Padres Place Jeremiah Estrada On Injured List
The Padres placed reliever Jeremiah Estrada on the 15-day injured list minutes before tonight’s game against the Rockies. Jason Adam takes his place in the bullpen, as he has been reinstated from his own IL stint. Estrada is battling elbow tendinitis.
It’s the first roster move of the regular season for the Padres. San Diego’s Opening Day 26-man roster had been unchanged until tonight. They’ll swap out righty setup men at the back of Craig Stammen’s bullpen.
Estrada has been one of the better relievers in MLB over the past couple seasons. He combined for 134 frames of 3.22 ERA ball between 2024-25. Estrada fanned 36.3% of opposing hitters over that stretch, the sixth-best rate among relievers with at least 50 innings. Mason Miller, Edwin Díaz, Josh Hader, Aroldis Chapman and Devin Williams were the only pitchers who recorded higher strikeout rates. Estrada doesn’t get the same level of fanfare, in part because he hasn’t had many save opportunities, but he tied for fifth in MLB with 30 holds a year ago.
The righty hasn’t been as sharp this year. Estrada has allowed six runs (four earned) on five hits and walks apiece across seven innings. He has recorded eight strikeouts but his swinging strike rate has dropped four percentage points. Estrada’s average fastball has tumbled from 98 mph to 95. He indicated last night that he’d felt fine physically (link via Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune). The tendinitis diagnosis buys them some time to see if they can get him right physically and mechanically.
Adam is back from last year’s season-ending quad surgery. The righty suffered a tendon rupture in his left quad at the beginning of September. He’d hoped to make it back for Opening Day. Adam didn’t make his spring debut until a few days before the start of the regular season. The Padres shelved him to begin the year but immediately sent him on a rehab assignment to Triple-A El Paso. He fired five scoreless innings during his ramp-up, albeit with just one strikeout and a diminished 92.9 mph average fastball.
The IL swap delays a tough roster decision in an excellent San Diego bullpen. Ron Marinaccio is their eighth reliever on paper, but he’s out of options. He has tossed 7 2/3 frames of two-run ball to begin the season and would probably get claimed off waivers. Assuming they want to keep Kyle Hart in long relief, they’d either have needed to DFA Marinaccio or option one of David Morgan or Bradgley Rodriguez to create a bullpen spot for Adam.
Broncos’ Ownership Group Purchases Minority Share In Rockies
Penner Sports Group, a company run by the Penner family which owns the NFL’s Denver Broncos, has purchased a minority share in the Rockies. The MLB franchise announced the news this afternoon.
The Rockies specified only that the Penner investment made them the largest minority stakeholder under the Monfort family, which retains majority ownership. Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post provides specifics, reporting that the Penners are purchasing a 40% share of the franchise.
The team didn’t disclose the sale price, though Saunders writes that it’s believed to be around $672MM. The Rockies’ statement said the influx of cash allows them to “retire all outstanding debt while providing additional investment in the team.” It’s unclear if it’ll have any impact on player payrolls in the future. The Penners will remain focused on the Broncos and are not going to have daily responsibilities with the Rockies, Saunders reports.
Most of the major Denver sports franchises, the Broncos included, have been successful in recent years. The Rockies are coming off the first three 100-loss seasons in franchise history. They’ve had seven straight losing campaigns and dropped 119 games last year, tied for third-most in MLB history.
They’ve started this season respectably, going 6-7 while outscoring opponents by six runs, but are unlikely to be even a .500 club for some time. Colorado opened this season with a $117MM payroll, according to The Associated Press, the 21st-highest mark in the league. That’s down marginally from their $122MM season-opening figure in 2025.
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?
Athletics Place Brent Rooker On Injured List
The Athletics announced today that outfielder/designated hitter Brent Rooker has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to an oblique strain. Infielder/outfielder Zack Gelof has been recalled as the corresponding move.
It’s not an especially surprising development. Rooker appeared to injure himself on a swing yesterday, reaching for his side. He was removed from the game with the A’s announcing his issue as right flank discomfort. Gelof was scratched from the Triple-A lineup, which suggested he would likely be called up to take Rooker’s place.
The A’s haven’t announced how long they expect Rooker to be out but obliques can be pesky injuries for baseball players since they play a notable role in rotating the body, which is important for swinging and pitching. Rooker is out to a slow start this year, with a .146/.245/.293 line, but in a small sample of 49 plate appearances. In a much larger sample of 1,839 plate appearances from 2023 to 2025, he hit 99 home runs and slashed .268/.343/.509.
The one benefit for the A’s is greater positional flexibility, as Rooker is usually the designated hitter. They can now use that spot to move guys in and out, lightening their workloads from time to time. Gelof has only played second base in his big league career but has been dabbling with some outfield work lately. The A’s have mostly been using Jeff McNeil at second. He’s the oldest regular position player, so perhaps he will get some more time as the DH.
Gelof has shown power in his big league career but has also been punched out in a third of his plate appearances. He’ll need to get that down to become a viable big leaguer. For what it’s worth, his minor league season has started well. He has only been punched out at a 13% clip in his small sample of 54 trips to the plate, which has helped him produce a monster .366/.519/.732 line. No one should expect him to hit like that in the majors but any improvement in the strikeout department should be a big help.
If the A’s want to try him in the outfield, their current mix includes Tyler Soderstrom, Denzel Clarke, Lawrence Butler and Carlos Cortes. Using Rooker’s vacated DH spot could allow the club to potentially spread some at-bats to that group and Gelof.
Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images
Astros Select J.P. France, Taylor Trammell
April 10th: The Astros announced the expected moves today. Trammell and France have been added, with Blanco transferred to the 60-day IL. Javier’s injury was listed as a grade two shoulder strain and Meyers’ is a grade two oblique strain. Both are retroactive to April 9th.
April 9th, 11:13 am: Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports that the Astros are also planning to select outfielder Taylor Trammell. This almost certainly indicates that fellow outfielder Jake Meyers is headed to the injured list. Meyers exited on Wednesday with lower back tightness. Like France, Trammell will require a spot on the 40-man roster, and currently, Houston only has one opening. That means the Astros will have to free up one more space to add both France and Trammell before tomorrow’s game. Ronel Blanco, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery last June, is a likely candidate to move from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL.
Trammell, 28, is a five-year MLB veteran. After bouncing from the Mariners to the Dodgers to the Yankees in 2024, he was traded to the Astros ahead of the 2025 campaign. A pair of IL stints limited him to 52 games for Houston, though that was still a career-high for the lefty batter. He slashed .197/.296/.333 with an 80 wRC+, mostly splitting his time between left and center field. He was DFA’d and sent outright to Triple-A after the season. However, a hot spring (.904 OPS, 136 wRC+) and an even hotter start for Sugar Land (1.003 OPS, 177 wRC+) have earned him another chance in the majors. He’s likely to serve as at least the strong half of a platoon in center field while Meyers is on the shelf.
10:00 am: The Astros will select J.P. France’s contract from Triple-A Sugar Land before tomorrow’s game against the Mariners, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. He will be able to take the 40-man roster spot left vacant after Roddery Muñoz was designated for assignment on Monday.
As for the 26-man roster, there’s a good chance France is replacing Cristian Javier, who exited his start on Wednesday with shoulder tightness. It’s also possible the Astros won’t be ready to make a decision about Javier by tomorrow, but that they still want a fresh arm for the bullpen, given the workload their relievers shouldered in yesterday’s 9-1 loss. In that case, they might consider optioning AJ Blubaugh, who has given up nine runs on nine hits in his last two outings. Meanwhile, Spencer Arrighetti is the most likely candidate for a call-up if Houston needs a longer-term replacement for Javier in the rotation. Jason Alexander is also available at Triple-A.
France, 31, made 23 starts for the Astros in 2023, his rookie campaign. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury ruined his next two seasons. He made just seven appearances for Houston between 2024 and ’25 and struggled in a handful of minor league outings as well. The team designated him for assignment this past offseason and sent him outright to Triple-A. However, if the early results from 2026 are any indication, France seems to be throwing with a healthy shoulder again. He struck out 13 batters in 11.2 innings this spring and another eight in his first 5.1 frames for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys. The righty has yet to allow a run at Triple-A, with just one walk and two hits allowed to the 19 batters he’s faced.
If France can get back to pitching the way he did in 2023 – whether he’s starting or working in long relief – the Astros will surely be grateful. Through 13 games, Houston’s pitchers have the highest ERA in the AL (6.05). Walks and home runs have both been serious problems. What’s more, two of the team’s most important arms are on the injured list: Hunter Brown (shoulder strain) and Josh Hader (biceps tendinitis). Losing Javier for any period of time would only further weaken a beleaguered staff. While the team still has depth arms to call on for the rotation and the bullpen, those options are starting to wear thin.
Brewers Sign Reiss Knehr to Minor League Deal
The Brewers signed right-handed pitcher Reiss Knehr to a minor league deal yesterday, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to the Arizona Complex League (ACL) Brewers squad, likely in an effort to build up following an injury-shortened (yet still effective) showing at Triple-A El Paso in 2025. He would presumably fill out the upper minors of Milwaukee’s system as an emergency starter or long-relief depth option. Knehr is represented by ACES.
Knehr, a former 20th-round pick by the San Diego Padres, has seen only limited major league action. Across three seasons (2021-2023) for the big league club, Knehr appeared in 21 games and tossed 48 1/3-innings, primarily out of the bullpen. However, he did make seven starts; he could serve in a similar spot starter/opener role for the Brewers in the event of injuries to the Major League staff.
His 5.96 ERA is unsightly. MLB batters facing Knehr struck out at only a 15.5% clip, walked at an elevated 13.2% rate, and put the ball on the ground only 32.0% of the time (all well below-average metrics for an MLB pitcher). Knehr’s career 5.75 SIERA, a backwards-looking ERA estimator, is only slightly below his career ERA, suggesting his results are not due to misfortune or the flukiness of a small sample size.
Unfortunately, Tommy John surgery ended Knehr’s 2023 season prematurely and wiped out his 2024. He returned on a minor league deal with San Diego during the 2024 offseason and generated velocity improvements to his fastball (+1.2 MPH), cutter (+1.4 MPH), and sinker (+2.0 MPH), resulting in a career-high 36.9% K% in 16.2 Triple-A innings, but did not receive a call-up to the big league club. He spent the latter parts of the season on the minor league injured list, not making an appearance after May 21st.
After electing free agency at the end of the 2025 season, Knehr will continue his MLB comeback with an organization that has a knack for pitching development. And while Knehr is far from a sure thing for the Brewers, he represents a risk-free minor league signing. If he makes the team, he is out of options but can be retained for five years should he make an impact on the major league roster.
Tigers Place Parker Meadows On Injured List
The Tigers have placed outfielder Parker Meadows on the 10-day injured list with a concussion and a fractured radius in his left arm. He also received five stitches in his mouth, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. Fellow outfielder Wenceel Pérez has been recalled in a corresponding move. Evan Woodbery of MLive reported the moves prior to the official club announcement.
The injury occurred in yesterday’s game against the Twins. Josh Bell hit a ball to left-center field, the perfect spot for the center fielder Meadows and left fielder Riley Greene to get there at the same time. As seen in this video from MLB.com, the two collided. Greene caught the ball and seemed unscathed but Meadows was down for a while and had blood coming out of his mouth. He seemed woozy when getting onto a cart, which took him off the field.
Given what transpired yesterday, it’s not especially surprising that he has suffered a concussion. He also revealed yesterday, per Chris McCosky of Detroit News, that he bit the inside of his mouth on impact. That explains the blood and the stitches. The broken bone in his arm, presumably suffered when he collided with the ground, may be the thing that keeps him out for longer. The Tigers haven’t provided an estimated timeline for his recovery but a broken arm will surely require him to miss weeks, if not months.
There will likely be more information provided in the near future. For now, the Tigers will sub Pérez into their outfield mix. He has been a solid player for them in recent years but he got squeezed off the Opening Day roster by Kevin McGonigle. Detroit decided to break camp with their top prospect and someone had to go. Pérez still has options and he also had a rough spring, slashing .190/.277/.333, so he got sent down.
In ten Triple-A games to start the year, Pérez has a .250/.353/.455 line. That’s a small sample size but is much closer to his big league line of .243/.304/.405, so it seems he has put his rough spring behind him.
Though it was a brief stint in the minors, it was just long enough to impact Pérez’s career. He came into this year with exactly two years of big league service time. There are now only 171 days remaining in the season and a player needs to be in the majors for 172 days to earn a full service year. Even if Pérez stays up for the rest of the season, he can’t get to the three-year line in 2026. That means his path to free agency has been pushed into the future by a year, though he could still qualify for arbitration after this season as a Super Two player.
Pérez will join an outfield mix that includes Greene as a staple in left. The other two spots will likely involve some rotation of Pérez, Kerry Carpenter, Matt Vierling, Zach McKinstry, Jahmai Jones and Javier Báez, with the designated hitter spot also fairly open for guys in that group to get more at-bats.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images
Yankees Designate Cade Winquest For Assignment
April 10th: The Yanks have made it officially, announcing that Gil has been recalled and Winquest has been designated for assignment.
April 9th: The Yankees are designating Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest for assignment, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The righty didn’t get into a game during his two weeks in New York’s bullpen.
That’ll evidently be the corresponding move for tomorrow’s recall of Luis Gil. Manager Aaron Boone said over the weekend that the Yankees would bring Gil up this week. He’s listed as the probable starter opposite Steven Matz for Friday’s series opener against the Rays. The 13-pitcher limit meant an arm from the MLB roster had to be squeezed out.
The Yankees had the luxury of running a four-man rotation for the first couple weeks based on their number of available off days. Gil joins Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers in the rotation. They needed to drop from nine to eight in the bullpen. Brent Headrick has pitched too well to be sent down. Jake Bird has been sharp as well aside from one ugly outing against Miami on Sunday. Fernando Cruz and Camilo Doval are their only other relievers with minor league options.
Rather than option a more trusted reliever in Bird, the Yankees move on from Winquest. The 25-year-old didn’t have a great spring, allowing nine runs (eight earned) with eight strikeouts and four walks across 10 innings. It was a surprise that he broke camp at all.
The Yankees clearly liked some of what they saw but didn’t find a scenario where Boone felt comfortable bringing him into a regular season game. Teams generally use Rule 5 picks as low-leverage relievers, especially early in the season before they’ve gained a manager’s trust. All four of New York’s losses have been by one run, games in which they could certainly have come back. They’ve had three blowout wins, but two came behind long outings from Fried and one followed an off day so the rest of the bullpen was fresh.
They’ll have five days to trade Winquest or place him on waivers. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll be offered back to the Cardinals. The former eighth-round pick had previously spent his entire career in the St. Louis organization. He has worked as a minor league starting pitcher and combined for a 3.99 ERA across 106 innings between High-A and Double-A last year. Unless another team is willing to keep him on the MLB roster, he’ll head back to his original club without requiring a spot on the 40-man roster for St. Louis.
Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript
Anthony Franco
- Good evening, hope you're all doing well!
- Looking forward to another of these, let's get it rolling
Guest
- Despite his low EVs and 1st percentile bat speed, Jacob Wilson's elite bat-to-ball skills helped him to compete for a batting title his rookie season. But so far in 2026 his hacktastic 'swing at everything' ways have gotten him a .196/.196/.255 slash line that has not been the result of bad luck. Given what he did in 2025 and what he is doing (in a 12 game sample) in 2026, what do you see for him as a hitter moving forward?
Anthony Franco
- Whiffs are up, relatively speaking, because he's really taking the 'swing at everything' approach to heart but it's a tiny sample and they're pressing up and down the lineup right now. Not worried about it and still think he's a true talent .300 hitter
- 13 homers again seems optimistic but 8-10 with 25 doubles is reasonable
Kevin Cash
- Is my job safe beyond 2026 if I can't right the ship for a 3rd straight year?
Anthony Franco
- They're the worst team in the AL East on paper and it's not like they've been disastrous over the past couple years. Unless new ownership just wants to shake things up, can't see why they wouldn't remain committed to Cash moving forward
Jordan
- I'm pleasantly surprised by the Braves start and if they're able to remain in the mix until the deadline who would be some realistic targets for them to go after that Profar money?
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