MLB Player News

Grandal (back) remains on the bench Wednesday against Detroit.

It's no surprise to see Grandal continue to sit, as manager Rick Renteria indicated Tuesday the he hoped the catcher would return from his lower-back stiffness by the end of the week, seemingly ruling out a return within the next day or two. Zack Collins will catch debutant Dane Dunning on Wednesday.

Higashioka (oblique) has been ramping up his activity, but the timeline for his return to action remains uncertain, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reports.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone gave an update on Higashioka on Tuesday, indicating, "He's not going to be coming off anytime real soon here, but it is going well and he continues to ramp up from a from a workload standpoint. But nothing imminent right now." The backstop was placed on the 10-day injured list Aug. 8 after being diagnosed with a right oblique strain. In his absence, Eric Kratz has gotten into three games (two starts), going 1-for-5 with a walk and a run.

D'Arnaud is not starting Wednesday against the Nationals.

D'Arnaud is slashing .321/.350/.571 with three home runs and 14 RBI this season but will head to the bench for Wednesday's series finale following consecutive starts. Tyler Flowers is starting behind the dish in place of d'Arnaud in this one.

Ruiz stated Tuesday that he reported late to summer camp due to a positive test result for COVID-19, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reports.

Ruiz explained that he experienced a three-day fever, weight loss and other symptoms due to the illness. The backstop has since recovered and, after spending time at the team's alternate training site, was summoned to the big club Saturday to fill in for the injured Will Smith (neck). He homered in his first big-league at-bat Sunday.

Perez went 2-for-3 with an RBI single and a run in a win over the Yankees on Tuesday.

The young catcher drew his fifth start over the last eight days and broke out of the 0-for-9 skid that had encompassed his prior three games in the process. Perez's first-inning single got the Rays' quest for a victory over the Yankees off on a strong note, as it plated Kevin Kiermaier with the first run of the game. Perez is only slashing .200/.250/.200 across his first 28 plate appearances; however, he now has five RBI on five hits and has been more productive overall with the bat than fellow backstop Mike Zunino (.091/.200/.250), whose playing time he's putting an increasingly larger dent in.

Perez (blurred vision) is not in Wednesday's lineup against the Reds.

He was removed from Monday's game after struggling to see the ball at the plate and was held out Sunday for the same issue. It is unclear if he will be available for the second game of Wednesday's doubleheader. The Royals have an off day Thursday, so if this is a minor issue, we could see him back in the lineup this weekend against the Twins. Cam Gallagher gets the start behind the dish, hitting ninth.

The Marlins released Castillo on Tuesday.

Castillo signed with Miami earlier this month after the team placed backstops Jorge Alfaro (COVID-19) and Chad Wallach (undisclosed) on the injured list, but both have since resumed working out at the organization's alternate training site in Jupiter. With both players nearing returns and Francisco Cervelli and Ryan Lavarnway still ahead of him in the pecking order at catcher, Castillo was deemed expendable.

Vazquez (heel) is back in the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Phillies, catching and batting sixth, Christopher Smith of The Springfield Republican reports.

Vazquez left Monday's game against the Yankees with a sore heel and did not take part in Tuesday's contest, though the issue was never thought to be a major one. His return pushes Kevin Plawecki back to the bench.

McGuire will start at catcher and bat ninth Wednesday against the Orioles.

Though Danny Jansen is hitting .170 on the season, he remains locked in as the Blue Jays' top backstop and will head to the bench for just the sixth time to open up a start for McGuire. Since slugging a solo home run in his season debut July 25, McGuire has recorded one hit (a single) in 13 at-bats.

Jansen is out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Orioles.

Since Jansen started the previous three games behind the dish and the Blue Jays are wrapping up their series in Baltimore with an afternoon contest, he'll be getting some routine maintenance while Reese McGuire gets the nod at catcher. After opening the season with four hits in his first three games, Jansen has gone a collective 4-for-36 over his next 13 contests.