MLB Player News

Hedges finished off an amazing first half with Triple-A El Paso, going 3-5 with a double, two home runs and 8 RBI.

Hedges continues to tear up Triple-A, still awaiting a call back up to San Diego. With Derek Norris a potential option to be traded as the deadline nears, that time could come very soon. Even if Norris isn't traded, Hedges has shown that he has nothing left to prove at Triple-A. He ends the first half with 16 home runs and 53 RBI in only 141 at-bats.

Realmuto went 2-for-3 with a walk and scored three times in Saturday's victory over the Reds.

The young catcher continues to play the part of leadoff man, batting .319/.350/.430 over 279 at-bats this season. He's scored 33 runs, smacked five home runs and driven home 25 RBI on the year while also chipping in seven steals.

Perez will be held out of the lineup for Sunday's tilt with Seattle, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com reports.

Perez will get the day off as Drew Butera makes a start behind the plate and bats ninth. Perez, who's made six consecutive starts coming into Sunday, is 5-for-10 with two homers, five runs and four RBI over the last three games.

Perez went 1-for-3 with a solo homer, a walk and two runs in Saturday's 5-3 victory over the Mariners.

The veteran backstop went deep off reliever Vidal Nuno in the seventh to make it two games in a row with a homer. After a 1-for-19 start to July over his first five games, Perez has gone 5-for-10 over his first three contests versus Seattle, with two homers, four RBI, a pair of walks and five runs scored.

Rupp is not in the lineup for Saturday's game against the Rockies, Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Since stringing together a 10-game hitting streak, which boosted his average to .289, Rupp is 0-for-10. He will turn catching duties over to Carlos Ruiz on Saturday, but Rupp has carved out a large share of the workload with his performance in the first half. In fact, he's been a top-15 catcher so far for fantasy purposes.

Casali (head) is back in the lineup for Saturday's game against Boston, Bill Chastain of MLB.com reports.

Casali is back in the lineup after suffering a bruise during Wednesday's game against the Angels. He ended up missing two games as Hank Conger got the starts at catcher the past two days, but will return behind the plate for Saturday's matchup.

McCann is out of the lineup for Saturday's game against the Blue Jays.

McCann will get a regular day off after starting the past two games behind the plate. In his place, Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be in the catcher's position with Matt Boyd on the mound for Detroit.

Grandal went 5-for-5 with three home runs and Six RBI in Friday's win over the Padres.

Grandal went deep in the first and third innings, accounting for five of his RBI, and he capped off the scoring with a 430-foot bomb to center in the seventh. Grandal had shockingly only delivered one multi-hit game since late April, but Friday's game raised his disappointing average 21 points to .204. His power has picked up as well, as six of his last nine hits have left the yard.

Perez went 1-for-3 with a solo home run, a walk and an additional run scored in Friday's loss to Seattle.

Kansas City ultimately ended up dropping the game, but Perez offered a glimmer of hope when he took Steve Cishek deep in the ninth inning to bring his club within one. Perez broke out of a slump with a 3-for-4 performance Thursday, and Friday's follow-up indicates that he's beginning to get back in a groove, although it remains to be seen if the All-Star break will affect this development.

Perez was optioned to Triple-A after Friday's game, the Los Angeles Times' Pedro Moura reports

He had started roughly half the Angels' games over the past two weeks, collecting eight hits in his last 25 at-bats. Geovany Soto was activated from the DL as a corresponding move. Soto should share time behind the dish with Jett Bandy going forward while Perez serves as organizational depth.