MLB Player News

Barnhart is out of the lineup Sunday against the Cardinals.

Barnhart returned to the lineup from a hand injury to start the first two games of the series, but he'll take a seat in favor of Ramon Cabrera behind the plate in Sunday's finale.

Maile is out of the lineup Sunday against the Blue Jays, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

Maile and Bobby Wilson have been in a fairly even timeshare over the last few weeks, which has mostly limited the utility of both backstops to AL-only formats. After initially struggling to provide much offense when he was called up to the big leagues in July, Maile has heated up of late. In his last 41 plate appearances, Maile has produced a .368/.385/.684 slash line to go with three homers, nine RBI and eight runs.

Vazquez will be called up to Boston prior to Sunday's series finale against the Athletics, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports.

Adding Vazquez to the roster will give Boston four catchers for the final month of the season as they fight with Toronto and Baltimore for supremacy in the AL East.

Contreras went 2-for-4 with a double in Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Giants.

After sitting out the previous two games in favor of veteran David Ross, Contreras was productive upon his return. The 24-year-old has a four-game hitting streak and has hit safely in six of his last seven overall. He's put together a solid rookie season as part of a platoon, slashing .274/.349/.466 over 208 at-bats.

Maile blasted his second homer over the last three games in Friday's 8-3 victory over the Blue Jays, a solo shot off Francisco Liriano in the seventh inning.

The 25-year-old continues to generate some encouraging production out of the bottom of the order and has now hit safely in the last five games in which he's registered an at-bat. He's also blasted a pair of doubles and driven in four runs over that span, bringing his season line to .256./.291/.427. Maile second-half audition this season could lead to an expanded role in 2017 if he keeps up his current pace.

Realmuto went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer and a strikeout Friday against the Indians. It was his second consecutive three-hit performance.

While Realmuto's power numbers are significantly down from the first half of the season (just three homers and nine RBI for the month of August), he is still batting .291 since the All-Star break and has now gone 8-for-12 over the past three games.

Barnes was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday.

The 26-year-old has posted excellent numbers in the Pacific Coast League in recent seasons, but he has struggled in the big leagues in a small sample (63 plate appearances). He has an excellent approach, and what seems to be an above average hit tool, although that has yet to manifest itself against big league pitching. Primarily a catcher, Barnes also plays second base, third base and the outfield corners, so he will occupy a minor utility role for the Dodgers down the stretch.

Murphy was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque on Friday, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reports.

Murphy kicked the door in at Albuquerque, slashing .327/.361/.647 with 19 homers in just 80 games (322 plate appearances). The 25-year-old does come with some injury concerns, having dealt with shoulder issues and more recently an oblique strain, but he will continue to play in a favorable hitting environment and could end up wrestling away a sizable chunk of the workload from Nick Hundley.

D'Arnaud is out of the lineup Friday against the Nationals.

D'Arnaud has started two consecutive games behind the dish, so he'll get the night off. He'll give way to Rene Rivera at catcher, who will hit ninth against A.J. Cole.

Plawecki was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas on Thursday.

At one point a couple years ago, Plawecki was seen as a quality catching prospect with an above average hit tool. Now, after 401 big league plate appearances, he sports just a .210/.288/.283 slash line with four home runs. The Mets have obviously soured on him, but his standing on the 40-man roster made him an obvious September call-up candidate to provide catching depth down the stretch.