MLB Player News

The Reds placed Lively on the 15-day injured list Wednesday with a right pectoral strain.

Lively's pectoral injury could help explain why he allowed 13 earned runs over four innings during Tuesday's blowout loss to the Cubs. The 31-year-old righty will now be sidelined for the next two weeks. Meanwhile Daniel Duarte will come up from Triple-A Louisvile to fill Lively's roster spot.

Freeland (4-12) took the loss Wednesday, allowing four runs on seven hits and a walk over six innings against the Padres. He struck out six.

Freeland was done in by the long ball Wednesday -- all four runs against him came via home runs. The 30-year-old southpaw is still looking for his first win since May 14. Freeland's now 0-8 with a 6.28 ERA over his last 12 starts (61.2 innings). Overall, his ERA is up to 4.86 with a 1.47 WHIP and 72:35 K:BB across 21 starts (113 innings) this season.

Arizona selected Cecconi's contract from Triple-A Reno ahead of his scheduled start Wednesday against the Giants.

Cecconi has struggled to a 6.38 ERA in 103 innings (20 starts) this season in the Pacific Coast League, but the Diamondbacks need a fill-in for Tommy Henry, who landed on the injured list this past Sunday due to left elbow inflammation. Cecconi does have good control, so maybe he'll be able to work deep and rack up some strikeouts in what will be his major-league debut at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

Mikolas dropped the appeal of his five-game suspension and will begin serving it Wednesday, John Denton of MLB.com reports.

The suspension stems from his intentional plunking of Ian Happ on July 27. Mikolas just started Tuesday night against the Twins and will slot back into the Cardinals' rotation early next week versus the Rays. He stands 6-7 with a 4.29 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and 94:26 K:BB through 134.1 innings (24 starts) this year.

The Cubs placed Stroman on the 15-day injured list Wednesday with right hip inflammation, Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune reports.

The transaction is retroactive to Tuesday, so the earliest date Stroman will be eligible for activation is Aug. 16. Stroman wasn't known to be dealing with an injury coming out of his most recent start Monday, but he'll be deactivated after enduring a rough stretch over the past month. In his last seven starts, Stroman has gone 1-4 with a 9.00 ERA, 1.93 WHIP and 28:16 K:BB in 30 innings, taking some luster off of what had been his second All-Star campaign. Hayden Wesneski could be the Cubs' top choice to replace Stroman in the rotation.

Urias threw a bullpen session Tuesday that manager Dave Roberts said "went well," and the lefty hurler remains on track to start Thursday against Oakland, Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register reports.

Urias was originally scheduled to start Tuesday in the opening game of a three-game set against the Athletics, but a split fingernail on his pitching hand resulted in that outing being pushed back a few days. Instead, the southpaw tossed a bullpen Tuesday to gauge the status of the nail issue and determine if he'd need to be held out longer. Since the session was a success, it appears Urias will face Oakland in the final game of the series Thursday in Los Angeles.

Triple-A Memphis reinstated Thomas (undisclosed) from its 7-day injured list Wednesday.

According to Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, Jones had been on the shelf at Memphis since early June due to shoulder inflammation. The 25-year-old lefty turned in a 5.73 ERA and 1.79 WHIP and struck out 43 batters over 59.2 innings prior to being deactivated.

Liberatore is scheduled to start Thursday's game against the Twins, Joey Schneider of Fox 2 St. Louis reports.

Liberatore is one of two new additions to the St. Louis rotation this week, as Dakota Hudson will also be picking up a start Wednesday as the Cardinals replace the outgoing Jordan Montgomery and Jack Flaherty, who were moved ahead of the trade deadline. After getting out to a hot start over the first month of the season at Triple-A Memphis, Liberatore has struggled to maintain that form while bouncing between the big leagues and minors since the beginning of May. He's been particularly unimpressive over his nine outings (eight starts) with St. Louis, accruing a 6.75 ERA, 1.84 WHIP and 3.8 K-BB% in 32 innings. Liberatore will still be worth holding in NL-only leagues since he'll have a fairly clear path to a starting role the rest of the way, but he'll need to show improved results before becoming a trusted lineup option in most mixed leagues.

Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said that Fried (forearm) is on track to return from the 60-day injured list to start Friday's game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Kevin McAlpin of 680 The Fan Atlanta reports.

Atlanta has officially confirmed only Bryce Elder (Saturday) and Charlie Morton (Sunday) as its starters for the three-game set in Chicago, but barring a late setback while working out over the next couple of days, Fried is lined up to take the hill for the series opener. Fried, who has been on the shelf since May 9 with a left forearm strain, most recently made the fourth start of his rehab assignment last Saturday with Triple-A Gwinnett. He covered 4.1 innings and tossed 79 pitches in that outing, so Fried should be capable of giving Atlanta something close to a full workload in his return to the big leagues.

Musgrove has been scratched from his scheduled start Wednesday against the Rockies due to "minor" right shoulder soreness, Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

At least for the time being, the Padres don't view Musgrove's shoulder issue as anything too serious and believe he can avoid a trip to the injured list. Musgrove is tentatively in line to make his next turn through the rotation either next Tuesday or Wednesday in Seattle. Nick Martinez, who has been working out of the bullpen since late April, will make a spot start in Colorado in Musgrove's stead.