The Marlins announced Monday that first baseman Casey Kotchman has been recalled from his rehabilitation assignment, activated from the disabled list and released.

Jason Castro’s big week earned the Astros catcher his second American League Player of the Week honor of the season.

There are a few questions surrounding this year’s Detroit Tigers, and every one of them makes fans of the team smile. But are they the best team in baseball? Are they even the best team in the AL? MLB.com takes a look at this question and more in the latest Power Rankings.

The Braves remain hopeful Jason Heyward will return to their lineup during the latter portion of September, but in certain matchups, there can be uneasiness a player feels after getting hit in the face.

Alex Rodriguez hit the 650th home run of his career on Monday, connecting for a solo shot in the fifth inning off the Blue Jays’ R.A. Dickey at Rogers Centre.

Coming off a challenging schedule of playing 19 games in six cities and three time zones over the past three weeks, the American League East-leading Red Sox are right in the thick of the pennant race.

Chad Tracy is 32 credit hours shy of a degree in exercise science at East Carolina University. Stephen Strasburg has three classes left before he can graduate from San Diego State. And Craig Stammen, a business management major at the University of Dayton, is actively working to finish his degree.

St. Louis moved Joe Kelly out of the bullpen and into the rotation July 5, and once again the Cardinals hit the lottery with what was an easily overlooked move at the time. Kelly is 5-0 with a 2.33 ERA in eight starts since replacing struggling rookie Tyler Lyons, and the Cardinals have won seven of the eight.

Chien-Ming Wang was designated for assignment by the Blue Jays on Monday following Saturday’s poor start. Left-hander Aaron Loup was reinstated from the paternity list to replace Wang.

Joey Votto is the embodiment of everything the stat heads have been saying for years — that RBIs are a product of opportunity at least as much as talent and that there are far, far better metrics to measure a player’s output. And Votto is, simultaneously, a source of frustration for anybody who has espoused the old adage that “money lies in RBIs,” because heaven knows he has plenty of the former and — this season, at least — not much of the latter.

The Phillies placed outfielder Casper Wells on the 15-day disabled list with vision complications and selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Pete Orr from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Monday. First baseman Ryan Howard (left knee) was transferred to the 60-day DL to make room for Orr on the 40-man roster.

It seems implausible that a fresh-faced rookie with little or no experience can transform an entire team overnight from something ordinary into something extraordinary. But in consecutive seasons, that is precisely what we have seen with the Angels’ Mike Trout and the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig.

Mariano Rivera has carved out his place in baseball history as a closer. But before he inherited that role in 1997, he was John Wetteland’s understudy in the Yankees’ bullpen. His one full season as a setup man served as a preview of his future ninth-inning dominance, as Rivera posted a 2.09 ERA and 130 strikeouts in 107 2/3 innings.

The NL Central race takes center stage this week, which ends with the arrival Waiver Trade Deadline. St. Louis begins the slate with three at home against the Reds, then finishes August and begins the rip-roaring final month of play with a three-game set at Pittsburgh.

Ken Jeong starred in arguably the bro-manc-iest of all bromance movies as the antihero in the “Hangover” trilogy, so it’s probably only fitting that he was part of some serious man love during his recent foray into the wacky world of “Express Written Consent.”

MLB Notebook: Roger Schlueter breaks down the day in statistics, from Miguel Cabrera’s historic OPS+ to the Cubs’ bizarre lack of extra-base hits.

Not only did the Red Sox look like they belonged on the same playing field as the scorching-hot Dodgers, but they actually came out on top after pulling out an impressive 8-1 victory in Sunday night’s rubber match of a three-game series. Backed by a complete-game three-hitter from the recently acquired Jake Peavy, the Red Sox controlled this one from the outset.