MLB Player News

Casas (undisclosed) rejoined the Red Sox for workouts Tuesday, Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic reports.

Casas had been away for the team for about a week due to an undisclosed non-baseball medical issue, but he's apparently made a return to full health while also clearing all COVID-19 intake testing. The 21-year-old third baseman is expected to ramp up his activity gradually over the next few days before potentially getting the chance to play in a Grapefruit League game for Boston.

Votto is 4-for-9 with a walk to begin the season and has taken a different approach to spring training at-bats this season to help counter recent slow starts in previous seasons, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reports. "Yeah, he looks different," manager David Bell said on Monday. "I know that he's intentionally made some changes, and I think it's showing up."

Votto in previous years would sometimes not swing at all in his first couple of spring training at-bats, but that hasn't been the case this spring. Votto is still going after pick 300 and after the 30th first baseman in most drafts. He's not a bad option to fill your last corner or utility spot as a potential source of profit.

Olson, who went 2-for-3 with a two-run home run and an additional run in Sunday's Cactus League win over Cleveland, is now hitting .500 with three homers and eight RBI overall across four spring games.

Olson also has a two-bagger on his spring resume and has encouragingly struck out only twice, as the extensive work he put in on his hitting during the offseason is clearly paying early dividends. There's no concerns about the 26-year-old's prodigious power stroke, but a reduction in last season's career-worst 31.4 percent strikeout rate will be key to Olson's chances of significantly boosting last year's abysmal .195 average.

The Low-A St. Lucie Mets announced Monday that Joseph has been named the team's hitting coach, signaling the end of his playing career.

Joseph's transition into coaching will mark the end of a 12-year professional career that began in 2009, when he was a second-round selection of the Giants. He ended up spending two seasons in the big leagues with Philadelphia, slashing .247/.297/.460 with 43 home runs in 880 plate appearances. In addition to his stints in the Giants and Phillies organizations, the 29-year-old also saw minor-league action with the Rangers and Red Sox.

Lowe started at first base and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in Sunday's spring game against the Dodgers.

Lowe is the presumed starter at first base after the Rangers acquired him from Tampa Bay during the offseason, but he's fallen behind Ronald Guzman in terms of spring production. Lowe is 1-for-9 (hitless in last eight ABs) with five strikeouts, while Guzman is 4-for-7 with two home runs, two RBI and two walks. Kennedi Landry of MLB.com has gone as far as projecting Guzman as the Opening Day starter at first base.

Cabrera started at third base and went 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored in Sunday's spring game against the Cubs.

Cabrera has appeared in four spring games, starting at third base three times and second base once. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo projected a role against left-handers for the veteran infielder, most likely at third base. He's 1-for-9 with a run scored and an RBI thus far in Cactus League play.

Clemens is a candidate to begin his season at Triple-A Toledo and could also spend time at the Tigers' reinstated alternate training site, Jason Beck of MLB.com reports.

Clemens spent just 13 games at Double-A Erie back in 2019, but the team has reportedly been impressed with his work the last two spring trainings, so he could make the jump to Toledo. The organization will also get the chance to send players to an alternate training site early in the season, as the start of the Triple-A season was recently bumped back from April to May. Clemens could find himself in that group and has a shot to emerge as an in-season callup for the Tigers.

Diaz is 1-for-5 with a walk and two RBI across his first three Grapefruit League games.

Diaz reported to spring camp a bit lighter than last season with a goal of improving his agility in the field, but he's still packing plenty of muscle and hoping to significantly improve on his average of one home run per 69 plate appearances in 2020. In contrast, Diaz averaged one round tripper per 24.8 plate appearances in 2019 while slugging a career-high 14 homers; a similar ratio of power production in 2021 would certainly go a long way toward boosting the overall potency of a Rays squad that was in the middle of the pack with just 80 home runs across 60 games a year ago.

Casas (undisclosed) is going through intake screening to return to the Red Sox's spring facility, Chris Cotillo of The Springfield Republican reports.

The 21-year-old was in Boston earlier this week being evaluated for a non-baseball medical issue, but he apparently checked out fine and is in the process of rejoining big-league camp. Casas was at the alternate training site last season and spent most of 2019 at the Low-A level, where he had a .254/.349/.474 slash line with 19 home runs in 118 games.

Bour signed a minor-league contract with the Giants on Friday, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reports.

The 32-year-old spent the 2020 campaign in Japan with the Hanshin Tigers and had a .245/.344/.424 slash line with 17 homers in 102 games. Even with starting first baseman Brandon Belt (heel) limited to open camp, Bour won't be invited to major-league spring training and will report to minor-league camp April 1, Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com reports.