MLB Player News

Mlodzinski has been out since the end of July with a right shoulder strain. He’ll be a mid-to-late inning option out of the bullpen, and returns to a 3.18 ERA and 29/13 K/Bb over 34 innings.

The 36-year-old has been attempting to jumpstart a return to MLB action by playing in Mexico this season, but he had told himself that if he didn’t make it back to the big leagues by the end of this season then it might be time. “I went to Mexico and I went to the minors for the first time in 10 years. I really gave myself the best opportunity. And I didn’t get the chance to make it back.” The burly first baseman will now sign a one-day contract with the Cardinals this week as a ceremonial agreement so he can retire with the team that drafted him with a 23rd-round pick in the 2009 MLB Draft. Adams spent a total of seven years with the Cardinals, batting .266 and slugging .449 in 513 games. He will retire with a career 4.9 WAR, .258 average, .769 OPS, 118 home runs, 297 runs scored, and 399 RBI in 856 games over 10 seasons.

It went off the same toe he fractured last month. Hunter Feduccia is expected to take his roster spot and serve as the Dodgers’ backup catcher for at least the next 10 days.

This was a tie game in the ninth before Mookie Betts, after an intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani, drove in the go-ahead run. After that, Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman and Muncy hit back-to-back-to-back homers to put the game away. The Dodgers almost had another homer earlier in the inning, but a Will Smith blast somehow stayed in after hitting the very top of the concrete in center, resulting in a triple. Muncy’s homer was his sixth in 80 plate appearances since returning from a strained oblique last month and 15th in 62 games overall.

Buehler generated mostly soft contact tonight, and the biggest exception, a 376-foot fly from Jarred Kelenic that would have been a homer in five ballparks, was a harmless flyout. It wasn’t enough to get Buehler his first win since May, but it was an encouraging showing from someone who is going to have to come up big for the injury-decimated Dodgers to have much of a shot in October.

Morton was hit or miss for most of the summer, but he has a 2.68 ERA in his last seven starts. He’ll be an excellent play in mixed leagues with the Marlins next on the schedule.

A truly stunning outing from a closer who hadn’t allowed an unearned run since June 16, which was when he took his only other loss in 59 appearances this season. Iglesias saw his ERA jump from 1.16 to 1.87 tonight.

Hernández hit for Gavin Lux in the seventh and fanned then. He did so twice more in a ninth inning in which the Dodgers totaled seven runs. Hernández is batting .215/.270/.345 in 360 plate appearances for the season. If the Dodgers had it to do over again, we wonder if they’d still make the same choice they did last month and keep him over Jason Heyward.

Payamps probably would have remained in for the eighth today after getting just one out to finish the seventh, but the soreness changed things. It’s unclear whether he’ll miss additional time.

Manager Pat Murphy said Williams, who worked Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, was available for part of an inning today, but not a whole one. We don’t see how that makes much sense — if there were real concerns about his usage, he should have simply been unavailable today — but we don’t make those decisions. As is, Williams got up in the bullpen twice, which hardly counts as a day off. We assume he’ll be available Monday, but we’ll see.

Will Smith was supposed to have this one off, but he entered as Barnes’ replacement. It’s the same toe that Barnes fractured last month, so he’s probably in quite a bit of pain at the moment.