MLB Player News

McCutchen will sit for the afternoon portion of Friday's doubleheader against the Marlins.

The Phillies won't ask the 34-year-old to play two games in one day. He remained a useful player in the first half despite his age, hitting 15 homers and stealing six bases while slashing .228/.346/.434, good for a 113 wRC+. That low batting average hurts fantasy teams, but a .252 xBA indicates that things could improve in that category going forward. Brad Miller will be the left fielder in his absence.

Pederson was traded to Atlanta from the Cubs on Thursday in exchange for Bryce Ball.

Pederson may be the first domino to fall in what is expected to be a busy trade deadline for the Cubs. He provides Atlanta with a starting outfielder, a position of need as the team is currently without Ronald Acuna (knee) and Marcell Ozuna (finger). Pederson hit .230/.300/.418 across 287 plate appearances with the Cubs on the campaign.

Vientos is hitting .277/.348/.588 with 14 homers, 40 RBI and 28 runs across 48 games for Double-A Binghamton.

The 21-year-old third baseman has a lot of swing-and-miss in his game -- that 29.4 percent strikeout rate is a little scary -- but he's also improved his walk rate to 9.0 percent.. Just as importantly, he's shown off a major increase in power, nearly doubling his ISO from .156 in 2019 to .311 this year. Since the Mets have another promising third-base prospect in Brett Baty, Vientos has been getting some reps in left field since defense isn't his strength. Whatever position he lands at, Vientos will probably hit enough home runs to be a viable fantasy asset, though he'll probably never be a .300 hitter.

Jimenez (pectoral) has gone 1-for-6 with a walk in two rehab games for Triple-A Charlotte this week.

Jimenez kicked off his rehab assignment with two games for High-A Winston-Salem over the weekend before moving up the ladder to Triple-A. The 24-year-old appeared as a designated hitter during the first rehab game, then moved to left field for the next three contests, including nine innings Wednesday. The outfielder has not played yet this season after suffering a torn pectoral muscle during spring training. At the time of surgery in April, he was given a four-to-five month prognosis, and it looks like Jimenez will be returning just shy of that estimate.

Jimenez (pectoral) has gone 3-for-7 with a home run, a walk, two runs and two RBI through the first two games of his rehab assignment at High-A Winston-Salem. He will continue his rehab at Triple-A Charlotte beginning Tuesday.

After serving as a designated hitter for the affiliate Saturday in his 2021 debut, Jimenez manned left field for seven innings Sunday before heading to the bench. The 24-year-old looks to be progressing well in his recovery from the left pectoral surgery he underwent in March, a procedure that was initially expected to keep him on the shelf for 4-to-5 months. Jimenez looks like he'll have a chance to return before the short end of that timeline, provided he can make it through his rehab assignment free of any setbacks. The White Sox would have the luxury of deploying Jimenez as a DH if they aren't fully confident he's immediately ready to handle an everyday role in left field.

Ohtani went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk and a run scored in Sunday's 7-1 win over the Mariners.

Ohtani doubled his first time up and then later walked and scored on a sacrifice fly during a three-run ninth inning. The 26-year-old completes a historic first half of the season with the bat, slashing .279/.364/.698 with a league-best 33 home runs to go along with 70 RBI, 65 runs scored, 12 steals, and 38:98 BB:K over 343 plate appearances.

Torrens, who was out of the lineup Sunday against the Angels and went 2-for-3 with an RBI triple and a walk in Saturday's win, hit .350 (7-for-20) with the three-bagger, two home runs, five RBI, seven walks and four runs across the last seven games of the first half.

The hot-hitting backstop reached safely in all seven of those contests as well, and factoring in Saturday's three-bagger and the pair of round trippers he belted during that stretch, he's now laced exactly half of his 32 hits this season for extra bases. That's helped lead to a .462 slugging percentage, a particularly appealing figure for a part-time catcher.

Ramirez went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored in Saturday's 14-6 win over Kansas City.

The outfielder seemed refreshed at the plate after getting a day off Friday. He entered Saturday's contest hitting just .214 (6-for-28) through eight games in July. Ramirez's three-hit effort was just his third such game this season. He's slashing a solid .280/.325/.457 with six home runs, 22 RBI, 24 runs scored and a pair of stolen bases through 200 plate appearances as Cleveland's near-everyday right fielder.

Blackmon went 1-for-4 with two RBI, a walk and a strikeout in Colorado's 3-0 shutout of San Diego on Saturday.

Blackmon got the Rockies on the board with his two-run single off Joe Musgrove in the fifth and walked earlier in the third. The veteran outfielder is currently enduring his worst full-time season with a .731 OPS but has gone 7-for-his-last-17.

Turner went 3-for-4 with a grand slam as the Dodgers defeated the Diamondbacks, 22-1 on Saturday.

Turner extended Los Angeles' lead to 9-0 with his second-inning big fly off Arizona starter Caleb Smith and went on to single in the fourth and sixth. The third baseman now has a five-game hitting streak with homers in two of his last three games.