MLB Player News

The Athletics reassigned Alvarez to minor-league camp Sunday.

Despite making an impression with his bat, Alvarez remained a longshot to break camp with the Athletics. The infielder has been a career minor leaguer but has had several impressive Triple-A stints going back to 2019. Despite this, he has yet to log an at-bat in the majors.

LeMahieu fouled a ball off his left foot during Saturday's Grapefruit League game against Toronto and received X-rays that came back clean after the contest, Max Goodman of The Newark Star-Ledger reports.

Per manager Aaron Boone, LeMahieu will get treatment on the injured foot in Tampa on Sunday. While X-rays Saturday came back negative, it's uncertain if the issue will result in LeMahieu missing any time at the start of the regular season. If that were to be the case, Oswaldo Cabrera could be called upon to step into the starting lineup at third base.

Toro, who's been impressing in his bid for an Opening Day roster spot in Cactus League play, could be impacted by Friday's signing of J.D. Davis, Manny Randhawa and Martin Gallegos of MLB.com report.

Toro has posted a .367 batting average and .924 OPS across 35 plate appearances. The 27-year-old last saw extended regular-season playing time in 2022 for Seattle and produced a .185 average and .563 OPS alongside 24 extra-base hits and 35 RBI across 109 games. Toro could still hang on to an Opening Day spot thanks to his ability to also play first base and second base in addition to third, but Davis is projected to log the majority of starts at the hot corner to open the season.

Davis signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract with the Athletics on Friday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.

The Matt Chapman signing squeezed Davis out of San Francisco, but he will remain in the Bay Area. With a .760 OPS across the past three seasons, Davis instantly becomes one of the best bats in Oakland's lineup and is sure to see regular action at third base. However, the Athletics don't project to be competitive in 2024, so the 30-year-old could be flipped to a contender at the trade deadline in order to add to the team's pool of minor-league prospects.

Escobar went 1-for-2 with a three-run home run in Wednesday's Grapefruit League game against the Pirates.

The 35-year-old switch-hitter is trying to win a spot on Toronto's bench, and Wednesday's long ball in the seventh inning off Carmen Mlodzinski can only help his case. Escobar also struck out in his other at-bat, and through 11 spring appearances he's batting just .103 (3-for-29) with a brutal 1:12 BB:K. He may be running out of time to prove he can still make a contribution on a big-league roster.

The Tigers optioned Kennedy to Triple-A Toledo on Thursday, Jason Beck of MLB.com reports.

Kennedy was claimed off waivers in late February and wasn't able to push for an Opening Day roster spot. The infielder will likely bounce between second and third base while at Toledo.

The Guardians optioned Noel to Triple-A Columbus on Tuesday, Mandy Bell of MLB.com reports.

Noel went 5-for-22 with a 10:0 K:BB over nine Cactus League showings. The 22-year-old has some of the best raw power in the organization but needs to tamp down the strikeouts.

Gelof went 3-for-3 with an RBI single, a solo home run and an additional run in a Cactus League win over the Diamondbacks on Monday.

Gelof's 417-foot shot to left in the third inning opened the scoring and was his third round tripper of spring. The promising second baseman now has three multi-hit efforts during Cactus League play as well, and he's hitting .387 with a trio of doubles, six RBI, three walks and 11 runs across 11 exhibitions.

Mead may have a clearer path to the Opening Day roster due to the injury to Jonny DeLuca (hand), Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Mead may have been blocked from a roster spot with everyone healthy, but with DeLuca likely to be sidelined for the early portions of the regular season, Amed Rosario could see more time in the outfield. That shift would open a spot for a right-handed bench bat along the infield, with Mead fitting the bill. He made a very brief big-league debut in 2023, posting a .253/.326/.349 line across 92 plate appearances.

Diaz, who received a demotion to Triple-A Las Vegas on Sunday after a very slow start to spring, may need to improve his conditioning in order to earn a call back up to the big-league club, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com reports.

Diaz started 37 games at third base last season, but that didn't earn him enough capital to offset an .083 average across 10 Cactus League games to open spring training. The Athletics also have some viable contenders for the starting role at the hot corner, including Darell Hernaiz and Abraham Toro. As such, Diaz may have an uphill battle in the short term to log big-league at-bats, but getting into better condition will help his chances. "He's a kid that is working on certain things and understanding where he needs to be physically," manager Mark Kotsay said. "Getting to that place will help him not just this year, but for his future, too."