MLB Player News

Sanchez is starting Friday versus the Orioles.

The catcher sat out of Wednesday's series finale against the Angels but returns to the lineup Friday and will bat ninth. Sanchez homered in his last start Tuesday, ending a 20-game streak without a long ball. Since the All-Star break, he has struggled to a .202 batting average with a 27.4 percent strikeout rate.

Murphy is not in Friday's lineup against the Blue Jays.

He is hitting just .196 with two home runs in 56 at-bats since the start of August. Yan Gomes will start behind the dish and hit eighth.

Vazquez is taking a seat in Friday's matchup versus Cleveland, Bill Koch of The Providence Journal reports.

The catcher is receiving a routine day off after starting the last four games. Kevin Plawecki is starting behind the plate and batting sixth.

Haase is not in Friday's lineup against the Reds.

He has cooled off considerably, hitting .200 with one home run and 21 strikeouts over his last 20 games. Dustin Garneau will start behind the dish and bat eighth.

Hedges is out of the lineup Thursday against the Royals.

Hedges started the past two games and will take a seat after going 1-for-8 with a walk and an RBI. Ryan Lavarnway, who had his contract selected from Triple-A, will start behind the plate for Cleveland.

Murphy isn't starting Thursday's game against the Tigers, Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Murphy started each of the last two games, but he'll get a chance to reset after he went 0-for-7 with a walk and four strikeouts. Yan Gomes will start behind the dish and bat eighth.

Vazquez went 3-for-4 with a solo home run and two RBI in Wednesday's victory over the Rays.

The catcher opened the scoring in the game with a second-inning RBI single, scoring teammate Alex Verdugo. He then delivered a game-tying solo blast in the seventh inning off of Rays reliever Colin McHugh. Vazquez collected multiple hits for the third time in his last seven contests, but overall his triple slash on the season of .258/.312/.663 are his lowest numbers since 2018.

Sanchez isn't starting Wednesday's game against the Angels.

Sanchez homered in Tuesday's loss to the Angels but has gone just 1-for-14 with a homer, two runs and a walk across the last four games. Kyle Higashioka will start behind the plate and bat sixth.

McGuire remains out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Orioles.

On the bench for the fourth time in five games, McGuire looks to be the No. 3 option on the depth chart at catcher behind Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk, in some order. None of the three backstops has performed well enough to truly run away with the No. 1 role, but McGuire is still expected to see the fewest opportunities among the trio in September.

Kirk will start at catcher and bat sixth Wednesday against the Orioles.

Kirk was on the bench for Tuesday's 4-2 loss, which coincided with Danny Jansen (hamstring) making his return from the 10-day injured list. Though Jansen is the top defender among the three catchers on Toronto's active roster, his underwhelming .635 OPS means he likely won't dominate the playing time behind the plate in September. Look for Kirk and Reese McGuire to remain part of a timeshare at catcher with Jansen until one of the three clearly separates himself from the others in the competition for at-bats.