AL East

The New York Yankees have placed Giancarlo Stanton on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain.

Stanton's move to the IL was one of several roster transactions in the Bronx on Wednesday:

• Placed RHP Jonathan Loáisiga on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to 5/23) with right shoulder inflammation.
• Placed DH/OF Giancarlo Stanton on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain.
• Designated C Rob Brantly for assignment.

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 25, 2022

After Wednesday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles, manager Aaron Boone told reporters the injury was in fact ankle inflammation, not a calf injury.

Stanton exited a May 24 game against the Baltimore Orioles with the aforementioned calf injury. Estevan Florial took over for Stanton in the lineup.

The 32-year-old slugger, a four-time All-Star, has been putting together another strong season when healthy. He's posted a .862 OPS with 11 home runs through 40 appearances to help lead the Yanks to a 30-13 record.

Stanton's 35 homers last season marked the sixth time he's surpassed the 30-HR mark, highlighted by 59 in 2017 en route to the NL MVP Award while with the Miami Marlins.

He's split time between designated hitter and right field for New York in 2022. An absence creates more playing time for multiple reserves, including Marwin Gonzalez and Miguel Andujar, who is starting in left field Wednesday against Baltimore. Joey Gallo is back off the COVID-19 IL and serving as the designated hitter.

The Yankees feature one of MLB's deepest lineups, which gives the club a chance to overcome any short-term injuries, but Stanton's availability will be important over the long haul as they attempt to hunt down their first championship since 2009.

New York Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton exited Tuesday's game against the Baltimore Orioles with right calf tightness, the team announced.

Outfielder Estevan Florial pinch hit for Stanton in the seventh inning as the star slugger did not return.

So far this season, Stanton hasn't missed a beat in helping the Yankees climb to first in the American League East. Through 39 games, he's slugging .530 with 11 homers and a 155 OPS+, per Baseball Reference.

The Bronx Bombers have boasted one of MLB's best offenses. They rank third in wOBA (.326) and second in wRC+ (118), according to FanGraphs.

Whereas losing Stanton for any stretch of time would be a major blow for most teams, New York can still lean on Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu in the top half of the order. Josh Donaldson has also rebounded from a slow start to look like an elite offensive player again.

New York Yankees slugger Josh Donaldson has not spoken to Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson or Major League Baseball as of Sunday evening following a comment he made during a Saturday game, a Yankees spokesman told reporters. 

Anderson told reporters Saturday that Donaldson called him "Jackie," a reference to Jackie Robinson that he took offense to. White Sox manager Tony La Russa also deemed it to be a racist remark made by Donaldson.

ESPN's Alden Gonzalez reported Saturday that MLB would be looking into the incident and "speaking to all relevant parties."

Donaldson said after Saturday's game that he called Anderson "Jackie," saying the two have joked about it in the past. He told reporters that he was joking about the White Sox star calling himself "today's Jackie Robinson" in 2019.

"My meaning of that is not any term trying to be racist by any fact of the matter,'' Donaldson said. "... Obviously, he deemed it disrespectful. And look, if he did, I apologize. That's not what I was trying to do by any manner and that's what happened.''

Anderson noted in his postgame comments that he thought Donaldson's comment was "disrespectful" and "unnecessary." He also agreed with White Sox manager Tony La Russa calling the remark racist. 

"He just made a disrespectful comment," Anderson said. "Basically he was trying to call me Jackie Robinson. 'What's up, Jackie?' I don't play like that. I don't really play at all. I wasn't really going to bother nobody today, but he made the comment and you know it was disrespectful and I don't think it was called for. It was unnecessary."

Anderson went on to get his revenge against the Yankees in Sunday's 5-0 win. With the crowd taunting the 28-year-old by cheering "Jackie" while he was at the plate in the eighth inning, he proceeded to launch a 3-0 a homer to seal Chicago's victory. 

TIM ANDERSON. pic.twitter.com/0wqYBo5gUH

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 23, 2022

Anderson is in the midst of an impressive season, hitting .359/.400/.517 with five home runs and 18 RBI in 35 games. 

The White Sox moved to 21-20 with Sunday's win and sit second in the AL Central behind the Minnesota Twins. 

At long last, the Baltimore Orioles have called up prized catching prospect Adley Rutschman to the big leagues.

The O's announced the move Saturday ahead of a home game against the American League East rival Tampa Bay Rays:

It's time. pic.twitter.com/jtmNRWuEJH

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 21, 2022

MLB.com ranks Rutschman as the No. 1 overall prospect in baseball, and he is now set to make his major league debut three years after the Orioles selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft.

The 24-year-old Rutschman starred collegiately at Oregon State before getting drafted by the Orioles, and he has continued to perform at a high level during his minor league career.

In 19 games this season across three different levels, he is slashing .309/.427/.515 with three home runs, nine RBI and 12 runs scored.

Rutschman's 2022 season got off to a late start since he suffered a strained right triceps during a minor league intrasquad game in March, per ESPN.

The slugging backstop has since demonstrated that he is healthy, however, paving the way for his big league debut.

Rutschman's development was perhaps delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season, but he showed what he could do over the course of a full season in 2021.

Splitting 123 games between Double-A and Triple-A, Rutschman slashed .285/.397/.502 with 23 homers, 75 RBI and 86 runs.

His arrival comes at an ideal time for an Orioles team that has struggled mightily at the plate this season, especially at the catcher position.

Through 40 games, the Orioles rank 23rd in team batting average (.228), 25th in runs scored (139) and 22nd in home runs (31), leaving them last in the AL East with a 16-24 record.

Robinson Chirinos and Anthony Bemboom have been Baltimore's catchers this season, and it hasn't been pretty from an offensive perspective.

Chirinos is hitting .139 with one home run and six RBI, while Bemboom is hitting .115 with one homer and one RBI. To make room for Rutschman, the O's designated Bemboom for assignment.

Rutschman should instantly be a fixture in the middle of the Orioles' lineup. He will also give Orioles fans a reason to come to the ballpark in the midst of a long and painful rebuild.

Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts exited Friday's game against the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park after suffering an unspecified injury on a collision with Alex Verdugo in left field.

Bogaerts did not return to the game as Franchy Cordero replaced him. 

Cordero moves to right, Bradley moves to center and Hernandez (not Story) is playing shortstop for Bogaerts

— Jen McCaffrey (@jcmccaffrey) May 21, 2022

Despite this ailment, Bogaerts has been fairly durable for much of his career. He appeared in 136 or more games in six seasons in a row from 2014 through 2019 and played 56 of a possible 60 games during the shortened 2020 campaign. He then played 144 games in 2021.

When healthy, the 29-year-old is one of the best players in the Boston lineup.

He slashed .295/.370/.493 with 23 home runs and 79 RBI in 2021 after hitting .309/.384/.555 with 33 home runs and 117 RBI in 2019 during the previous full year. He is a three-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger and two-time World Series champion as one of the faces of the organization.

He has been one of Boston's best hitters this season, slashing .331/.389/.472 with four home runs and 16 RBI entering Friday's contest. 

While it's unrealistic for the Red Sox to expect anyone to replicate Bogaerts' numbers, look for them to turn toward Christian Arroyo at shortstop if the starter is sidelined for an extended period.

If New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge remains on his current trajectory this season, he reportedly may be playing his way toward a $300 million contract.

Appearing Friday on The Rich Eisen Show, ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan discussed Judge's contract situation ahead of hitting free agency at the conclusion of the 2022 campaign:

Beginning at the 2:50 mark of the video, Passan said: "If Aaron Judge stays healthy, that's headed for a contract that starts with a three."

Judge and the Yankees were unable to come to terms on a new contract before the start of the 2021 season, and at the time, Judge said he did not intend to hold contract talks during the season.

Passan noted that the Yankees could have signed him to an extension worth $230 million over eight years, including 2021, but they took a chance by exercising a wait-and-see approach.

Now, Judge stands to make far more, given that he is perhaps the American League MVP front-runner in the early going.

Entering play Friday, the 30-year-old veteran leads Major League Baseball with 14 home runs, plus he is slashing .307/.381/.664 with 30 RBI and 32 runs scored.

On the strength of Judge's play, the Yankees are the best team in baseball so far this season with a 28-10 record.

When healthy, Judge has been a force throughout his seven-year MLB career with three All-Star selections, two Silver Slugger Awards, an American League Rookie of the Year Award and a second-place finish in the 2017 AL MVP voting when he hit career-high 52 homers.

Durability has been an issue at times, though, as he was limited to 112 games in 2018 and 102 games in 2019. He also appeared in only 28 of 60 games during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

Last season was Judge's healthiest year since 2017, as he appeared in 148 games and finished with 39 home runs and 98 RBI.

Judge is on pace to surpass those marks this season, and if he does, he is in line to land a monster contract from the Yanks or another team.

Passan named the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs as big-market teams that could pursue Judge, but he noted that if the Yankees are willing to pay him the most or close to the most money, he expects Judge to remain in pinstripes.

New York Yankees outfielder Joey Gallo's time in the Bronx reportedly could come to an end this season.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports that some people around the league think that the Yankees could look to deal the struggling slugger by this year's trade deadline.

One National League executive compared his situation to pitcher Sonny Gray, who struggled in pinstripes but found his groove after he parted ways with New York.

"He’s been a little better lately," the NL executive said of Gallo. "If he continues to struggle, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them try to flip him."

Gallo has played in 34 games this season and has a batting average of .176 with five home runs, seven RBI and 45 strikeouts. He was held out of the starting lineup in Thursday's series finale against the Baltimore Orioles, but he entered in the ninth inning and drew a walk. The Yankees lost the game 9-6 on a walk-off three-run home run by Anthony Santander.

The Yankees acquired Gallo from the Texas Rangers at last year's trade deadline, adding a much-needed lefty power bat to what was a lineup dominated by right-handers. However, he failed to find any consistency at the plate and continued his penchant for head-scratching strikeouts.

During his 92 games with New York, Gallo has totals of just 18 home runs, 29 RBI and 133 strikeouts with a batting average of .166.

The Yankees fell to 28-10 with Thursday's loss, but they still own the best record in the majors this season and have won 10 of its last 13 games.

The Yankees will return home for a three-game weekend series against the Chicago White Sox starting Friday. 

New York Yankees star Aaron Judge isn't the only player that dislikes Camden Yards' new pitcher-friendly left-field wall.

Even Baltimore Orioles slugger Trey Mancini dislikes the new dimensions of the wall, which has been pushed back about 30 feet and raised to 12 feet high, making it more difficult for batters to hit a left-field home run.

"Nobody likes it," Mancini told Nathan Ruiz of The Baltimore Sun. "No hitters like it, myself included."

Judge's initial comments came after he was robbed of a home run in the first inning of Tuesday's 5-4 win over the Orioles at Camden Yards. He sent a blast out to left field that traveled 399 feet and instead of sailing into the stands, it bounced off the new left-field wall.

The hit would have been a home run in all of the other 29 MLB parks, Ruiz noted. It even would have been a homer at Camden Yards last season. After the game, Judge said the changes to Camden Yards are a "travesty" and that it now looks like a "create-a-park."

That said, Mancini added that there's not much hitters can do at this point. 

"There's nothing we can do to change it," Mancini told Ruiz. "It's nothing you can be thinking about when you're up at the plate. But it doesn't make it any less tough when you hit a ball that you think should definitely be a homer."

Nearly every batter has had difficulty hitting a home run at Camden Yards this season, with just 1.8 percent of plate appearances resulting in a round-tripper, per ESPN Stats and Information.

Last year, Camden Yards saw 4.5 percent of plate appearances result in a homer, which was the highest percentage in the league, per ESPN Stats and Information. The Orioles gave up 155 home runs at home in 2021.

Both Judge and Mancini have hit their fair share of home runs over the years, too. However, Mancini entered Thursday's game against the Yankees without a home run at Camden Yards this season. 

In 16 home games, Mancini is hitting .307/.343/.339 with 19 hits, two of which are doubles, and four RBI. For comparison, he hit 14 home runs in 75 games in Baltimore last season.

Judge, meanwhile, leads the league in home runs this season with 14 and is hitting .306/.373/.672. He hit six homers at Camden Yards last season and has two so far at the ballpark this year. 

Some within the Boston Red Sox organization reportedly hope the front office will admit it made a mistake with shortstop Xander Bogaerts.

"There are voices in the organization who really, really hope that the team's ownership is willing to admit the spring offer to Bogaerts of a one-year extension was a serious mistake and pay the homegrown shortstop," Buster Olney of ESPN reported Wednesday.

While Bogaerts signed a six-year, $120 million extension in 2019, he can opt out of the deal after this season. Boston offered him the one-year extension in spring training that would have locked him into a new four-year, $90 million contract.

The writing may be on the wall for Bogaerts' future with the Red Sox, considering Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported one of the shortstop's friends said, "He's going to leave," earlier this month.

Heyman also noted one of Bogaerts' friends called the one-year extension offer a "slap in the face."

Bogaerts' agent, Scott Boras, told Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe on Tuesday that negotiations will "definitively" wait until after the season. That echoes what the player said in April.

"I can't do nothing about it right now," Bogaerts said, per ESPN's Joon Lee. "I got a season coming up in front of me. I don't want to put my teammates with that kind of distraction. They don't deserve it. We had time to get something done. It didn't work out."

Lee reported Bogaerts sought a deal from the Red Sox that would pay him around what Carlos Correa ($35.1 million annually with the Minnesota Twins), Francisco Lindor ($34.1 million annually with the New York Mets) and Corey Seager ($33 million annually with the Texas Rangers) make.

Despite previous assertions that Opening Day was something of a deadline for the negotiations, Bogaerts recently told Abraham the Red Sox could come up with "something that's fair" in discussions with Boras.

From Boston's perspective, it has Trevor Story, who can slide from second base to his natural shortstop position next year if Bogaerts doesn't return.

Still, the incumbent shortstop is a four-time Silver Slugger and three-time All-Star who helped lead the Red Sox to two World Series titles. He is also off to an excellent start to the season while slashing .338/.399/.466 and posting three home runs and 15 RBI.

Considering he is just 29 years old and playing at such a high level, he will likely make more on the open market if he opts out of his deal, which would otherwise run through 2026 and pay him $20 million per year, after this season.          

The Houston Astros unloaded on the Boston Red Sox during Tuesday's game at Fenway Park, launching five home runs off Nathan Eovaldi in the second inning to take a 9-1 lead. 

Two of those home runs were hit over the Green Monster, and the same lucky fan caught both home run balls.

This fan caught TWO Astros HRs in the same inning 😳 @brwalkoff https://t.co/8m2Oahp8SS

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 17, 2022

The Red Sox have struggled this season, and giving up five home runs in one inning tied the MLB record. With that said, it didn't seem like the fan who caught the home run balls was too upset about the score. 

The Red Sox entered Tuesday's game fourth in the AL East with a 14-21 record, one of their worst starts over the last several years.