Nationals Sign Alex Young To Minor League Deal
The Nationals have signed left-hander Alex Young to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The client of THE·TEAM has been assigned to the Florida Coast League Nationals for now but will presumably report to Triple-A when he’s ready.
Young will be looking to return to the big leagues for the first time since 2024. Going into 2025, he signed a minor league deal with the Reds. During spring training that year, he suffered an elbow injury and Tommy John surgery seemed possible.
It’s not exactly clear what happened from there. In April of last year, he made a post on his personal Instagram that is no longer available, though he did say he underwent season-ending surgery. Various sources, including Greg Kuffner of YardBarker, relayed the details of that post at the time.
“I never thought I would be in this situation,” Young wrote. “Nor did I think I would ever need surgery. Turns out, I’ve been unknowingly pitching with a distal tear for the past nine years, along with bone fragments being built up over the years. Crazy to think about how much I’ve put my arm through without realizing what was really going on. Definitely not how I wanted to have the 2025 season play out but it’s something I needed to take care of. I’m at peace with it and ready to move on. Surgery went smooth. Thank you to Dr. Meister and his team for giving my elbow a second chance at life. Woke up from anesthesia thinking I was about to throw 100 mph… turns out I was just asking for snacks.”
Prior to this injury odyssey, Young had some success in the majors. From 2019 to 2024, he logged 277 2/3 innings, allowing 4.34 earned runs per nine. He was even better in the latter half of that stretch. From 2022 to 2024, he logged 96 innings with a 3.28 ERA. His 20.5% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate in that span weren’t especially strong but he induced grounders on 50.9% of balls in play.
His current health status is unknown but the Nats are a good landing spot for him. They are rebuilding and have one of the worst bullpens in the league. Their relievers have a collective 4.63 ERA this year, with only five teams higher than that. If Young is able to recover from his surgery and get in good shape, they should be able to find room for him. Everyone in their current bullpen is optionable except for Richard Lovelady.
If Young gets a spot, he himself is out of options. If he finishes the year on the roster, he could be retained via arbitration for 2027, though he has a number of steps to go through before that becomes something worth thinking about.
Photo courtesy of Katie Stratman, Imagn Images
A’s Acquire José Suarez, Designate Junior Perez For Assignment
The Athletics acquired left-hander José Suarez from the Mariners in exchange for cash, the teams announced Thursday. Seattle designated Suarez for assignment earlier in the week. In a corresponding move, the A’s designated outfielder Junior Perez for assignment. Since Suarez is out of minor league options, he’ll jump right onto the Athletics’ big league roster.
Suarez opened the season with Atlanta but was designated for assignment earlier in the month. The Mariners scooped him up but gave him only one appearance (two innings, one run allowed) before jettisoning him from their own 40-man roster. Overall, the 28-year-old has a grisly 6.38 ERA in 18 1/3 frames this season.
Suarez has missed bats at a far loftier level than usual but has also displayed the worst command of his career this season. His 26.7% strikeout rate and 13% swinging-strike rate are both well north of his respective career marks of 20.9% and 11.7%. However, Suarez has walked 15.6% of his opponents — six percentage points higher than his career 9.6% mark. He’s also hit a batter and tossed a pair of wild pitches.
Back in 2021-22, Suarez looked to be emerging as a quality fourth starter in Anaheim. He gave the Halos 207 1/3 innings with a 3.86 ERA with a slightly below-average strikeout rate but a walk rate that was a bit better than average. The wheels came off in 2023, due in no small part to a shoulder strain that sent him to the injured list for several months. He posted an 8.29 ERA in 33 2/3 innings that season and was only marginally better in 52 1/3 frames the following season (6.02 ERA). He had decent results in a small sample with the Braves last season but generally has not gotten back to that 2022-23 form — or come particularly close — over any meaningful period of time.
Suarez is making $900K this season. That’s only $120K north of league minimum, but the A’s are now on the hook for the remainder of that sum. He’s worked as both a starter and reliever in the past but seems ticketed for manager Mark Kotsay’s bullpen — at least for now. The A’s presently have Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, Aaron Civale, Jacob Lopez and J.T. Ginn in the rotation, although Lopez (today’s starter versus the Cardinals) has been hit extremely hard in 2026.
As for Perez, he was only selected to the 40-man roster back in November. A mid-May DFA would have seemed far-fetched at the time. The A’s were understandably unwilling to risk letting Perez go unprotected ahead of the Rule 5 Draft after he’d slashed .231/.348/.478 with 26 homers, 27 steals and a 14.8% walk rate between Double-A and Triple-A in 2025.
Impressive as that ’25 showing was, Perez’s age-24 season has gotten out to a miserable start. He’s tallied 154 plate appearances in Triple-A and turned in a gruesome .210/.273/.384 batting line with a diminished 8.4% walk rate against a concerning 33.1% strikeout rate. He’s made contact on only 68.9% of his swings against Triple-A pitching — nowhere close to the major league average of 76.8%. The gap between his 79% in-zone contact rate and the major league average 86.3% is about the same size.
Perez is a right-handed hitter with plus speed and above-average power. He’s capable of playing all three outfield spots and has spent the bulk of his minor league tenure in center field, where scouting reports peg him as serviceable. There are clear hit tool concerns with him — he also fanned at a 28% clip in 2025 — but the power/speed/defense combination and a full slate of minor league options feels like it should be enough to garner interest from another team. That, plus the fact that the A’s are extremely deep in outfielders, perhaps contributed to him being bumped from the 40-man roster. It’s feasible that another club with far less outfield depth could offer up a low-level prospect to take a chance on the toolsy Perez, this year’s struggles notwithstanding.
Matt Mervis Signs In Mexican League
First baseman Matt Mervis has signed with the Algodoneros de Unión Laguna of the Mexican League. The club announced the deal on Monday. Mervis went 0-4 with three strikeouts in his team debut last night.
The 28-year-old appeared at the MLB level each season from 2023-25. A former undrafted free agent signee by the Cubs, Mervis put himself on the prospect radar by slugging 36 homers between three minor league levels in 2022. The Duke product made his big league debut one year later, striking out 32 times in his first 99 plate appearances.
Mervis hasn’t been able to get the elevated swing-and-miss numbers in check. He fanned at a 30% clip in Triple-A in 2024, only appearing in nine MLB contests. The Cubs traded him to Miami going into the ’25 season. Mervis was the Marlins Opening Day first baseman last year. He had a power barrage in the middle of April, slugging six homers through April 16. It remained an all-or-nothing approach, however, and Mervis slumped to a .175/.254/.383 batting line by the time the Marlins waived him at the end of May.
Subsequent minor league contracts with the Diamondbacks and Nationals haven’t gotten him back to the highest level. Mervis was in big league camp with Washington this year. He played one game for their Triple-A club in Rochester before being released. He’ll hope to put things together in a hitter-friendly league in Mexico and play his way back to affiliated ball on a minor league contract.
Reds Designate P.J. Higgins For Assignment
The Reds have designated catcher P.J. Higgins for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to veteran righty Chris Paddack, whose previously reported agreement with Cincinnati has now been officially announced. Right-hander Rhett Lowder has been placed on the 15-day injured list to open an active roster spot. Manager Terry Francona said a couple days ago that Lowder would be IL-bound due to shoulder troubles. The team’s formal designation at this time is a vague “right shoulder pain.”
The 33-year-old Higgins appeared in six games with the Reds and took 12 plate appearances, going 2-for-10 with a pair of singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly in that time. He’s now played sparingly in parts of three big league seasons. In a total of 89 games and 266 plate appearances, the former 12th-rounder out of Old Dominion is a .209/.289/.342 hitter with six home runs, a 9.4% walk rate and a 26.3% strikeout rate.
Higgins obviously hasn’t hit much in his limited major league experience, but he’s been a solid hitter in parts of seven Triple-A seasons: .274/.349/.414. He’s thwarted a strong 29% of stolen base attempts against him in the minors. Baseball Prospectus credits him as a plus framer with slightly above-average blocking skills at the Triple-A level. The Reds will have five days to trade Higgins or place him on outright waivers. That’d be a 48-hour process. His DFA window will last a maximum of one week. Higgins has been outrighted in the past, so if he passes through waivers, he’d be able to elect free agency.
As for Lowder, while the IL placement was known to be coming, the formal announcement provides little in the way of clarity. Presumably, Francona will provide more information when he meets with the Reds beat later today. Lowder, the seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft, missed the 2025 season due to a flexor strain. He pitched well through his first six starts (3.18 ERA) but has been blown up for 11 runs over 4 1/3 innings in his past two outings.
Reds Sign Chris Paddack
1:29pm: The Reds announced that they have signed Paddack to a big league deal and that he will start Saturday’s game. Lowder’s IL placement was the corresponding active roster move. Catcher P.J. Higgins was designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot. You can read more about Higgins here.
11:57am: The Reds and veteran righty Chris Paddack are in agreement on a contract, reports Charlie Goldsmith of FOX 19. The Boras Corporation client was released by the Marlins earlier this week after being designated for assignment.
Paddack, 30, signed a one-year, $4MM contract with Miami over the winter but had a short leash after an ugly start to his season. He made just seven appearances (six starts) and was tagged for a 7.63 ERA in 30 2/3 frames. Paddack struggled to work deep into games, completing five frames only once. He struck out a below-average 18.5% of his opponents but notched a characteristically sharp 6.8% walk rate.
Paddack was once a well-regarded prospect who had an outstanding rookie campaign in 2019. He pitched 140 2/3 innings of 3.33 ERA ball for the 2019 Padres — a performance that would make him a Rookie of the Year finalist, if not winner, in just about any other season. He was up against Pete Alonso‘s 53 homers, Michael Soroka‘s 174 2/3 innings of 2.68 ERA ball, and the debut campaigns of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Bryan Reynolds, however, so he wasn’t even on the Rookie of the Year radar despite that stellar debut.
That debut now feels like a distant memory, as Paddack has been set back by injuries at multiple points and has never recaptured his 2019 form. Paddack missed time with a UCL sprain in 2021 and underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022. His 2024 season was shortened by a forearm strain. All in all, he’s pitched 471 2/3 innings since that rookie showing and logged a 5.23 ERA. Paddack has good command but hasn’t missed many bats since his rookie season and is far too homer-prone (a daunting trait for any pitcher calling Great American Ball Park his home).
Cincinnati’s rotation is quite banged up at the moment, however. Hunter Greene underwent elbow surgery back in March and is out until midseason. Brandon Williamson was recently placed on the 60-day injured list due to shoulder troubles. Rhett Lowder was just placed on the 15-day IL yesterday due to a shoulder issue of his own. There’s no indication yet that Brady Singer will require an IL stint, but the right-hander took a comebacker off his right foot in yesterday’s game. He stayed in the contest but struggled thereafter, allowing three runs over the next inning-plus before being lifted in the fourth.
The Reds’ in-house depth options have been struggling down in Triple-A. Chase Petty, Jose Franco and Julian Aguiar have all been hit hard, to varying levels. Paddack will add another option for the back of the rotation and do so in affordable fashion. Cincinnati will only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. The Marlins are on the hook for the remainder of this year’s $4MM salary.
Cubs, Liam Hendriks Agree To Minor League Deal
The Cubs and right-hander Liam Hendriks are in agreement on a minor league contract, reports Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. The ALIGND Sports client was in camp with the Twins during spring training but was granted his release when informed he wouldn’t make the roster. He’s been a free agent since.
Hendriks, 37, had decent spring results with Minnesota, allowing three runs in seven innings. However, he walked as many batters as he he struck out (five), and a fastball that once averaged 97-98 mph was sitting at a diminished 93.9 mph — a mark that would be his lowest since moving to the bullpen more than a decade ago.
The Aussie-born hurler, of course, enjoyed a notable run as one of Major League Baseball’s most dominant relievers. From 2019-22, Hendriks pitched 239 innings with a 2.26 ERA, a mammoth 38.8% strikeout rate and a tiny 5.1% walk rate between the A’s and White Sox. He’d go on to miss time following a frightening diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Hendriks thankfully overcame that cancer diagnosis following chemotherapy treatment, but he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow not long after and wound up requiring Tommy John surgery. He inked a two-year deal with the Red Sox (2024-25), planning to rehab the first year and join their bullpen the second. It didn’t go as well as hoped. Hendriks pitched 13 2/3 innings with a 6.59 ERA last season.
Whether a 37-year-old Hendriks has anything left in the tank is an open question, but there’s no real risk for the Cubs in taking a look to see if he can engineer yet another comeback. Chicago has already lost righty Porter Hodge for the season (UCL surgery) and also has relievers Hunter Harvey, Riley Martin and Caleb Thielbar on the injured list. Hendriks might need some time to ramp back up in the lower levels of the Cubs’ system, but he’ll eventually head to Triple-A Iowa and look to pitch his way back into another major league opportunity.
Mariners To Designate José Suarez For Assignment
The Mariners are designating left-hander José Suarez for assignment, reports Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News. Seattle will activate Bryce Miller from the 15-day injured list to start tomorrow’s game against the Astros. They needed to drop someone from the pitching staff in a corresponding move.
Suarez, who is out of minor league options, winds up being the roster casualty. (Seattle will also activate Jose A. Ferrer from the paternity list within the next day or two, so that’ll push someone else from the middle relief corps back to the minors.) Suarez made just one appearance in an M’s uniform, allowing a run on two hits and a couple walks over two innings. They’d claimed him off waivers from the Braves on May 3.
Between Atlanta and Seattle, the 28-year-old southpaw carries a 6.38 earned run average through 18 1/3 innings. He has punched out an above-average 27% of opponents but issued walks at a near-16% rate. Suarez had been a capable strike-thrower early in his career as a starter with the Angels. That has changed over the past few seasons.
Suarez is playing on a $900K arbitration salary that lands a little north of the league minimum. He’s capable of working multiple innings out of the bullpen but would require an active roster spot if another team claims him. The Mariners have five days to trade him or try to run him through outright waivers. If he clears waivers, Suarez would have the right to decline an outright assignment in favor of free agency. He’d forfeit his remaining salary to do so, however, so it’s likelier he’d report to Triple-A Tacoma if no other team carries him on the MLB roster.
The Mariners are moving to a six-man rotation with Miller’s return. They’ll drop to a seven-man bullpen as a result. Alex Hoppe has worked multiple innings on a couple occasions. Cooper Criswell has ample long relief experience as well, but he’s pitching his way towards the back of the bullpen in shorter high-leverage stints.
Alex Verdugo Released By Padres, Reportedly Will Undergo Shoulder Surgery
The Padres released Alex Verdugo from his minor league contract on Monday, according to the MiLB.com transaction tracker. Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that’s because the veteran outfielder suffered a shoulder injury that is expected to necessitate season-ending surgery.
It’ll go down as a completely lost year for the 29-year-old. Verdugo played in two Spring Training games, going 1-6 with a walk. He did not appear in any minor league games. Verdugo also hadn’t played after being released by the Braves last July, so it’ll be close to two full years between his regular season appearances even if he’s ready for the start of 2027.
The lefty-hitting Verdugo had five straight seasons of average or better offense for the Dodgers and Red Sox between 2019-23. He never reached the lofty heights expected of the centerpiece of a Mookie Betts trade return, but he was a serviceable left fielder over four seasons in Boston. Verdugo’s numbers fell after a trade to the Yankees going into 2024. He didn’t join Atlanta until late in Spring Training last year and had a career-worst .239/.296/.289 showing without a home run over 56 games.
Lou Trivino Elects Free Agency
Veteran righty Lou Trivino is back on the free agent market. The Orioles announced that the reliever elected free agency after clearing outright waivers on Tuesday. Baltimore designated him for assignment on Sunday.
Trivino had a very brief stint with the O’s. They signed him to a major league contract last Monday, a few days after he’d opted out of a minor league deal with Philadelphia. Trivino was rocked for six runs on four hits and three walks without completing a full inning against the Yankees in his O’s debut. He rebounded with 2 1/3 scoreless frames with three strikeouts against the A’s on Saturday.
After tossing 31 pitches in that outing, Trivino would’ve been unavailable for a day or two. The O’s swapped him out for a fresh arm, which required a DFA since Trivino has well above the five years of MLB service to refuse a minor league assignment.
While the small sample numbers in Baltimore were ugly, Trivino pitched well in Triple-A for the Phils last month. The 34-year-old righty struck out 20 of 56 batters faced (36%) while issuing four walks. He surrendered 15 hits and 10 runs, though only four of those were earned. Trivino’s sinker and four-seam fastball each sat in the 94-95 mph range and he used three other pitches — cutter, slider and changeup — with regularity. The fastballs were up to 96 during his MLB work.
That was Trivino’s second stint with the Philly organization. He signed a minor league deal last August and was selected onto the MLB roster at the end of the month. He worked nine innings of three-run ball to close the season. Trivino pitched for three different clubs overall and tallied a 3.97 earned run average across 47 2/3 MLB innings a year ago. It was first big league action in three seasons, as he’d missed most of 2023-24 due to Tommy John surgery.
Phillies Sign Dylan Carlson To Minor League Deal
The Phillies have signed outfielder Dylan Carlson to a minor league deal, reports Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. The ALIGND Sports Agency client will report to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He was with the Cubs on a minor league deal earlier this month but was released from that pact.
Carlson, 27, signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in January. He cracked the Opening Day roster while Seiya Suzuki was on the injured list. Carlson didn’t get a hit in four plate appearances then was designated for assignment when Suzuki was activated off the IL in April. Carlson cleared waivers and elected free agency, then re-signed on a new minor league deal. He hit .175/.250/.350 in 44 Triple-A plate appearances before being released.
Once upon a time, Carlson looked like a potential building block for the Cardinals. He was selected 33rd overall in 2016 and became a notable prospect. He hit 18 home runs in 2021 while playing all three outfield positions. Unfortunately, his offensive production has tailed off and he has become a journeyman depth guy. Dating back to the start of 2024, he has played for the Cardinals, Rays, Orioles and Cubs while hitting .204/.280/.303.
For the Phillies, there’s little harm in adding some depth on a minor league deal. They have Brandon Marsh, Justin Crawford and Adolis García getting regular playing time in the majors. They have Edmundo Sosa and Félix Reyes on the bench, though those two have spent more time as infielders than outfielders. Johan Rojas would have been in the mix but he received an 80-game PED suspension back in March.
If someone on the major league roster suffers an injury, the Phils could turn to Carlson, though they will have other options. Steward Berroa and Gabriel Rincones Jr. are on the 40-man roster, as are infield/outfield guys like Otto Kemp and Christian Cairo. The Phils also have non-roster options like Bryan De La Cruz and Pedro León. For now, Carlson will report to the IronPigs and try to get in a good groove.
Photo courtesy of David Richard, Imagn Images