MLB Player News

Stanton struck out in all four of his plate at-bats during Wednesday's loss to the Phillies, wrapping a hitless three-game set with the division rivals.

It's been quite the streaky start to the season for Stanton, who is batting just .098/.196/.195 in his last 12 games (41 at-bats). In the 11 games prior, he belted seven home runs while slashing .395/.531/.1.026. The power production is as expected overall, but with a meager .221 average and .335 OBP, the slugger has been more of an all-or-nothing proposition in 2016.

Harper walked four times and struck out in his other plate appearance Wednesday against the Mets.

The net effect was that he only scored one run despite the Nats putting up seven on Bartolo Colon and the Mets staff. Harper's been racking up walks fiendishly, which is curious for a guy who's only hitting .254. Sure, he hit .330 last year, but when you take a look at Harper's last 20 games this season, the picture you get is of a guy who hasn't been very effective when he's actually been pitched to -- he has just a .167 average despite having drawn 32 walks in that span. Not to take anything away from him, but giving him the steroid-era Barry Bonds treatment just might be overkill.

Cespedes went 2-for-4 with a solo homer that accounted for all the Mets' scoring in a 7-1 loss to Washington on Wednesday.

Incredibly, Cespedes is actually outperforming his magical late-2015 run with the Mets here in his first full season under the bright lights of Broadway (or, well, Queens). His OPS is a shining 1.024, thanks in no small part to all the homers he's been slugging -- so many that his stats in 92 games as a Met would be a fantastic whole season for most players. Since donning the orange and blue at last year's trade deadline, Cespedes has hit 30 homers and driven in 77 runs.

Brantley (shoulder) may not resume swinging a bat until next week and remains without a firm return date, MLB.com reports.

Brantley received and anti-inflammatory injection during a checkup Tuesday and the Indians figure to give him 5-7 days to let it calm down before resuming hitting activities which would seem to put his earliest return date of May 26 in serious jeopardy.

Colon was optioned to Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday, Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reports.

Colon had a decent stint with the Royals this spring, slashing .262/.311/.310 as a placeholder at second and third base. However, the Royals opted to give career minor leaguer Whit Merrifield a shot with the big league club Wednesday, which led to Colon being sent back down to Omaha.

Soler is out of the starting lineup Wednesday against the Brewers.

This is the third consecutive game that Soler will take a seat on the bench. He's been having massive troubles at the plate as of late, and it seems that manager Joe Maddon is trying other lineup options to get more productive bats in the Cubs order. Kris Bryant will take over in left field while Tommy La Stella fills in at third base.

Miller is out of the lineup for Wednesday's game against the Blue Jays.

The recently recalled Taylor Motter will get the start at shortstop Wednesday in place of Miller. After a terrible first moth of the season in which he slashed .185/.254/.354, Miller has picked things up a bit at the plate in May, batting .265 with three home runs through 13 games. He'll likely return to the lineup Friday against Detroit.

McCutchen is 5-for-12 with a double and two homers against Wednesday starter Julio Teheran.

The center fielder is slashing .327/.365/.571 in his last 11 games and yet still hasn't really gone on one of his patented hot streaks. McCutchen hopes to continue his success Wednesday against Teheran.

McCutchen went 3-for-5 with a triple and two RBI in Tuesday's 12-9 win over the Braves.

McCutchen was one of seven Pirates to finish with multiple hits on the evening. After a mediocre April, McCutchen is beginning to settle in nicely in May, hitting 18-for-60 (.300 average) to go with three homers, eight RBI and 10 runs over 14 games this month.

Pederson went 2-for-4 with two home runs, his seventh and eighth of the season, and three RBI in Tuesday's 5-1 win over the Angels.

Pederson's weak .250 average is fairly compensated by his great .368 OBP and .548 slugging percentage. His plate discipline is also above average as he's walking 15.2 percent of the time and holds a nice 0.49 BB/K. The young outfielder has plenty of areas that he can improve in (like his terrible 63 percent contact rate and 31.2 percent strikeout rate), but there is no reason to believe that Pederson won't get better as he is still adjusting to major league pitching.