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CLEVELAND — Cleveland Guardians outfielder Oscar Gonzalez has been optioned to Triple-A Columbus to get more playing time.

The team made the move with Gonzalez on Saturday before facing the Minnesota Twins. Infielder Tyler Freeman was recalled to take Gonzalez’s roster spot.

Gonzalez, 25, has struggled at the plate, batting just .192 with one homer and five RBIs in 25 games. He’s been platooning in right field with Will Brennan, and the Guardians are hoping to get him more at-bats.

“April can be a pretty cruel month here,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “It can be a tough month and he made it tougher by chasing so much. We tried to tell him last night, we’re not asking him to walk. We just want you to swing at pitches you can handle because we think he’ll do some damage.”

Another component of the Gonzalez move is to get more at-bats for Gabriel Arias. He got the start in right field Saturday.

“He’s too important to our future,” Francona said of Arias, batting just .180. “He hasn’t swung the bat great, but we got to find a way to get him some at-bats, so we’ll work him into that mix in right field too, along with when he plays the infield, just to kind of get him some more at-bats.”

Gonzalez isn’t the only Cleveland hitter not hitting. The Guardians’ offense has been sluggish for much of the early season, one of the big reasons the defending AL Central champions are trailing the first-place Twins by 4½ games.

The Guardians are batting just .224 overall and have only 17 homers, the fewest in the majors.

Gonzalez was one of the many bright spots last season for the Guardians.

As a rookie, he batted .296 with 11 homers and 43 RBIs in 91 games. He was also a postseason hero, connecting for a walk-off homer in the 15th inning to beat Tampa Bay in the wild-card round and hitting a two-run single in the ninth inning to beat New York in the division series.

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Pirates ball-crusher Cruz accepts HR Derby invite

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Pirates ball-crusher Cruz accepts HR Derby invite

Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz accepted an invitation on Tuesday to compete in Monday’s Home Run Derby in Atlanta.

Cruz is the fifth player to commit to the competition, held one day before the All-Star Game. The others are Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves, Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, James Wood of the Washington Nationals and Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins.

Cruz, 26, is known for having a powerful bat and regularly delivers some of the hardest-hit homers in the sport. His home run May 25 at home against the Milwaukee Brewers had an exit velocity of 122.9 mph and was the hardest hit homer in the 10-year Statcast era.

But Cruz has never hit more than 21 in a season, and that was in 2024. He’s on track to set a new high this year and has 15 in 80 games.

Cruz has 55 career homers in 324 games with the Pirates.

Cruz will be the first Pittsburgh player to participate in the Derby since Josh Bell in 2019. Other Pirates to be part of the event were Bobby Bonilla (1990), Barry Bonds (1992), Jason Bay (2005), Andrew McCutchen (2012) and Pedro Alvarez (2013).

Overall, Cruz is batting just .203 this season but leads the National League with 28 steals.

Among the players to turn down an invite to the eight-player field are two-time champion Pete Alonso of the New York Mets, Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies and 2024 runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals.

Defending champion Teoscar Hernandez of the Los Angeles Dodgers recently turned down a spot as a consideration to nagging injuries.

Top power threats Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers also are expected to skip the event.

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Yanks moving Chisholm back to 2B after 3B stint

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Yanks moving Chisholm back to 2B after 3B stint

New York Yankees All-Star Jazz Chisholm Jr., after making 28 starts in a row at third base, is moving back to second base starting with Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, manager Aaron Boone said.

Boone confirmed the change on the “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast on Tuesday.

Chisholm, who is batting .245 with 15 home runs, 38 RBIs and 10 steals in 59 games, has recently been bothered by soreness in his right shoulder, which he said is an issue only on throws.

He said he prefers to play second base and prepared in the offseason to exclusively play in that spot before injuries played havoc with Boone’s lineup card, starting with Chisholm’s oblique injury in May.

Third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera went down with a season-ending ankle injury on May 12.

DJ LeMahieu manned second base while Chisholm was at third, but Boone has a better glove option in Oswald Peraza, a utility man with a stronger arm plus defensive skills across the infield.

LeMahieu, 36, is batting .266 with two home runs and 12 RBIs this season.

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White Sox reinstate OF Robert (hamstring) from IL

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White Sox reinstate OF Robert (hamstring) from IL

The Chicago White Sox reinstated outfielder Luis Robert Jr. (hamstring) from the 10-day injured list Tuesday.

Robert, 27, has struggled this season through career lows in batting average (.185), on-base percentage (.270) and slugging percentage (.313). Through 73 games, he has amassed just 16 extra-base hits (eight doubles, eight home runs) in 285 plate appearances.

He does have 22 stolen bases in 28 attempts and is just one shy of his career- high in steals.

In a corresponding move, the White Sox optioned infielder Tristan Gray to Triple-A Charlotte. Gray was just recalled before Monday night’s game but did not play.

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