MLB Player News

Not great. Carter is currently shut down from all baseball activities after not feeling well enough to head out on a minor league rehab assignment coming out of the All-Star break. The 21-year-old former top prospect has been out since late May recovering from a stress reaction in his back. There should be an update on his status in the coming days, but there’s now a non-zero possibility he might not make it back this season.

Hendricks had an MRI on his elbow after taking a break from pitching. Cora said the team will wait to hear from the doctors, but it’s likely Hendricks will be shut down. The 35-year-old was working his way back from Tommy John surgery, but might have to wait until next year to complete the comeback.

Heyward’s homer accounted for the only runs in seven innings against Mitch Spence, but the Astros rallied for four runs in the eighth to prevail. Heyward is 3-for-21 with four RBI in 12 appearances since joining the Astros on Aug. 29.

Valdez, who had a 20-inning scoreless streak going, was pulled from a 2-1 game right after the lone run in the seventh. The A’s came back to tie the game in the eighth, leaving Valdez with a no-decision for his effort. Valdez isn’t going to win the AL Cy Young Award this year, but he should place on ballots once again. He’s 14-6 with a 2.91 ERA.

Spence remained 0-3 in his last eight starts, even though he’s posted a solid 4.01 ERA during that stretch. In 18 starts since the beginning of June, he’s picked up just three wins, all of them coming against the Angels. Unfortunately, there are no more games versus those Angels on Oakland’s schedule. Spence will likely face the Cubs in his next outing.

No runs batted in for Diaz today, as Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez combined to go 0-for-9 in front of him. Diaz has eight hits in his last four games.

It’s the eighth time in the last nine games that he’s had exactly one hit. Butler is the first A’s player to hit in 20 straight since Eric Byrnes made it 22 games in a row in 2003.

Altuve suffered an oblique injury before leaving Wednesday’s game. Espada said, “Things look OK. Nothing I can tell you I’m worried about.” Altuve seems to have avoided a serious injury. He’s still day-to-day.

Skubal was hit on his glove hand by a liner during the game against the Rockies, but he stayed in and finished the inning. More tests are expected, but Skubal believes he’ll be just fine.

The move makes room for Brett de Geus on the 40-man. Rodríguez had a 15.43 ERA in four appearances for the Jays this season. He had been pitching in Triple-A for the last month.

Winn had as many hits as he did while going 2-for-29 in his previous seven games. In spite of the occasional slump, the Cardinals haven’t wavered on Winn as a leadoff man since moving him to that spot in May. He’s hitting an unexceptional .251/.295/.394 in that role, but he has scored 57 runs in 88 games.