A Busted Belt

A completely insignificant body part is set to force Brandon Belt to miss a not-insignificant amount of time after emergency surgery Friday.

Belt left Friday's game against the Phillies with what was, at the time, deemed a stomach illness, and late Friday he had an emergency appendectomy at a San Francisco area hospital. Belt was released from the hospital Saturday.

Manager Bruce Bochy on Saturday said the team is expecting to be without the first baseman for at least three weeks, a rough timetable for recovery for that sort of procedure. Different players who have had appendectomies have had shorter or longer return times. An extreme example, Matt Holliday famously missed only a few games after having an emergency appendectomy at the outset of the 2011 season.

Bochy said the ailment popped up before Friday's game and got worse as time went on, prompting Belt's second-inning exit.

"He just started feeling really bad there, so we took him out," Bochy said Saturday.

There's a kind of cruel poetry to a body part with no real function or import causing problems for Belt, who seems betrayed by his body at every turn. In two of his past four seasons the 30-year-old has played in 104 games or fewer due to injuries.

What makes this even more regrettable is the start Belt has had to his year. The first baseman came out of the gate hot and hasn't stopped hitting, slashing .307/.403/.547 with 11 homers, 31 RBI and 32 runs scored in 53 games through Friday. He's well on his way to a career-best year.

Saturday's news complicates that, including for fantasy owners. In his stead, owners might still be able to get Jesus Aguilar (still available in 31 percent of Yahoo leagues, somehow), Mitch Moreland (37 percent availability) or Josh Bell (39 percent). Other potentially available alternatives at first base include Matt Adams, Ian Desmond, Justin Bour, Yonder Alonso and Ryon Healy.

Orioles Interested In Han Ram?

Another player likely to have first base eligibility in your league, but without a team for which to play it, is Hanley Ramirez.

That second part may soon be changing.

A day after he was officially released by the Red Sox, Ramirez was reportedly drawing interest from the Orioles, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

Orioles General Manager Dan Duquette later confirmed that the idea was "under consideration," per Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe.

The obvious follow-up question to the Orioles' confirmed interest would be, why? Han Ram surely won't cost a team much -- the Red Sox are paying him the rest of what he was owed for this year -- but the O's on the surface don't seem like a natural fit. They have two designated hitter sorts in Chris Davis and Pedro Alvarez already on the roster, and if the team has one problem area it's pitching, not hitting.

Perhaps there's an unseen motive, that Ramirez would be the first in a series of dominoes as the club starts selling off pieces with both eyes looking to the future. But while it's not hard to see the 35-year-old catching on and playing *somewhere* again this year, this rumor, at least, raises some eyebrows.



Castellanos Turning Heads

The Tigers have been surprisingly competitive through the season's first two months, thanks in large part to a not-so-surprising breakout from one of their young hitters.

Nick Castellanos is among the hitters leading the charge, and the Tigers won their fourth straight game Saturday with Castellanos at the forefront. The right fielder went 2-for-4 with two RBI in the game, and during the four-game win streak he's 11-for-18.

Through 55 games, the 26-year-old is hitting .342/.384/.536 with six homers, 32 RBI and 30 runs scored. He trails only Mookie Betts among qualified hitters in batting average with his .342 mark.

Castellanos broke out a first time in 2017, batting .272 with an .810 OPS and career-best 26 homers and 101 RBI. Coming into his own even more and surrounded by complementary hitters like Jeimer Candelario, Miguel Cabrera and John Hicks, Castellanos is tracking toward another career year in a number of offensive categories again this year.

American League Quick Hits: Red Sox placed INF Dustin Pedroia on to 10-day disabled list, retroactive to May 30, with left knee inflammation. Pedroia had been held out since earlier in the week due to renewed soreness in his surgically-repaired knee. The Red Sox will take every possible precaution not to rush him back ... Indians signed LHP Oliver Perez to a one-year contract. A day after getting his release from the Yankees, Perez signs a major league deal with the Indians. The 36-year-old hurler will attempt to bolster what has been a disastrous Indians' bullpen this season ... Angels optioned RHP Jaime Barria to Triple-A Salt Lake. The Angels continue to use Barria's flexibility, with regards to being optioned, as a way to manipulate their roster, and the 21-year-old will surely be back soon after he turned in another terrific outing Friday. In that start, Barria threw six scoreless innings in a win over the Rangers, improving to 5-1 with a 2.48 ERA and 1.05 WHIP through seven starts ... Marwin Gonzalez left Saturday's game against the Red Sox with right knee soreness. No word on what that means for his outlook or availability in the near future. Derek Fisher was activated from the 10-day disabled list Saturday and was optioned to Triple-A Fresno, and he might be an option if Gonzalez needs to miss some time. As it is, it sounds fairly minor, though ... X-rays on Teoscar Hernandez's left foot came back negative Saturday. Hernandez went for tests after he fouled a ball off the foot during Saturday's game, but it appears he escaped with a contusion. He might miss a day or two but should be able to avoid a DL stint.

National League Quick Hits: Jay Bruce (back) was a late scratch from the lineup for Saturday's game against the Cubs. He was originally in the lineup, one day after being removed from a game due to lower back discomfort, but he was later scratched, replaced in left field by Jose Bautista. Bruce described the situation as mostly being overly cautious, so he should be back in there Sunday ... Buster Posey was out of the lineup for Saturday's game against the Phillies with an elbow contusion. The backstop got hit on the elbow by a pitch in Friday night's game, and it was obviously still a little sore Saturday. It doesn't sound serious -- he remained in the game Friday -- so he'll likely be back in there Sunday. Nick Hundley got the start behind the dish Saturday with Posey out ... Matt Adams left Saturday's game after fouling a ball off his right foot. Nationals manager Dave Martinez said Adams will be re-evaluated before Sunday's game, but it sounds as though he's day to day for the time being. Adams was replaced by Mark Reynolds in the fourth inning Saturday, and Reynolds would likely get the start if Adams was unable to go Sunday ... Kolten Wong belted a walk-off solo home run to lead his team to a 3-2 win over the Pirates on Saturday. It was his only hit of the day but he made it count. He led off the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game and quickly turned around a Richard Rodriguez pitch and deposited it in the right field bleachers. The walk-off was the second for Wong this year.