MLB Player News

Fletcher will start in left field and man the leadoff spot Thursday against the Tigers.

Fletcher will bat leadoff for the fifth consecutive game, with four of those starts coming against left-handed pitchers. It's worth noting that Fletcher's lone table-setting assignment versus a righty during that span came when Tommy La Stella was unavailable due to a back injury. Now healthy, La Stella will return from a four-game absence to serve as No. 9 hitter versus southpaw Ryan Carpenter, but it's unclear if La Stella will reclaim the leadoff gig the next time the Angels face a right-hander. With three straight two-hit performances, Fletcher may have given manager Brad Ausmus reason to commit to him on a full-time basis atop the lineup.

Correa went 1-for-3 with a solo home run in Wednesday's 9-0 win over Kansas City.

One day after his 16-game hit streak was snapped. Correa began a new one with his ninth homer of the season. He's homered in three of the previous four games. The shortstop, who was saddled with a back injury in 2018, is healthy again and barreling balls at 13.5 percent, which is leading to a career-best hard-hit rate of 47.6 percent, per Statcast.

Adames went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run in a win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday.

Adames' numbers are back to trending in the right direction after a brief late-April slide. The young shortstop is 7-for-17 with a double, two RBI, two walks and four runs over the first five games he's suited up for in May, raising his average 34 points to .234 in the process. However, the 23-year-old's .299 on-base percentage still has plenty of room for improvement, with the current 49-point disparity between that number and last year's .348 figure at least partly tied to Adames' reduced patience at the dish.

Bogaerts went 1-for-5 with a solo home run in Tuesday's 8-5 win over the Orioles.

Bogaerts, whose last three three hits have left the park, has seven homers and leads the Red Sox with 16 extra-base hits in 2019.

Anderson went 0-for-3 with a walk in Tuesday's 2-0 win over the Indians.

Anderson's explosive April has given way to a cooling-off period to start May. The shortstop is batting .179 (5-for-28) since the calendar flipped. His 138 wRC+ is a good place to be in early May while his 5.1 barrel percentage and 87.8 mph average exit velocity are up compared to last season. However, an unsustainable .380 BABIP suggests further cooling for Anderson, who has shown some maturation but still has improvements to make in terms of plate discipline.

Gordon went 2-for-5 with a stolen base in a 5-4 loss to the Yankees on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old went deep Monday night against the Yankees, but Tuesday, he was back to his usual self, swiping bases instead of launching bombs. Gordon is 10-for-11 in stolen-base attempts this year. He's also batting .301 with three home runs, 18 RBI and 13 runs. Those power numbers don't sound like much, but Gordon has never hit more than four homers in any year, and the 18 RBI already have him halfway to his total in the category (36) from last season.

Mateo, who's slashing .333/.374/.551 with eight doubles, eight triples, two home runs, 24 RBI and eight stolen bases across 29 games with Triple-A Las Vegas, could be the next callup for the Athletics, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com reports.

As those numbers imply, the 23-year-old has been tormenting Triple-A arms throughout the season while putting in time at both second base and shortstop. While there have been knocks on Mateo's maturity and focus in the past, the difference between his body of work at the Triple-A level in 2019 compared to last year is stark. Mateo slashed a middling .230/.280/.353 across 510 plate appearances at Nashville last season, and he's already amassed half of the 36 extra-base hits he posted during that tenure in 363 fewer opportunities.

Crawford went 4-for-5 with a home run and six RBI on Monday in Triple-A Tacoma's 12-8 win over Albuquerque.

The four-hit performance lifted Crawford's season average to .321 across 112 at-bats this season. With home-run production in the Pacific Coast League on the rise this season, the 24-year-old's .143 ISO doesn't stand out, but his improved batting eye and contact skills should be enough to earn him another look in the big leagues at some point in 2019. Any potential move into a full-time role with the Mariners would likely be contingent on one of the team's middle-infield starters (Tim Beckham or Dee Gordon) succumbing to an injury, getting traded, or seeing their performance take a dramatic dip.

Gordon went 3-for-4 with a solo home run in a loss to the Yankees on Monday.

The infielder continued his career-long success against CC Sabathia with a fifth-inning solo blast, his third of the season overall. That amounts to a veritable power surge for Gordon, who's never totaled more than four round trippers in any campaign, and who's needed 653 and 588 plate appearances to reach that number on the two prior occasions he's hit that mark.

Correa went 3-for-4 with a solo home run Monday in the Astros' 6-4 win over the Royals.

Correa didn't need long to extend his hitting streak to 16 games, as he took Jakob Junis deep to center field in his first at-bat of the evening. It was the eighth home run of the season and second in as many days for Correa, who has bounced back nicely from an injury-riddled 2018 campaign. Something that may bear watching, however, is the decline in plate discipline he's displayed early on. His 8.2 percent walk rate is the lowest mark of his career, while his 26.1 percent strikeout rate is his highest.