and bat eighth against Chris Sale.

Casali is not in the lineup Tuesday against the Indians, Bill Chastain of MLB.com reports.

Casali is in the midst of an 0-for-14 slump over his last five games, as he's collected just two hits since June 6. Even still, he appears to remain the preferred option behind the plate most days, but he'll head to the bench in favor of Hank Conger on Tuesday.

Gomes went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored Monday against the Rays.

That's three straight games with at least one hit for Gomes after being moved down to eighth in the batting order. The catcher's 21-homer 2014 campaign still seems like a distant memory, though.

Perez went 1-for-3 with a solo homer Sunday at the Athletics.

Perez's third homer of the year gave the Angels a two-run lead in the fifth inning of a game they'd win by shutout. He's only collected four hits in his last 35 at-bats, and he's now hitting just .188 on the season.

Vazquez went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI in Saturday's 6-2 win over Seattle.

Vazquez has been slumping, entering Saturday's game on a 4-for-32 (.125), but had hits that contributed to runs in the fifth and sixth innings. He was given two days off and his work in the batting cage paid off for one game, but can he sustain it? Do the Red Sox have enough firepower to overcome a .220-hitting catcher? At what cost are his elite defensive skills? The question of whether or not Vazquez can hit enough to warrant being Boston's number one catcher will dog him and manager John Farrell all season.

Vazquez was not in the lineup Friday for a second straight game and used the downtime to work more aggressively with Boston's hitting coaches, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal reports. "We felt he needed to address some things from a timing standpoint at the plate," manager John Farrell said. "He's been scuffling."

Part of the rationale to sit Vazquez stems from manager John Farrell's desire to pair Friday night's starter, Roenis Elias, with catcher Sandy Leon, as the two worked together at Triple-A Pawtucket for much of the season, but the night off also gave Vazquez more time to work with hitting coaches in an attempt to break out of a recent slump. Dating back to June 3, the young catcher is 3-for-26, dropping his season average to .209 with a .248 on-base percentage. If not for his elite defensive skills, those numbers would make Vazquez a backup catcher.

Leon went 3-for-4 with a double and run in Friday's 8-4 loss to the Mariners.

While his current pace naturally isn't sustainable over the long term, the career .206 hitter has to be relishing his season so far. Leon is now 9-for-13 on the season, leaving him with an absurd .692/.714/.923 line. He's made some impactful contact along the way, already tallying a trio of two-baggers as part of his nine hits.