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Anthony Bender Sustains Season-Ending Leg Injury

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Marlins reliever Anthony Bender will miss the remainder of the season, manager Clayton McCullough told media (including Kevin Barral of Fish on First). Miami had placed the righty on the 15-day injured list before tonight’s game with a stress reaction in his right tibia.

Bender tossed 50 innings for the Fish this season. He turned in a personal-best 2.16 earned run average despite striking out a career-low 20.6% of opposing hitters. Bender did a solid job keeping the ball on the ground but had a very difficult time missing bats. He got swinging strikes on just 8% of his offerings, also a personal low. Opponents hitting .213 on balls in play was a big factor in his success.

The 30-year-old Bender was nevertheless one of McCullough’s most trusted relievers. He leads the team with 19 holds and trails only Calvin Faucher in appearing in high-leverage situations. Bender had punched out an above-average 26% of batters faced a season ago and was continuing to generate strong bottom line results, so it’s unsurprising he remained one of their top bullpen arms.

Miami fielded trade interest in Bender this summer, with the Padres and Yankees among the teams reportedly in the mix. They ultimately elected to hold onto him. Bender is under arbitration control for another two seasons and will be due a modest raise on this year’s $1.42MM salary. Even with the diminished swing-and-miss rates, it should be an easy decision for the front office to tender him a contract.

Marlins Place Cal Quantrill On Outright Waivers

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Marlins right-hander Cal Quantrill is currently on outright waivers, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Outright waivers are a 48-hour process, with priority determined based on a worst-to-first look at the leaguewide standings. The Rockies have Major League Baseball’s worst record and thus have first priority, while the blistering-hot Brewers have the lowest priority at the moment.

Quantrill, 30, signed a one-year, $3.5MM contract with the Marlins over winter and will be a free agent at season’s end. As of this writing, there’s about $753K yet to be paid out on that salary (although Quantrill’s contract does contain a modest $500K worth of total incentives). Any team that claims him would be required to take on the remainder of that contract.

Overall, Quantrill’s 5.50 ERA and rate stats aren’t much to look at. He’s fanned only 17.4% of his opponents, and his 34.2% ground-ball rate is a career-low. Quantrill’s 6.4% walk rate is his best since 2022, but he’s served up 1.40 homers per nine innings — tied for the worst mark of his career. Opponents have averaged 90.4 mph off the bat with an 11.6% barrel rate and 43.9% hard-hit rate. All are career-worsts.

Nearly all of Quantrill’s struggles, however, were back in April and in his three August starts thus far. From May 6 through July 30, Quantrill tossed 71 innings with a 3.55 ERA, 21.3% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate. That sort of production would be a bargain, particularly at Quantrill’s price point.

Few, if any, contending clubs are going to look at Quantrill and view him as a postseason-caliber starter. Playoff contenders who’ve run into some poor injury luck recently and simply need back-of-the-rotation innings could consider placing a claim.

Quantrill has never been an ace or a particularly hard thrower, but he’s a former No. 8 overall draft pick with a lifetime 4.26 ERA in 828 2/3 innings as a big leaguer. Most of that success came with the Guardians in 2021-22, however. Quantrill has just a 5.21 ERA dating back to 2023, though that previously mentioned May through July stretch stands as one of the strongest of his career. This year, he’s sitting 93.6 mph on his four-seamer, which is just one of six different pitches he’s thrown at at least an 8.7% clip. He’s also used a cutter, splitter, sinker, slider and curveball to try to keep opponents off balance.

Notably, Quantrill has struggled against right-handed opponents but overwhelmed lefties. Opposing left-handed hitters have posted an awful .209/.275/.335 slash in 209 plate appearances against Quantrill this season. He has more even splits for his career at large, but this year’s changes to his pitch selection — career-high four-seam usage, career-low sinker usage and the reintroduction of a slider he scrapped in early 2021 — have produced a pronounced preference for facing southpaw hitters. Opposing righties have torched Quantrill for a .337/.379/.605 batting line.

If Quantrill passes through waivers unclaimed, the Marlins can choose to assign him outright to a minor league affiliate but are not obligated to do so. They can simply return him to the active roster and continue playing out the season with him on the staff. Quantrill has enough service time to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency and still retain the remainder of his guarantee. As of right now, he’s scheduled to start Friday’s game against the Blue Jays and the returning Shane Bieber.

Marlins Promote Max Acosta, Place Graham Pauley On Injured List

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Aug. 18: The Marlins announced that Acosta has indeed been recalled for his MLB debut. Pauley will head to the 10-day injured list, as the side discomfort that kept him out of yesterday’s game was due to what’s now been diagnosed as a strained oblique.

Aug. 17: The Marlins are calling up middle infield prospect Max Acosta from Triple-A Jacksonville, El Extra Base’s Daniel Alvarez-Montes reports.  Only a 26-man roster will need to be made prior to tomorrow’s game between the Cardinals and Marlins, since the 22-year-old Acosta is already on Miami’s 40-man roster.

Acosta will be making his MLB debut whenever he makes his first appearance with the Fish.  Playing almost exclusively as the everyday shortstop in Jacksonville, Acosta has hit .232/.319/.376 over 430 plate appearances in his first taste of Triple-A ball, while stealing 28 bases in 35 attempts.  It took him some time to adjust to the higher level, as Acosta’s season is split between a .215/.316/.269 slash line over his first 215 plate appearances, and a much improved .247/.321/479 slash line in his last 215 PA.

This power boost over the last two and a half months provides some answer to evaluators’ doubts about his ability to hit at the big league level, though it runs counter to MLB Pipeline’s scouting report, which felt Acosta’s ability to hit for average could be his offensive calling card rather than his modest power.  His speed is fairly average but he is an effective base stealer, and Acosta provides at least average defense at shortstop and second base (the other position he has played during his pro career).  Pipeline ranks Acosta as the 25th-best prospect in Miami’s farm system, while Baseball America has the infielder 28th.

An international signing for the Rangers in 2019, Acosta was added to Texas’ 40-man roster for the first time last November in advance of the Rule 5 draft.  The Rangers then dealt Acosta and two other prospects to the Marlins in December in the trade that brought Jake Burger to Arlington.

Otto Lopez has been struggling badly at the plate since the start of July, and while Lopez remains an excellent defensive shortstop, the Marlins might want to give him a bit more time in the outfield or at third base while seeing what they have in Acosta.  MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola reports that Graham Pauley didn’t play today due to side tightness, so if Pauley needs to go on the injured list, that opens up third base for Lopez to share time with Eric Wagaman.

Kyle Stowers To Miss Several Weeks With Side Strain

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The Marlins will be without outfielder Kyle Stowers for several weeks after he suffered a Grade 1 strain in his left side, manager Clayton McCullough informed reporters (link via Christina De Nicola of MLB.com). He’ll go on the 10-day injured list before tomorrow’s series finale in Boston. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase first reported that Miami will recall Joey Wiemer from Triple-A Jacksonville in the corresponding move.

Stowers felt the discomfort on a swing early in Friday’s game. He stayed in for the rest of the contest but lingering soreness sent him for imaging today. A Grade 1 strain is of the lowest severity, but even relatively minor side/oblique strains can cost hitters upwards of a month. Stowers seems likely to miss most of the remaining schedule.

It’ll hopefully be no more than a blip for Miami’s breakout slugger. Stowers earned his first All-Star selection and has a .288/.368/.544 slash line across 457 plate appearances. He has hit 25 home runs and had a good shot at cracking the 30-homer mark had he stayed healthy. While he’d fallen into a bit of a slump in August, he was the National League Player of the Month in July thanks to a monster .364/.451/.818 showing with 10 longballs in 24 games. That not coincidentally overlapped with Miami’s 15-10 showing last month, offering a hint of Stowers’ ability to carry a lineup when he’s going well.

Dane Myers has spent a good chunk of this season as the starting center fielder. He has ceded playing time since Jakob Marsee was promoted to take the center field job. Myers will probably get more playing time in left field. Wiemer, who was claimed off waivers from the Royals a couple weeks ago, is now in line for his team debut in a rotational corner outfield role.

Marlins Outright Jack Winkler

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Marlins infielder Jack Winkler went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. The 26-year-old neither has the service time nor the previous career outright to decline the assignment. He’ll remain with the team after being designated for assignment on Monday when the Fish claimed outfielder Joey Wiemer off waivers.

Winkler made a brief MLB debut earlier in the season. Acquired from the A’s in the minor league phase of last winter’s Rule 5 draft, he cracked the 40-man roster at the end of May. He spent around six weeks in the big leagues over two stints. Winkler didn’t get a ton of playing time as the final player on Clayton McCullough’s bench. He only started four of his 11 appearances and collected two hits and a stolen base in 12 at-bats.

A University of San Francisco product, Winkler has played parts of five minor league seasons. He’s in his first year at Triple-A and batting .241/.304/.379 over 194 plate appearances. Winkler has never hit much but provides versatility as a depth infielder. He’ll remain with Jacksonville in hopes of getting back onto the big league roster.

Marlins Release Matt Mervis, Rob Brantly

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The Marlins have released first baseman Matt Mervis and catcher Rob Brantly, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. Both had been in the majors earlier this season but were playing with the Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate in Jacksonville after passing through waivers unclaimed and thus being removed from the 40-man roster.

Mervis, 27, got some Miami fans excited with an early-season home run binge, but it never seemed especially sustainable. The former Cubs farmhand popped six big flies in his first 13 games of the season, hitting .275/.333/.725 along the way. That was a sample of just 45 plate appearances, however, and Mervis fanned a whopping 18 times within that stretch (40%). His power has never been in doubt, but strikeout issues have long plagued Mervis and did so again following that early hot streak. He hit just .125/.213/.213 with a 37% strikeout rate over his next 89 trips to the plate before being designated for assignment and passing through waivers.

Things have gone better for Mervis in Jacksonville, where he’s hitting .250/.310/.614 with 13 homers in 145 plate appearances. However, much of that production is buoyed by a recent hot streak over the past week, and he’s still been set down on strikes in 27% of his plate appearances. This is his fourth season with notable time spent in Triple-A, and he’s had strikeout rates well higher than average in each of the past two (including a 30% strikeout rate in 350 Triple-A plate appearances with the Cubs last year).

Brantly, 36, was briefly summoned to the majors earlier this season when Miami needed an extra catcher, but what was supposed to be a big league stint lasting just a few days wound up turning into months. Brantly incurred a lat strain during that call-up and wound up landing on the 60-day injured list and picking up more than two months of service time.

Brantly has appeared in parts of 10 big league seasons but hasn’t topped 36 MLB plate appearances in a given year since 2013. He’s a .226/.286/.323 hitter in 472 big league plate appearances and has played in parts of 13 Triple-A seasons with more than 2700 plate appearances to his credit.

Cardinals Claim Anthony Veneziano From Marlins

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The Cardinals claimed reliever Anthony Veneziano off waivers from the Marlins, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Miami had designated him for assignment last week when they promoted outfielder Jakob Marsee.

Veneziano is a 6’5″ lefty who has made 38 MLB appearances over the past three years. He has a combined 3.93 earned run average through 36 2/3 innings, striking out 20.6% of opponents against an 8.8% walk rate. He leans mostly on a mid-80s slider while averaging around 94 MPH on his fastball. Veneziano has managed serviceable big league production, but he has given up eight runs with an underwhelming 12:9 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 12 Triple-A appearances this year.

St. Louis traded Ryan Helsley, Steven Matz and Phil Maton at the deadline. They lost John King to an oblique strain last week. JoJo Romero is the only southpaw in Oli Marmol’s bullpen. He is now the team’s best reliever and probably going to get a decent amount of work in the ninth inning. Romero picked up the save, his first of the season, on Saturday in the team’s only win since the Helsley trade. Veneziano won’t jump right into the big league bullpen, but he’s the only other healthy lefty reliever on the 40-man roster.

Poll: Who Had The Best Deadline In The NL East?

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The trade deadline has come and gone. While trade season was slow to get started this year, when all was said and done, there were several dozen trades made in a flurry of movement over the final few days before the deadline arrived. The full impact of these trades won’t be known for years to come, but that doesn’t mean we can’t analyze the deals and decide whose haul looks the best right now. Over the next week-plus, MLBTR will be running a series of polls asking which club in each division had the best deadline, starting today with the National League East. A look at each of the five clubs, listed from best to worst record in 2025:

Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies made one of the biggest trades of the entire deadline when they landed closer Jhoan Duran from the Twins. With a 1.93 ERA and 18 saves this season, Duran figures to fortify the back of the bullpen and checks off the biggest need for Philadelphia. The club made a few more deals, but none were quite as impactful as adding Duran. Harrison Bader should provide a strong complement to Brandon Marsh and Max Kepler in the outfield against left-handed pitching while also improving the club’s defense. Matt Manning and Brewer Hicklen are purely depth additions who are not on the club’s active roster but could offer some protection against injury. Losing Mick Abel and Eduardo Tait from the farm system in order to bring in Duran is a blow, but the value an elite closer like Duran could provide over the next two-plus years figures to justify that cost.

New York Mets

The Mets took nearly the opposite approach to their primary rival for the division title this deadline, as they made a number of mid-level additions without swinging any one massive blockbuster. They added a second All-Star closer to the roster when they scooped up Ryan Helsley in a deal with the Cardinals to serve as the top setup man for closer Edwin Diaz, and further fortified their bullpen with trades for Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto. They capped their deadline off by adding Cedric Mullins to the outfield in a move that could be game-changing for a club that was forced to rely on Tyrone Taylor (55 wRC+) as their regular center fielder throughout the first half. A legitimate starting-caliber player in center field and one of the best bullpens in the league should leave most Mets fans pretty happy with these additions, but the cost was significant. The Mets surrendered their #6, #10, #14, #22, #25, #27, and #28 prospects (according to Baseball America) in these trades alongside big league reliever Jose Butto. The club’s top five prospects remained untouched, but it’s still a steep price to pay for a package of players who are all ticketed for free agency this winter.

Miami Marlins

The Marlins had a rather quiet deadline where their headline move was shipping outfielder Jesus Sanchez to the Astros in exchange for a package of three players headlined by young starter Ryan Gusto. Aside from that, the fish dealt catcher Nick Fortes to the Rays for Double-A outfielder Matthew Etzel in a move that opens up playing time behind the plate for Agustin Ramirez and Liam Hicks and picked up depth reliever Michael Petersen from the Braves in a cash deal. The Sanchez move was a solid one that brings a young pitching talent into the fold for a club with a knack for developing young arms, but the most notable thing about Miami’s deadline is what they didn’t do: trade Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera. A run to the postseason this year is still very unlikely, but the quiet trade deadline gave the 55-55 Marlins a chance to see if they can keep up their recent torrid pace for another two months.

Atlanta Braves

Atlanta had something of a perplexing deadline. Like the Marlins, the biggest storyline here isn’t about the moves they made but rather about their decision to keep Raisel Iglesias and Marcell Ozuna in the fold. While Alcantara and Cabrera both have multiple seasons of control remaining with the Marlins, Iglesias and Ozuna are pending free agents who cannot even be extended Qualifying Offers this November. It was puzzling to see Atlanta shy away from dealing either of them and instead make a small handful of pitching additions. Erick Fedde, Dane Dunning, Tyler Kinley, Carlos Carrasco, and Hunter Stratton were added to help fortify a beleaguered pitching staff, and the trio of Fedde, Dunning, and Carrasco should help protect the club’s young arms from overuse down the stretch. The Rafael Montero trade stands as the club’s biggest sell-side move, however, while only Stratton (and perhaps Kinley or Dunning) will impact the club beyond the 2025 campaign of the team’s acquisitions.

Washington Nationals

The Nationals were the most aggressive sellers in the division as they shipped out Amed Rosario, Alex Call, Kyle Finnegan, Michael Soroka, Andrew Chafin, and Luis Garcia. Of that group, only the 30-year-old Call was controlled beyond the 2025 season. With a lackluster 44-67 record, it’s understandable that the Nationals would sell off a number of pieces, though they did hold onto some of their controllable pieces with higher potential for impact like MacKenzie Gore and Nathaniel Lowe. Former top prospects Jake Eder and Clayton Beeter are perhaps the most recognizable names from the haul the Nats received for their veteran pieces, but they received ten prospects and young players in total. According to MLB Pipeline, the club’s #10 (Sean Paul Linan), #11 (Christian Franklin), #12 (Eriq Swan), #13 (Ronny Cruz), #23 (Josh Randall), and #24 (Beeter) prospects were all acquired in this sell-off. That should keep their farm system fairly well-stocked headed in the first offseason of the post-Mike Rizzo era of Nationals baseball.

The NL East’s teams ran the gamut between buying and selling this year. The Phillies and Mets were both aggressive buyers, but took different approaches as the Phillies prioritized a controllable star while New York focused on the short-term. The Marlins and Braves were mostly quiet this summer, while the Nationals bolstered their farm system through several trades of veteran players. Who do MLBTR readers think had the best deadline of the division? Have your say in the poll below:

Which NL East team had the best deadline?
Philadelphia Phillies 50.40% (1,992 votes)
New York Mets 34.99% (1,383 votes)
Washington Nationals 7.24% (286 votes)
Miami Marlins 3.74% (148 votes)
Atlanta Braves 3.62% (143 votes)
Total Votes: 3,952

Marlins Designate Jack Winkler For Assignment

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The Marlins announced that infielder Jack Winkler has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding 40-man move for their previously reported claim of outfielder Joey Wiemer off waivers. It also opens an active roster spot for outfielder Derek Hill, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.

Winkler, 26, was just added to Miami’s roster at the end of May. Since then, he has been rarely used as a bench player or down in the minors on optional assignment. He has appeared in just 11 major league games and has been sent to the plate just 12 times, mostly getting put into game as a pinch runner. He has two singles and four strikeouts, giving him a career .167/.167/.167 line in that tiny sample of work.

He now heads into DFA limbo. Since the trade deadline has passed, the Marlins will have to put him on waivers in the coming days. If he garners any interest, it would naturally be based on his larger body of work in the minors.

His offense has generally been subpar but he’s been able to steal bases and bounce around the diamond. In 51 Triple-A games this year, he has a .241/.304/.379 batting line and 84 wRC+. He has stolen 17 bases without getting caught and played all four spots on the infield. He has a small amount of experience in the outfield corners in previous seasons as well.

If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Marlins as non-roster depth. He doesn’t have three years of big league experience nor a previous career outright, so he wouldn’t have the right to elect free agency.

Photo courtesy of Rhona Wise, Imagn Images

Marlins Claim Joey Wiemer

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The Marlins have claimed outfielder Joey Wiemer off waivers from the Royals and optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald. He was designated for assignment by Kansas City last week.

Wiemer, 26, once ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects during his time in the Brewers system. The 2020 fourth-rounder had a huge season between Class-A and High-A in 2021 and hit well as a 23-year-old between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022.

Wiemer made his big league debut in 2023, showing off some of the power, speed and defense that made him a well-regarded prospect but also some of the red flags that troubled scouts. He popped 13 homers and swiped 11 bags in 410 plate appearances but also hit just .204/.283/.362. Nearly all of his production came against left-handed pitching. He received only 28 plate appearances the following season, and he’s since been traded to the Reds and the Royals before now landing in Miami.

It’s a small sample, but in 139 major league plate appearances, Wiemer has hit .263/.295/.481 (108 wRC+) against left-handed pitching. He’s still fanned in nearly 32% of his plate appearances versus southpaws, however, and he’s just a .169/.271/.281 hitter in 299 plate appearances versus righties. Wiemer can handle all three outfield positions and draws positive marks from both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average.

Wiemer hasn’t had much success in Triple-A this year, and it’s fairly damning that a team with outfield struggles as pronounced as those we’ve seen in Kansas City never game him a look in the majors. In 296 Triple-A plate appearances this year, he’s hitting .182/.291/.312 with nine homers and 12 steals.

This is Wiemer’s final minor league option year. He’ll need to stick on a big league roster in 2026 or else be designated for assignment (assuming, of course, he sticks on a 40-man roster until next year, which is no sure thing). He’ll give the Fish some depth in the outfield for the time being but could eventually emerge as a bench option/fourth outfielder if he can turn things around in Jacksonville between now and season’s end.

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