PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates put right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski on the restricted list Sunday and infielder Konnor Griffin on the 10-day injured list with a right elbow strain.
Mlodzinski was moved to the bullpen earlier this week after Jared Jones returned to the rotation from elbow surgery. Mlodzinski hasn't pitched since his start against the Chicago Cubs on Monday, and general manager Ben Cherington told reporters he wasn't ready to pitch Sunday against Minnesota.
“Going into the weekend, we understood and communicated with Carmen that at some point this weekend we were going to need him to be ready or we were going to have to replace him on the team, in fairness to the team,” Cherington said. “So that's what happened today.”
Cherington said he's confident Mlodzinski will pitch again for the team soon.
Mlodzinski is 4-3 with a 3.76 ERA in 55 innings this season. He's made nine starts and two relief appearances.
The Pirates signed Griffin to a nine-year, $140-million contract in April. The 20-year-old infielder is hitting .270 with four home runs, 22 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in his debut season.
Pittsburgh also reinstated first baseman/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn (right quad muscle strain) from the IL and recalled right-handed pitcher Cam Sanders from Triple-A Indianapolis.
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Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Monday, May 25, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/David Dermer)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Brooklyn Rivera, a renowned Indigenous leader from Nicaragua who spent years fighting for the rights of his community and was imprisoned by the government in September 2023, has died.
The Nicaraguan government issued a statement Sunday claiming that Rivera died from a bacterial infection after his health had declined following a case of COVID-19, which led to his physical and neurological deterioration.
Human rights activists and groups worldwide denounced his death and a statement that the government released Saturday in which they referred to Rivera as “Brother” and said they were praying for him.
“They took him alive, and after refusing to tell his family, his lawyer, the world anything about his fate, then they call him brother,” said Reed Brody, an American human rights lawyer and member of a group of U.N. experts on Nicaragua. “Unconscionable cynicism on the part of the government to make it seem like they were trying to help him.”
The U.S. government had called for his release on Friday after the government published photos of him in the hospital in critical condition.
The Argentina-based Inter-American Center for Legal Assistance in Human Rights also denounced Rivera’s death.
Those responsible for the death of the Indigenous lawmaker "should be held criminally accountable,” it wrote on X.
Rivera led the Miskito people, who live along Nicaragua’s northeast coast and have long fought to retain their lands.
For decades, he fought the ruling Sandinista government and helped establish the area along the northeast coast as an autonomous region. It is rich in gold, silver and other resources, and it is considered a key area for the administration of co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo to attract foreign investment.
Rivera’s fight for Nicaragua’s Indigenous people began in the 1960s. After opposing Ortega’s Sandinista’s government in the late 1970s, he temporarily went into exile in nearby Costa Rica in 1980.
He later returned to Nicaragua, where he survived an attack by Sandanista forces, forcing him once again to seek safety elsewhere, this time, in Colombia.
In the late 1980s, he founded the group known as Yatama, the Organization of the Peoples of Mother Earth. It played a key role in securing limited autonomy for Indigenous people following peace negotiations with the Sandinistas.
“He has been fighting in one way or another for their rights,” Brody said. “He fought for land, he fought for autonomy.”
In April 2023, Rivera traveled to Geneva to participate in a U.N. forum on Indigenous people, where he spoke out against the Nicaraguan government.
Shortly afterward, Ortega and Murillo banned him from returning to the country, but he slipped in anyway and lived in hiding until September 2023, when he was arrested and accused of terrorism.
“Nobody heard from him since then,” Brody said, adding that he and other U.N. experts wrote the government requesting that it provide some sign of life. “The government never gave any indication. He was a disappeared person.”
It wasn’t until late last week that the government published pictures of Rivera in the hospital.
“This just shows the cruelty with which this government treats anyone who stands in the way of their complete consolidation of power,” Brody said.
He noted that the U.N. group of experts has documented 124 cases of arbitrary detention of Indigenous people in Nicaragua since 2018, and 46 deaths following violence incidents, usually clashes with settlers.
Brody noted that at least six political prisoners have died in custody since 2019, including two last August.
“Brooklyn Rivera spent 40 years fighting for his people,” he said, “and hopefully the international community will finally pay attention.”
FILE - Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega speaks to supporters as his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo applauds, in Managua, Nicaragua, Aug. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)
