whatever happened to …

Thomas Dillard, the ex-Ole Miss slugger, is playing for Cleburne in the American Association and batting .250 with six home runs for the independent club. Dillard, a longtime Milwaukee minor leaguer, blasted 39 homers in the indy Atlantic League in 2023 and 12 for Double-A Biloxi in 2022. … Trent Giambrone, former Delta State standout, is with Kansas City in the American Association, having recently been traded there by Cleburne. Giambrone, who had a cup of coffee in the majors with the Chicago Cubs in 2021, is batting .292 in seven games for the Monarchs and .203 with four homers overall in 2024. He also played in the Atlantic League last year, hitting .287 with 22 homers for York. … Tyreque Reed, the ex-Itawamba Community College star from Houlka, is with Washington in the independent Frontier League. Recently placed on the injured list, Reed — who turns 27 today — is hitting .258 for the WildThings. He missed all of 2023 with an injury in Boston’s system and became a minor league free agent last fall. He hit 25 homers at ICC and has 64 career minor league bombs but has yet to go deep in 2024. … Ti’Quan Forbes, the former Mr. Baseball from Columbia, is hitting .258 for Querataro in the Mexican League. Forbes reached Triple-A during his eight-year minor league run and belted 17 home runs in the indy Frontier League last season. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves star Justyn-Henry Malloy broke up a perfect game with his first MLB home run — and hit — on Wednesday for Detroit. Malloy went deep against Texas’ Jose Urena in the sixth inning of the Tigers’ 9-1 loss. Malloy, 2-for-10 in three games with the Tigers, played for the M-Braves in 2022 (.268, six homers in 54 games) and was traded by Atlanta in December of that year in the Joe Jimenez deal.