MLB Player News

Pederson (concussion) is expected to be activated from the 7-day injured list Saturday, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports.

Pederson landed on the concussion IL on July 29, and he'll rejoin the active roster Saturday after being sidelined for the 7-day minimum. The 30-year-old struggled in his first eight appearances out of the All-Star break, going 2-for-18 with a double, a walk and six strikeouts.

Mercedes will serve as San Francisco's designated hitter and No. 4 batter in Thursday's game against the Dodgers.

Despite going 1-for-11 in the first three games of the series, Mercedes will get another look as the Giants' DH in the finale. It's worth noting that the Giants faced four lefty starters in the series, so the righty-hitting Mercedes should still be viewed as a short-side platoon player.

Belt is out of the lineup for Thursday's game against the Dodgers.

The lefty-hitting Belt will head to the bench for the day game after a night game while the Dodgers bring a southpaw (Clayton Kershaw) to the hill. The righty-hitting David Villar will spell Belt at first base.

Morel is on the bench for the first game of Thursday's doubleheader with the Cardinals.

Though Morel will likely play in the nightcap, he'll be on the bench for the third time in four games while the Cubs go with David Bote at second base and Rafael Ortega in center field for the afternoon contest. After he was dialed in at the plate to begin his MLB career, Morel has cooled down since the beginning of July and has gone 0-for-16 over his last five starts.

McCutchen went 2-for-5 with two doubles and a stolen base in an 8-7 loss to the Pirates on Wednesday.

McCutchen ripped a pair of doubles out of the cleanup spot against his former team. He now has 19 doubles on the year and six over the last 15 days. McCutchen also picked up his eighth steal of the season by swiping third off Chase De Jong. The 35-year-old center fielder isn't elite in any category anymore, but he still combines a fair mix of pop and speed while hitting in the heart of the Brewers lineup.

Vogelbach went 2-for-5 with a grand slam in Wednesday's 9-5 victory over the Nationals.

Vogelbach's first home run for his new team turned out to be a grand slam that scored Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte and Pete Alonso. It came in the fifth inning and put the Mets up 6-0. It was home run No. 13 this season for the designated hitter and his first since July 10. In nine games since joining the Mets, Vogelbach is 8-for-21 with a .971 OPS.

Beer isn't starting Wednesday against the Guardians.

Beer is getting a breather after he went 0-for-8 with three strikeouts over the last two games. Ketel Marte will serve as the designated hitter while Emmanuel Rivera starts at third base.

Meneses went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in Tuesday's victory over the Mets.

In his first career big-league game, Meneses launched a home run that helped seal a 5-1 win for the Nationals. The rookie spent a good chunk of his minor-league career in Atlanta's organization, but he'd toiled in the Phillies, Red Sox, and Nationals farm systems since 2018. He has shown the ability to hit for both power and average in the minors, batting .311 with 23 home runs in 2018 and .286 with 20 home runs this season, all at the Triple-A level. Perhaps his debut appearance with the Nationals is a sign of things to come for the 30-year-old rookie.

Ozuna went 3-for-5 with a homer, a double, three runs scored and two RBI in a 13-1 pounding of Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Ozuna doubled and scored in the fourth, singled and scored in the fifth and hit a solo shot in the seventh. After a difficult July in which he produced a .195/.247/.368 line, the veteran got off to a great start to August on Tuesday. It marked the fourth time this season that he had three hits in a game and just the second time since April 12. He's now hit seventh in Atlanta's order seven times in his last 12 starts.

Turner (abdomen) was placed on the 10-day injured list Tuesday, retroactive to July 30, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports.

The 37-year-old hasn't seen the field in nearly a week due to the abdominal strain, and the Dodgers finally opted to put him on the IL The move is backdated by a few days, and manager Dave Roberts hopes Turner will be able to return for the two-game series against the Twins next week after missing the minimum amount of time. Joey Gallo was acquired from the Yankees on Tuesday and is a likely to fill Turner's spot in the lineup once he officially joins the active roster.