IN THE LINEUP
Aledmys Diaz is currently on the DL with an ankle sprain with the hopes of returning to action in late May. Reports are saying he'll be evaluated in mid-May so there's a good chance we hear something this upcoming week. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. will handle shortstop while Diaz is out.... Randal Grichuk has progressed in his rehab to the point where he's hitting off a tee in addition to other baseball activities. Grichuk has gotten his Toronto career off to a horrific start with a .106/.208/.227 triple slash with two homeruns in 25 games with the team.... Lonnie Chisenhall has been cleared to run to normal ground while he's rehabbing his calf injury, which ultimately gets him back to full baseball activities even if he's still easing his way into things. Chisenhall has played in just 89 games for the Indians over the last two seasons due to injury.... Dee Gordon missed the game Friday with a bruised toe but was back in the lineup and hitting leadoff for the Mariners on Saturday. Nothing to worry about here for Gordon owners.... No new news on Tim Beckham and his return from his core surgery. The last update had him hoping to play in extended spring training games during the first week in June.... Based on the last update we receiver Elvis Andrus should begin running here in the next few days. This also means no new information about his potential return date so all we have to work with still is "possibly early June."... Rougned Odor was activated from the DL on Saturday and started at second base for the Rangers. I'd say there was a bit of rust to his game as he went 0-for-3 at the plate with three strikeouts but that's kind of what he's been all season as his wRC+ for the year sits at 32.... Miguel Cabrera received treatment on his strained right hamstring and the earliest that he may be able to return to the tigers in Monday the 14th. I'm not able to find any sort of info that points towards the fact that him being activated on the 14th is likely, but there's at least a chance as there also hasn't been any setbacks in his recovery.... Miguel Sano ran the bases and took grounders on both Thursday and Friday but he won't be activated Sunday before the end of the Twins weekend series. It seems like all but a given he'll be activated though at some point this week for the Twins..... Byron Buxton was activated from the DL Thursday and went 0-for-3 in each of his first two games back before hitting his third double of the year Saturday, going 1-for-3 with an RBI. Buxton has struggled mightily this year as he hasn't been able to carry over any of the success he had in the second half of the season last year. There's still huge upside with him but even his speed, which never slumps, hasn't been able to been put to use this year with a .231 OBP.... Yoan Moncada fielded ground balls and ran bases towards the middle of last week as the White Sox hope he'll be able to return to the lineup this upcoming week. Moncada has a ton of swing and miss in his game, but the difference between him and other high strikeout players is that he doesn't chase pitches at a high rate, he just whiffs a lot. His average exit velocity is top 10 in baseball.... Avisail Garcia began hitting in the cage at the beginning of the week and he's going to be close to heading out on his rehab assignment. Garcia has gotten off to a very slow start compared to his .330/.380/.506 season he posted last year since he BABIP is no longer sniffing .400.... Greg Bird is currently on his rehab assignment with the Tampa Tarpons and in his most recent game we went 1-for-3 with a BB while playing all nine innings. Bird will forever be a mystery for fantasy baseball owners as we still haven't seen what he's able to do when healthy for an extended period of time. He should be back in the majors within the next two weeks..... A Yankees beat writer said this week that Brandon Drury has started to wear yellow tinted glasses at night because his vision gets a "very blurry" in the evenings. This doesn't seem ideal and the team will likely let him take all the time he needs to recover from the migraines as they are not dying for his services at the ML level right now.... Max Kepler wasn't in the lineup on Friday but he was able to pinch hit for the Twins as he's dealing with a bruised hand. He was then in the lineup for the Twins on Saturday playing right field for the Twins as the team has welcomed back Byron Buxton into the lineup.... Tyler Naquin left the game on Friday and then was placed on the DL on Saturday with a hamstring strain. Brandon Guyer started in place on him on Saturday and should get the majority of the at bats in right for the time Naquin's out.... Bradley Zimmer is dealing with a bruised chest and it's kept him out of the lineup on Friday and Saturday..... George Springer was held out of the lineup on Saturday after leaving early Friday due to getting hit by a pitch on his elbow....
IN THE ROTATION
We still have no idea when we might see Matt Shoemaker return to the mound. He's set to see a specialist this next week.... Danny Salazar has been shut down from throwing after getting a PRP injection in his injured shoulder. From what beat writers are saying on Twitter it sounds like Salazar is also having some issues mentally regarding the health of his shoulder, which can definitely compound the injury itself. I don't see any reason to even stash him at this point, it sounds like it might be a while before we see him again.... Nathan Eovaldi completed a rehab start earlier this week throwing 32 pitches and striking out three batters in two innings. He's slated to make four rehab starts total, and the third of those is going to come on Tuesday in AAA according to Marc Topkin..... Only in Boston do these ridiculous stories about off field activities get a lot of publicity. This year it's David Price and the amount of time he plays Fortnite, which I'm sure no one is worried about tonight as Price won in his return to the rotation allowing two runs over 5.1 innings. His six strikeouts tied a season high for the lefty.... Jordan Zimmerman received a cortisone injection into his should on May 8th but he expects to be able to be activated from the DL on the first day he's eligible to be activated. The first date he could be activated would be May 16th..... Carlos Rodon threw in Arizona on May 9th and it likely was the last tune up start before he heads out on his rehab assignment. The White Sox have been horrific this season so the Sox rotation will welcome him back with open arms once he's healthy enough and ready to return to the bigs..... Jordon Montgomery is currently still in the 2-to-3 weeks of being shut down from throwing while he recovers from his elbow injury. Domingo German turned in a gem in his first start replacing Montgomery but he was shelled on Saturday allowing six runs over five innings..... Marcus Stroman was placed on the DL Friday with shoulder fatigue and the team hopes that he's going to be able to return by the end of the month...
IN THE BULLPEN
Andrew Miller was activated from the DL on Friday and promptly allowed his first two runs of the season courtesy of a Salvador Perez homerun. Miller still struck out two in the inning and is striking out a ridiculous 42% of the batters he's faced this season. If you were using him prior to the injury then feel free to deploy him, nothing about Friday should change your mind from that.... Zach Britton continues to take more steps towards returning to the field for the Orioles. He threw a BP session on May 9th and he's scheduled to throw a live BP on May 15th. Buck Showalter said that he expects Britton to go out on a rehab assignment after he's eligible to be activated on May 28th.... Tim Lincecum tossed a scoreless inning in AAA Friday as he's on his rehab assignment for his blister issues. Lincecum is looking to nail down a spot in the Rangers bullpen.... Roberto Osuna was placed on administrative leave by MLB after being arrested and charged with assaulting a woman. There's no timetable for him to return as the MLB is currently investigating the incident....
PLAYERS TO ADD
Clint Frazier - More of a long term play here since there isn't a direct opening in New York right now, but Clint Frazier looks to have gotten past his concussion issues and is off to a great start in AAA. He's slashing .333/.404/.643 through 11 games with two homers and a stolen base. The strikeout numbers for him are high yet again, but that's just going to be what you get when you rolling with him. He's gotten surpassed by the Ronald Acuña's and Vlad Guerrero Jr.'s of the world but Frazier still has an incredible skillset, especially for fantasy baseball purposes.
Alex Gordon - Apparently Nick Markakis and Alex Gordon went on a Lewis and Clark type excursion to find the fountain of youth as has three homers already the season after hitting nine all of last year. All three homers have come during the month of May as he's posting a 155 wRC+ compared to his 73 wRC+ he put up in the first month of the season. His hard hit rate has dropped this month compared to April but he also has seen a 11% jump in his line drive rate and with his FB% staying about the same, his 0.0% HR/FB rate in the first month definitely was due for some positive regression.
Tyler Clippard - While the Blue Jays haven't officially named anyone as the closer to replace Roberto Osuna, when the first save chance post-administrative leave came up Tyler Clippard got the call and answered the bell allowing one hit while striking out two batters. The Blue Jays have some interesting options in the pen to go with having Seung-Hwan Oh and John Axford who both have plenty of closing experience. Considering all three relievers are righties I don't think there was too much of matchup thoughts in the decision which is why I think I like Clippard, Oh, and Axford in that order if you're speculating on saves.
Ryon Healy - Ryon Healy has been on an absolute tear for the Mariners as he's now homered two days in a row and has hits in seven of his last eight games with three homers in the span. While getting off to a slow start in his return from the DL, since April 28th (fun with arbitrary end points) Healy is slashing .341/.370/.795 with six homers, 12 runs driven in, and a 213 wRC+. In that same span he also has a 45.7% hard contact rate compared to a 35% rate for the season. Healy launched 25 homers last year in 149 games and he's hitting for even more power than he did then with his current .288 ISO.
