NL East Notes: Strider, Moore, Cannarella
Spencer Strider threw a live batting practice session yesterday at Truist Park, and the Braves right-hander is now set to begin a minor league rehab assignment. Manager Walt Weiss indicated to reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman) that Strider will throw 40-45 pitches in a minor league game on Thursday, with likely two more rehab outings after that. “He’s on the right path but with starters, it takes time,” Weiss said. “We’ve got to build him back up now, so that’s probably going to take the rest of the month.”
An oblique strain sent Strider to the 15-day IL just prior to Opening Day. If Strider is able to return by the first week of May, missing “only” five weeks isn’t a bad outcome considering the unpredictable nature of oblique injuries. It also helps that the Braves have thus far impressively managed their lack of rotation depth, as Martin Perez and Bryce Elder have each been terrific in filling for Strider and Atlanta’s other injured starters.
More items from the NL East…
- Back in March, Dylan Moore utilized the opt-out clause in his minor league contract with the Phillies, and the team quickly signed him to a guaranteed contract to finalize Moore’s spot on the Opening Day roster. The Athletic’s Matt Gelb has some details on Moore’s deal, as the utilityman will earn $1.45MM in guaranteed money, with a $100K bonus unlocked for every 100 plate appearances (up to 400 PA). As per the terms of Moore’s original minors deal, Gelb writes that Moore was set to earn $1.85M if he’d made Philadelphia’s active roster. It seemed like the new agreement was made so the Phillies could save a bit of money while still retaining Moore, and the veteran may have been willing to forego some of his guarantee in order to ensure he broke camp. Moore hasn’t seen much action yet, with only seven PA over five games.
- Marlins prospect Cam Cannarella will miss roughly the next 6-8 weeks after suffering a broken wrist from a collision in the outfield, according to Fish On First’s X feed devoted to Miami’s farm system. The 43rd overall pick of the 2025 draft had an impressive 1.019 OPS over his first 25 PA for A-level Beloist this season, but Cannarella’s second pro season will now be put on hold. Baseball America and MLB Pipeline each rate Cannarella as the eighth-best prospect in the Marlins’ system, praising his excellent center field glovework and solid contact hitting.
Griffin Conine To Miss 6-8 Weeks After Hamstring Surgery
TODAY: Conine will undergo surgery next week and is expected to be sidelined for 6-to-8 weeks, MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola writes.
APRIL 10: Marlins outfielder Griffin Conine has a torn left hamstring and will likely require surgery, reports Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. The Marlins haven’t yet provided any specific estimates for his recovery but it seems fair to assume Conine will miss significant time. He has been placed on the 10-day injured list with infielder Deyvison De Los Santos recalled in a corresponding move. It was reported yesterday that De Los Santos would likely be replacing Conine on the roster.
It’s brutal news for Conine, as he was looking to get back on track after an injury-marred 2025 season. He dislocated his shoulder on April 19th last year and ultimately required surgery. That was expected to be a season-ending procedure but he managed to get back to the big league club in late September, getting into four games before the season was done. Now, almost exactly one year after his previous injury, he is once again facing surgery and a significant absence.
In the short term, the Marlins will have to work around a few notable absences in their outfield. Kyle Stowers and Esteury Ruiz were both on the injured list and now they have three outfielders on the shelf, four if you count Christopher Morel. Stowers is starting a rehab assignment tonight, so he could be back in the mix soon, though he missed a lot of spring training and may need a few weeks to get back into game shape. The others are progressing and might not be too far behind Stowers.
For the time being, the Marlins are left with one fewer outfielder. They have been platooning Owen Caissie and Austin Slater in right with Jakob Marsee in center, along with a platoon of Conine and Heriberto Hernández in left. De Los Santos doesn’t have any outfield experience and is a righty bat, so he won’t be able to take up Conine’s role. The Marlins may have to opt for either Hernández or Slater to start against some righties, at least until Stowers gets back. Javier Sanoja is another right-handed option for some left field time.
For Conine, he’ll be focused on his recovery for the time being. If he does require surgery, or even if he doesn’t, he may be a candidate for the 60-day injured list when the Marlins need a 40-man spot.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Poll: Is Sandy Alcantara Back?
2025 was a season to forget for Marlins righty Sandy Alcantara. The 2022 NL Cy Young award winner looked to be establishing himself as one of the top pitchers in the entire sport just a few years ago, but that reputation has slipped the past few years due to injuries and ineffectiveness. Tommy John surgery Alcantara underwent in late 2023 wiped out his 2024 season. While he returned in time for the start of 2025, he wasn’t an effective starter for most of the year. Overall, he entered 2026 with a 4.73 ERA (95 ERA+) and 4.15 FIP in 59 starts since receiving his aforementioned Cy Young. Those numbers are closer to a fifth starter than an ace and questions over what the righty could really offer a team at this point helped keep him in Miami through last year’s trade deadline and this past winter.
Three starts into his 2026 campaign, Alcantara already seems to be changing the narrative. The righty has posted a sterling 0.74 ERA in 24 1/3 innings of work across his trio of outings this season. Those results are obviously excellent, but Alcantara’s trademark ability to pitch deep into games has been on full display as well; he’s averaged more than eight innings per start so far this year. Neither the sub-1.00 ERA nor his 240-inning pace will continue all year, of course, but what can fans expect from the righty this year?
There are some signals that Alcantara’s hot start to the year might be a mirage. The right-hander has limited his opponents to a .159 BABIP that will be impossible to maintain and sits more than a hundred points below his career norm. He’s also enjoyed a very easy schedule for the start of the season, facing off against bottom-feeders like the Rockies and White Sox while catching the Reds at a time where most of their lineup is scuffling badly. Given that level of competition, it would be understandable to exercise caution regarding the righty until he proves effective against some more challenging offenses.
That’s not to say there isn’t reason for optimism, however. The most obvious one is that Alcantara is now a full year removed from his Tommy John rehab, and his last season where he didn’t deal with elbow troubles or the aftermath of that surgery was his Cy Young 2022 campaign. That’s further supported by the fact that Alcantara improved drastically over the course of the 2025 season. After carrying a ghastly 7.22 ERA into last year’s All-Star break, he posted a 3.33 ERA with a 3.89 FIP the rest of the way, including a 2.62 ERA and 24.9% strikeout rate in the final six weeks of the regular season. When looking at the second half of 2025 in conjunction with the start of the 2026 season, Alcantara looks a whole lot like the ace he once was with a 2.75 ERA, 3.53 FIP, 48.6% ground ball rate, and a 15.5 K-BB% in 108 innings of work across 16 starts.
Zooming back in on his performance so far in 2026, Alcantara’s strikeout and walk rates are better than they’ve been since his Cy Young season and his ground ball rate is trending back up after dropping to just 46.5% last year. The most encouraging sign so far is the complete lack of hard contact Alcantara has allowed. That was the righty’s biggest issue in 2023 and ’25, and while those numbers will take some time to stabilize, things look very encouraging so far in 2026. He’s allowed just one barrel so far this year and his 28.6% hard-hit rate is exceptional thus far. It would be a shock to see those rates stay that low all year, but if he can post a barrel rate in the five to six percent range and a hard-hit rate under 40%, that would leave his profile looking a lot more like it did at his peak than in the years surrounding his surgery, when he combined for a 7.8% barrel rate and a 42.6% hard-hit rate.
How do MLBTR readers think Alcantara’s 2026 season will shake out this year? Will he re-establish himself as one of the league’s top pitchers? If not, will he at least return to being a clearly above-average starter in terms of run prevention for the first time since 2022, or is this hot start merely a flash in the pan? Have your say in the poll below:
What will Sandy Alcantara's 2026 season look like?
Marlins Notes: Stowers, Conine, De Los Santos
Marlins’ outfielder Kyle Stowers is nearing a return, according to MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola. Stowers will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp this Friday. The 28-year-old enjoyed a breakout 2025 after cracking 25 homers, and his 149 wRC+ (a ballpark-adjusted measure of total offensive production that indicates he was 49% better than a league-average hitter) ranked 8th among all batters with a minimum of 450 PAs.
Stowers, who primarily split time between the corner outfield spots last year, has begun taking first base drills in addition to his usual outfield work. While manager Clayton McCullough didn’t commit to using Stowers there, he called it “a possibility” that the Fish could occasionally get him first base work in games. Coming off a Grade-1 hamstring injury, the Marlins will be keen to protect their star hitter’s health and address the void at 1B in the wake of Christopher Morel’s oblique injury.
In Morel’s absence, the Marlins have Frankensteined a first baseman, primarily out of Connor Norby and contributions from Liam Hicks, Graham Pauley, and prospect Deyvison De Los Santos. Although the early returns have been positive, there are some roster advantages to having Stowers at first. While Stowers has not donned a first base mitt professionally at any level, the Marlins have a glut of outfield options with Jakob Marsee, Owen Caissie, Heriberto Hernandez, Griffin Conine, and Austin Slater on the active roster. Playing Stowers at first base also gives them the option to insert an extra left-hander into the lineup alongside Griffin, Marsee, and Caissie, and despite being a finalist for the 2025 left field Gold Glove, advanced defensive metrics like DRS (1) and FRV (0) value Stowers’ contributions as neutral/average (in Stowers’ defense, none of the other Marlins’ outfielders are pushing him out of left with their defensive production to this point).
However, not all the health news coming out of Miami is positive: Conine exited Thursday’s game against the Reds with left hamstring discomfort, McCullough told reporters (including Kevin Barral of Fish on First). Conine has been hot in the early going with a .300/.390/.650 triple-slash with a pair of homers and steals, good for a 188 wRC+ (88% better offensive production than league average), but he may have an IL trip ahead of him. Barral also notes that De Los Santos was pulled from the Jacksonville lineup mid-game as a possible precursor to a corresponding move (should Conine’s injury warrant an IL trip). De Los Santos, who profiles as an aggressive, power-over-hit batter, should be in the mix for first base starts alongside fellow righty hitter Connor Norby while the Marlins continue to weigh their options at first and in the outfield.
Marlins Release Daniel Johnson
The Marlins released outfielder Daniel Johnson, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been at Triple-A Jacksonville on a minor league deal.
Johnson had only appeared in five minor league games. He started very slowly, striking out seven times with one hit through his first 16 trips to the plate. The lefty hitter had taken 23 plate appearances during big league Spring Training. He batted .222 with one home run.
The 30-year-old Johnson has played parts of four big league seasons. He got into a career-high 31 games last year, dividing that time between the Giants and Orioles. The New Mexico State product is a .196/.243/.322 hitter across 152 MLB plate appearances. Johnson owns a .255/.321/.448 line over parts of seven seasons at the Triple-A level, including this year’s brief look.
What’s Next For Sandy Alcantara?
For the past few years, the Marlins have been shopping pitching almost constantly, even guys with multiple years of club control. Despite persistent rumors, Sandy Alcantara has usually been off the table, for different reasons at different times. As time goes on and we move closer to the end of his contract, the Marlins will have to make a decision, with still several ways for the situation to play out.
The Marlins and Alcantara agreed to an extension in November of 2021, a five-year deal covering the 2022 through 2026 seasons. It guaranteed him $56MM and also came with a $21MM club option for 2027, with a $2MM buyout.
That deal was well-timed from the team perspective, as Alcantara went on to have the best season of his career in 2022. He logged 228 2/3 innings, allowing 2.28 earned runs per nine. He wasn't the most dominant pitcher in terms of strikeouts, but thanks to his strong ground ball rate, no one was more likely to just carve through a lineup for an entire contest. He tossed six complete games that year. From 2018 to the present, no other pitcher has tossed more than three complete games in a season. Alcantara was given the National League Cy Young award for that dominant campaign.
Despite Alcantara's efforts, the Fish were still rebuilding, as they went 69-93 that year. Going into 2023, they were willing to listen to trade offers regarding their pitchers, but Alcantara was reportedly not available. That made plenty of sense at the time. Though the club wasn't in great shape, Alcantara was still under club control for five more seasons and was just coming off that dominant showing.
Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription
- Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
- Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
- Remove ads and support our writers.
- Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker
Will Any Pre-Arbitration Pitchers Sign Extensions?
From a transaction perspective, this time of the baseball calendar is defined by extensions. Within the past month, we've seen two impending free agents (Nico Hoerner and Jesús Luzardo) come off the board. The Cubs got a deal done with pre-arbitration center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. Philadelphia extended Cristopher Sánchez even though he was already potentially signed through 2030.
The Orioles extended arbitration-eligible starter Shane Baz. The Mariners reached the largest pre-debut extension with shortstop prospect Colt Emerson. That's likely to be a brief record with the Pirates reportedly working on a deal with #1 overall prospect Konnor Griffin. Milwaukee infield prospect Cooper Pratt is nearing an eight-year contract of his own despite being a couple tiers below Griffin and Emerson according to scouts.
Despite all that activity, there's one demographic that has stayed out of the early-season extension run. There have not been any long-term deals for pre-arbitration pitchers this spring. Teams aren't quite as aggressive in extending pitchers early in their careers as they are with elite position player talents. There's more injury uncertainty with young arms.
However, there are generally a few extensions for pre-arbitration hurlers each season. Tanner Bibee, Brandon Pfaadt and Arizona closer Justin Martinez signed extensions last spring. Brayan Bello agreed to a six-year deal the year before that. Hunter Greene, Spencer Strider, Aaron Ashby, Garrett Whitlock and Emmanuel Clase were among those to sign between 2022-23.
Will any young pitchers sign extensions within the next few weeks? Let's run through a few speculative possibilities in each service class and the kind of money which those pitchers could command.
Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription
- Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
- Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
- Remove ads and support our writers.
- Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker
Twins Acquire Garrett Acton
The Marlins announced that they have traded right-hander Garrett Acton to the Twins for minor league righty Logan Whitaker. Acton was designated for assignment by Miami a few days ago when they acquired infielder Leo Jiménez. Minnesota transferred righty David Festa to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding 40-man roster move.
Acton, 28 in June, has a very limited major league track record. He made six appearances for the Athletics in 2023 and then one more with the Rays last year, with Tommy John surgery wiping out his 2024. He has allowed eight earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. In the offseason, he went to the Rockies and then Marlins via waivers.
The Twins are surely more focused on his minor league track record, where he has shown intriguing strikeout stuff, though home run troubles have led to lot of runs crossing the plate. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has thrown 160 minor league innings, mostly at the Triple-A level. In that time, he has a 4.56 earned run average. His 10% walk rate was a bit high but he managed to strike out 29.5% of batters faced.
Acton still has a pair of options, meaning the Twins can send him to the minors for some extra bullpen depth or add him immediately to the active roster. In either case, he may shuttle between the majors and minors throughout the season whenever the Twins need to freshen up the relief corps.
For the Marlins, they just claimed Acton off waivers two months ago. They are presumably happy with that sequence of events, which has netted them Whitaker. Minnesota took Whitaker with a 19th-round pick in 2024. Last year, he tossed 38 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A. His 2.11 ERA in 2025 looks good but he only punched out a pedestrian 21% of batters faced. His 6.4% walk rate and 44.5% ground ball rate were a bit better than average. He seemed to get some help from a 78.9% strand rate. He doesn’t really show up on prospect lists but, as mentioned, Miami should be pleased to get a lottery ticket prospect for a guy they just grabbed from the waiver wire two months ago.
As for Festa, he was injured in February and began the season on the 15-day injured list. The Twins listed his injury as a triceps strain and shoulder impingement. His current timeline is unclear but this transaction indicates the Twins don’t expect him back before late May, which would be 60 days from his initial IL placement.
That doesn’t necessarily indicate bad news about his recovery. Even if he were declared healthy today, since he missed all of spring training, he would effectively have to start ramping up from scratch. The Twins should provide more details about his status in the future.
Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images
Marlins Acquire Leo Jimenez
7:23PM: The trade has been officially announced by both teams, and the Marlins announced that right-hander Garrett Acton was designated for assignment to create 40-man roster space for Jimenez. Acton has a 10.80 ERA over 6 2/3 innings and seven career big league games — six with the Athletics in 2023 and one with the Rays in 2025, with the 2024 season a wash due to a Tommy John surgery.
Acton is no stranger to DFA limbo, as he has now been designated three times in less than six months. The Rockies claimed the righty after the Rays designated Acton after the season, and Miami then claimed Acton off waivers in Januray following another DFA.
5:30PM: The Marlins are set to acquire infielder Leo Jimenez in a trade with the Blue Jays, according to Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. Francys Romero reports that the Jays will receive minor league infielder Dub Gleed and $250K in international bonus pool money in return. Miami’s 40-man roster is full, so some sort of corresponding move will have to create room for Jimenez before the trade is officially announced.
Jimenez is out of minor league options, so the Jays had to designate the infielder for assignment when he wasn’t included on the Opening Day roster. It didn’t seem likely that Jimenez was going to sneak through waivers and remain with the Blue Jays via an outright assignment, and the Marlins indeed stepped up with a trade offer to bring the 24-year-old into their organization.
Making his MLB debut in 2024, Jimenez posted a respectable 101 wRC+ over his first 210 plate appearances, hitting .229/.329/.358 with four home runs. Bo Bichette‘s injury woes that season opened the door for Jimenez to receive a good chunk of playing time, but with Bichette back in 2025 and other players (i.e. Andres Gimenez, Ernie Clement, Addison Barger) all becoming bigger parts of the infield picture, Jimenez became the odd man out.
Injuries also didn’t help Jimenez’s case, as he played in only 44 total games between the majors and minors in 2025. Over 18 games with the Blue Jays, Jimenez had just a .301 OPS to show for 32 trips to the plate, though he hit better in the minors. Jimenez has a .260/.404/.380 slash line and seven homers over 374 career PA at the Triple-A level.
While it seems like power will never be a big part of Jimenez’s game, his ability to collect hits and draw walks against big league pitching will determine whether or not he can be a regular in the majors. Defensively, there seems to be little question that Jimenez’s glove is ready for primetime, whether as a shortstop or as a second baseman. Jimenez’s arm strength has been seen as a potential barrier to sticking at shortstop, and the Jays used him more regularly at second base over the last couple of years, though that could’ve been more due to Bichette’s presence at shortstop.
Jimenez now gets a fresh start on a new team, playing behind Xavier Edwards at second base and Otto Lopez at shortstop. Miami’s incumbent middle infield duo are both strong defenders and good speed threats, though both Edwards (95 wRC+) and Lopez (86 wRC+) had subpar offensive numbers overall. There’s room for Jimenez to potentially earn himself some playing time, though for now he’ll join a position-player mix that has been depleted by IL stints for Christopher Morel and Kyle Stowers.
Miami already signed Austin Slater to help fill in for Stowers in the outfield, and now Jimenez will bolster the infield depth chart. With Morel out, the Marlins have used Connor Norby and newly-recalled Deyvison De Los Santos at first base, with Graham Pauley and super-utilityman Javier Sanoja at third base. The Fish are expected to mix and match at least until Stowers is back in a few weeks’ time, giving Jimenez some opportunity to play in the field as others are rotated into the DH spot.
The 23-year-old Gleed was a ninth-round pick for the Marlins in the 2024 draft, and his first season of pro ball saw Gleed make it all the way to Triple-A, albeit for just one game. Gleed hit .252/.391/.347 over 275 plate appearances at four different Marlins affiliates, with most of his playing time coming at the A-ball and Double-A levels. Gleed primarily split time between the two corner infield positions, and also appeared in a game apiece as a second basema and as a catcher.
Christopher Morel Sidelined 4-6 Weeks By Oblique Strain
The Marlins are placing infielder/outfielder Christopher Morel on the 10-day injured list, with Deyvison De Los Santos set to be recalled in the corresponding move. Manager Clayton McCullough told reporters (including Kevin Barral of Fish On First) this afternoon that Morel is expected to be sidelined for between four and six weeks by the oblique strain he’s suffering from.
Morel, 26, was non-tendered by the Rays back in November but signed a major league deal with the Marlins during the offseason with the expectation that he would serve as Miami’s starting first baseman. Morel’s career kicked off with a bang in Chicago when he was promoted to the majors straight from Double-A back in 2022 due to injures on the club’s roster. Morel served in a utility role for the club that year, splitting time between center field, third base, second base, and shortstop as needed. He was below average defensively at all of those positions, but hit a solid .235/.304/.433 in 113 games.
Headed into the 2023 season, Morel returned to the minors to start the year at Triple-A but was quickly called up and made the team’s starting DH, with occasional stints in the outfield and at second base as well. Morel delivered a banner offseason year that season, posting a 120 wRC+ and clubbing 26 homers in just 107 games. Once Morel showed the ability to offer such big time power, the Cubs opted to give him the keys to third base headed into 2024. Unfortunately, things went sideways for Morel in more ways than one that year. He was atrocious defensively at the hot corner, and despite solid peripheral numbers his bat wasn’t enough to justify an everyday spot in the lineup. He hit just .199/.302/.372 in 103 games for the Cubs that year before being shipped to the Rays as part of the Isaac Paredes trade at the 2024 trade deadline.
Morel’s year-and-a-half stint with the Rays saw things devolve further. The Rays committed to playing him nearly exclusively in left field during his time in the organization, with only brief cameos at second base and in right field. That was in hopes that focusing on one position could help him rediscover his groove on offense and be more effective on defense, but neither of those hopes panned out. Morel slashed just .208/.277/.355 in 154 games as a Ray, and in 105 games with Tampa last year he struck out at a massive 35.7% clip. The failed experiment of bringing Morel into the fold came to an end for Tampa when he was non-tendered back in November, but that opened the door for the Marlins to take a shot on him.
The low-stakes environment of a dubiously competitive Marlins team seemed like a good place for Morel to try and turn his career around, and playing him at first base would keep the expectations for his glove to a manageable level. Unfortunately, Morel’s oblique injury leaves him sidelined before he even got to take the field for Miami this year. He’ll now miss at least the first month of the season and figures to be back in action at some point in May. While Morel is out of commission, Connor Norby, Graham Pauley, and Javier Sanoja could all see additional time on the infield to make up for his absence.
The primary beneficiary of Morel’s absence, however, is De Los Santos. A 22-year-old corner infielder who has yet to make his big league debut, De Los Santos was one of the prospects traded to the Marlins by the Diamondbacks in the A.J. Puk deal during a breakout 2024 season. De Los Santos hasn’t yet lived up to that strong performance after struggling to hit for power at Triple-A in 2025, but could still be a valuable right-handed bat for Miami down the line. For now, he’ll get his first taste of big league action a little earlier than expected and have the opportunity to get into the lineup against southpaws.