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
Tigers Release Phil Bickford, Colin Poche
The Tigers have released right-hander Phil Bickford and left-hander Colin Poche, reports Jason Beck of MLB.com. Both pitchers signed minor league deals with Detroit this offseason. They will now head back to the open market to search for their next opportunities.
Bickford, 30, was invited to big league camp but wasn’t able to pitch in any official spring action. He was diagnosed with a triceps strain in late February. He was reassigned to minor league camp a few days later. His current health status is not known.
He has 189 innings of big league experience under his belt, split between the Brewers, Dodgers, Mets and Yankees. Overall, he has allowed 4.62 earned runs per nine frames with a 26.1% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate.
His last big league appearance was in 2024. He spent 2025 in Triple-A, signing minor league deals with the Cubs and Phillies. Between those two organizations, he had a 3.52 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in 46 Triple-A innings. That wasn’t enough to get him to the big leagues last year. He did get a camp invite with the Tigers a few months ago but the injury scuttle any chance of him making the team.
Poche, 32, has a better overall track record but has fallen on hard times lately. At the end of 2023, he had 171 career innings pitched with a 3.58 ERA. His 9.3% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 28.2% of batters faced. In 2024, his strikeout rate fell to 21.6%. His ERA didn’t suffer greatly, as he finished that year with a 3.86 mark, but the Rays non-tendered him.
He signed a minor league deal with the Nationals for 2025 and made the Opening Day roster but was designated for assignment on May 1st after 13 appearances. He had allowed 11 earned runs in 8 2/3 innings while giving out walks to 12 of the 46 batters he faced, an awful 26.1% clip. He spent most of the rest of the year with the Mets at the Triple-A level, where he walked 17.3% of opponents.
The Tigers gave Poche a minor league deal but didn’t invite him to big league camp. His transaction tracker at MLB.com says he was placed on the Triple-A Toledo injured list last week, without specifying the issue.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
Pirates, Konnor Griffin Reportedly Working On Extension
April 2nd: Olney now reports that the sides are working on a nine-year deal worth $140MM, though he cautions that the deal isn’t done as they are still working on some things.
April 1st: The Pirates and prospect Konnor Griffin are reportedly deep into extension negotiations, per Buster Olney of ESPN.
It doesn’t appear that anything is done or agreed to yet but it seems the two sides aren’t too far apart. Olney’s report frames Pittsburgh as hoping to get something done that is comparable to Corbin Carroll‘s $111MM eight-year deal with Arizona while Griffin’s camp is targeting Roman Anthony‘s $130MM eight-year pact with Boston. Given that the gap is less than $20MM, perhaps something can get done. A couple of weeks ago, Jon Heyman of The New York Post suggested the Pirates could be willing to get to the $110MM range. Last week, Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the two sides had indeed discussed an eight-year deal worth $110MM.
Griffin is not yet 20 years old and hasn’t played in the majors yet but he is the top prospect in the game right now and many consider him the best prospect seen in years. Last year, he slashed .333/.415/.527 while hitting 21 home runs and stealing 65 bases.
He topped out at Double-A yet seemed to have a chance at breaking camp with the club here in 2026. He hit four home runs in spring training but his other numbers were not great, as he slashed .171/.261/.488. Part of that was a .125 batting average on balls in play but Griffin also struck out at a 28.3% clip and only drew a walk in 4.3% of his plate appearances.
That surely didn’t do anything to dampen the club’s long-term hopes for Griffin but the Pirates decided to start the season with him at the Triple-A level. He has a .462/.588/.692 slash in four games to start the season.
Extensions for players with little or no major league experience have become far more common in recent years. Earlier this week, Colt Emerson and the Mariners set a new benchmark for pre-debut guys, signing an eight-year deal with a $92MM guarantee.
Emerson is one of the 10 to 15 top prospects in the league but, as mentioned, Griffin is the clear #1 and is perhaps the best prospect in quite some time. With that in mind, he should sail past Emerson’s guarantee and it seems like the talks are already past that point.
For extensions signed quite early in a player’s career, Carroll and Anthony are some of the most notable. Carroll and Anthony each signed within two months of their respective debuts. Julio Rodríguez has the record for a deal for a player with less than a year of service time. Towards the end of his rookie season, he and the Mariners signed a convoluted deal with a $210MM guarantee and multiple club/player options.
The largest contract in Pittsburgh’s franchise history is the $100MM deal they signed with Bryan Reynolds a few years back. It seems they are willing and hoping to break that record to lock up Griffin as part of their core. The longer they wait, the harder that will become. Young players generally gain earning power as they push further into their careers and closer to free agency, as the Rodríguez deal shows. For guys with two years of service time, Bobby Witt Jr. got a $288.8MM guarantee while Fernando Tatis Jr. got $340MM. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got $500MM when he was just a few months from free agency.
It’s been over a decade since the Pirates last made the playoffs but it’s possible better days are ahead. They have already graduated a number of exciting young players onto their major league roster in recent years, headlined by Paul Skenes. Their farm system is currently ranked by many outlets as the best in the majors. That’s in large part due to Griffin but they also have Edward Florentino, Seth Hernandez and other exciting young prospects on the way. They had a busy offseason, adding Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn, Marcell Ozuna and others as they try to take a step forward.
Griffin will be a key part of the competitive window that appears to be opening but the Bucs would naturally love to extend the relationship if they can. From Griffin’s perspective, he would have to be willing to delay his path to free agency. Going year to year could potentially mean hitting the open market after his age-25 or -26 season. Signing a deal now would lock in an upfront guarantee while perhaps still giving him a chance to become a free agent before his 30th birthday.
Without a deal officially signed, there’s a notable ticking clock with Griffin’s service time. A major league season is 187 days long but a player only needs 172 days in the majors to be credited with a full year of service time. That means Griffin can still hit that one-year mark if called up in the next week. If he does so without an extension in place, he would be eligible to earn the Pirates an extra draft pick via the Prospect Promotion Incentive, though players who sign pre-debut extensions are not PPI eligible. If Griffin is still in the minors by the end of next week, he wouldn’t be able to get a full year of service the old-fashioned way but would be credited with one year retroactively if he is eventually called up and places in the top two in National League Rookie of the Year voting.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Mariners Request Release Waivers On Ryan Loutos
April 2: The Mariners announced Thursday that they’ve requested release waivers on Loutos, who’s out with an undisclosed injury. Since injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, Seattle will opt for release waivers. It’s common in these situations for the player to quickly re-sign on a minor league deal, but that’s not a given. Loutos will be able to talk to all 29 other clubs now.
March 31: The Mariners announced they’ve designated reliever Ryan Loutos for assignment. That’s the corresponding 40-man roster move for the now official Colt Emerson extension. Although Emerson will remain in Triple-A on an optional assignment, the M’s needed to carry him on the 40-man once he signed a major league contract.
That roster quirk is an unfortunate development for Loutos, who gets pushed into DFA limbo as a result. The 27-year-old righty hasn’t pitched in a regular season game with Seattle. The Mariners claimed him off waivers from Washington at the beginning of the offseason. He made four appearances in Spring Training, allowing seven runs (six earned) through three innings.
A former undrafted free agent, Loutos has pitched for three teams at the MLB level. He has a total of 15 career appearances divided between the Cardinals, Dodgers and Nationals. Loutos had a tough go against MLB hitters, who have put up 21 runs with more walks than strikeouts across 14 1/3 innings. The 27-year-old righty has an ERA just under 5.00 while striking out 24% of opponents over parts of four Triple-A campaigns.
The M’s have five days to trade Loutos or place him on waivers. He sits in the 95 mph range with his four-seam fastball and sinker while mixing in a slider and changeup. Loutos has a minor league option remaining and could be sent to Triple-A if another team is willing to carry him on the 40-man roster.
Nationals Release Matt Mervis
The Nationals have released first baseman Matt Mervis, per Bobby Blanco of MASNsports.com. He’d signed a minor league deal over the winter, spent spring training with the Nats, and opened the season with their Triple-A club in Rochester.
Mervis appeared in only one game with Washington’s top minor league affiliate prior to being released, going 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout. He was 3-for-12 with a pair of walks and strikeouts in 14 official spring plate appearances. He went 3-for-11 with a pair of doubles for Israel during the World Baseball Classic.
The Nationals added Mervis as first base depth back in December, but since signing him they acquired first base prospect Abimelec Ortiz from the Rangers as part of their return for MacKenzie Gore and more recently brought Curtis Mead over from the White Sox, giving them another first base option on the MLB roster and pushing Andres Chaparro down to Rochester. The need for further depth was lessened, as was Mervis’ role on the Rochester roster, and the two sides have now parted ways.
Mervis has logged big league time in each of the past three seasons, suiting up for both the Cubs and Marlins. He’s routinely clobbered Triple-A pitching, slashing a combined .264/.359/.522 with 71 long balls in 1318 plate appearances at the top minor league level. Strikeouts have been an issue his past few trips through Triple-A, however, and they’ve been an insurmountable obstacle for Mervis in the majors. Through 261 big league plate appearances, Mervis has slashed .165/.238/.322 with a huge 34.5% strikeout rate. Among the 521 players who tallied at least 250 plate appearances from 2023-25, Mervis ranked 502nd with a 66.9% overall contact rate and 506th with a 76.7% contact rate on pitches within the strike zone.
Mervis is now free to sign with any club seeking some first base depth and/or a left-handed power hitter to stash in Triple-A. Speculatively speaking, he also has a profile that we’ve seen command interest overseas in the past, though there’s no indication that’s a possibility for the 27-year-old slugger (28 later this month).
Pirates To Promote Konnor Griffin
The Pirates are calling up shortstop Konnor Griffin, the top prospect in all of baseball, to make his major league debut in tomorrow’s home opener, Pirates insider Jason Mackey reports. The team has confirmed Griffin’s promotion but has not yet formally selected his contract to the 40-man roster. They’ll need to do so and make corresponding 26-man and 40-man transactions prior to first pitch tomorrow.
Griffin was in the mix to break camp on Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster but was reassigned to minor league camp late in spring training. The two parties have continued talks on what would be a record-setting contract extension — expected to be both the largest ever for a player with little to no major league service time (surpassing Colt Emerson‘s recent eight-year $95MM deal with the Mariners) and the Pirates’ franchise-record contract ($100MM for Bryan Reynolds).
It’s possible the Bucs simply wanted Griffin to make his debut at home, popping ticket sales throughout the weekend and further boosting excitement for fans after an uncharacteristically aggressive offseason. It’s also feasible that the two parties have become close enough on a long-term contract that the Pirates are making the move to promote him now and will announce an extension not long after his debut. The benefits in that scenario are straightforward. Players who sign extensions before making their MLB debut are not eligible to net draft picks for their club under MLB’s prospect promotion incentives; players who sign extensions after debuting remain PPI eligible. So long as any contract is finalized after Griffin has debuted, he’d net the Pirates an extra draft pick either by winning 2026 NL Rookie of the Year honors or with a top-three finish in MVP voting in 2026-28. (A player can only generate one total PPI pick for his team.)
Griffin is still three weeks away from his 20th birthday, but the 19-year-old phenom will get his chance to prove he’s ready for the big time. A physical beast already standing 6’3″ and weighing 225 pounds, Griffin is perhaps the most touted No. 1 overall prospect in recent memory. He draws plus (60) to plus-plus (70) grades on the 20-80 scale for all of his tools across the board. Griffin is an elite runner who scouts believe can stick at shortstop while hitting for both average and power.
Selected with the No. 9 overall pick in 2024, Griffin has played just one full professional season, and the results were borderline comical. He sprinted through the minors last year, climbing from Low-A to Double-A and absolutely raking at each of his three stops. Griffin totaled 563 plate appearances overall and slashed .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs, 23 doubles, four triples and an eye-popping 65 stolen bases in 78 tries (83.3%). He walked at an 8.9% clip and struck out at a 21.7% rate.
Those numbers are staggering on their own. By measure of wRC+, Griffin was 65% better than an average hitter across those three levels. That ignores the context that the Mississippi native was among the youngest players — if not the youngest player — at all of those stops. Griffin hit just .171 in 46 spring plate appearances with the Pirates but still popped four home runs. He’s taken 21 plate appearances in Triple-A to begin this season and gone 7-for-16 with three doubles, three steals, five walks and only four strikeouts.
With the Pirates, Griffin will immediately step in as the team’s everyday shortstop. That’ll push Jared Triolo to a bench role for which he’s probably better suited. Triolo is an adept defender at multiple infield spots but carries just a .234/.319/.343 slash in 1054 plate appearances at the major league level. He can mix in at any of the four infield spots now, though he’s not going to supplant starters Spencer Horwitz (first base), Brandon Lowe (second base) or Nick Gonzales (third base) unless there’s an injury or a prolonged stretch of poor play from Gonzales as he acclimates to the hot corner.
Griffin steps into a big league lineup that has been substantially revamped since last season. The Pirates didn’t get the biggest fish they pursued this winter (e.g. Kyle Schwarber, Josh Naylor, Kazuma Okamoto), but they still brought in several established veteran bats who’ve unequivocally bolstered the offense. Lowe and outfielder Jake Mangum came over from the Rays alongside lefty reliever Mason Montgomery in a three-team trade sending young righty Mike Burrows to Houston. Ryan O’Hearn signed a two-year, $29MM in free agency. Marcell Ozuna later came aboard for a year and $12MM. Griffin now joins newcomers like Lowe, O’Hearn and Ozuna in the heart of a vastly improved lineup that Pirates hopes will better support the team’s excellent young pitching staff.
Service time considerations seemingly weren’t a factor in Griffin’s promotion. He’s still being called up in time to get a full year of major league service even without a Rookie of the Year win. His timelines for reaching arbitration and free agency would be rendered moot if Griffin eventually signs an extension, as many expect, but as things currently stand he’d be on track for arbitration eligibility following the 2028 season and free agency following the 2031 season, when he’d be just 25 years old (and going into his age-26 season). Griffin is so young that even a record-setting extension could still position him to reach the open market well ahead of his 30th birthday.
Griffin is the first of many young Pirates hitters who could impact the team this season. Pittsburgh also picked up touted outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia in a trade with the Red Sox, and he should get a look in the majors before too long. Infielder Termarr Johnson‘s stock has dipped in recent seasons, but he’s still just 21 years old and coming off a nice 2025 showing in Double-A. Catcher/first baseman Rafael Flores Jr., another trade acquisition (from the Yankees in last summer’s David Bednar swap) had a big season between Double-A and Triple-A last year and could hit his way into a bigger audition in 2026 as well.
For now, all eyes are on Griffin — both to witness the debut of one of the best prospects in recent memory and also to see whether he signs a franchise-altering extension that’d lock him in beyond his original six seasons of club control.
Rockies Sign Andrew Knizner To Minor League Deal
The Rockies signed catcher Andrew Knizner to a minor league contract on Wednesday. Although the team didn’t announce the move, the 31-year-old jumped right into action tonight with Triple-A Albuquerque.
Knizner hit the market at the end of camp when he was released by the Mariners. He had signed a one-year, $1MM free agent deal with Seattle in December. Knizner surely felt he was the favorite to back up Cal Raleigh at the time, as he was the only other catcher on the M’s 40-man roster. They re-signed Mitch Garver on a minor league contract at the beginning of Spring Training.
Seattle opted to run it back with a Raleigh/Garver pairing. They also swung a trade for an optionable third catcher, Jhonny Pereda, in the interim. Knizner has over five years of service time, meaning he could refuse a minor league assignment while collecting his full salary. Rather than report to Triple-A Tacoma, he tested the market for a clearer path back to the big leagues.
That won’t come immediately, but there’s a decent chance he can play his way into an MLB look with Colorado. The Rox opted for light-hitting minor league signee Brett Sullivan as their backup catcher to begin the season. Third catcher Braxton Fulford still has a couple options remaining and has hit .221/.272/.354 in 41 big league contests. Hunter Goodman is going to be in the lineup almost every day, but no one has a firm hold on the backup job.
Knizner hasn’t provided much offensively at the MLB level either. He’s a career .211/.281/.316 hitter in just under 1000 plate appearances. The former seventh-round pick owns a much stronger .292/.387/.443 line over parts of four Triple-A campaigns. He’ll pair with Fulford behind the dish in Albuquerque with Kyle McCann on the injured list.
Braves Outright Brett Wisely
Braves infielder Brett Wisely cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. He’ll remain in the organization in a non-roster capacity, as he doesn’t have the previous career outright or three years of service time to elect free agency.
Wisely was designated for assignment as part of Atlanta’s Opening Day roster shuffle. He’s out of minor league options and needed to win a spot on the season-opening bench or go on waivers. Atlanta carried Kyle Farmer as their final bench piece to squeeze Wisely off the roster. The Braves had already designated him for assignment once over the offseason. They traded him to Tampa Bay, then reacquired him a month later for cash.
The 26-year-old Wisely has appeared at the big league level in each of the past three seasons. He spent the majority of that time with the Giants, who lost him on waivers to Atlanta in the waning days of the 2025 campaign. Wisely is a .214/.265/.319 hitter in a little under 500 trips to the plate at the MLB level. He has been a much more productive offensive player in the minors, batting .275/.372/.433 over 835 Triple-A plate appearances.
Wisely joins Nacho Alvarez Jr., Rowdy Tellez, Luke Williams and Aaron Schunk among depth infielders with Gwinnett. Alvarez is the only one of that group who occupies a 40-man spot. He’s their only healthy rostered position player below the MLB level, though the Braves have three or four players who could go on the 60-day injured list if they need to create 40-man space following any injuries.
Giants Re-Sign Eric Haase To Minor League Deal
The Giants have apparently re-signed catcher Eric Haase to a minor league contract. The Warner Sports Management client is in the lineup tonight for Triple-A Sacramento. Haase had been released from his previous minor league deal at the end of Spring Training.
He was competing with Rule 5 pick Daniel Susac and prospect Jesús Rodríguez for the backup job behind Patrick Bailey. The 33-year-old Haase hit .286 with a couple home runs while striking out 14 times in 32 plate appearances this spring. San Francisco stuck with Susac in the backup role. They optioned Rodríguez while granting Haase his release.
After a few days on the open market, Haase returns to the club. He’ll work alongside Rodríguez and Logan Porter as part of the Triple-A catching group. Haase has easily the most MLB experience of any catcher in the organization aside from Bailey. He has just over four years of service time and has taken more than 1200 plate appearances in a little under 400 games.
Haase is a lifetime .228/.278/.396 hitter at the big league level. He has plus power from the right side that comes with a lot of swing and miss. Haase has always been a bat-first option who probably profiles best in the third catcher role he’ll play now that he’s back with San Francisco.
Dodgers Claim Grant Holman From D-Backs
The Dodgers announced they’ve claimed reliever Grant Holman off waivers from the Diamondbacks. Arizona designated the righty for assignment on Opening Day when they needed a roster spot for a trio of minor league signees who broke camp. Los Angeles moved Gavin Stone from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
Holman spent six weeks in the Arizona organization. The D-Backs had claimed him off waivers from the A’s at the beginning of camp. The UC Berkeley product has pitched parts of two seasons in green and gold. Holman combined for 40 appearances from 2024-25, turning in a 4.66 earned run average over 38 2/3 innings. He struck out 18.8% of opponents against a 10.2% walk percentage.
The 25-year-old Holman has missed more bats in the minors, fanning 27.3% of batters faced while allowing exactly three earned runs per nine over five seasons. That includes a 0.70 ERA over 38 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level despite pitching in the Pacific Coast League. Holman has a 94-95 mph fastball and leans mostly on a split as his best secondary offering. He also occasionally mixes in a slider against right-handed hitters.
It’s the second depth acquisition of the day for the Dodgers. They brought in lefty Jake Eder in a cash trade this morning. Both pitchers have a minor league option year and can head to Triple-A Oklahoma City for the time being.
Stone opened the season on the 15-day injured list after experiencing shoulder inflammation at the start of camp. He has avoided any structural damage but didn’t pitch again during Spring Training. Stone missed the entire 2025 season following a labrum and rotator cuff repair on that shoulder in October ’24. The Dodgers will approach the situation with caution.
Manager Dave Roberts said Monday that Stone recently restarted his throwing program (via the MLB.com injury tracker). He’s essentially beginning a new Spring Training build from scratch and is weeks away from a minor league rehab assignment. Stone’s 60-day clock backdates to Opening Day. He’ll be eligible for reinstatement on May 24.