Blue Jays Acquire Connor Seabold
The Blue Jays announced that they have acquired right-hander Connor Seabold from the Tigers. Detroit, who designated Seabold for assignment a few days ago, gets minor league lefty Juanmi Vasquez in return. Seabold is out of options and will need a spot on the active roster once he joins the team. The Jays opened a 40-man spot by moving José Berríos to the 60-day injured list. Berrios required Tommy John surgery and will miss the remainder of the season.
Seabold, 30, began the season with the Jays on a minor league deal. He came into the year with a career track record of being a swingman, without much success to his name, sporting a 7.79 earned run average in 119 innings.
Back in March, Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet profiled Seabold, noting that the Jays had planned on using Seabold as a multi-inning depth option until he showed some increased velocity at the start of camp. He had averaged around 92 miles per hour in his big league career but was suddenly hitting 96 and averaging 94.1 mph this year. He also changed up his breaking pitches with some encouraging developments.
The Jays kept him mostly in a single-inning relief role in spring. He tossed 6 2/3 innings over six Grapefruit League appearances. Allowing five earned runs gave him an unsightly 6.75 ERA but he struck out 13 of the 33 batters he faced, a huge 39.4% clip.
Despite the extra velocity and strikeouts, the Jays couldn’t find a roster spot for him. Seabold triggered an opt-out in his deal and then quickly landed with the Tigers. He gave them 15 2/3 innings over 11 appearances with a 3.45 ERA. His fastball averaged 93.5 mph, a slight drop from spring training but an increase over his previous big league work. Though the ERA was decent, he only struck out 20.3% of batters faced. He got bumped off the roster when Troy Melton came off the 60-day IL.
For the Jays, they didn’t have a spot for Seabold in March but there’s a lot more breathing room on the roster now. Since the season started, they have lost Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, Lazaro Estrada, Max Scherzer, Joe Mantiply and Tommy Nance to the injured list.
It’s unclear whether the Jays plan to use Seabold as a multi-inning option or as more of a traditional reliever. They could use help in both areas. Thanks to the rotation injuries, they currently only have three true starters in Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage and Patrick Corbin. They’ve been doing a bullpen game every five days with Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles taking on bulk innings. With Cease recently hitting the IL, there’s another hole to fill.
Seabold could perhaps get stretched out but the relief corps also needs help. Thanks to those bullpen games, and the injuries to Nance and Mantiply, the current group has been heavily used. Someone will have to be bumped off when Seabold is added. Chase Lee and Adam Macko have options and could be candidates. Yariel Rodríguez and Austin Voth aren’t optionable but could end up designated for assignment.
More moves are probably coming for the Toronto pitching staff. They have Shane Bieber rehabbing, so he could be in the mix in the next few weeks. Maybe Cease or Scherzer can get healthy in the near future. Perhaps they will call up someone like Chad Dallas for a spot start or two. For now, Seabold will hopefully be useful in bridging the gap.
More to come.
Royals Designate Bailey Falter For Assignment
The Royals have designated struggling left-hander Bailey Falter for assignment, per a team announcement. He’s out of minor league options, so simply sending him to Triple-A Omaha without a DFA wasn’t possible. Righty Mason Black was recalled from Omaha in a corresponding move.
Falter, 29, has appeared in five games (two of them starts) for the Royals this season. He’s allowed runs in all five, including multiple runs in four of the five. Those struggles culminated last night in a seven-run drubbing at the hands of the Yankees in a start that saw Falter fail to escape the third inning.
Kansas City acquired Falter from the Pirates last July in a trade sending reliever Evan Sisk and minor league first baseman Callan Moss back to Pittsburgh. Falter didn’t fare well in a dozen post-trade innings last season and clearly hasn’t turned a corner in 2026. His time with the Royals could well wrap up with a gruesome 12.46 ERA in 21 2/3 innings.
Despite the fact that Falter allowed 15 runs in a dozen innings following last year’s trade, the Royals opted to tender him a contract. That resulted in a $3.6MM deal for the current season, which all but guarantees that Falter will pass through waivers unclaimed and accept an outright assignment to Omaha. Rejecting the assignment would mean forfeiting the remainder of that money. If he’s not added back to the roster at any point this season, Falter would have the right to become a free agent at season’s end (as is true of all outrighted players with three-plus years of service who are not added back to the 40-man before the offseason).
Although Falter’s time with the Royals has been nightmarish, the lanky southpaw has had some decent stretches in the majors. He posted a 3.86 ERA in 84 innings for the 2022 Phillies and notched a 4.44 ERA in 54 games (52 starts) between the two Pennsylvania clubs (and, briefly, Kansas City) from 2024-25. From 2022-25, Falter pitched 467 2/3 major league frames and turned in a 4.50 earned run average with a 17.3% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. That’s certainly not high-end performance, but it’s serviceable.
The Royals will have five days to trade Falter, place him on outright waivers or release him. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so the DFA can take up to a full week for resolution. It’d be a surprise if another club picked up the rest of that salary, so he’ll probably land in Omaha and try to get back on track with the Storm Chasers. The Royals have Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic and Alec Marsh all on the injured list at present, so there’s certainly opportunity in the rotation if Falter can right the ship in the upper minors.
Blue Jays Select Austin Voth
The Blue Jays announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Austin Voth from Triple-A Buffalo. To make room on the 26-man and 40-man rosters, Toronto optioned right-hander Tanner Andrews to Buffalo and transferred catcher Alejandro Kirk from the 10-day to the 60-day IL. Kirk has already been out for nearly 60 days since undergoing thumb surgery in early April, so that move is largely a formality. The move to the 60-day doesn’t restart his IL clock, so he’ll still be eligible for activation once he reaches 60 total days on the shelf.
Voth, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Jays in March and has already been summoned to the majors once this season. He allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings during his only appearance with the Jays this season and was then passed through waivers. Voth briefly elected free agency but wound up re-signing on a new minor league contract.
It’s been a fine season for the journeyman Voth in Buffalo. He’s taken the ball eight times (all starts) and logged a 2.90 ERA, a 17.4% strikeout rate, a 6.8% walk rate and a 39.4% ground-ball rate in 31 innings. He was building up a bit early on but has gone five innings multiple times now, including two of his past three starts. That’ll make him an option for a swingman role in the bullpen, a bulk reliever following an opener or a more conventional starter at any point.
Toronto’s rotation has been decimated by injury in 2026, so adding some length to the staff is sensible. The Jays lost José Berríos to Tommy John surgery last week and put Dylan Cease on the 15-day IL over the weekend due to a hamstring strain. Max Scherzer has been out for a month due to tendinitis in his right forearm and inflammation in his ankle. Shane Bieber has yet to pitch this season due to elbow inflammation. Cody Ponce tore his ACL in his first start back on a big league mound after signing a three-year, $30MM deal following a dominant run in the KBO. He’s not likely to pitch again this season. Bowden Francis underwent Tommy John surgery in February.
It could be another short stay on the roster for Voth, but that mounting pile of injuries creates more opportunity for him to stick around than was the cast the last time he was called to the big leagues in early April. He can’t be optioned to the minors, so if the Jays want to free up his roster spot, they’ll need to opt for the DFA route once again.
As for Kirk, he’s still on the mend from a broken left thumb. He underwent surgery and had a screw placed in the thumb to help stabilize the injury back on April 6. He’s not expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment until next week anyhow, per The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon. He’ll be eligible for reinstatement a week from today, on June 3.
Royals Outright Elias Díaz
The Royals sent veteran catcher Elias Díaz outright to Triple-A Omaha, according to the MLB.com transaction log. It’s unclear if he’ll report or elect free agency.
Díaz was designated for assignment last week when K.C. recalled speedy outfielder Tyler Tolbert. Kansas City had carried three catchers for the previous five weeks. Salvador Perez and Carter Jensen have each logged a lot of designated hitter work. Díaz gave skipper Matt Quatraro a little more flexibility for rest days. Jensen and Perez have alternated starts between catcher and DH over the past four games.
The 35-year-old Díaz picked up seven starts among his 10 games during his five weeks on the MLB roster. He popped a couple home runs and doubles apiece in 23 plate appearances. Díaz has been a below-average hitter throughout his career and hadn’t hit much in a tiny sample with Omaha before his call-up. He batted .204/.270/.337 across 283 plate appearances for the Padres a year ago.
Díaz has a plus arm and routinely throws out base stealers at a strong rate. He graded poorly as a receiving catcher early in his career but has tightened those numbers up in recent seasons. If he reports to Omaha, he’ll rejoin Luke Maile as non-roster depth catchers whom the Royals could call upon if one of Perez or Jensen is banged up.
Blue Jays, Matt Bowman Agree To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays are in agreement with reliever Matt Bowman on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The 34-year-old sinkerballer (35 on Sunday) will presumably report to Triple-A Buffalo.
Bowman was granted his release last week after opting out of a non-roster deal with Minnesota. It was moderately surprising that a Twins team with one of the worst bullpens in MLB didn’t carve out a spot. He pitched well at Triple-A St. Paul, working 21 1/3 innings of 1.69 ERA ball. Bowman got ground-balls at a 55% clip with quality strikeout (28.1%) and walk (6.7%) marks.
Minnesota’s front office was evidently skeptical he’d maintain anything close to that against big league hitters. Bowman’s 7.1% swinging strike rate in the minors is well below average. He sits in the low-90s with his sinker while mixing in a cutter, slider and splitter. Bowman has pitched parts of seven MLB seasons with as many teams, logging the majority of his work with the Cardinals between 2016-18. He made 20 big league appearances with Baltimore last year, pitching to a 6.20 earned run average through 24 2/3 frames.
Toronto’s bullpen has been middle of the pack despite a top five strikeout rate. They lost a couple middle relievers, Tommy Nance and Joe Mantiply, to the injured list last week. They have a handful of middle relievers who have bounced up and down from Buffalo this season and could be sent down if they want to carve out a spot for Bowman at some point. Chase Lee, Tanner Andrews and Adam Macko have options remaining. Yariel Rodríguez does not but would likely clear waivers and accept a Triple-A assignment based on his contract.
Angels Sign Alex Faedo To Minor League Deal
The Angels signed reliever Alex Faedo to a minor league contract last week. He has been assigned to the team’s Arizona Complex for the time being. He’ll build into game shape before reporting to a higher level affiliate, likely Triple-A Salt Lake.
Faedo was a first-rounder by the Tigers in 2017. The Florida product pitched parts of three MLB seasons, posting a 4.51 ERA across 175 2/3 innings. The 30-year-old righty missed more bats following a move to the bullpen in 2024. He allowed 3.61 earned runs per nine but was designated for assignment over the 2024-25 offseason. The Rays acquired Feado in a minor trade but got nothing out of the deal, as the righty went on the injured list with a shoulder issue.
The 6’6″ righty spent the entire season on Tampa Bay’s injured list. The Rays placed him on waivers at the beginning of the offseason when the injured list went away. He went unclaimed and elected minor league free agency.
Faedo will take some time to build up and put himself on the radar for a midseason look. The Halos have had one of the worst bullpens in the American League. They have the second-highest bullpen ERA (5.41) in the Junior Circuit. They’re middle of the pack in strikeout rate but have issued walks at the third-highest clip in MLB.
Rays, Austin Slater Agree To Minor League Deal
The Rays are signing outfielder Austin Slater to a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Ballengee Group client elected free agency yesterday after being outrighted by the Mets.
Slater is on his fourth organization of the 2026 season. He was in camp with the Tigers this spring. Granted his release shortly before Opening Day, Slater commanded an MLB contract from the Marlins. He spent a couple weeks with Miami but was outrighted off the roster in late April. Slater signed another big league deal almost immediately, replacing Tommy Pham in the New York outfield.
The Jacksonville native has appeared in 21 combined games, just over half of them starts. He’s hitting .209 with only one extra-base knock (a double) while striking out 15 times in 49 plate appearances. Slater hasn’t hit much over the past couple seasons, pushing him into a journeyman role after a half-decade run as a decent complementary outfielder with the Giants. Since the start of 2024, he carries a .212/.298/.304 line in 421 plate appearances divided between seven teams.
Slater made a living of mashing left-handed pitching during his time with San Francisco. He hasn’t hit well against pitchers of either handedness over the past couple seasons. He remains an above-average runner and competent corner outfield defender though.
It’s a sensible pickup for a team that has taken a couple hits to an already lackluster outfield over the past week. Jake Fraley and Jonny DeLuca will probably be out into July due to sports hernia surgery and a hamstring strain, respectively. That pushed Victor Mesa Jr. up from Triple-A Durham. Jacob Melton, their only other outfielder on the 40-man roster, hasn’t played in a month due to a left ankle sprain. Slater would probably be the next outfielder up if anyone else from the MLB roster suffers an injury.
Braves Re-Sign José Azócar To Minor League Deal
The Braves have re-signed outfielder José Azócar to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett. He is in tonight’s lineup, batting seventh and playing left field.
Atlanta clearly values Azócar as a potential bench player or depth piece. Since he is out of options, he has been repeatedly shuffled on and off the roster this year. The two sides agreed to a minor league deal in the offseason. Twice this year, he has been selected to the roster and been designated for assignment shortly thereafter. In both cases, he cleared waivers, elected free agency and then re-signed on a new minor league deal.
For the club, they effectively get an extra roster spot for added outfield depth, with Azócar giving them a speed-and-defense guy. He has 83rd percentile sprint speed this year, per Statcast, and has been even higher in previous seasons. He has received strong grades for his glovework at all three positions.
His offense is less impressive on the whole. He has a big .333/.375/.467 line this year but in a small sample of just 16 plate appearances. In his career, he has a .248/.293/.325 line in 434 appearances. He’s a useful player who has allowed the club to cover for injuries to guys like Ronald Acuña Jr. and Eli White.
For Azócar, it’s probably not his preference to be riding this transactions carousel, but at least he has a job and has gotten some sporadic big league pay and service time. Based on the fact that he has cleared waivers multiple times this season, no other club is willing to give him a roster spot, so it’s not as though he has significantly better opportunities elsewhere. He’ll rejoin the Stripers to get reps as he waits for the call back to the big leagues.
Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images
Mets Reinstate A.J. Minter From 60-Day IL, Select Eric Wagaman
5:05pm: The Mets announced that outfielder Luis Robert Jr. has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open up a 40-man spot. He originally landed on the IL in late April due to lumbar disc herniation. He is now ineligible to return until late June. His current status is unknown. As of a couple of weeks ago, manager Carlos Mendoza said Robert wasn’t progressing as hoped, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
1:50pm: The Mets announced that they have reinstated left-hander A.J. Minter from the 60-day injured list. Additionally, infielder/outfielder Jared Young has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and infielder Eric Wagaman has been selected to the roster. In corresponding active roster moves, outfielder Tyrone Taylor has been placed on the 10-day IL with a right hip flexor strain, while right-hander Jonathan Pintaro and outfielder Nick Morabito have been optioned. In terms of 40-man spots for Minter and Wagaman, the Mets had one vacancy. They said a corresponding move to open another spot will be announced prior to game time. Tim Britton and Will Sammon of Athletic reported most of these moves prior to the official announcement.
Minter and the Mets agreed to a two-year, $22MM deal going into the 2025 season. They haven’t been able to get much return on that investment yet. Minter tossed 11 innings last year before a lat strain sent him to the IL and ultimately required season-ending surgery. Here in 2026, he and the Mets started his spring ramp-up a bit behind the other pitchers. He started the season on IL but was able to start a rehab assignment in April. Unfortunately, some left hip discomfort slowed him down, which got him moved to the 60-day IL.
Ideally, Minter can now finally give the Mets an extended stretch of health and good results. Prior to this injury odyssey, he was quite an effective reliever for a division rival. From 2020 to 2024, he posted a 2.85 earned run average over 243 innings for Atlanta, striking out 30.1% of batters faced in that time. But he’s been injured for most of the past two years, actually dating back to before the Mets signed him, as he dealt with hip issues in 2024 and required surgery that summer.
Brooks Raley has been the club’s primary lefty reliever this season. Sean Manaea is also in the bullpen but is mostly working as a bulk reliever. Minter and Raley should be the primary options for situations where a traditional lefty reliever is wanted.
The Mets have been out to a rough start, with a 22-32 record, putting them 7.5 games back of a playoff spot. If they can’t climb in the standings, they could go into the deadline as sellers. Minter and Raley are impending free agents, so both would be natural trade candidates if that’s the way things go.
Wagaman was claimed by the Mets last month and optioned to the minors. Not long after that, he was put on waivers and cleared. He has put up a massive .372/.462/.581 line in 13 games for Syracuse since that claim. Now he gets back onto a 40-man roster.
While it’s nice that Wagaman has been crushing the ball, some caveats apply. For one thing, that line came in a small sample of 52 plate appearances. For another, he had a huge .424 batting average on balls in play in that time. Furthermore, Wagaman has often put up good minor league numbers. From 2022 to 2024, he had a .276/.348/.473 line and 131 wRC+ in 897 plate appearances on the farm.
That has led to major league opportunities that he hasn’t been able to capitalize on. He has a .250/.293/.381 line and 85 wRC+ in 588 trips to the plate in the big leagues. The Marlins designated him for assignment in the winter and traded him to the Twins. Minnesota kept him in the minors to start the year and designated him for assignment a month into the season, which is when the Mets claimed him.
Wagaman has experience at the four corner spots, though the Mets have only been using him as a first baseman and designated hitter for Syracuse. The Mets are getting subpar results from Mark Vientos at first base this year. With Jorge Polanco on the IL, a lot of DH at-bats have gone to MJ Melendez. Though Melendez was red hot when the Mets first called him up, he has a .119/.288/.167 line since the calendar flipped to May.
In the outfield, Juan Soto, A.J. Ewing, Carson Benge, Morabito and Taylor have been splitting the work out there. Now that Morabito and Taylor are out, Young will jump in and perhaps Wagaman could get some time in the outfield as well.
Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images
Athletics Promote Gage Jump
3:05pm: The A’s officially announced their selection of Jump’s contract. Civale has indeed been placed on the 15-day IL, due to right shoulder tendonitis. Outfielder Denzel Clarke has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot. Clarke has a significant hamstring strain and will be out beyond the All-Star break.
7:08am: The A’s are calling up left-hander Gage Jump, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The 23-year-old is among the top prospects in the organization. When he first appears in a game, it will be his MLB debut. The team has yet to announce the move. The A’s have a full 40-man roster and would need to make an adjustment to add Jump.
MLB Pipeline ranks Jump at No. 3 in the Athletics system. FanGraphs‘ Eric Longenhagen has him behind only shortstop Leo De Vries. Jump has a mid-4.00s ERA at Triple-A this season, but he’s delivered a hefty 33.1% strikeout rate. He allowed just two earned runs over 9 2/3 innings in MLB Spring Training this year.
The A’s took Jump with the 73rd overall pick in the 2024 draft out of LSU. He immediately provided workhorse-level production in his first taste of pro ball, tossing 112 2/3 innings in 2025. Jump posted a 3.28 ERA and a sub-3.00 FIP between High-A and Double-A. He didn’t crack MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects last year, but sits at No. 41 in this season’s rankings.
Jump has shown a diverse pitch mix with Las Vegas. He’s leaned on the four-seamer more than half the time, but also thrown plenty of sliders (18.3%) and curveballs (13.1%). Jump has also used both a sweeper and a changeup more than 5% of the time. Control has been a bit of an issue, as Jump’s 11.8% walk rate is a significant increase from his 2025 mark.
The workload for Jump had been a bit limited to begin the year. He hadn’t completed five innings with the Aviators through eight appearances. Jump went seven strong innings in his last start, striking out nine without issuing a walk. He could step into a rotation that doesn’t have much stability outside of Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs. Manager Mark Kotsay mentioned a possible IL stint for Aaron Civale after Monday’s game, which would open up a rotation spot.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images