The Pittsburgh Pirates announced earlier that Oneil Cruz had surgery last night on his fractured ankle. He could return to big league games in four months, which will have him out through August.
The Pirates recalled infielder/outfielder Mark Mathias today to replace Cruz. While he has very little shortstop experience, he can cover multiple positions. His main spot is second base, which will needed with both Rodolfo Castro and Ji-hwan Bae likely to cover the shortstop position (for now) while Cruz is out. Mathias has performed well at the plate during his big league time.
**Tim Williams took a deep look today at how the Pirates could replace Oneil Cruz. He also has some notes/thoughts on some other prospects in his daily column.
**As for other news today, Major League Baseball announced that outfielder Bryan Reynolds has been named as the National League Player of the Week.
Reynolds hit .480/.464/1.120 in 28 plate appearances last week.
That same link for Reynolds brings you to the announcement from Minor League Baseball that Tucupita Marcano has been named as the International League Player of the Week.
Marcano batted .526/.550/1.053 in 20 plate appearances last week.
**From earlier today, our P2Daily looked at the pitching performances across the minor league system during this past week.
**Our Monday recap of the top college/high school draft eligible players continues this week with Jacob Gonzalez making some noise. He’s had two nice weeks in a row after a slow start.
Updates for Dylan Crews, Paul Skenes, Chase Dollander, Wyatt Langford, Max Clark, Walker Jenkins and an injury update on Jacob Wilson can also be found in that link.
The draft is just over three months away, but most of these players are at least halfway into their regular season.
PIRATES VS ASTROS
The Pittsburgh Pirates (6-3) welcome the World Series champs to PNC Park, as they take on the Houston Astros (4-6) for three games. Tonight’s first pitch is at 6:35 PM.
Today’s starting pitchers are Roansy Contreras (1-0, 1.59) for the Pirates, and Framber Valdez (0-1, 1.50) for the Astros.
Lineups
Pirates
It's Roansy Day!
Astros
Framchise on the mound.
