MLB Player News

Casali will start at catcher and bat seventh Sunday against the Dodgers, Kerry Crowley of The San Jose Mercury News reports.

Casali will get his third turn behind the plate in less than a week with Buster Posey getting Sunday off for maintenance purposes. For the season, Casali is slashing .107/.265/.125 across 68 plate appearances, so he likely won't be in store for an uptick in playing time while Posey remains healthy.

Gomes is not in the lineup Sunday against the Orioles, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports.

Gomes is 2-for-19 over his past five games and will take a seat for Sunday's series finale. Alex Avila will catch for Patrick Corbin and bat seventh.

Stephenson will start at first base and bat cleanup Sunday against the Brewers.

The 24-year-old is in the lineup for the fifth straight game, with two of his starts coming at catcher and three coming at first base. With all of Joey Votto (thumb), Mike Moustakas (heel) and Nick Senzel (knee) on the shelf, Stephenson looks like he'll have a fairly clear path to regular playing time in the short term until the Reds claim some health. Given that he's eligible at catcher and owns an .826 OPS over 109 career MLB plate appearances, Stephenson looks worthy of rostering in most formats while he's getting steady work.

Barnes went 1-for-3 with a home run, two RBI and a run scored in Saturday's 6-3 win over the Giants.

Barnes hit his first home run of the season off Jarlin Garcia in the fifth inning. The 31-year-old is slashing .227/.346/.318 in 79 plate appearances. He has 10 RBI and seven runs to along with his only home run. Barnes serves as the backup catcher behind Will Smith.

Perez went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in Saturday's 6-1 loss to Atlanta.

He took Bryce Wilson deep in the third inning to put the only blemish on the right-hander's line. Perez only has five hits in 51 at-bats on the season, but three of them (two homers and a double) have gone for extra bases.

Smith is not starting Saturday against the Giants, Eric Stephen of SBNation.com reports.

The Dodgers stated before the start of the season that Smith would start around 90 games, but he's been ahead of that pace so far. Even after sitting in favor of Austin Barnes on Saturday, he's on pace to start 102 contests. Given his .274/.371/.496 slash line, it would be a surprise to see his share of playing time decrease any time soon.

McCann will remain on the bench Saturday against the Marlins, Justin Toscano of The Bergen Record reports.

McCann appears to be losing his starting job to Tomas Nido, who's started in his place four times in the last five games. McCann's .200/.273/.240 season slash line doesn't exactly make the best case for him to earn regular at-bats.

Stallings is not starting Saturday's game against the Braves, Kevin Gorman of TribLive.com reports.

Stallings receives a much-needed day off after catching all 184 pitches of Friday's 20-1 disaster. He's had a solid run of late, hitting .297 with three homers and eight RBI in his last 11 games. Michael Perez fills in behind the dish Saturday.

Bart came out of Thursday's game for Triple-A Sacramento due to groin tightness, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports.

Bart was removed as a precaution. The 24-year-old backstop is hitting .351/.400/.676 with three home runs and a 30 percent strikeout rate in 11 games at Triple-A.

McCann is not in the lineup for Friday's game against the Marlins, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports.

McCann finds himself on the bench for the third time in four games. It's no surprise to see him starting to lose playing time given his poor .202/.269/.242 slash line. Tomas Nido will start behind the plate in his absence.