MLB Player News

Pennington will start at shortstop and bat ninth Tuesday against the Cardinals, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports.

Andrelton Simmons is slated for thumb surgery and could be facing an extended absence, so the door appears open for Pennington to play regularly at short for the Angels in the weeks and months ahead. However, Pennington is a .244 career hitter with little power or speed to speak of, and veteran Brendan Ryan, whom the team brought in from Washington, could steal occasional starts.

Mondesi has been suspended 50 games after testing positive for the performance enhancing drug Clenbuterol, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports.

Mondesi, the top prospect in the Royals' system, was off to a strong start to the season at Double-A Northwest Arkansas, slashing .250/.304/.462. He also had hit five home runs through his first 113 plate appearances this season, while his previous career high in that category was eight when he was at High-A Wilmington in 2014. It took him 472 plate appearances to hit those eight home runs in 2014. According to Sam Dykstra of MiLB.com, Mondesi will not be eligible to play in the 2016 postseason for the Royals if they qualify.

Navarro is expecting a call-up to replace Andrelton Simmons (thumb) on the Angel's 25-man roster, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports.

Navarro has only 10 MLB games under his belt but will have the chance for extended time on the 25-man roster with Simmons expected to miss a good portion of time off the diamond. That said, Navarro has a lackluster slash line of .253/.278/.333 over 93 plate appearances with Triple-A Salt Lake in 2016.

Anderson, 22, is batting just .225 over his last 10 games for Triple-A Charlotte.

Anderson has fanned 12 times over that span as he continues to strike out entirely too much. He has a 32:3 K:BB in 25 games in 2016. With the White Sox in first place and Anderson struggling, a promotion is not likely in the cards, at least not in the short term.

Bogaerts went 1-for-4 with a solo homer in Sunday's win over the Yankees. The homer was just his second of the season.

Power production is the final frontier for the 23-year-old shortstop. After averaging 17 homers in three full minor league seasons, Bogaerts has yet to match that power rate in MLB, averaging 9.5 in two seasons. He had 12 long balls in 2014, then just seven last year. But with that drop in power came an 80-point improvement in batting average (from .240 to .320) and a 4.3 WAR (35th in MLB), according to FanGraphs. Here in 2016, both his OBP (.368) and slugging (.447) are up. The power may come, but you also have to enjoy the hitter you're seeing right now.

Lindor went 3-for-4 with a run scored in Friday's 7-1 victory over the Royals.

The 22-year-old shortstop continued his stellar season, with Friday's output representing his second three-hit outing in his last four games. Lindor is now slashing .421/.476/.632 in 19 at-bats this month and has filled out every offensive category except for triples over his first 101 at-bats of the year.

Correa went 3-for-3 with a solo home run and RBI single in the 5-3 victory over Seattle on Friday.

This is the 21-year-old's second three-hit game since Wednesday. He has two home runs and five RBI in the last three games. All the sudden, he's slashing .288/.403/.500 with five homers, 15 RBI, 16 runs and four stolen bases in 104 at-bats. That's more like what fantasy owners were expecting when they made Correa a first-round pick before the season.

Mateo, 20, is batting .354/.414/.556 with three home runs, 20 RBI and eight steals through 25 games for High-A Tampa.

Mateo has been even hotter of late, batting .415 with two home runs and 10 RBI over his last 10 games. Oddly, he has been caught stealing eight times, but that is about the only thing to nitpick at this time. Mateo is arguably the top prospect for the Yankees, his power production surprising, and he has surged to the top of prospect rankings.

Baldoquin (hamstring) played in a minor-league game Thursday for the first time since April 12.

Baldoquin missed over three weeks of action due to his hamstring injury, but he is back in action at High-A Inland Empire. He will turn 22 in mid-May, so he will have an opportunity to move up a level at some point this season if he can improve upon last year's .560 OPS.

Correa went 3-for-5 with a double, a homer, three RBI and a trio of runs scored Wednesday in a 16-4 blowout of the Twins.

After homering three times in the first two games of the season, Correa proceeded to slump pretty badly -- over a 24-game span prior to Wednesday, he went 19-for-84 (.226) with no homers, just one steal, six RBI and eight runs. Those aren't exactly the superstar stats we were hyped up to expect from him, but it's not surprising to see a 21-year-old embarking on his first full season in the majors hitting some peaks and valleys. With this big game, his average (.276) and OPS (.857) are almost exactly in line with last season's numbers.