MLB Player News

Nationals infielder Zach Walters will be the odd man out when Adam LaRoche returns to action. Walters will be sent back down to Triple-A Syracuse prior to Sunday's game against the Pirates, MLB.com reports.

Walters batted .182 with three homers and four RBI in 33 at-bats for the Nationals.

Dodgers infielder Dee Gordon has been slowed on the bases recently, but he snapped out of it with a three-steal game Friday against the Phillies.

Gordon reached base twice in the game, going 1 for 4 with a walk and a run scored, while stealing three bases fourth time this season. He leads the National League with 28 steals in 45 games, despite having just one in his previous nine games. 

Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford extended his team's lead to 4-0 Wednesday against the Rockies with a solo home run in the top of the seventh inning off Matt Belisle. The Giants would win 5-1, as Crawford hit his sixth home run and fifth in his last 17 games.

Crawford is batting just .242 in his last 17 games, but he has a .532 slugging percentage and .812 OPS in that span. Crawford has three doubles, 11 RBI, nine runs and one stolen base in his last 17 games.

Diamondbacks shortstop Chris Owings hit his second home run Saturday against the Dodgers.

Owings led off the fourth inning belting the first pitch he saw from Jamey Wright out to left center for the solo shot. He also belted a triple and a double in the game, finishing a single away from the cycle. Owings finished 3 for 5, with four runs and two RBI. 

Mets infielder Ruben Tejada will get the bulk of the playing time at short, according to ESPN.

The club called up Wilmer Flores recently, and he was expected to see playing time at the position. That could change, as Flores may start platooning at second base. Tejada has hit .192 over 104 at-bats.

After a second opinion, Padres infielder Ryan Jackson has not improved as quickly as anticipated, which could cause him to opt for surgery, U-T San Diego reports. If he undergoes surgery on his right wrist, he would likely miss a good portion of the minor-league season.

Shortstop stinks. I get it.

But haven't we been through this once before with Brandon Crawford? The hot start? The wishful thinking? The foolishness to entertain the notion that he might be more than just a defensive whiz?

It would be so, so, so, so helpful if that was the case. But as we learned last year, it probably isn't.

With his home run Wednesday, Crawford now has five to go along with a .258 batting average. Through May 14 last year, he had five to go along with a .271 batting average only to hit four with a .240 batting average over the final three-fourths of the season. The worst part was nobody made a move for him until after he hit that fifth home run, so they missed out on the one part of the year when he had something to offer, banking only the regression to the mean. I fear that's happening all over agian.

It's one thing if you invested everything in Brad Miller in a deeper league and are just hoping to get something, anything out of the shortstop position until he bounces back, but if you pass up on a Jonathan Villar or Asdrubal Cabrera type for Crawford, you'll probably regret it.

Shortstop Brandon Crawford continues to be a surprise source of run production for the Giants, as he drove in three more runs in a 10-4 win over the Braves.

Crawford hit his fifth home run of the season, a two-run shot in the eighth inning. That came after his RBI single in the first inning, ad he finished with three RBI while going 3 for 5 with two runs scored.

Crawford is already at 20 RBI on the season, nearly halfway to his career-high total of 45. He is hitting .258/.342/.461 in 128 at-bats.  

Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada came into Sunday's game against the Phillies mired in a terrible offensive slump to begin May. For one day, however, he put an end to his offensive woes, knocking in the winning run with a walk-off single in the 11th inning of a 5-4 win Sunday.

Tejada finished 2 for 4 with one double and two walks. He came into the game 0 for 15 in his first six May games.

"It feels pretty good after a rough week for me and the team," said Tejada, who recently lost his starting job at shortstop.

Dodgers second baseman Dee Gordon continued to excel out of the leadoff spot Saturday, going 2 for 3 with one walk, two runs, one RBI and three stolen bases in his team's 6-2 win over the Giants.

Gordon reached base on a single in his first at-bat then promptly stole second and third base, though the offense wasn't able to bring him home. After grounding out in his next at-bat, he walked to start the bottom of the sixth and stole second base again. He came around to score that inning and scored again after an RBI double in the seventh. Gordon has been wildly impressive in the first six weeks of the season, hitting .336/.369/.443 with 21 runs and a league-leading 24 stolen bases that doubles his nearest competitors in the category.