Cuban Players News for the 2024 Major League Baseball season. A compilation of several sources
Nestor Cortes was hermetic Friday.
Cortes worked seven innings without allowing an earned run in the Yankees 4-2 win over the White Sox on Friday. He struck out six, walked one, allowed five hits, and earned the win.
This was the fourth time this season that Cortes has completed at least seven innings. He’s been a reliable, steadying force in the Yankees’ rotation and looks to have bounced back fully after a poor 2023.
Yasmani Grandal went 2-for-5 and knocked in three runs in the rout of the Pirates on Friday.
Grandal has started four of the last five games over Joey Bart, so it’s not much of a job share behind the plate for the Pirates right now. Grandal has hit .212/.229/.424 but with nine RBI in 10 games since coming off the injured list.
Dodgers recalled INF/OF Miguel Vargas from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Right now, Vargas is slashing .295/.437/.583 with eight homers, 38 RBI in Triple-A. Vargas has been playing almost exclusively in left field during this time in Triple-A. The Dodgers are in need of a third baseman, but Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Friday however that Vargas will play left field while he’s with the big league club.
Giants activated OF Jorge Soler from the 10-day injured list.
The 32-year-old slugger will return to the Giants’ lineup on Friday night against the Rockies, serving as their leadoff man and designated hitter. Before landing on the injured list with a right shoulder strain, Soler had been hitting a disappointing .202/.294/.361 with five long balls and only eight RBI in 34 games.
White Sox placed INF Bryan Ramos on the 10-day injured list with a left quad strain.
The 22-year-old rookie third baseman suffered the injury during Tuesday’s game and wasn’t progressing as quickly as the White Sox had hoped, so he wound up requiring a trip on the injured list. Ramos will now be out for at least another eight days due to the injury even when no timetable has been set for Ramos to return, but White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said on Friday that "He wasn't 100 percent. He wasn't close to it," before stating he was probably closer to 70 percent. The rookie infielder is slashing .281/.294/.344 through his first 10 big-league games.
Yordan Alvarez was not in the Astros’ starting lineup for Friday night’s matchup against the Brewers.
It was a rare and well-deserved night off for the 26-year-old slugger. Alvarez has a .646 OPS through 15 games in May and went 1-for-11 with five strikeouts over the past three contests, and he'll sit Friday after starting the first 44 games of the campaign. Alvarez has been disappointing by his standards and has gone just 13-for-56 (.232) with one home run, two RBI and 15 strikeouts in 62 plate appearances in the first 15 games in the month of May. We'd expect the 26-year-old left-handed slugger to turn things around sooner than later at the plate, and he'll get a day off to clear his head on Friday.
Andy Ibanez sitting for Detroit on Friday.
Detroit Tigers infielder Andy Ibanez is not in the starting lineup for Friday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
