MLB Player News

Pederson is out of the lineup Sunday against the Braves, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports.

Pederson had put together a nice stretch this week, starting six consecutive games in left field at one point. That's mostly due to lucky scheduling, however, as the Dodgers faced right-handed starters in each of those contests. He was relegated to the bench Saturday against lefty Max Fried, and with southpaw Sean Newcomb set to take the hill for the Braves in Sunday's series finale, Pederson will yet again be out of the starting lineup. Matt Kemp will move over to left field to cover for him, with Enrique Hernandez in center and Yasiel Puig in right.

Pederson was not in the starting lineup Saturday and went 0-for-1 off the bench in a win over the Braves.

Pederson was used off the bench with a left-handed starter on the mound, but he figures to be on the strong side of a platoon in center field with Enrique Hernandez now that Yasiel Puig (oblique) has returned from the disabled list. The young slugger is posting a career-best .265/.344/.531 slash line with 14 homers over 295 plate appearances, and he figures to maintain a semi-regular role in center with Puig and Matt Kemp occupying the corner outfield slots.

Martinez went 2-for-4 with a walk, a solo home run and a second run scored in Saturday's 10-4 win over the Twins.

Martinez took Jake Odorizzi deep in the fifth inning for his seventh homer in July and big-league-leading 32nd of the season. As many people anticipated, the 30-year-old slugger is enjoying a huge campaign in Boston, and Martinez now boasts a .324/.387/.642 slash line to go along with his power output.

Reyes is expected to be optioned to Triple-A El Paso prior to Sunday's game against the Diamondbacks, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com reports.

He's received just 12 at-bats since he was recalled from Triple-A on July 10, so this move certainly makes sense. Reyes has shown significant power potential this season but doesn't appear to be in the team's immediate plans.

Ozuna went 3-for-4 with a grand slam in Saturday's game against the Cubs.

He tagged Jose Quintana for the grand slam in the first inning but was unable to score or drive anyone in via his other two hits. Ozuna hit just .176 in his first 85 at-bats of the month but now has five hits over his last two games.

McCutchen is leading off Saturday against the Brewers, Kerry Crowley of The San Jose Mercury News reports.

Rookie Steven Duggar had been leading off for the Giants, but now McCutchen will get his shot against righty Jhoulys Chacin. McCutchen has a career .277/.357/.469 slash line as a leadoff hitter, but a lot of that production came when he was in his prime. He is hitting .255/.348/.408 with 10 home runs and nine steals in 440 plate appearances this season. If this lineup construction holds, McCutchen should see his runs tick up and his RBI tick down.

Ohtani appeared to be throwing harder Saturday, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic Los Angeles reports.

Ohtani has been throwing every other day, and he was pitching at a higher intensity from the stretch off flat ground Saturday. He still has a ways to go until he's ready to toss off a mound, although it's good news that he's managing to progress through the program.

Stanton went 1-for-5 with a two-run homer in Game 1 of Saturday's twin bill against the Royals.

Stanton cut the deficit to four in the fifth inning, but the Royals would ultimately roll to a 10-5 victory. The 28-year-old has gone 6-for-18 with a double, a home run and six RBI over his previous five games. Stanton is slashing .280/.347/.515 through 102 games during his first season in the Bronx.

Miller was designated for assignment Saturday.

This was a pretty obvious move to make room for the newly acquired Mike Moustakas on both the 40-man and 25-man rosters. Miller, 28, is hitting .248/.311/.413 with seven home runs in 254 plate appearances this season and could very well be changing organizations in the coming days.

Ozuna went 2-for-4 in a win over the Cubs on Friday, but he's hitting just .191 with no home runs over 95 plate appearances in July.

Ozuna appeared to have finally hit his stride in his new St. Louis digs in June, when he hit .333 with two doubles, a triple, seven home runs and 21 RBI. However, all of those round trippers were bunched up in the first half of the month, and Ozuna hasn't left the yard since June 16. He has just two extra-base hits -- both doubles --in July as well, but interestingly, putting good wood on the ball hasn't been an issue. Ozuna sports a solid 39.2 percent hard-contact rate this month, but he's been getting the ball in the air much less frequently, as evidenced by a 52.7 percent groundball rate. The outfielder ran into the same issue in May (54.8 percent groundball rate), another month in which he unsurprisingly experienced a significant power drought (one home run).