Astros Sign Trenton Brooks To Minor League Deal
The Astros signed outfielder Trenton Brooks to a minor league contract. Although the team never formally announced the move, Brooks is tonight’s lineup for their Triple-A affiliate in Sugar Land.
It’s another flier on a left-handed hitting outfielder for the Astros. They added LaMonte Wade Jr. on a big league deal last week, but he almost immediately went on the injured list with a hamstring strain. That moved Joey Loperfido back to the big league level. CJ Alexander and Zach Cole are on the Triple-A roster as lefty-hitting outfielders.
Brooks, 30, is back in affiliated ball after beginning this season in Korea. He signed with the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes on a $700K contract. Brooks didn’t perform as the team hoped, batting .217/.286/.259 over 41 games. KBO teams have a roster limit on foreign-born players, so they’re quick to move on from those who struggle. The Heroes waived him in mid-May to sign Keston Hiura.
A former 17th-round pick, Brooks has played 37 games at the major league level. He debuted with the Giants in 2024 and got some run with the Padres last year. Brooks has hit .136 with one home run and 19 strikeouts in 72 trips. As one would imagine, he has a much better track record against minor league arms. Brooks is a lifetime .279/.382/.472 slash line with nearly equal walk and strikeout rates in nearly 2000 career Triple-A plate appearances.
Padres Sign Nick Pratto To Minor League Deal
The Padres signed first baseman Nick Pratto to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A El Paso. The affiliate announced the move this evening.
Pratto had spent the season on a minor league contract with Texas. The Rangers released him just yesterday and he quickly finds a new landing spot. Pratto had spent the first month of the season on the development list, which is a non-injury reserve list for minor league players. That’s typically used when a player is making mechanical adjustments outside of game action.
The 27-year-old Pratto reported to Triple-A Round Rock at the end of April. He appeared in 26 games and hit .237/.287/.473 across 101 plate appearances. Pratto slugged five home runs among 10 extra-base knocks but struck out 33 times while only taking six walks. The swing-and-miss has been an issue throughout his career.
A first-round pick of the Royals in 2017, Pratto hit .216/.295/.364 for Kansas City between 2022-23. He made one appearance as a late-game substitute in 2024 but has otherwise spent the last two and a half years in the minors. The former top prospect has a .226/.327/.430 slash line with a 30% strikeout rate over six Triple-A seasons.
Royals Notes: Isbel, Misner, Lange
The Royals placed center fielder Kyle Isbel on the 10-day injured list before Wednesday’s game against Texas. Kameron Misner was recalled from Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move.
Isbel is dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Manager Matt Quatraro tells Anne Rogers of MLB.com that the team is awaiting results of an MRI before they’ll have a return timeline. Isbel has been playing through foot discomfort but needed to make an early exit from last night’s game.
The 29-year-old has gotten the lion’s share of playing time in center field for a fourth consecutive season. He’s providing his usual combination of solid defense and below-average production at the plate. Isbel is hitting .244/.298/.354 with three home runs over 183 plate appearances. The Kansas City outfield has yet again been an issue, ranking 22nd in OPS with a .239/.329/.355 batting line.
Isbel’s injury should give Misner a chance to make his team debut. A Missouri native who played his college ball at the University of Missouri, Misner hit .203/.260/.325 in 79 games with the Rays between 2024-25. Kansas City acquired him early last offseason in a DFA trade but have kept him on optional assignment all year.
The lefty-hitting Misner has an intriguing tool set. He’s a plus runner with big bat speed and a strong arm, all of which made him a supplemental first-round draft choice back in 2019. The production hasn’t matched up, as the 6’3″ Misner hasn’t made enough contact at the big league level. He has mashed Triple-A pitching this season, batting .276/.373/.547 with 13 home runs and 11 stolen bases. He’s striking out at a 27% clip, though, which remains in line with his prior swing-and-miss rates.
Misner can play anywhere in the outfield, so he could replace Isbel as the left-handed part of a center field platoon. Lane Thomas is in the lineup tonight with Texas sending left-hander MacKenzie Gore to the mound. Thomas is flanked by the usual corner tandem of Isaac Collins and Jac Caglianone.
Elsewhere on the roster, the Royals have made a change at the back of their bullpen. Alex Lange fired a scoreless inning with a couple strikeouts to nail down a 5-3 win in the series opener. It was the righty’s fourth save in as many appearances over the last week. Lange is riding a nine-game scoreless streak and has tossed 16 1/3 innings of three-run ball since the beginning of May.
Quatraro declined to anoint a closer when speaking about the ninth inning last week, framing it as a matchup situation (link via MLB.com’s Mike Petraglia). The usage certainly suggests that Lange is the preferred choice right now.
The Royals have been without Carlos Estévez since Opening Day. Lucas Erceg was the obvious first choice to step into the closing role, but he hasn’t found his footing all year. Erceg has allowed an even 6.00 ERA with a career-low 18.8% strikeout rate while walking more than 14% of opposing hitters. He had given up runs in four consecutive appearances leading up to June 3.
That opened the door for Lange, a Kansas City native who signed with his hometown club for $900K over the winter. The LSU product saved 26 games for the Tigers back in 2023. His career was thrown off track after that, as he struggled early in ’24 and was optioned to Triple-A. Lange suffered a significant lat injury almost immediately after going to the minors and required surgery that cost him 14 months. Detroit released him at the end of last season.
Despite Lange’s recent success, the Royals have had one of the shakier bullpens in the American League. That’d be an obvious area to upgrade if they’re in position to add at the deadline. Kansas City has the third-worst record in the AL and are 11 games under .500, but they’ve won three straight and are only 4.5 back in a still wide open Wild Card race.
Unsurprisingly, the front office is in no rush to determine their deadline trajectory. “There are so many teams that are still in this. If you look at where we are right now, we’re (4.5) games out of a wild-card race,” president of baseball operations J.J Picollo said on Tuesday (link via Pete Grathoff of The Kansas City Star). “Last thing we’re thinking about is the trade deadline right now.” Picollo suggested they’re unlikely to make any real trade decisions before the All-Star Break.
Tigers Acquire Jacob Waguespack
The Tigers have acquired right-hander Jacob Waguespack from the Brewers for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group was among those to pass along the news. The righty was just signed to a minor league deal last month and won’t immediately need a roster spot with the Tigers, unless his deal had some sort of opt-out or upward mobility clause.
Waguespack, 32, began the season with the Brewers on a minor league deal. Milwaukee granted him his release in early May. After exploring his opportunities for a little over a week, they re-signed him to a new minor league deal.
He has been having a good year on the whole, though with some important notes. He has tossed 21 2/3 innings over 16 Triple-A appearances, allowing 1.66 earned runs per nine. He has received some help from a .238 batting average on balls in play and 73.2% strand rate. His 16.5% walk rate is very high but he has also punched out 36.3% of batters faced. He has 105 2/3 innings of big league experience with the Blue Jays and Rays, posting a 5.11 ERA in that time. He struck out 18.9% of batters faced and gave out walks at a 10.1% clip.
The Tigers have been working through a huge number of pitching injuries this year, with nine arms currently on the big league injured list. Tarik Skubal, Justin Verlander, Casey Mize and Kenley Jansen are all expected back soon, which could lead to some roster shuffling.
As they sort things out in the coming days and weeks, Waguespack can give them some extra depth without taking up a roster spot, unless his minor league deal had some sort of contract provision that will lead to the Tigers adding him to their 40-man. If that is the case, Waguespack is out of options and will need to be added to the active roster.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Orioles Sign Chadwick Tromp To Minor League Deal
The Orioles have signed catcher Chadwick Tromp to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. He elected free agency earlier this week after being designated for assignment by Atlanta.
Tromp, 31, has seen scattered big league playing time over seven seasons. He has stepped to the plate 205 times in 79 games. That includes six games with Baltimore last year. On the whole, he has a .218/.225/.371 line in his career. He has generally received solid grades for his glovework but the light offense has kept him in a depth role. He has exhausted his options over the years, which has led to him bouncing on and off rosters, mostly as an injury replacement.
The Orioles currently have a bit of uncertainty in their catching mix. Adley Rutschman has a left hamstring issue while Samuel Basallo is dealing with a left wrist ailment. Sam Huff was added to the roster recently and has started the three most recent games, including tonight. Rutschman hasn’t appeared in a game since Sunday, when he served as the designated hitter. Basallo hasn’t started since Sunday, though he has made pinch-hit appearances in the past two games.
Tromp will give the O’s some non-roster depth while they navigate those injuries. If Rutschman or Basallo ultimately need a stint on the injured list, or both, Tromp could be added to the roster. If both manage to get healthy in the coming days, Huff is out of options and could end up designated for assignment. Huff was designated for assignment earlier this year and cleared waivers, which allowed the O’s to re-sign him to a new minor league deal after he elected free agency. But there is no guarantee that the same thing would happen again, so there’s sense in having Tromp around as a contingency for various scenarios.
Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images
MLB Mailbag: Devers, Nationals, DFA Carousels, Guardians, Red Sox
I'm pinch-hitting for MLBTR owner Tim Dierkes on this week's MLB Mailbag! In this edition, we'll get into Rafael Devers' contract and trade value (or lack thereof), the Nationals' unexpectedly strong performance and how it could shape their deadline, the revolving door for "41st men" on 40-man rosters (e.g. Atlanta's Carlos Carrasco), the Guardians' deadline needs, the Red Sox' search for a right-handed bat and more.
Onto the questions...
Peter asks...
With Rafael Devers hitting again (and his defense at first base very good) how would you rate his value on the open market taking into account his remaining contract? What level of return would you expect the Giants might get for him and what teams do you think would be most interested in him? Would the Giants have to pay down any of his remaining contract?
Devers is indeed hitting better after an awful start to the season. Following a disastrous .207/.248/.289 slash and 31% strikeout rate through the end of April (129 plate appearances), he's rebounded with a .257/.321/.500 line over his 165 most recent trips to the plate. It's an encouraging turnaround, but there are some red flags worth mentioning.
First and foremost, that 31% strikeout rate that dogged Devers through his dreadful early slump hasn't abated. Over this stretch of 165 plate appearances, he's fanned at a 30.9% clip -- effectively the exact same rate. The biggest differences have been a modest bump in power (six homers in this stretch) and a huge spike in Devers' batting average on balls in play. His BABIP in that slump was a roughly league-average .288. During this turnaround, he's at .344.
That doesn't all come down to luck. Devers' exit velocity has jumped from an average of 89.8 mph during that cold snap to a huge 93.4 mph in his hot streak. His hard-hit rate has soared from a solid 41.5% to an elite 55.6%. Devers is making better contact, so it only stands to reason that more of his balls in play should be landing for hits.
Be that as it may, however, Devers still isn't walking much. His contact rate on pitches within the strike zone, even during his recent surge, is 75% -- well shy of the league-average 85.9%. And while Devers has been good during this span, he hasn't been his peak self. By measure of wRC+, Devers has been about 27% better than average since early May. That's very good, but it's not close to his best output. Back in 2021-22, for instance, Devers crushed 65 homers in 297 games and did so with rate stats that placed him about 36% better than average: .287/.355/.530. His strikeout rate over those two years was 20.1%. His contact rate on balls in the zone was still below average but was five percentage points higher than during this recent revival.
All of that is to say, Devers has been performing like an above-average but flawed hitter since the beginning of May. That's a nice development after he looked lost to begin the season -- and after he dealt with a disk injury in his lower back last summer -- but does it restore any semblance of trade value? I don't believe so.
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Pirates Place Oneil Cruz On Injured List
The Pirates announced that outfielder Oneil Cruz has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 8th, with left hand fourth and fifth metacarpal non-displaced fractures. Fellow outfielder Billy Cook has been recalled in a corresponding move. Cruz is expected to miss at least a month, per Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
It appears that the injury occurred on Saturday, as seen in this clip from MLB.com. Cruz was trying to score from first on a double when he was tagged on his hand. He hasn’t been in the starting lineup since then, though he did appear as a pinch runner on Sunday. He was in yesterday’s initial lineup but was scratched before game time with left hand discomfort. It appears that further testing found the fractures and he will be on the shelf about a month. The All-Star break is from July 13th to 16th, so perhaps Cruz will end up returning after that.
It’s a rough blow for the Pirates. Cruz is a flawed player since he strikes out a ton and he’s still a work in progress in the outfield, but all his tools are elite. He crushes the ball when he makes contact, in addition to having great speed and a strong throwing arm. He has 14 home runs this year, 21 stolen bases, a .264/.350/.472 line and a 128 wRC+. Even with his questionable defense, FanGraphs has credited him with 1.7 wins above replacement on the year.
The Bucs also lost Konnor Griffin to the IL a couple of weeks ago and Joey Bart landed on the shelf before that. Perhaps due to the injuries, the club has been in a bit of a slide, having lost four in a row. That has dropped them to 34-33 and just outside a playoff spot.
They will now have to try to climb out of that hole without Cruz. Jake Mangum has been covering center field for the past few days while Cruz has been hurt, so he seems likely to become the everyday guy there for the next month. He is a strong defender, so the Bucs should get a boost there, but the lineup should be worse. Mangum has a .293/.332/.359 line and 94 wRC+ in his career, even with a very high .345 batting average on balls in play.
Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images
Angels Select Logan Porter
4:19pm: The Angels have officially announced Porter’s selection. Rivero was placed on the 10-day IL with a left hamate fracture and will require surgery, reports Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Kochanowicz was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot.
10:31am: The Angels are set to select the contract of catcher Logan Porter, reports Ari Alexander of 7News. He signed a minor league deal with them five days ago after choosing free agency over an outright assignment with the Giants. Porter hasn’t even suited up for a game with the Halos’ Triple-A affiliate yet, but he’ll jump right to the big leagues after backup catcher Sebastian Rivero exited last night’s game due to an apparent hand injury.
Porter, 30, is joining his third big league team. He has brief experience in the majors with both the Royals and Giants, for whom he’s totaled a combined 47 plate appearances. Porter is just a .184/.326/.289 hitter in that time, but he’s a .244/.359/.389 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons. He’s light on power but has walked at a gaudy 14.4% clip in more than 1200 Triple-A plate appearances.
Porter also gives the Angels a defensively sound backup to starting catcher Logan O’Hoppe. He’s thrown out a roughly average 22% of runners who’ve attempted to steal on him in the minors (33% dating back to last season) and drawn quality framing grades with slightly below-average marks for his blocking abilities, per Baseball Prospectus.
The Angels have already utilized four different catchers in 2026. Porter will be the fifth, joining the quartet of O’Hoppe, Rivero, Travis d’Arnaud and Omar Martinez. He has a full slate of minor league options remaining, so the Angels don’t necessarily need to designate him for assignment when d’Arnaud and/or Rivero get healthy. The Halos will need to open 26-man and 40-man roster spots for Porter, but that should be pretty straightforward. His selection to the majors seems to point to an IL trip for Rivero, and righty Jack Kochanowicz can be shifted to the 60-day IL after undergoing Tommy John surgery this week.
Mariners Place Matt Brash On IL With Lat Strain
The Mariners announced a series of roster moves today. Infielder/outfielder Miles Mastrobuoni has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and right-hander Domingo González has been recalled from Triple-A Tacoma. In corresponding active roster moves, infielder Ryan Bliss has been optioned to Tacoma while right-hander Matt Brash has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a lat strain, retroactive to June 9th. To open a 40-man spot for Mastrobuoni, righty Yosver Zulueta has been designated for assignment.
This is the second time this year that Brash has landed on the IL because of his lat. Inflammation in that muscle put him out of action for roughly the first three weeks of May. He came back for a few weeks but has evidently strained the muscle this time. The M’s haven’t yet provided any updates about his expected absence but it seems fair to expect an even longer absence than when he was just dealing with inflammation.
For however long he’s out, it’s an unfortunate blow for the Seattle bullpen. He has been a key setup arm for them throughout his career, with a 3.06 earned run average in 185 1/3 innings. That includes an ERA of 0.54 ERA in 16 2/3 innings around his injuries this year. He wasn’t going to maintain that kind of run prevention all year but his longer track record shows what he is capable of.
Seattle is working with a short bullpen since they are running a six-man rotation right now, leaving them with just seven relievers while most other clubs have eight. The one upside of Brash’s injury is that it allows the M’s to bring up a fresh arm at a time when the relief group is fairly taxed. Andrés Muñoz, Jose A. Ferrer, Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier have all pitched in two of the past three days.
Zulueta, 28, has never pitched for the Mariners in the big leagues. He was acquired from the Reds in January and has been on optional assignment this year. He has thrown 20 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 5.75 ERA. That has come in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but Zulueta hasn’t helped himself by walking 16.3% of batters faced. His 21.4% strikeout rate isn’t awful and his 56.9% ground ball rate is quite good but that poor control is hard to work around in any setting.
That has generally been the issue with Zulueta throughout his career. He has big stuff, with his fastballs both averaging in the upper 90s, but he hasn’t been able to harness it. He now has 203 1/3 Triple-A innings under his belt with a 3.94 ERA and 26.9% strikeout rate but a big 14.3% walk rate. He has only walked 10.9% of batters faced in the majors but in a much smaller sample of 23 2/3 innings.
He is now in DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Mariners could take as long as five days to explore trade interest, but they could also put him on waivers sooner than that. He can still be optioned for the remainder of this year, so perhaps some club with an open roster spot will be intrigued enough to stash him and hope he reins things in a bit more.
He has never been outrighted in his career and has less than three years of service time, meaning he does not have the right to reject an outright assignment. If he is passed through waivers unclaimed in the coming days, the Mariners could keep him as non-roster depth.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Designate Connor Seabold For Assignment
The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Connor Seabold has been designated for assignment. That opens an active roster spot for Max Scherzer, who has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list to start tonight’s game. Toronto’s 40-man roster count drops to 38, as Yariel Rodríguez was also designated for assignment this week.
Seabold, 30, began the year with the Jays on a minor league deal. They had planned to have him serve as multi-inning depth piece until his velocity ticked up a bit in camp, which caused them to try him in more of a traditional relief role.
They couldn’t find a spot for him on the Opening Day roster, so he triggered an opt-out and signed with the Tigers. He posted a 3.45 earned run average for Detroit, spending about two months on the roster before getting squeezed into DFA limbo. At that time, the Jays had suffered a number of injuries and had room for Seabold, so they sent minor league pitcher Juanmi Vasquez to the Tigers in a DFA trade.
Seabold has made five appearances for the Jays in the past two weeks, allowing three earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. That gives him an 8.10 ERA in that tiny sample of work. Looking at his season as a whole, he has a 4.26 ERA in 19 innings. His 17.2% strikeout rate is subpar but his 8% walk rate and 42.9% ground ball rate are decent figures.
Ultimately, that’s not enough for him to keep his roster spot. The Jays have been getting healthier of late, with Tommy Nance, Dylan Cease and now Scherzer coming off the IL this week. Seabold is out of options, so he has been pushed into DFA limbo yet again. That can last as long as a week, though the waiver process takes 48 hours. The Jays could take five days to see if Seabold has any trade value but they could also put him on waivers sooner than that.
If Seabold were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright. However, since he has fewer than five years of big league service time, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in exercising that right. His deal with the Tigers in March was a split deal which came with an $800K salary in the majors. The minor league salary on that deal was not publicly reported. Perhaps it’s healthy enough that he would not want to walk away from it and would accept an outright assignment.
The returns of both Cease and Scherzer give the Jays the healthiest rotation they’ve had in months. Their starting group has really been decimated by injuries this year. José Berríos, Cody Ponce and Bowden Francis are done for the year. Cease, Scherzer and Trey Yesavage all spent time on the IL for lesser injuries. Shane Bieber and Lazaro Estrada are currently on the IL. Jake Bloss is on the minor league IL, still working his way back from last year’s Tommy John surgery. Despite all the injuries, the Jays gave up on Eric Lauer earlier in the year, trading him to the Dodgers.
Due to all those issues, the Jays have effectively been running a three-man rotation while Cease and Scherzer have been out, with Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Patrick Corbin being the three. The Jays have been patching things together around those three, with bullpen games featuring guys like Spencer Miles, Chad Dallas and Simeon Woods Richardson in bulk roles.
Ideally, things stay healthy from here with Cease, Scherzer, Gausman, Yesavage and Corbin in the rotation. Dallas has been optioned to the minors and can be in the Triple-A rotation while Miles and Woods Richardson are still in the big league bullpen. Bieber, Bloss and Estrada are on rehab assignments right now and could be factors in the future. On the position player side, catcher Alejandro Kirk is also rehabbing and could be back with the big league club soon.
The defending American League champions probably hoped to be better than 33-35 at this point in the season but probably don’t feel too bad about how they weathered all those injuries. The weak performance across the A.L. means they are tied for a Wild Card spot with the Rangers, despite their losing record. With the injury situation leveling off, perhaps they can post better results going forward.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images