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Phillies Designate Carlos Hernández For Assignment

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The Phillies announced Wednesday morning that right-handed reliever Carlos Hernández has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 26-man roster will go to fellow righty Michael Mercado, who’s been recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Mercado was already on the 40-man roster, so the Phils now have one open spot.

Hernández, 28, came to the Phils via waivers back in spring training. The Royals had attempted to pass the flamethrowing, out-of-options righty through waivers and retain him as a depth arm, but Philadelphia claimed the power-armed, 6’4″ righty in hopes of unlocking what’s long looked like some latent potential.

It hasn’t worked out thus far. In 25 2/3 innings out of Rob Thomson’s bullpen, Hernández has been tagged for 15 earned runs on 32 hits and 13 walks. He’s plunked a pair of hitters as well. The resulting 5.26 ERA is an eyesore, Hernández’s once strong strikeout rate has dipped below average; he’s fanned only 18.7% of opponents against a 10.6% walk rate.

Back in 2023, Hernández looked like a breakout arm in Kansas City’s bullpen in the season’s first half. He was averaging better than 99 mph on his fastball and carried a 3.57 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate into that year’s trade deadline. With the Royals operating as sellers and Hernández performing so well, he even looked like an under-the-radar trade chip for a club that, at the time, didn’t have much to peddle to deadline buyers.

The Royals hung onto Hernández — understandably so; he had four additional seasons of club control remaining — and things went south almost immediately. Hernández served up four runs in his third outing post-deadline, and his season snowballed from there. In 17 innings post-deadline, he was shelled for 20 runs. The strong command he’d displayed evaporated, as he walked more hitters than he struck out in the season’s final two months. Hernández missed about two months the following season due to shoulder troubles. He never required surgery, but his velocity has never returned to his 2023 levels, and his command has never rebounded to the levels we saw in the first two-thirds of the 2023 season.

Now that Hernández has been designated for assignment, the Phillies will either trade him or place him on waivers within the next five days. Waivers themselves are a 48-hour process. Within a week’s time, we’ll know what’s next for the hard-throwing righty.

Aaron Nola To Be Shut Down For Two Weeks With Stress Reaction In Rib Cage

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Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola is already on the injured list but won’t be returning soon. Per Matt Gelb of The Athletic, a recent MRI revealed a stress reaction in his right rib cage. He won’t throw for the next two weeks.

Nola landed on the 15-day IL almost a month ago due to a sprained right ankle. It’s unclear how or when he suffered this rib injury but it’s a notable setback for him. Even if he’s healthy two weeks from now, it will have been about six weeks since his most recent game action. At that point, he’ll have to ramp back up into game shape. As noted by Gelb, it’s now possible that Nola won’t return until after the All-Star break.

Prior to hitting the IL, Nola wasn’t having his best season, with a 6.16 earned run average in nine starts. However, that may not have been entirely his fault. His 23.6% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate were fairly close to his previous levels, while his .348 batting average on balls in play and 68.7% strand rate were both to the unlucky side. ERA estimators like his 5.00 FIP and especially his 3.63 SIERA felt he deserved far better.

He now won’t get a chance to improve his numbers for a while. As he has been out of action, the Phils have endured their toughest stretch of the season. They have lost nine of their past eleven contests, dropping them to four games back of the Mets in the National League East.

On paper, the Philadelphia rotation is strong even without Nola in it. They still have Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo and Mick Abel. However, Wheeler recently spent some time on the paternity list and Luzardo’s past two starts have been awful. Abel’s big league numbers are good so far but he literally has two starts under his belt.

Ideally, that group can help the team right the ship in the coming weeks. If not, the Phils have some potential in-house pivots. Prospect Andrew Painter is now healthy and putting up decent numbers in Triple-A, though he may have workload concerns after missing all of the previous two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. Taijuan Walker is currently in the bullpen and could return to the rotation, though getting stretched out midseason can be a challenge.

The trade deadline is on July 31st, which may coincide with Nola’s return to the big league club. Given the starting options the Phils already have on hand, trading for more help is probably not the top of their to-do list, but it’s always possible that more injuries pop up or that Nola experiences another setback of some kind.

Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images

Phillies Claim Ryan Cusick, Designate Kyle Tyler

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The Phillies announced that right-hander Ryan Cusick was claimed off waivers from the White Sox and optioned to the Florida Complex League.  In the corresponding roster move, Philadelphia designated right-hander Kyle Tyler for assignment.

In less than two weeks’ time, Cusick is now joining his fourth different team after a whirlwind series of waiver claims.  The odyssey started when he was designated for assignment by the Athletics on May 27, and he has since gone from the A’s to the Tigers to the White Sox and now to the Phils.  Cusick will now head not to Philadelphia’s Triple-A affiliate but to the FCL for what might be a mechanical tune-up in the wake of a difficult minor league season.

The 25-year-old Cusick was the 24th overall pick of the 2021 draft, selected by the Braves but then quickly flipped to the Athletics that offseason as part of the trade package that brought Matt Olson to Atlanta.  Cusick has struggled to live up to that first-round potential, as his career 5.20 ERA over 238 2/3 minor league innings hasn’t resulted in any Major League playing time.

A starter for most of his career, Cusick appears to have moved into the bullpen on a full-time basis this season, but the results haven’t been there, as he has more walks (14) than strikeouts (11) while posting a 6.32 ERA over 15 2/3 combined innings with the Athletics’ and Tigers’ Triple-A affiliates in 2025.  The Phillies will become the latest team to see if they can solve Cusick’s control problems and turn him into a playable big league reliever.

Tyler can relate to Cusick’s waiver wire travels, as Tyler also changed teams four times on waiver claims within a month’s span in March-April 2022.  His MLB resume consists of a 4.31 ERA over 48 innings with the Angels, Padres, and Marlins, with the bulk (31 2/3 IP) of that work coming with Miami last year.

Tyler started seven of his eight games with the Marlins, and has mostly worked as a starter over the last three seasons in the minors after working in more of a swingman capacity earlier in his career.  All 12 of Tyler’s outings with Triple-A Lehigh Valley came as a starter, though he had only a 4.31 ERA, 15.6% strikeout rate, and 7.6% walk rate.  The Phillies are deeper than most teams when it comes to starting pitching, while Tyler’s numbers don’t jump off the page, another club in need of rotation depth could be motivated to put in a claim.

Braves Claim Jose Ruiz From Phillies

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The Braves announced that right-hander Jose Ruiz has been claimed off the Phillies’ waiver wire.  Atlanta has yet to announce a corresponding move for the 26-man roster, and a 40-man move doesn’t need to be made since the Braves only had 39 players on their 40-man roster.

Philadelphia designated Ruiz for assignment last week, after the righty posted an 8.16 ERA in 14 1/3 relief innings this season.  A 4.11 SIERA paints a better picture of Ruiz’s quality, as a .383 BABIP and a 57% strand rate contributed to that inflated ERA.  Still, Ruiz didn’t help his cause by allowing a lot of hard contact, and striking out only 17.6% of batters.  He also spent just under three weeks on the injured list in May due to neck spasms, and he was charged with seven earned runs (over three innings) over his three appearances after returning from the IL.

Ruiz has pitched in parts of the last nine Major League seasons, amassing a 4.55 ERA in 284 2/3 innings with four different teams (primarily the White Sox from 2018-23).  Inconsistency has marked Ruiz’s career, though he has been a solid bullpen piece during his better seasons — a 3.05 ERA over 65 innings for the AL Central champion White Sox in 2021, and a 3.71 ERA over 51 frames for the Phillies just last year.  Ruiz has always been a hard thrower, but his 95.7mph fastball this season is down a mile from the 96.7mph average he posted prior to 2025.

While the results haven’t been there this season, the Braves saw enough in Ruiz to put in a claim, and absorb the 30-year-old’s remaining 2025 salary (roughly $765.6K of a $1.225MM salary).  It isn’t a huge figure, and it’s enough for the Braves to take a flier on Ruiz and add him to the long list of pitchers cycled through the back of Atlanta’s struggling bullpen.

Phillies Place Bryce Harper On 10-Day IL Due To Wrist Inflammation

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The Phillies announced that Bryce Harper has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 6) due to inflammation in his right wrist.  Utilityman Otto Kemp had his contract selected from Triple-A in a corresponding move, and no 40-man transaction was needed since the Phillies only had 39 men on their 40-man roster.  Philadelphia also sent right-hander Alan Rangel down to Triple-A while calling up righty Daniel Robert to provide a fresh arm for the bullpen.

Harper didn’t play in the Phils’ 5-4 loss to the Pirates yesterday, and manager Rob Thomson told reporters (including Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer) that Harper was being given a rest day to deal with a wrist problem that has been bothering the first baseman “for a while,” as Thomson put it.  Lauber wrote that it isn’t known if this current injury is similar to or a continuation of the right wrist issue that also nagged at Harper during the 2024 season.

It’s been a rough stretch overall for Harper on the health front, as he was hit on the right elbow by a Spencer Strider pitch on May 27 and then missed Philadelphia’s next five games.  No IL stint was ultimately required for that injury, though Harper had only one hit in 11 plate appearances after returning to the lineup.  Between both Harper’s wrist and any lingering soreness with his elbow, a proper IL placement seems like a good idea to allow Harper to get fully rested and healed up.

Harper is hitting .258/.368/.446 with nine home runs over 253 PA this season — good for a strong 129 wRC+ but down from Harper’s usual superstar levels of production.  While there’s never a good time to get drilled on the elbow by a Major League pitch, Harper’s painful encounter with Strider came at a particularly inopportune moment, as Harper had a .936 OPS in the 20 games prior to May 27.

With Harper either unavailable or not hitting much, the Phillies have hit a slump in the last week, losing seven of their last eight games.  Alec Bohm moved over to play first base in Harper’s previous absence and Edmundo Sosa played third base, so that will likely be the most standard alignment for the Phils while Harper is on the IL.  Weston Wilson could also factor into the infield picture if utilityman Sosa is spending more time in an everyday role, and Kemp has seen a lot of time at first, second, and third base (plus a handful of games at shortstop and in the corner outfield) during his four minor league seasons.

Kemp will be making his Major League debut whenever he first appears in a game for the Phillies, which marks quite a journey for a player who went undrafted in 2022.  Philadelphia signed Kemp as a free agent following the draft and he has only gotten better as he has risen through the minor league ranks, including some sensational numbers at Triple-A Lehigh Valley this year.  The 25-year-old Kemp is hitting .317/.417/.602 with over 264 Triple-A plate appearances, and he leads the International League with 14 home runs.

This kind of production is more than worthy of a look at the MLB level, and Kemp figures to also be part of the third base picture while Harper is out.  Like Bohm, Sosa, and Wilson, Kemp is also a right-handed hitter, so it doesn’t make for a smooth platoon situation.  Since Kemp has played some left field in Lehigh Valley, however, he might get some time in left field in place of the left-handed hitting Max Kepler if a southpaw is on the mound.

Phillies Recall Alan Rangel For MLB Debut

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The Phillies announced that right-hander Alan Rangel has been recalled to the big league roster. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. Fellow righty Seth Johnson was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley as the corresponding move.

Rangel, 27, has actually been in the big leagues before. He was on Atlanta’s roster during the 2022 season but on optional assignment for most of it. They recalled him late in September but optioned him back to the minors three days later without getting him into a game. He was non-tendered after that season and has been stuck in the minors since then.

The Phillies signed him to a minor league deal last summer and evidently liked what they saw. They added him to their 40-man roster in November to prevent him from qualifying for minor league free agency. He has been in good form this year, having tossed 57 1/3 innings over 12 Triple-A starts. The 5.02 earned run average doesn’t look too exciting but his 25.4% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate are both good numbers. The ERA has seemingly been inflated by a .325 batting average on balls in play and 16.2% home to flyball ratio.

Philadelphia is doing a bullpen game tonight, with Aaron Nola on the injured list and Zack Wheeler on the paternity list. Joe Ross will technically be the starter, though he’s been in the bullpen this year and likely can’t go more than two innings. Taijuan Walker was stretched out earlier in the year but has only thrown one inning in the past week. Rangel gives the club a fresh arm capable of covering multiple innings.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Phillies Non-Tender José Rodríguez, Re-Sign Him To Minor League Deal

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5:10 pm: Rodríguez has already agreed to re-sign with Philadelphia on a minor league contract, reports Francys Romero. He’ll be assigned to Low-A for now as he gets back into game shape but will presumably head to Double-A or Triple-A at some point.

4:24pm: Infielder José Rodríguez has been reinstated from the restricted list and non-tendered by the Phillies, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic. The Phillies had an opening on their 40-man roster and could have optioned Rodríguez to the minors while keeping him on the 40-man. However, Gelb suggests the Phils may want to use that roster spot on a pitcher in the coming days.

Rodríguez was one of four players serving a one-year ban for breaking MLB’s regulations about betting on baseball games. Rodríguez wagered a total of $749 on baseball games while he was playing Double-A ball in the White Sox’ system. Some of his bets included MLB games though he was not on Chicago’s 40-man roster on the time.

Non-tenders are usually reserved for a specific date in the offseason. Any player on a roster in-season was already tendered a contract by his club over the winter or signed as a free agent. However, MLBTR has confirmed that because Rodríguez was on the ineligible list in the offseason, he could not be tendered a contract or non-tendered. That decision had to wait until he was eligible for reinstatement.

Today marks the expiration of the one-year bans on Rodríguez, A’s right-hander Michael Kelly, D-backs lefty Andrew Saalfrank and Padres left-hander Jay Groome. Kelly and Saalfrank were each reinstated by their respective clubs today. Groome and Rodríguez were both non-tendered.

Because Rodríguez is being non-tendered, he won’t have to pass through waivers. He’ll immediately become a free agent. He’s eligible to re-sign with the Phillies on a minor league deal but can also explore opportunities with any team around the league.

Rodríguez has spent most of his career with the White Sox. He was added to that club’s 40-man roster in November of 2022, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. His major league career consists of one game in 2023. He entered as a pinch runner and scored but did not get a plate appearance. He was designated for assignment in April of 2024 and traded to the Phils for cash considerations.

In the minors, he has generally been good for 30-40 steals per year while splitting his time between the three infield spots to the left of first base. He has a batting line of .282/.324/.444 over his minor league career, which translates to a 103 wRC+. He still has one option year remaining.

Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images

Phillies Moving Taijuan Walker To Short Relief

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For the second time in as many months, the Phillies are pulling right-hander Taijuan Walker from their starting rotation. Paul Casella of MLB.com reported this morning that Walker’s being moved to the bullpen permanently in a move that will clear the way for right-hander Mick Abel to be promoted to the majors and fill in for Aaron Nola in the starting rotation. Matt Gelb of The Athletic added further context to that reporting, noting that Walker is specifically moving to a one-inning, setup role in order to help bolster the club’s late-inning mix. Meanwhile, Gelb notes that Abel will get at least two starts for the Phillies before Nola’s return, which the club currently expects to occur near the middle of June.

It’s a big change for Walker, who has just ten career relief appearances and has served exclusively as a long relief arm in those outings. Gelb notes that Walker has never pitched on back-to-back days before in his career, an adjustment that will surely take some getting used to for the right-hander. Still, it’s understandable for Philadelphia to want to try him in this new role given the state of their pitching staff. Abel is knocking on the door of the majors as a potential rotation option with top prospect Andrew Painter potentially not all that far behind, and the Phillies’ rotation is already full when healthy. Without much of a path to a long-term rotation role in the cards for Walker anyway, it makes sense for the club to try him in a new role.

Given that the Phillies recently lost Jose Alvarado to a PED suspension, saw Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez depart in free agency over the winter, and have watched Jordan Romano struggle badly this year after being signed to serve as the club’s closer, there’s perhaps no greater need on the roster than that for a high leverage relief arm to join Matt Strahm in supporting Romano. Walker will now be tasked with doing just that, and Gelb notes that he seemed intrigued by the idea after his last start.

“If I have one inning to blow it out, whatever it is, I feel like my stuff would play up just a little bit more,” Walker said last week, as relayed by Gelb. “Knowing that I got one inning, just let it eat.”

Walker’s departure from the rotation makes room for Abel to join the mix, at least temporarily. The right-hander made his big league debut earlier this season in a spot start and was extremely impressive, tossing six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts against zero walks. The Phillies were clearly intrigued by that dazzling performance, and now he’ll get to make at least a couple additional starts. Abel is set to join the club to start Thursday’s game against the Blue Jays, and Gelb notes that after that he’ll be in line to start against the Cubs next week. Those offenses are far more impressive than the Pirates lineup Abel dominated in his big league debut, so these next pair of outings will be a major test for the 23-year-old right-hander.

Phillies Designate Jose Ruiz For Assignment

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The Phillies announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Jose Ruiz for assignment. The move makes room for right-hander Seth Johnson to be recalled to the big league roster.

Ruiz, 30, was a valuable piece of the Philadelphia bullpen as recently as last year but has struggled badly so far in the 2025 campaign. In 14 1/3 innings of work across 16 appearances, the right-hander has pitched to an ugly 8.16 ERA with a 5.39 FIP to this point in the season. Some of that can be chalked up to a low strand rate and high BABIP that indicate poor luck with batted balls and sequencing, but Ruiz’s career-worst 17.6% strikeout rate and elevated 8.8% walk rate have served to exacerbate an overall profile that already lent itself to elevated home run rates.

The Phillies will have one week to either trade Ruiz or place him on outright waivers. If the righty goes unclaimed, he has the necessary service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. A veteran of parts of nine big league seasons, Ruiz has enough past success on his resume that it’s not hard to imagine him attracting interest either on the waiver wire or in free agency. In addition to last year’s 3.71 ERA in 51 innings with the Phillies, he also pitched to a 3.00 ERA in 69 innings for the White Sox from 2020-21, with a 3.98 FIP and a 23.9% strikeout rate. If one of the league’s other clubs can help Ruiz get back into something approaching that form, it would be a major boost to virtually any relief corps around the league.

Replacing Ruiz on the roster is Johnson, who the Phillies acquired in the Gregory Soto trade last summer. The 26-year-old made his big league debut with the Phillies last year in a spot start that went quite poorly, as he surrendered nine runs in 2 1/3 frames. The righty has a 4.02 ERA in 56 innings of work for the Phillies at the Triple-A level over the past two years, although he’s primarily been used out of the bullpen this season to lackluster results (4.91 ERA). That’s the role Johnson figures to fill with the big league club this time around, providing multi-inning relief as necessary for the club while he’s on the roster.

Blue Jays Trade Josh Walker To Phillies

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The Phillies announced the acquisition of lefty reliever Josh Walker from the Blue Jays for cash considerations. Philadelphia has had a free 40-man roster spot since José Alvarado was suspended. They optioned Walker to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, so no additional move was necessary.

Toronto had designated Walker for assignment earlier in the week. An injury to backup catcher Tyler Heineman forced the Jays to select Ali Sánchez to pair with Alejandro Kirk. That required a 40-man roster move and squeezed Walker off the depth chart. The 6’6″ southpaw had been on optional assignment and pitching in Triple-A for most of this month.

Walker had a brief stay on Toronto’s MLB roster earlier in the year. He made three appearances and allowed four runs over five innings. He struck out eight against two walks while relying primarily on a mid-80s curveball. Walker backs up that breaking pitch with both a four-seam and two-seam fastball that typically land in the 93-94 MPH range.

A product of the University of New Haven, Walker entered the professional ranks as a 37th-round draft choice by the Mets in 2017. He overcame that lack of prospect pedigree to get to the majors in 2023. Walker hasn’t had much success against big league hitters, tallying a combined 6.59 earned run average through 27 1/3 frames. He has pitched well up through the Double-A level, though his Triple-A results are more mixed.

Walker carries a 4.45 ERA with an above-average 26.6% strikeout rate over parts of five seasons at the top minor league level. He has struggled there in the early going, giving up eight runs (seven earned) on 13 hits and seven walks through his first 10 innings this season. He has managed 16 strikeouts on only 51 batters faced, however, which is presumably a selling point for Philadelphia.

Matt Strahm and Tanner Banks are each pitching well in Rob Thomson’s bullpen. They were the only two lefty relievers on the 40-man roster. Walker is in his last option year and can bounce between Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley for the remainder of the season.

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