MLB Player News

Stassi is not in the starting lineup Friday against the Diamondbacks.

Stassi will get a chance to rest his legs after starting the previous three games behind the plate. Kurt Suzuki will catch Shohei Ohtani and bat seventh Friday.

Contreras went 1-for-3 with a walk, a solo home run and a second run scored in Friday's win over the Cardinals.

Contreras hit his 11th home run of the season in the eighth inning, giving the Cubs their final run of the day in the 8-5 victory. The catcher is third on the team in long balls, trailing Javier Baez (14 home runs) and Kris Bryant (13). Contreras is one of the best-hitting backstops in the game and should remain a strong fantasy asset.

Murphy is not in the starting lineup for Friday's game against Kansas City, Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Murphy will get a rest after starting the past four games behind the plate. Aramis Garcia will start at catcher and bat ninth Friday.

Stallings will sit Friday against the Brewers, Jake Crouse of MLB.com reports.

Stallings sits for the third time in five games. He's hit just .163/.200/.233 over his last 12 contests. Michael Perez will start behind the plate in his absence.

Grandal is not in the starting lineup Friday against the Tigers.

Grandal will get a rest after starting behind the dish for all three games of the previous series against the Blue Jays. Zack Collins will catch Lucas Giolito and bat eighth Friday.

Barnhart is not in the lineup Friday against the Rockies.

Barnhart is 3-for-20 through six games in June and will take a seat Friday with southpaw Kyle Freeland starting for Colorado. Tyler Stephenson will start behind the plate and bat cleanup.

Grullon was designated for assignment by the Rays on Friday, Neil Solondz of the Rays Radio Network reports.

Grullon is evidently seen as good enough to be worth picking up but not good enough to be worth keeping around. He's been designated for assignment five times since the end of last season, moving from the Red Sox to the Reds in December, then on to the Rays for a brief period in April before moving to the Mets and back to the Rays. It remains to be seen whether or not he'll be claimed off waivers yet again this time around, as none of the teams who've claimed him this year have liked him enough to call him up to the active roster. The move clears a 40-man roster spot for Matt Wisler, who was picked up in a trade with the Giants in a corresponding move.

Grandal went 1-for-3 with a two-run home run and a walk in Thursday's win over the Blue Jays.

Grandal launched his 10th homer of the season in the bottom of the first inning, but he was largely ineffectual the rest of the way. The star catcher has hit safely in five of the White Sox's last seven games and could be close to turning things around, but his miserable BABIP translates to a meager .160 average. Grandal has produced across the board excluding the low batting average, though, as evidenced by an .829 OPS that ranks sixth in baseball among catchers with at least 40 games played.

Vazquez went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored in Thursday's 12-8 win over Houston.

Vazquez had a pair of RBI singles, and he was also hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run. Thursday was the catcher's fifth three-hit game of the season. The 30-year-old is slashing .259/.300/.360 with three home runs, 27 RBI, 25 runs scored and five stolen bases across 203 plate appearances.

Rogers went 2-for-4 with a home run, a triple, two RBI and two runs scored Thursday against the Mariners.

Rogers took Justus Sheffield yard in the second inning. It was his second homer in as many games and third of the season. Five frames later, he tripled in his second RBI of the game. Rogers should continue to get periodic playing time so long as Grayson Greiner (hamstring) and Wilson Ramos (back) remain sidelined.