MLB Player News

Evans augments Atlanta’s infield depth in the upper minors heading into the 2024 campaign after spending this past season at Triple-A Reno in the Diamondbacks’ system, batting .312/.424/.439 with 11 homers and two steals across 590 plate appearances. The 31-year-old utility infielder has gotten into 121 games at the big league level since 2017, but hasn’t appeared in the majors since the 2021 season.

Brown bounced back nicely from last weekend’s defeat, when he gave up six runs to the Twins to snap his quality-start streak at eight. He’ll take a 4.39 ERA into the break, but that’s mostly a product of a bad April; he has a 2.36 ERA since May 22.

Hader has pitched hitless innings his last three times out, which is a nice change after he gave up four homers in his previous six outings. He’s been far short of perfect this year, but even though he’s allowed eight homers, he is 18-for-19 in save chances.

The two long flies Heaney allowed would have been homers in 19 and 16 ballparks, respectively. Alas, they were both homers in Houston, while only one would have been a homer in Arlington. Heaney fell to 3-10 in spite of his solid 3.79 ERA. He’ll probably log some bullpen time in the second half, if only because the Rangers figure to get Tyler Mahle and Jacob deGrom back from Tommy John at some point.

It’s been funny listening to Rangers writers endorse Josh Smith for an All-Star nod when one of the game’s best players, a guy who finished second in the AL MVP balloting and won World Series MVP last year, didn’t get a nod. But, hey, there’s a case that Smith had a better run than Seager for two months. Some people just happen to be into that kind of thing.

Ryan battled some command issues with three walks while allowing five hits and throwing 62-of-98 pitches for strikes. He did strike out six, but those punchouts only go so far when you give up a five-spot to a mediocre San Francisco lineup. It’s a downer ending to the first half for Ryan, who now has a 3.53 ERA, 6-6 record and 124/19 K/BB over 19 starts.

Harrison’s run came when he was out of the game on a fielder’s choice that scored Carlos Correa off the bat of Willi Castro. The 22-year-old southpaw issued only one walk while striking out three in his final start before the All-Star break. Harrison has had some ups and downs in his first full year of MLB action, but a 4.08 ERA and 73/27 K/BB over 86 innings illustrate there’s reason for optimism in both the short and long-term.

Raleigh also singled and drew an intentional walk. The homer was a two-run blast to give Seattle a 4-2 lead, and it also gave the switch-hitting backstop his 20th homer; the first time a Mariner catcher has hit that many home runs before the All-Star break. Raleigh was not a consistent threat in May or June, but he’s been spectacular in July and should be a strong fantasy option for the remainder of 2024.

The man they call J-Rod smashed an opposite-field homer with Mitch Garver on off Tyler Anderson to give Seattle a 2-0 lead and Rodríguez his 10th homer of the campaign. He also singled twice. Fantasy managers are far too familiar with how streaky the 23-year-old has been over his career, but one of those hot runs appears to be happening just before the break.

Calhoun tied the game at 2-2 in the first inning with a long blast off Bryan Woo. He came up in the 10th with the Angels trailing 5-4, and he obliterated an Austin Voth offering to give Los Angeles the win and Calhoun his fourth homer of the year.

Anderson gave up all four runs on homers. The first was a two-run bomb from Julio Rodriguez in the first inning, the second to the red-hot Cal Raleigh in the third. The southpaw didn’t issue a walk and struck out four against his former team, but did see his ERA jump a smidgen to 2.97. Anderson will next get a chance to pitch in the All-Star game Tuesday.