MLB Player News

Stanton struck out in all four of his plate at-bats during Wednesday's loss to the Phillies, wrapping a hitless three-game set with the division rivals.

It's been quite the streaky start to the season for Stanton, who is batting just .098/.196/.195 in his last 12 games (41 at-bats). In the 11 games prior, he belted seven home runs while slashing .395/.531/.1.026. The power production is as expected overall, but with a meager .221 average and .335 OBP, the slugger has been more of an all-or-nothing proposition in 2016.

Harper walked four times and struck out in his other plate appearance Wednesday against the Mets.

The net effect was that he only scored one run despite the Nats putting up seven on Bartolo Colon and the Mets staff. Harper's been racking up walks fiendishly, which is curious for a guy who's only hitting .254. Sure, he hit .330 last year, but when you take a look at Harper's last 20 games this season, the picture you get is of a guy who hasn't been very effective when he's actually been pitched to -- he has just a .167 average despite having drawn 32 walks in that span. Not to take anything away from him, but giving him the steroid-era Barry Bonds treatment just might be overkill.

Cespedes went 2-for-4 with a solo homer that accounted for all the Mets' scoring in a 7-1 loss to Washington on Wednesday.

Incredibly, Cespedes is actually outperforming his magical late-2015 run with the Mets here in his first full season under the bright lights of Broadway (or, well, Queens). His OPS is a shining 1.024, thanks in no small part to all the homers he's been slugging -- so many that his stats in 92 games as a Met would be a fantastic whole season for most players. Since donning the orange and blue at last year's trade deadline, Cespedes has hit 30 homers and driven in 77 runs.

Soler is out of the starting lineup Wednesday against the Brewers.

This is the third consecutive game that Soler will take a seat on the bench. He's been having massive troubles at the plate as of late, and it seems that manager Joe Maddon is trying other lineup options to get more productive bats in the Cubs order. Kris Bryant will take over in left field while Tommy La Stella fills in at third base.

McCutchen is 5-for-12 with a double and two homers against Wednesday starter Julio Teheran.

The center fielder is slashing .327/.365/.571 in his last 11 games and yet still hasn't really gone on one of his patented hot streaks. McCutchen hopes to continue his success Wednesday against Teheran.

McCutchen went 3-for-5 with a triple and two RBI in Tuesday's 12-9 win over the Braves.

McCutchen was one of seven Pirates to finish with multiple hits on the evening. After a mediocre April, McCutchen is beginning to settle in nicely in May, hitting 18-for-60 (.300 average) to go with three homers, eight RBI and 10 runs over 14 games this month.

Pederson went 2-for-4 with two home runs, his seventh and eighth of the season, and three RBI in Tuesday's 5-1 win over the Angels.

Pederson's weak .250 average is fairly compensated by his great .368 OBP and .548 slugging percentage. His plate discipline is also above average as he's walking 15.2 percent of the time and holds a nice 0.49 BB/K. The young outfielder has plenty of areas that he can improve in (like his terrible 63 percent contact rate and 31.2 percent strikeout rate), but there is no reason to believe that Pederson won't get better as he is still adjusting to major league pitching.

Soler is not in the lineup for Tuesday's game with the Brewers.

This marks the second consecutive game that Soler has not started, and the fourth game since May 9. It seems that the 24-year-old is losing some playing time in the Cubs outfield while his batting average dips further, as it now sits well below the Mendoza Line at .174. It's unclear if this will become a trend or if it's just a short-term thing, but for Tuesday's matchup, he'll cede the start in left field to Kris Bryant while Javier Baez takes over at the hot corner.

Ozuna mashed a solo home run to extend his hit streak to 16 games during Monday's win over the Phillies.

There are not many hotter hitters at the moment as Ozuna continues his assault on National League pitching. For the year, Ozuna is slashing .308/.353/.524 with seven home runs and 20 RBI. His peripheral numbers (23.5 K% and 6.5 BB%) are largely in line with his miserable 2015 season while he's nearly doubled his ISO from .124 in 2015 to .217 this year. While a high BABIP (.370) and 17.5-percent HR/FB point to some current luck and future regression, Ozuna has shown this type of power in the past and will remain a strong run producer batting behind Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton.

Turner is not in the lineup for Monday's series opener against the Angels.

This seems like a typical day off for Turner, although he is scuffling to the tune of a .182 batting average over his past seven games. Howie Kendrick will slide over to third base while Carl Crawford enters the lineup in left field.