MLB Player News

Martin struck out one in a scoreless seventh inning of Friday's 8-1 win over the Twins.

Martin had been activated earlier in the day after serving the minimum 10 days on the disabled list due to a knee issue. Prior to his stay on the DL, Martin had emerged as part of the setup crew and was used in that role Friday, when he entered the game in the seventh inning with Texas leading, 4-1. The right-hander has walked just three batters over 21.2 innings.

Chavez struck out one over two scoreless innings and picked up his first save of the season in Friday's 8-1 win over the Twins.

Chavez entered the game in the eighth inning with the Rangers ahead, 4-1, presumably to turn the game over to closer Keone Kela for the ninth inning. Before that could happen, however, Texas put up a four-spot in top of the ninth inning, negating the need for its closer. Chavez has slowly chipped away at an ERA that was above 5.00 as recently as May 9. A 1.65 ERA over his last 27.1 innings has lowered his season ERA to 3.33. He's been the go-to guy when multiple relief innings are needed.

Hill pitched a perfect ninth inning Friday to earn the save against the Astros.

Hill was able to induce two groundouts and a flyout in the ninth to notch his first career save, throwing 10 pitches (seven strikes) in the appearance. Hill has been more of a situational pitcher this season, tallying 23.2 innings across 32 games. In that span, he's held lefties to a .219 batting average while righties are hitting .276 against him. The departure of Kelvin Herrera brings Hill some opportunity to close out games for Kansas City, with Brandon Maurer and Kevin McCarthy also in the mix.

Giles (0-2) allowed one run on two hits in a non-save situation Friday against the Royals, striking out one and walking zero while taking the loss.

Giles entered a scoreless game in the ninth and allowed a single to Adalberto Mondesi and later an RBI triple to Rosell Herrera to break the tie. This was the third time in his last seven outings that Giles has allowed runs to score, and he's only had one save in one chance since the start of June. Hector Rondon, meanwhile, has gone 4-for-4 in save chances in that timeframe while carrying a 1.61 ERA on the season. Giles still sports an excellent 26:3 K:BB in 25.2 innings, but sharing time at the closer position (if not losing ground to Rondon) obviously hurts his value.

Yarbrough (6-3) was awarded the win Friday by throwing 3.1 scoreless innings in which he walked three, gave up one hit and struck out four Yankees.

Yarbrough entered in the second inning and was removed in the fifth, but the scorekeeper deemed him worthy of the decision due to his effective outing. This was a fine rebound after he gave up four runs in three consecutive outings. The southpaw is next set to chew up innings Thursday against the Astros.

Manaea (7-6) notched the win Friday with seven innings of one-run, five-hit ball, walking none and striking out seven White Sox batters in the first game of a doubleheader.

Manaea recorded a strike on 78 of his 106 pitches, including 12 swings-and-misses. Across his past two starts, the southpaw has fanned 10 and walked only one while posting a 3.38 ERA in 13.1 innings. He lines up for another favorable matchup early next week against the Tigers, depending on how the Athletics shuffle the rotation following the twin bill.

Barnes was placed on the 10-day disabled list with left knee tendinitis, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports.

The right-hander was rough during his Thursday appearance, allowing one run on three hits and one walk in two-thirds of an inning. Barnes will now get some time off from his mostly low-leverage role to heal up.

Paredes was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake on Friday, Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com reports.

He was demoted to make room for incoming pitcher Deck McGuire. Paredes owns a 7.43 ERA in 13.1 big-league innings this season and could return in the coming months if a need for relief depth comes up.

Barnes was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo prior to Friday's game, Mike Wilner of BlueJaysTalk reports.

Barnes has appeared in 32 games for Toronto this season, logging a 4.60 ERA and 1.60 WHIP with a 27:17 K:BB across 29.1 innings of relief. He will make room for Sam Gaviglio on the active roster, who is set to return from paternity leave at some point this weekend.

Speas is scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery on Monday, Levi Weaver of The Athletic Dallas reports.

Speas last pitched for Low-A Hickory on June 11 and had a 2.20 ERA and 1.29 WHIP with 49 strikeouts across 28.2 innings this season. The 20-year-old had yet to resolve his command issues, having issued 21 walks in 2018, but he's now likely to be sidelined for most if not all of the 2019 season.