MLB Player News

Altuve went 1-for-3 with a walk and a solo home run in Wednesday's 5-2 win over the Angels.

Altuve went 101 at-bats into 2018 without hitting a homer, but finally got off the schneid with a sixth-inning no-doubter over the left field wall. It was just the fifth extra-base hit of the season for Altuve, who is slugging .374, well off the .547 career-high mark he set in 2017.

Biggio homered in his third straight game Monday for Double-A New Hampshire and is now hitting .313/.414/.708 with four home runs and two steals in 48 at-bats.

The son of Craig Biggio often gets overshadowed by his teammates, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, who are also sons of former big-league mashers. However, it has been the old man for the Fisher Cats (relatively) who has been turning heads of late. He lacks the type of upside and track record that Guerrero and Bichette boast, but is a legitimate prospect in his own right.

Semien went 2-for-6 with a solo home run and two runs in a win over the Rangers on Monday.

Semien has three straight two-hit efforts and has accomplished the feat in four of the last five games overall. The 27-year-old also has a pair of round trippers in the last three games -- with Monday's blast snapping a 3-3 tie in the ninth -- and he's now compiled 10 of his 13 RBI for the season over the last 14 contests.

Altuve went 2-for-4 in Monday's 2-0 loss to the Angels, extending his hitting streak to seven games.

Altuve has gone hitless in just three of 24 games to start the season and is second to Oakland's Jed Lowrie with 33 hits. This is very typical of Altuve, who has hit streaks of eight, six and seven games already. We're still waiting on the power and speed aspects of his game -- Altuve hasn't homered yet and has just one stolen base.

Fontana was placed on the minor-league disabled list with an undisclosed injury, Jeff Miller of the Los Angeles Times reports.

Fontana was up with the Angels for a brief period early in the season but just made two pinch-hit appearances. He was 2-for-23 with nine walks for Triple-A Salt Lake before heading to the disabled list.

Drury (impaired vision) will begin a minor-league rehab assignment Wednesday, Pete Caldera of The Bergen Record reports.

Erik Boland of Newsday reports that the third baseman's vision issue was due to a problem with a tendon in his neck. Drury is feeling better after getting stimuli treatment and should hopefully get back into game action without issue Wednesday.

Semien went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs in a win over the Red Sox on Sunday.

Semien wielded a hot bat over the weekend, going 4-for-7 with Sunday's double, a home run, an RBI, a walk and five runs. The 27-year-old has been a constant presence on the basepaths in April, posting five multi-hit efforts and reaching safely in 18 of 19 games during the month.

Merrifield went 1-for-5 with a home run in Sunday's 8-5 victory over the Tigers.

After a quiet start to the season, Merrifield has hit three home runs over the last five games. In that time, he's gathered five of his seven RBI for the year and scored four runs. Although Merrifield seems to be finding his power, his .266 batting average has room to climb after finishing at .288 in 2017.

Torres went 0-for-4 with a strikeout during Sunday's 5-1 victory over the Blue Jays.

Although Torres' first game with the Yankees was subpar, the highly regarded prospect will have plenty of chances to improve as he's in line to serve as the team's everyday second baseman. Prior to being called up, Torres had hit .347 with a .903 OPS over 14 games at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that the team's "general" plan is to use Torres as its everyday second baseman, Erik Boland of Newsday reports.

Torres is a natural shortstop, but with Didi Gregorius proving to be both an offensive and defensive standout at that position, the 21-year-old will instead have to pick up reps at the keystone. Since he has already seen plenty of action at both second and third base in spring training and the minors, Torres doesn't enter the big leagues with many defensive concerns, which should help his case for sticking in a full-time role even if his bat doesn't play as well as expected in his first exposure to the majors. Given his seemingly stable playing time, long track record of strong on-base percentages and contact rates in the minors and presence in a powerful Yankees lineup, Torres is worth an immediate speculative pickup in most fantasy formats.