MLB Player News

Witt went 2-for-5 with a double and a solo home run Sunday in Double-A Northwest Arkansas' 12-5 win over Springfield.

Though he generated hype in spring training about potentially bypassing the higher levels of the minors entirely to break camp with the big club, Witt was ultimately assigned to Double-A to begin the season. The 20-year-old was expected to find immediate success at Northwest Arkansas, but Witt is off to a surprisingly lackluster start to the campaign. He's reaching base at a modest .307 clip through 75 plate appearances, and he only had one extra-base hit prior to Sunday. Witt has at least excelled on the basepaths, going 7-for-10 in steal attempts.

Fletcher went 1-for-2 with a single, two walks and a run scored in Sunday's 6-5 win over the Athletics.

Fletcher got on base in three of his four plate appearances, as he raised his slash line to .254/.281/.288 with 24 runs scored, 13 RBI, two runs scored and a 7:22 BB:K. The 27-year-old is walking a career-low 3.8 percent of the time and is striking out a career-high 11.8 percent of the time in what has been a down year so far for him at the plate in comparison to his numbers since he entered the league in 2018.

Crawford is out of the lineup for Sunday's game against the Padres.

Donovan Walton will pick up a start at shortstop in place of Crawford, who will take a seat for the first time all season. Despite starting in all 46 of the Mariners' games to date, Crawford has produced relatively modest counting stats (18 runs, 14 RBI, one home run, one stolen base), a byproduct of typically batting in the bottom half of one of the majors' weaker lineups.

Wendle is out of the lineup for Sunday's game against the Blue Jays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The left-handed Wendle will take a seat for the second day in a row with Toronto bringing another southpaw (Hyun Jin Ryu) to the hill. Yandy Diaz will cover third base in Wendle's stead.

Bogaerts is out of the lineup for Sunday's game against the Phillies, Christopher Smith of The Springfield Republican reports.

According to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, manager Alex Cora suggested that Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Alex Verdugo (hamstring) are all sitting out Sunday for maintenance purposes with a team off day coming Monday. After getting a two-day breather, Bogaerts should be feeling refreshed heading into a two-game set with Atlanta that begins Tuesday. Marwin Gonzalez will fill in at shortstop in the series finale in Philadelphia in place of Bogaerts, who slugged his 10th home run of the season in Saturday's 4-3 victory.

Anderson went 1-for-3 with a walk in Saturday's 7-0 loss to the Yankees.

Anderson's sixth-inning single snapped an 0-for-17 run, which came after he'd hit in 12 straight. The shortstop has a .299/.336/.438 slash line over 152 plate appearances.

Bogaerts went 1-for-3 with a home run, a walk and two RBI in Saturday's 4-3 victory over Philadelphia.

The star shortstop plated Boston's second run with a sacrifice fly in the third inning. He later swatted the first of back-to-back Red Sox home runs with a solo shot to right field. Bogaerts has been among baseball's elite hitters this season, slashing .345/.402/.602 with 10 homers, 30 RBI and four stolen bases.

Wendle will sit Saturday against the Blue Jays, Adam Berry of MLB.com reports.

Wendle will head to the bench against lefty Robbie Ray. Mike Brosseau starts at third base while Taylor Walls will make his major-league debut at shortstop.

Diaz left Friday's game against the Rangers with left hamstring tightness, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports.

If "tightness" is code for a strain, Diaz will likely require a stint on the 10-day injured list. He went 1-for-2 with an RBI double before exiting and was replaced by Carlos Correa.

Franco, who's slashing .283/.333/.533 with eight extra-base hits and 10 RBI across 66 plate appearances at Triple-A Durham, is presumably one step closer to a big-league promotion after Willy Adames was traded to the Brewers on Friday.

As those numbers indicate, Franco is more than holding his own in his first exposure to Triple-A arms, and the fact he's only struck out at a 13.6 percent clip further supports the notion he's ready for his next challenge. However, Taylor Walls has posted even better numbers, slashing .327/.468/.490 over 62 plate appearances for Durham, and is the one getting the call to replace Adames on the Rays roster. Franco will continue getting regular reps at Durham for the time being, but Adames' departure represents the removal of one obstacle from his path to the majors.