MLB Player News

Cabrera went 3-for-4 in Thursday's loss to the Astros.

The three hits are nice, and Cabrera is batting a solid .284 this season, though he's not producing a ton of extra-base hits or counting stats. The veteran had three singles Thursday, giving him 18 for the season versus only two doubles and a single home run. As a result, Cabrera has just seven runs and seven RBI across 21 games. It's good that he's healthy and making regular contact, but the 39-year-old isn't doing much else for fantasy managers.

Buxton went 1-for-5 with a home run and three RBI in a 5-3 loss Thursday in Baltimore.

Buxton drove in all of Minnesota's runs Thursday with an RBI groundout in the third and a two-out, two-run homer in the fifth. The slugger has five home runs in his last nine appearances and has an incredible .716 SLG on the season. Over his last 162 games, dating back to May 19, 2019, he has hit 46 home runs. When healthy, he's proven he's one of the best power bats in all of baseball.

Choi (elbow) served as the designated hitter in an extended spring training game Thursday and will play first base Friday, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Choi was confident that he would need only a short stint on the injured list, and his quick progress provides evidence of that. He is expected to rejoin the Rays at some point during the team's ongoing west coast road trip, which ends on May 11. Yandy Diaz has operated as the primary first baseman in Choi's absence.

Ohtani (3-2) picked up the win against Boston on Thursday, pitching seven scoreless innings on six hits while striking out 11 and walking zero. He also went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI as a hitter.

The groin injury Ohtani suffered during Sunday's 6-5 win over the White Sox doesn't appear to be an issue anymore, as the superstar registered his best pitching performance of the season. Ohtani faced traffic in nearly every inning, but he was able to get out of trouble with a big strikeout whenever he needed to while generating 29 swinging strikes. He also displayed his prowess at the plate, ripping an RBI-single off the Green Monster during the Angels' five-run eighth inning.

General manager Jerry Dipoto confirmed Thursday that the Mariners will keep Lewis on his minor-league rehab assignment for the majority of the allotted 20 days, Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN Seattle reports.

Dipoto said that he expects Lewis, who began the rehab assignment Tuesday, to remain at Triple-A Tacoma for the next two-and-a-half to three weeks before making his Mariners debut in the second half of May. The Mariners' decision to ease Lewis along slowly isn't too surprising, given that he's faced a lengthy recovery from the meniscus surgery he underwent last June. Lewis has gone 3-for-7 with a home run and a walk between his first two rehab games and is expected to rotate between designated hitter and the outfield throughout his time at Tacoma. Once activated from the 10-day injured list, Lewis could push for a near-everyday role with Mitch Haniger (ankle) out indefinitely and Jarred Kelenic having struggled mightily through the first month of the season.

Vientos is hitting just .167/.282/.303 with one homer across 21 games so far this season for Triple-A Syracuse.

After he hit 25 homers in just 83 games across Double-A and Triple-A last year, expectations were high for Vientos entering this season, but he simply hasn't delivered so far. If there's a bright side to be scraped from his stats, it's that he's drawn six walks in his last six games -- a big improvement from the four he managed in the first 15 -- but the 22-year-old's prospect luster has always stemmed from his massive raw power, and that's simply been missing in action. He's striking out at a career-high clip (32.1 percent), and his 66.7 percent groundball rate as well as his 23.1 percent flyball rate are well out of line with his career norms. It sure is hard to hit the ball over the fence often when you're hitting it on the ground two-thirds of the time. The good news is that Vientos has a lengthy minor-league track record of elevating the ball, so look for him to tweak his swing and get back to what he does best.

McCutchen is out of the lineup for Thursday's game against the Reds.

He'll be one of three veterans sitting out in Thursday's series finale after starting in Wednesday's 18-4 win. McCutchen, who went 4-for-5 with a double, a walk, four RBI and two runs in the trouncing of Cincinnati, will be replaced at designated hitter by Keston Hiura.

Ohtani will start as a pitcher and designated hitter in Thursday's game against the Red Sox, Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register reports.

Due to a groin injury suffered in Sunday's 6-5 win over the White Sox while he had served as a DH, Ohtani sat out Monday's series finale against Chicago. He's been back in action as a DH for the Angels' past two games against the Athletics, however, going 1-for-7 with two walks and a run between those contests. The groin injury prompted the Angels to push Ohtani back a day in the pitching schedule, but he'll still end up making a start on the mound in Boston as originally planned.

Miller started at third base and went 1-for-4 with a stolen base and two RBI in Wednesday's 2-1 extra-inning win over Philadelphia.

Miller delivered a two-out, two-run single in the top of the 10th inning, giving Texas the runs it needed for a fourth straight win. He's been locked in an extended slump, which recently cost him at-bats in left field to Zach Reks, but the 32-year-old, multi-positional player got the start at third base in place of Andy Ibanez on Wednesday. While the game-winning knock was nice, it was just Miller's seventh base hit over his last 47 at-bats (.149).

McCutchen went 4-for-5 with a double, four RBI and two runs in the 18-4 win over the Reds on Wednesday.

Breaking a three-game hitless streak in a big way, McCutchen ripped an RBI single off Vladimir Gutierrez in the bottom of the first inning before adding another single in the third frame and coming around to score on a Rowdy Tellez grand slam. The 35-year-old later walked and scored on Tellez's second long ball of the contest in the sixth and doubled in two runs in the seventh. He notched his fourth hit on an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning, scoring Lorenzo Cain and reaching four RBI on the day. McCutchen has operated as the Brewers' primary designated hitter in 2022, producing a .242 batting average with two homers and 14 RBI over 95 at-bats in 24 games.