Fantasy Sports

Rumors of an imminent call-up began circulating on social media when Wood was lifted from the fifth inning of Thursday’s game at Triple-A Rochester, but it sounds like the Nationals are merely proceeding with an abundance of caution and not taking any chances here. The 21-year-old top prospect is batting .355 (59-for-166) with nine homers and 10 steals in 44 games this season and appears to be on the precipice of arriving in the majors.

It sounds like Jiménez is going to miss at least one month, if not longer, due to a left hamstring strain that he suffered earlier this week. The 27-year-old hasn’t gotten going at the dish this season after a strong spring training performance, posting a lackluster .668 OPS with five homers in 146 plate appearances. He can be safely dropped in all re-draft fantasy formats at this juncture.

Riley remained out of Atlanta’s lineup for the 10th consecutive contest on Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field recovering from an intercostal strain. The 27-year-old fantasy stalwart hasn’t played since May 12. The positive news here is that he was able to resume hitting on Wednesday without any issues. It’s unclear whether he’ll be ready to return for Friday’s series opener against the Pirates.

Smith-Shawver looked sharp on Thursday afternoon against the Cubs, carrying a shutout into the fifth inning before Braves manager Brian Snitker elected to turn things over to the bullpen rather than let him face the top of Chicago’s lineup for a third time. He surrendered just three hits, struck out four and issued only a pair of walks. He generated nine swinging strikes and finished with a 24 percent CSW. The 21-year-old righty rocketed to the big leagues last year, but hasn’t had a ton of success at the highest level. There’s a possibility he gets an extended look over the rest of the year, but that remains to be seen. He’s currently in line to take the ball next Wednesday against the Nationals.

Brown took the ball on Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field for a spot start in place of veteran Kyle Hendricks and finished with six strikeouts over four scoreless frames. The 24-year-old righty allowed just one hit and a pair of walks as he induced 10 swinging strikes, with nine of them coming on his curveball, and finished with a pedestrian 27 percent CSW. He’s pitched extremely well this season with a 3.20 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 45/15 K/BB ratio across 39 1/3 innings (12 appearances, five starts). He’ll presumably take the ball on Tuesday against the division-rival Brewers and is worthy of a speculative roster spot in deeper mixed leagues.

Castellanos extended the Phillies’ lead to 5-2 with a solo blast in the seventh inning. The veteran outfielder has been able to provide five homers thus far in 2024, and the pair of hits see his average increase to a still-disappointing .206 mark. Castellanos is a good bet to be (much) better over the final two-thirds of the 2024 campaign.

Skenes allowed six hits and one walk. The right-hander didn’t have his best swing-and-miss stuff, and he did deal with some traffic; something he didn’t deal with at all in his six no-hit innings Friday against the Cubs. Even still, the 21-year-old was impressive again, and he now has a 2.25 ERA and a 21/4 K/BB over three starts. Next up for Skenes is a start against the Tigers on Wednesday.

Judge also walked twice and scored after one of those free passes. The slugger slaughtered a Luis Castillo offering for his 15th homer of the season and it gave New York a 2-0 lead. Remember when Judge was scuffling? We don’t either. He remains as reliable a power threat as there is in the sport.

Another masterful outing for Gil, one that might quiet the “move to the bullpen” talk when Gerrit Cole returns to the rotation. Gil did walk two, but he was mostly dominant with the only hit being a J.P. Crawford single in the fourth. Gil has struck out 22 batters over his last two starts in 12 1/3 innings, and his ERA is a sparkling 2.11. A chance to impress again is scheduled for Wednesday against the Angels in Los Angeles.

Lange was publicly chewed out by his manager A.J. Hinch on the mound during Wednesday’s game and despite Hinch claiming that had nothing to do with the demotion, we find that hard to believe. Going into Wednesday’s game, Lange had allowed just four earned runs in his previous 14 appearances. His command will certainly come and go, and it had been poor in the last three appearances, but the 28-year-old only has two bad outings all season. This feels like a situation that is heading for a break-up and if Lange is able to find his way onto a team that can improve his command, he still has a future as a solid reliever.