CHICAGO (AP) — The Kansas City Royals placed infielder/outfielder Nick Loftin on the seven-day concussion injured list and recalled outfielder MJ Melendez from Triple-A Omaha before Wednesday afternoon's series finale against the Cubs in Chicago.
Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and Cubs right fielder Kyle Tucker both got the day off to rest sore right knees.
The Royals and Cubs have Thursday off, giving the two All-Stars two days to recover. Witt and Tucker were available to pinch-hit Wednesday.
Loftin was injured in fifth inning of Kansas City's 6-0 loss at Wrigley Field on Tuesday. He was struck in the head as he tagged out Pete Crow-Armstrong as Crow-Armstrong tried to reach third after lining an RBI double to right.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro described Loftin's condition as a “very mild concussion" that was detected after the game. Loftin is batting .216 with three homers and 13 RBIs in 37 games.
The 26-year-old Melendez appeared in 16 games with Kansas City earlier this year after playing in 412 with the Royals over the previous three seasons. He made the opening day roster, but was assigned to Omaha on April 19 after batting .085 with one homer and one RBI.
In 72 games with Omaha, Melendez had a .252 batting average with 13 homers and 43 RBIs.
Witt apparently exacerbated his nagging knee soreness when he twisted out of the way of Matthew Boyd's inside pitch during a fourth-inning at-bat on Tuesday. Witt was Kansas City's designated hitter and remained in the game.
Tucker fouled a pitch off his knee in the first inning on Tuesday. He stayed in the game, playing right field.
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Chicago Cubs' Kyle Tucker, left, steals home past Kansas City Royals catcher Freddy Fermin, right, as Cubs' Dansby Swanson, top, looks on during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr., right, celebrates with Maikel Garcia, left, after scoring on a wild pitch by Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Ben Brown during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Monday, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Kansas City Royals' Nick Loftin reacts after striking out swinging during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Chicago, Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York prison guard who failed to intervene as he watched an inmate being beaten to death should be convicted of manslaughter, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday in the final trial of correctional officers whose pummeling, recorded by body-cameras, provoked outrage.
“For seven minutes — seven gut-churning, nauseating, disgusting minutes — he stood in that room close enough to touch him and he did nothing,” special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick told jurors during closing arguments. The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon.
Former corrections officer Michael Fisher, 55, is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks, who was beaten by guards upon his arrival at Marcy Correctional Facility on the night of Dec. 9, 2024, his agony recorded silently on the guards' body cameras.
Fisher’s attorney, Scott Iseman, said his client entered the infirmary after the beating began and could not have known the extent of his injuries.
Fisher was among 10 guards indicted in February. Three more agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for cooperating with prosecutors. Of the 10 officers indicted in February, six pleaded guilty to manslaughter or lesser charges. Four rejected plea deals. One was convicted of murder, and two were acquitted in the first trial last fall.
Fisher, standing alone, is the last of the guards to face a jury.
The trial closes a chapter in a high-profile case led to reforms in New York's prisons. But advocates say the prisons remain plagued by understaffing and other problems, especially since a wildcat strike by guards last year.
Officials took action amid outrage over the images of the guards beating the 43-year-old Black man in the prison's infirmary. Officers could be seen striking Brooks in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and dropping him.
Video shown to the jury during closing arguments Thursday indicates Fisher stood by the doorway and didn't intervene.
“Did Michael Fisher recklessly cause the death of Robert Brooks? Of course he did. Not by himself. He had plenty of other helpers,” said Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney.
Iseman asked jurors looking at the footage to consider what Fisher could have known at the time “without the benefit of 2020 hindsight.”
“Michael Fisher did not have a rewind button. He did not have the ability to enhance. He did not have the ability to pause. He did not have the ability to get a different perspective of what was happening in the room,” Iseman said.
Even before Brooks' death, critics claimed the prison system was beset by problems that included brutality, overworked staff and inconsistent services. By the time criminal indictments were unsealed in February, the system was reeling from an illegal three-week wildcat strike by corrections officers who were upset over working conditions. Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed National Guard troops to maintain operations. More than 2,000 guards were fired.
Prison deaths during the strike included Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at Mid-State Correctional Facility, which is across the road from the Marcy prison. 10 other guards were indicted in Nantwi's death in April, including two charged with murder.
There are still about 3,000 National Guard members serving the state prison system, according to state officials.
“The absence of staff in critical positions is affecting literally every aspect of prison operations. And I think the experience for incarcerated people is neglect,” Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, an independent monitoring group, said on the eve of Fisher's trial.
Hochul last month announced a broad reform agreement with lawmakers that includes a requirement that cameras be installed in all facilities and that video recordings related to deaths behind bars be promptly released to state investigators.
The state also lowered the hiring age for correction officers from 21 to 18 years of age.
FILE - This image provided by the New York State Attorney General office shows body camera footage of correction officers beating a handcuffed man, Robert Brooks, at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, N.Y., Dec. 9, 2024. (New York State Attorney General office via AP, File)
