MLB Player News

Story is in the lineup for Monday's game against the Pirates, MLB.com's Thomas Harding reports.

Story was set to receive his first day off of the month Sunday, but the game was rained out, and the Rockies decided the impromptu team day off was enough rest. As he regularly does, Story will start at shortstop and hit second Monday afternoon.

Story is not in the lineup for Sunday's game against the Pirates, according to MLB.com's Thomas Harding.

He's hitting .313 this month and tallied five hits over his last three games, but manager Walt Weiss decided it was time to give Story his first day off since April 26. Cristhian Adames will get the start at shortstop in Story's place.

Story went 2-for-4 with a run scored in Saturday's 5-1 victory over the Pirates.

The rookie shortstop continues rolling along, managing his eighth multi-hit game of May. He's tallied a stellar .313/.360/.500 line over 80 at-bats during the month, with the only blemish being that he's seen a steep drop-off in his power numbers. After blasting 10 homers in what was a memorable first month in the majors, Story has only a pair of long balls to date in May. However, the increase in OBP has certainly helped offset that, and has raised Story's average 24 points to .285.

d'Arnaud went 3-for-5 with a double in Saturday's 2-0 victory over the Phillies.

The 29-year-old led off and posted his second consecutive multi-hit game, and third in the last five. He's slashed an outstanding .394/.459/.576 to date in 33 major league at-bats, though he's yet to provide a homer or RBI. However, he's certainly shown a propensity for getting on base so far, which is affording him a nice dose of playing time.

Ahmed is not in the lineup for Friday's game against the Cardinals.

As good as Ahmed is defensively, he's been so bad offensively that it's negated his impact with the glove. The 26-year-old is now batting .188/.247/.297 on the season following an 0-for-3 showing Wednesday. Chris Owings will replace him at shortstop for Friday's game.

Crawford went 2-for-4 with his sixth home run of the season in Thursday's 3-1 win over the Padres.

Crawford appears to be heating up again with his second homer over his last three games. He can be a very streaky hitter, but he is currently on pace to repeat his excellent 2016 power numbers. His .257/.325/.444 slash line is nearly identical to his 2015 results (.256/.321/.462) which had him finishing as a top-three shortstop. Unlike last year, he is only a fringe top-10 shortstop due to the emergence of new talent at the position (Trevor Story, Aledmys Diaz and Eugenio Suarez to name a few).

The Phillies promoted Crawford to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Friday.

Crawford will get his first taste of Triple-A action after posting a .265/.398/.390 slash line with three home runs, eight doubles, and 13 RBI over 36 games with Double-A Reading. While he did not hit for much power, he posted an impressive on-base percentage, and backed that up with a 30:21 K:BB ratio. Crawford is the Phillies' best prospect and could see action with the big club before this season comes to an end.

Story went 3-for-5 with a two-run double and a solo homer in Thursday's 13-7 loss to St. Louis.

Anyone waiting for Story's "inevitable" drop-off should take a hard look at his .287 average and all those counting stats, then maybe reevaluate that pessimistic point of view. He's actually slugged eight of his 12 homers away from Coors Field, and that's got to be a scary prospect for the rest of the National League. The combination of his sky-high strikeout rate (yes, he did rack up another whiff again Thursday, his 58th this season) and similarly sky-high BABIP (.368) certainly does seem to foreshadow a fall-off in batting average, but then again, Story was always a high-strikeout, high-BABIP guy in the minors too. Former starting shortstop Jose Reyes may be returning from his suspension in the next couple weeks, but there's no doubt that (barring injury, of course) Story has displaced him for good.

Tejada has a .160/.179/.240 line since returning from a quadricep injury that had him benched until April 19.

Tejada hasn't found much rhythm since returning from injury last month, nor has he had many opportunities to do so. His appearances have primarily been as a pinch hitter, rather than starting in the middle infield. With Aledmys Diaz having a strong rookie season, hitting .376 with 14 doubles and six home runs, it's unlikely that Tejada will seeing more of the field anytime soon.

Diaz is batting second in Thursday's lineup against the Rockies.

Diaz hasn't missed a beat since making his major league debut this season, holding a .376/.403/.648 slash line with six home runs and 20 RBI, and it seems the Cardinals decided to reward him with a move up in the batting order. The shortstop's already-high value is boosted by this move, as he'll now be in line for more run-scoring opportunities hitting in front of Matt Holliday and Stephen Piscotty.