MLB Player News

Mengden (foot) threw a bullpen session Monday and is scheduled for another session Thursday, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Mengden has been sidelined all season after undergoing foot surgery in February, but it seems that everything is going as planned in his recovery program. As long as the next bullpen session goes well, he seems to be in line to face live hitters in the next week or so, although a more detailed timetable should emerge following Thursday's outing.

Lawrence is a leading candidate to make a spot start in the Blue Jays' upcoming weekend series with the Angels, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports.

The 29-year-old struggled in his first cup of coffee with Toronto, but he's excelled enough at the Triple-A level (1.80 ERA, 0.80 WHIP in two starts) to warrant consideration for another shot with the big-league club. If this plan does come to fruition, Lawrence would line up to face either Tyler Skaggs or Jesse Chavez in southern California.

Alexander took the loss Tuesday against the Giants after giving up a run on three hits and one walk over the final two frames.

Alexander struck out three of the first five hitters he faced, but with two outs and nobody on base in the top of the 11th inning, the southpaw surrendered back-to-back hits -- a double and an RBI single -- that made the difference. The 27-year-old has logged multiple innings in both of his appearances this season, and should continue filling a long-relief role as long as he remains with the MLB club.

Colome fired a scoreless inning in Tuesday's 5-1 win over the Tigers and recorded a strikeout.

With only 1.2 innings of work across two appearances over the previous 10 days, manager Kevin Cash opted to get Colome some game action in a non-save scenario Tuesday. The closer impressively set down Miguel Cabrera on a swinging strikeout before inducing a groundout and liner from Victor Martinez and Andrew Romine, respectively, to close out the win. The 28-year-old right-hander has yet to allow a run over six trips to the mound this season while also notching three saves in as many opportunities.

Alvarez turned in 1.1 scoreless innings of relief and struck out one batter in Tuesday's 4-2 loss to the Athletics, but gave up three hits.

Alvarez was able to preserve his perfect ERA for the season, but wasn't particularly impressive in doing so Tuesday, as he required 28 pitches and worked around three singles to record four outs. The Rangers bullpen remains in flux at the back end with Sam Dyson (hand) landing on the disabled list as he was on his way out as closer, but it doesn't look like Alvarez is high up on the pecking order for save chances. Manager Jeff Banister confirmed that Matt Bush would get the first crack at the ninth inning, and after Bush, Jeremy Jeffress and Jose Leclerc are probably next in line.

Farquhar earned his third hold of the season in Tuesday's 5-1 win over the Tigers, pitching a scoreless two-thirds of an inning and recording two strikeouts.

The veteran righty had his first truly poor outing of the season Sunday versus the Red Sox, giving up two earned runs on two hits over 1.1 innings. Tuesday's performance thus represented a nice bounce-back effort, particularly because Farquhar escaped unscathed after coming on in the seventh with runners on first and second and no one out. He figures to continue receiving plenty of work as one of manager Kevin Cash's more trusted options out of the bullpen.

Barnes allowed three runs on two hits and a walk over 1.1 innings in Tuesday's 8-7 win over the Blue Jays.

Boston's four-run lead entering the ninth turned out to be just enough to survive Barnes' third consecutive shaky outing. While the runs allowed Tuesday were the first blemish to Barnes' ERA, he's avoided further damage by managing to work around six walks over 8.2 innings.

Rumbelow (elbow) pitched in a simulated game Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.

Rumbelow went under the knife for Tommy John surgery last April, but having recently passed the 12-month mark, it appears as though he's gearing up for a return. The 25-year-old reliever spent 17 games with the Yankees in 2015, but even after the likely lengthy rehab stint he faces, Rumbelow figures to stay down in the minors once healthy. In his last stop there, the righty worked to a 4.27 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 52.2 innings at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Johnson (1-0) gave up four runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out six in Tuesday's victory over Toronto.

Well, the strikeouts were nice, but he gave up a pair of homers and needed 97 pitches to record 15 outs, so this wasn't the most impressive of spot starts. Johnson will almost certainly head back to Triple-A soon, as he only came up to make this start because Eduardo Rodriguez is on paternity leave.

Fulmer (1-1) gave up three runs on six hits and a pair of walks with five strikeouts in Tuesday's loss to the Rays.

He's opened the season with three straight quality starts, although the latter two have only met the bare minimum requirements for that designation. Fulmer exploded onto the scene in impressive fashion as a rookie last year, and while some regression is to be expected -- he outpitched his FIP by three-quarters of a run -- he should be a credible fantasy starter in just about any format.