MLB Player News

Morrison signed a minor league contract with the Reds last summer after spending a few games with the High Point Rockers, but never made it back to the majors. The 34-year-old journeyman slugger last appeared in the big leagues during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign when he got into nine games for the Brewers.

Mauricio is sizzling-hot at the dish right now, going deep in back-to-back games, and reaching base safely in all four of his plate appearances during Wednesday’s contest. His latest round-tripper left that bat at 110.2 mph, per Statcast. The 24-year-old former top prospect, who wrapped up a rehab assignment last week, is hitting .636 with two homers and two steals in three games at the Triple-A level. He figures to be an option for New York in a multi-position utility role at some point in the second half. He’ll force their hand sooner than that if he keeps tearing the cover off the ball.

Tucker homered in the first and singled on the other run-scoring play in the eighth. However, the run then was a result of an error, as Matt Shaw, who might have scored regardless, stopped at third on the hit to left, which wound up getting by Kyle Stowers. Tucker has back-to-back three-hit days after going 23 games without one, and he’s back up to .278/.387/.552 for the season.

The run scored on three singles in the first. Third baseman Matt Shaw made a nice grab on the third one and could have ended the inning with a good throw to first, but he threw wide of the bag. Horton went on to exit with the score 1-1 in the sixth. He finished the day with three strikeouts, which was an oddly low total given that he had 16 whiffs on 46 swings. However, he picked up just eight called strikes. He’s 2-0 with a 4.40 ERA after three starts, and he rates as a fine play in mixed leagues next week with a home start against the Rockies.

Even though Palencia blew his first save chance with Porter Hodge down Monday, he was given another try today and converted it by retiring Connor Norby, Liam Hicks and Graham Pauley on three flyouts, all hit between 355 and 363 feet. Brad Keller got five outs in the seventh and eighth and was credited with his first win. Ryan Pressly, who earned holds on both Sunday and Monday, wasn’t used in this one. It looks like Palencia is the guy in the Cubs pen for now, with Keller probably getting the eighth. Go ahead and pick Palencia up where he’s available.

Meyer gave up a first-inning homer to Kyle Tucker and then put up zeroes the rest of the afternoon. Still, the score was 1-1 when he left. It’s his sixth quality start in 10 tries this season, yet he has only three victories. He’ll make his next start in San Diego next week.

Bender walked Matt Shaw to start the eighth in a tie game and then watched him steal second base. With one out, Kyle Tucker hit a single to left. Shaw was stopping at third, but Kyle Stowers mishandled the ball and Shaw came around to score. Bender then struck out Seiya Suzuki and Pete Crow-Armstrong to ensure that the run would be unearned. With Jesús Tinoco and Calvin Faucher turning in hideous outings this week, we’d say Bender is the current favorite for saves in Miami, even though he obviously wasn’t being held back for a ninth-inning lead today. No one in this group seems worth rostering in shallow leagues right now.

Time is probably running out for Mervis, who is 4-for-35 with no homers and 16 strikeouts this month. He does have an option year left, so sending him down is no issue, and the Marlins could give Troy Johnston a look in his place.

Scott has opted to pursue his alternatives on the open market instead of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Sugar Land. The 32-year-old compiled a pedestrian 5.40 ERA across 16 2/3 innings (17 appearances) this season for the Astros. He should be able to latch on somewhere else as organizational relief depth.

Crawford is getting close to starting a minor league rehab assignment after hitting the injured list at the conclusion of spring training to continue his recovery from last year’s knee injury. The 29-year-old righty figures to rejoin Boston’s rotation at some point in late June.

If that goes well, Crawford will likely head to Triple-A to begin a rehab assignment, which is the exact plan that fellow starting pitcher Richard Fitts (pectoral) is on. Crawford has not pitched in a game since last season and was even contemplating surgery earlier in the year, so his ramp-up process will be longer than Fitts’. We wouldn’t expect Crawford to be a realistic option for the Red Sox rotation or bullpen until early July.