MLB Player News

Crawford is not in the lineup Saturday against the Marlins.

It's Crawford's second day off in the team's opening seven games, putting him on pace for about 116 starts this season. The Phillies will likely continue to heavily rotate at most positions on the field, leaving Crawford slightly short of a full-time role. A hot bat could give the young shortstop a larger share of playing time, but he has just one hit through his first 21 plate appearances. Scott Kingery will start at shortstop in Crawford's place.

Ahmed was removed from Saturday's lineup card due to illness.

Ahmed was initially plugged into the starting nine for the first time since Monday's contest, but now the shortstop will miss a fourth straight game due to illness. Chris Owings was inserted into the lineup and will man the keystone while Ketel Marte moves over to the shortstop position.

Ahmed (illness) is back in the lineup against the Cardinals on Saturday, Joe Trezza of MLB.com reports.

Ahmed missed the past three games due to an illness but appears to be fully operational heading into this weekend. The 28-year-old will slide right back into the shortstop spot while batting sixth in the order versus right-hander Michael Wacha.

Story went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in Friday's 8-3 loss to the Braves.

The homer was his first of the season. Story also struck out twice and is only 5-for-30 to begin the season, but anyone with fantasy shares in the shortstop knows what to expect at this point -- strong power numbers, but a lot of empty swings and a batting average that even Coors Field can't keep afloat.

Swanson went 3-for-5 with a double, a triple, a run scored and three RBI in Friday's 8-3 win over the Rockies.

The 24-year-old is off to a good start to 2018, going 10-for-27 through six games, and while Swanson is still looking for his first home run he does have four extra-base hits (three doubles and a triple) and six RBI. The shortstop's fantasy stock took a hit after he managed only a .636 OPS last year, but he seems intent on proving he still deserves to be mentioned among all the other young building blocks in the Braves' organization.

Nelson has a minor knee injury and is expected to be ready for game action by the end of April, MLB.com's Mike Rosenbaum reports.

Nelson was held back in extended spring training due to the injury, and while Rosenbaum did not specify which level he will head to, High-A seems most likely, as the 20-year-old third baseman played 102 games at Low-A last year. He has a lightning quick bat and at 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, he should eventually grow into 20-plus homer pop.

DeJong went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in Thursday's 3-1 loss to the Diamondbacks.

It appears he's human after all, as Thursday's clunker snapped DeJong's six-game hitting streak and marked his third multi-strikeout performance of the young season. Contact rate thus remains one of the few weaknesses in DeJong's game, as he also generated an unsightly 28.0 percent strikeout rate in his rookie 2017 campaign, his third straight professional stop with a figure well above 20.0 percent. Despite the blanking, DeJong is still hitting an impressive .385 over his first 28 plate appearances, a testament to how torrid his start had been prior to Thursday.

Owings went 3-for-3 with a double, a walk and two runs scored in a 5-2 win over the Cardinals on Thursday.

Owings has been in a nice little groove to start off the season, with the three-hit game leaving him with a .429/.500/.667 slash line through 21 at-bats. That's obviously not sustainable for a whole year, but Owings was providing some sneaky value last season before he went down with an injury -- at 26 years old, it's not all that far-fetched to think he could improve on the .741 OPS he put up over 362 at-bats in 2017.

Baez went 1-for-1 with three walks, two runs scored and two RBI in Thursday's win over the Brewers.

Baez had been scuffling a bit out of the gates, going just 2-for-18 over the Cubs' first five games, but he put together some great plate appearances Thursday. The three walks are particularly encouraging considering Baez walked just once over the first five games.

Ahmed (illness) is not in the lineup for Thursday's matchup with the Cardinals.

This marks the third day in a row Ahmed will be sidelined due to being sick. Ketel Marte and Chris Owings will cover the middle infield in his stead. Look for Ahmed to try to get back in the lineup for Saturday's contest.