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A’s To Promote Denzel Clarke

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The A’s are promoting Denzel Clarke from Triple-A Las Vegas, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’s the first major league call for the outfield prospect, who was added to the 40-man roster last November. A’s manager Mark Kotsay said this afternoon that infielder Gio Urshela was headed to the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain (relayed by Martín Gallegos of MLB.com).

While that could be a simple one-for-one swap, it’s possible there will be a broader set of moves tomorrow. Passan suggests the A’s could make multiple changes to the roster after losing their ninth consecutive game today. They’re the first team in MLB to drop nine in a row this season, and things won’t get any easier this weekend. The A’s host the Phillies — winners of seven straight and holding the NL’s best record at 32-20 — beginning tomorrow.

Clarke, 25, is from Toronto but played his college ball at Cal State Northridge. The A’s selected him in the fourth round of the 2021 draft, taking a flier on his immense physical tools despite concerns about his pure hitting ability. Clarke is listed at 6’4″ and 220 pounds. He unsurprisingly draws praise for his raw power from the right side. Perhaps more surprising is his excellent athleticism despite that size. Offseason reports at both Baseball America and FanGraphs credited Clarke with plus-plus speed and projected him as an elite defender in center field.

More to come.

Astros Sign Greg Jones To Minor League Deal

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The Astros announced that they have signed infielder/outfielder Greg Jones to a minor league contract. Per his MLB.com transactions tracker, he’s been assigned to the Florida Complex League club for now, but should report to Triple-A Sugar Land at some point in the near future.

Jones, 27, was released by the White Sox a couple of weeks ago. That opened a 40-man roster spot for the Sox to claim Yoendrys Gomez, who has since been designated for assignment. At the time of the claim, Jones was on the minor league injured list with an unknown ailment. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, which essentially forced the Sox to release him since they wanted to open that roster spot.

That has freed up Jones to sign this deal with the Astros. His current health status is unclear but he will provide the Astros with a nice set of wheels whenever he’s ready to go. In 375 minor league league games, he has stolen 167 bases in 192 tries, an 87% success rate. Defensively, he has played the two middle infield spots and all three outfield positions.

The offense has been less impressive, however. From the start of 2023 to the present, he has 769 plate appearances on the farm, mostly at the Triple-A level. He has 28 home runs in that time but has also been struck out in 37.3% of those trips to the plate. The result is a .247/.326/.428 line and an 84 wRC+ for that span. He has been sent to the plate just eight times at the major league level with a .143/.250/.571 line in those.

For the Astros, there’s no risk on a minor league deal. Jones is a former first-round pick, with the Rays having selected him 22nd overall in 2019. At the very least, he seems capable of being a useful bench player who serves as a pinch runner and defensive replacement. Any progress with the bat would be a nice bonus.

Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images

Royals Release Chris Stratton

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May 22: Stratton was released as expected, according to the MLB.com transaction log.

May 18: The Royals announced that right-hander Chris Stratton has been designated for assignment.  Fellow righty Jonathan Bowlan was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

The DFA probably closes the book on what has been a disappointing season-plus for Stratton in Kansas City.  Following four solid seasons of bullpen work from 2020-23 and a World Series ring with the 2023 Rangers, Stratton signed a two-year, $8MM free agent deal with the Royals during the 2023 Winter Meetings.  The contract paid Stratton $3.5MM in 2024, and he then could choose between a $4.5MM salary for 2025 or exercising an opt-out clause to re-enter free agency.

Stratton’s decision ended up being a pretty easy one, as he chose to stick with the $4.5MM after struggling to a 5.55 ERA over 58 1/3 innings out of the K.C. bullpen last year.  He also ended the season with a flexor strain his right forearm, and while he was able to return healthy for the start of Spring Training, the righty’s poor form continued into this year, as Stratton had a 7.94 ERA over 17 innings and 12 appearances in 2025.

Considering these numbers, it seems wholly unlikely that another team would claim Stratton on DFA waivers and absorb the remainder of his salary.  The probable scenario is that Stratton will be released after clearing waivers, leaving the Royals on the hook for the approximately $3.1MM still owed to the reliever.  If Stratton signs elsewhere and joins a Major League roster, his new team will only owe him the prorated portion of a big league minimum salary, which will be subtracted from the Royals’ $3.1MM commitment.

Bowlan has pitched in four MLB games spread out over the last three seasons, and his latest cup of coffee in the Show was two innings of scoreless ball in the Royals’ 7-3 loss to the Astros back on April 27.  Bowlan has worked mostly as a starter throughout his minor league career, but a transition into full-time relief pitching seems to be working wonders, as he has a 2.08 ERA, 35.7% strikeout rate, and 7.1% walk rate in 17 1/3 bullpen innings for Triple-A Omaha this year.

The Royals could use Bowlan as a long man within their pen, or perhaps explore using him as a bulk pitcher (behind an opener) as the team figures out how to address some sudden rotation needs.  Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo were both placed on the 15-day IL yesterday, and while Noah Cameron is likely to take one of those open spots, there is no obvious answer for the other hole in the starting five.

David Villar Elects Free Agency

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Infielder David Villar elected free agency after being outrighted by the Giants, relays Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. He’d been designated for assignment on Monday with Casey Schmitt returning from the injured list.

Villar, 28, will look for a new opportunity for the first time in his career. He has been with the Giants since they selected him in the 11th round of the 2018 draft. The right-handed hitter showed some promise during his rookie season three years ago. He hit nine home runs with a .455 slugging percentage in 52 games. He would have needed to improve upon a 32% strikeout rate to find long-term success, though.

The Giants never gave him much of a chance to do so. Villar appeared in 46 games the following season, and he hit just .145 while striking out 32% of the time. That more or less closed the book on his MLB tenure in San Francisco. He has appeared in only 20 big league contests over the past two seasons. Villar has tallied well over 1200 Triple-A plate appearances over the last three years. He’s a lifetime .273/.381/.507 hitter with 61 home runs at the top minor league level.

That minor league production has also come with a decent amount of swing-and-miss. Villar has punched out at a near-26% clip in Triple-A. He has cleared outright waivers twice in the past two months, suggesting every team has trepidation about him making enough contact to produce at the big league level. He’d be limited to minor league offers if he remains in the affiliated ranks. Speculatively speaking, he could also explore opportunities in a foreign league. That’s a relatively common path for players in their mid-late 20s who have had Triple-A success but face questions about their ability to hit major league pitching.

Poll: Did The White Sox Find A Gem In The Rule 5?

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There’s not been much for fans on the South Side of Chicago to get excited about of late. The club’s lengthy rebuild in the 2010s assembled a core that included well-regarded pieces like Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Eloy Jimenez, Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, and Luis Robert Jr. but did not translate to much success on the field; the group ultimately made it to the playoffs in 2020 and ’21 but lost in the first round both years before regressing to an 81-81 record in 2022 and kicking off the latest rebuild.

Since then, White Sox fans have watched that core get dismantled, whether via trades or declined club options, and breakout ace Garrett Crochet followed them out the door over the offseason. Crochet’s excellent pitching performances were the one highlight of the White Sox season this side of the Campfire Milkshake, so that left fans with little to look forward to in 2025… or so we thought. In reality, the White Sox seem to have replaced their dominant ace with another potential front-of-the-rotation arm who came from the most unlikely of places: the Rule 5 draft.

Righty Shane Smith was plucked from the Brewers’ organization and made Chicago’s Opening Day rotation out of Spring Training. It was difficult to know what to expect from Smith, given that an organization as well-regarded for its pitching development as Milwaukee was comfortable leaving the righty unprotected this past winter. That’s quickly proving to have been a mistake. Through his first ten starts of the season, Smith has posted a sterling 2.36 ERA that stands as the eleventh-best figure among qualified starters this year, just ahead of Paul Skenes.

ERA is an imperfect estimator of talent, of course, and Smith’s personal figure is deflated by the fact that a six-run, five-inning outing against the Cubs saw five of those runs scored as unearned. Even setting ERA aside, however, his season has been an impressive one so far: a 3.32 FIP (26th) and 3.57 xERA (t-29th) lend credence to the idea of Smith as a potential front-end arm, even if he isn’t quite in the Cy Young conversation based on those more advanced metrics. Have the White Sox truly found a diamond in the rough, or is Smith’s hot start to his career just a flash in the pan?

Overall, Smith’s profile is a solid one, but there are signs that it’s closer to that of a league average starter than anything else. His 22.0% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate are both middle of the pack, and a 45.3% ground ball rate is above-average but not exactly elite. His .259 BABIP and 5.9% home run to fly ball ratio are both top-of-the-scale, but neither of those figures are particularly skill-interactive or sustainable, particularly for a hurler who rarely generates soft contact. If anything, those figures are potential red flags that indicate risk of future regression. Smith’s 3.96 SIERA and 97 xFIP- paint him as a roughly average MLB starter as well, offering all the more reason to think he might regress.

There are reasons for optimism as well, however. Smith generates swinging strikes at a well above average clip, which could be a sign for strikeout potential beyond the average rates that he’s shown to this point. An uptick in strikeouts would raise the floor on his whole profile in a way that could allow him to keep producing at this level. Even without that, however, it’s fair to point out that there have certainly been pitchers who have found consistent MLB success over the years despite mediocre underlying data. Smith’s metrics are better than, as one example, those of Javier Assad on the other side of town. Assad has a career 3.40 ERA across nearly 300 innings in the majors despite lackluster metrics, and that’s a figure any team would happily take from a Rule 5 pick.

How do MLBTR readers think Smith will pan out going forward? Will he be able to find another gear and keep producing like a front-half of the rotation arm, will he settle in as more of a reliable back-end starter, or will this hot start prove to be a total mirage? Have your say in the poll below:

Cooper Hummel Triggers Release Clause In Deal With Yankees

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Utility player Cooper Hummel has triggered a release clause in his minor league deal with the Yankees, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. Triggering the clause gives the Yanks 72 hours to decide on whether to add Hummel to their roster, trade him or release him. Since he triggered the clause yesterday (Wednesday), the team will need to make their decision by some time on Saturday.

Hummel, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Yanks in April. He started the season on the Astros’ roster but came into this year out of options. He hit .316/.435/.447 during spring training but the Astros decided not to carry him on the Opening Day roster. He was designated for assignment, cleared waivers and elected free agency. That freed up him to sign with the Yankees.

He played in just three Triple-A games before landing on the minor league injured list with an unknown issue. He was reinstated from the IL on May 10th and has since appeared in seven more contests.

That doesn’t give the Yanks much to go on but Hummel has an impressive minor league track record on the whole. He has stepped to the plate 1,460 times at the Triple-A level from 2021 to the present with a 17.6% walk rate and 20.8% strikeout rate. His combined line of .284/.419/.475 translates to a 132 wRC+. He has done that while bouncing around the diamond, suiting up at catcher and the four corner positions. He also notched double-digit steal totals in both 2023 and 2024.

Despite doing all that fun stuff in the minors, he has only 235 major league plate appearances, most of which were with the Diamondbacks back in 2022. His .159/.255/.275 line in the majors is obviously far less enticing than his work on the farm.

The next few days will provide some clarity on whether the Yankees or any other club are willing to give Hummel some major league time. As mentioned, he is out of options but he also has just one year and three days of service time at the moment. That means he wouldn’t get to the two-year mark even if he were called up today. The Yanks or some other club could therefore keep him in the majors for the rest of this season and still have five seasons of club control after that.

Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images

Braves Expected To Activate Ronald Acuna On Friday

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Ronald Acuña Jr. is seemingly one day away from his return to Truist Park. The Braves scratched Acuña from what would have been his sixth rehab appearance with Triple-A Gwinnett. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reports that Acuña is en route to meet the team in Atlanta. Francys Romero adds that the Braves intend to activate him from the injured list before tomorrow’s series opener against the Padres.

It’s three days shy of the one-year anniversary of Acuña’s season-ending ACL tear. On May 26, 2024, he tore the ligament in his left knee while bluffing a stolen base attempt. It was the second time in his seven-year career that a season had been cut short by a devastating knee injury. Acuña tore the ACL in his right knee in July 2021, sidelining him for their World Series run.

Acuña made a quicker return from his first ACL tear. He was reinstated before the end of April 2022. He showed some signs of rust throughout that year, hitting .266/.351/.413 the rest of the way. That was well below his 2018-21 production. He followed with a career-best season to win the 2023 NL MVP award. He’d been out to a slower start last season, batting .250/.351/.365 across 49 games.

The Braves took things more slowly with Acuña’s second ACL rehab. He didn’t log any game action in Spring Training and has spent the first two months of the season on the IL. Atlanta sent him to their complex to begin a rehab assignment 10 days ago. He played one game there before reporting to Gwinnett, where he collected five hits and took seven walks in five games. The Braves have evidently seen enough to plug him back into Brian Snitker’s lineup, presumably in his customary leadoff spot.

Alex Verdugo has been hitting atop the order while playing every day in left field. He’s struggling offensively for a second consecutive year. Verdugo has hit .257/.314/.330 without a home run in 118 plate appearances. That’s on par with his .233/.291/.356 batting line in last season’s disappointing run with the Yankees.

Acuña has been a full-time right fielder over the past half-decade. He’ll slot back into that position, where Eli White has played his way into regular playing time. He could slide to left field and cut into Verdugo’s reps. White hit .311/.367/.600 with eight extra-base hits in April. His bat has cooled this month (.269/.310/.358 with no home runs), but that’s still a bit better than what Verdugo has provided.

White hits right-handed but has been better without the platoon advantage throughout his career. The lefty-hitting Verdugo is much better against righty pitching, as expected. Jurickson Profar will be back from his PED suspension in July. He’ll presumably return to everyday left field work, though he’d be ineligible for postseason play if the Braves qualify.

Atlanta has clawed back to .500 following their 0-7 start to the season. They’re three games back of the NL’s final Wild Card spot, which is currently held by the team they’ll welcome tomorrow. San Diego swept the Braves over a four-game set to open the year, but they’re taking a six-game losing streak into this weekend’s series.

The Braves technically only need to create an active roster spot for Acuña’s return from the 10-day IL, but they’re quite likely to designate someone for assignment tomorrow. Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II are the only hitters on the active roster who have minor league options. Luke Williams, Stuart Fairchild and Orlando Arcia are all out of options and have seen little to no playing time off the bench in recent weeks.

Brewers Designate Joel Payamps For Assignment

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The Brewers announced today that right-hander Aaron Civale has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. They have also recalled righty Carlos Rodríguez from Triple-A Nashville. In corresponding moves for those two, they have optioned righty Easton McGee while righty Joel Payamps has been designated for assignment. Milwaukee’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

Payamps, 31, is having an ugly season so far. In 18 1/3 innings, he has allowed 17 earned runs, translating to an 8.35 earned run average. That has apparently exhausted the patience of the Brewers, getting bumped off the active roster. Since he’s out of options, they had little choice but to remove him from the 40-man.

It was that out-of-options status which led him to Milwaukee in the first place. He exhausted his final option season in 2021. Even before getting to that point, he had already been a frequent waiver claimee. The Red Sox claimed him from the Diamondbacks after the 2020 season. Before the 2021 campaign began, he went to the Blue Jays, back to the Red Sox and then the Blue Jays again on subsequent waiver claims. The Jays held him through mid-July that year before designated him for assignment and trading him to the Royals for cash.

Despite being out of options in 2022, he stuck with the Royals into August, before he went to the A’s on another waiver claim. Going into 2023, he was sent to the Brewers as a throw-in piece of the three-team, nine-player trade which sent Sean Murphy to Atlanta and William Contreras to Milwaukee.

Based on all of those transactions, several clubs clearly saw potential in Payamps, but the Brewers got the best results out of him. At the time he came to Milwaukee, he had thrown 113 innings with a 3.35 ERA. His 47% ground ball rate and 7.6% walk rate were strong marks but he only struck out 17.6% of batters faced.

Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he had a 2.78 ERA in 129 2/3 innings for the Brewers. His 42.6% grounder rate was a drop from his previous work but still roughly league average. His 6.7% walk rate stayed strong and he also punched out 26.1% of opponents. He was trusted enough to earn nine saves and 48 holds over those seasons.

But as mentioned, things have gone off the rails a bit this season, though it’s surely not quite as bad as his ERA indicates. His .373 batting average on balls in play and 52.2% strand rate this year are both on the unfortunate side. But on top of that bad luck, his strikeout rate has fallen to 19% while he’s only getting grounders on 29% of balls in play. His 4.44 FIP and 4.21 SIERA suggest he deserves far better than an 8.35 ERA but there are still some concerning trends.

For now, he heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Brewers could take as long as five days to explore trade interest. Even though he’s out of options and his numbers this year are poor, it’s possible there will be interest from other clubs based on his previous two campaigns. He is making $2.995MM this year and can be controlled via arbitration in 2026 as well.

Turning to the rotation, the return of Civale is a nice boost. He made just one start before landing on the IL due to a left hamstring strain and then suffered a setback while trying to get healthy. He has been a solid starter in his career, with a 4.08 ERA in 639 1/3 innings. He had a 3.53 ERA for the Brewers after being acquired from the Rays last year.

The Milwaukee rotation has been a bit of a revolving door this year, with Civale one of several pitchers to hit the shelf. Brandon Woodruff, DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, Nestor Cortes, Robert Gasser and Jose Quintana are all still on the IL.

Civale jumps into the rotation next to Freddy Peralta, Quinn Priester, Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick. Additional reinforcements appear to be on the way. Woodruff was nearing a return from shoulder surgery when an ankle injury set him back a little over a week ago. He restarted his rehab assignment last night and will probably make one more rehab start, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.Hall is also on a rehab assignment and shouldn’t be too far off. Quintana is throwing a bullpen with the club today, per Rosiak, with next steps to be determined after that.

Ashby is on a rehab assignment but his five minor league outings have all been two innings or less. The two most recent appearances were of the single-inning variety, so perhaps he’s being brought along as a reliever rather than a starter.

Photo courtesy of Dave Nelson, Imagn Images

Rockies Place Chase Dollander On IL With Forearm Tightness

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5:00pm: Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post relays that the club doesn’t consider Dollander’s issue serious. Gordon will start tomorrow’s game and they expect Dollander to return after a minimal IL stint.

12:35pm: The Rockies announced that right-hander Chase Dollander has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 19th, due to right forearm tightness. Fellow righty Juan Mejia has been recalled as the corresponding move.

To this point, the Rockies haven’t provided any specifics about Dollander’s injury or how long they expect him to be out. He started for the club on Sunday and everything seemed fairly normal at the time. He tossed 98 pitches over 4 2/3 innings, striking out six Diamondbacks. He allowed one earned run, which came on a solo home run off the bat of Ketel Marte. His velocity was in line with his previous starts.

Perhaps the Rockies are just being cautious with a young pitcher. After all, they have nothing to play for in the short term. Their 8-41 record is easily the worst in baseball and puts them on pace for one of the worst seasons ever. Dollander is one of the best prospects in baseball and only debuted last month. It would make sense for the club to pump the brakes on any minor issue with his throwing arm.

However, there’s always concern when a pitcher’s throwing arm is in the spotlight like this. If Dollander requires any kind of lengthy stay on the injured list, it would further dampen the mood for the Rockies, if that’s even possible with their current status. His 6.28 earned run average through eight starts doesn’t look too impressive but at least his 22.1% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate are close to average. His .260 batting average on balls in play, 62.8% strand rate and 18.9% home run to flyball rate are all on the unfortunate side of average. Some ERA estimators indicate he has deserved betters results, with his SIERA at 4.35.

Ideally, the one silver lining of this frustrating season would be plenty of opportunity for young players to develop and emerge as key pieces for the next competitive window. If this is just a precautionary breather for Dollander, he could still get a lot of starts under his belt in the remainder of the season. But a lengthier stint on the IL would obviously be unwelcome.

Perhaps the club will provide more information in the coming days. Regardless of the details there, they will have a rotation spot to fill. Germán Márquez, Antonio Senzatela and Kyle Freeland have three spots. Rookie Carson Palmquist has recently been promoted and will presumably stick around. Ryan Feltner and Austin Gomber are both on the IL with uncertain timelines. Bradley Blalock and Tanner Gordon are both on the 40-man and have made big league starts this year, so one of them will probably get the call.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Rhys Hoskins’ Offensive Resurgence

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Rhys Hoskins’ first season in Milwaukee was a disappointment. The Brewers signed the veteran slugger to a two-year, $34MM free agent contract over the 2023-24 offseason. Hoskins had missed his entire walk year because of a Spring Training ACL tear. He entered the offseason healthy, and Milwaukee placed a sizable bet — especially by their standards — that he’d look no worse for wear in 2024.

The deal included an opt-out after the first season. The ideal outcome for everyone involved was Hoskins would mash for one year, opt out, potentially receive and reject a qualifying offer, then sign elsewhere on a longer-term contract. That isn’t how things played out. Hoskins started the season well enough, but he hit .203/.285/.395 from the start of June through season’s end. He decided not to opt out, leaving the Brew Crew with a $22MM commitment for a first baseman coming off the worst season of his career. The contract meant they couldn’t drum up trade interest, leaving them to retain Hoskins as the team’s second highest-paid player.

While it wasn’t what the front office had planned, that investment looks a lot better now than it did two months ago. Hoskins has been one of the best hitters in baseball. He’ll take a .300/.402/.500 batting line into tonight’s series opener in Pittsburgh. He joins Aaron Judge, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith as the only four hitters with at least 100 plate appearances and the rare .300/.400/.500+ triple slash.

Hoskins looks like the impact bat he was throughout his tenure in Philadelphia. He’s taking walks at a characteristically excellent 14% rate while striking out at a manageable 22.3% clip. He has hit seven home runs while averaging 91.4 MPH on batted balls. It’s an across the board improvement relative to his first season in Milwaukee. He’s taking more free passes, striking out less often, and making more authoritative contact. This has been a better start than his strong first two months of last season. He carried a .239/.342/.471 slash with fewer walks and hard-hit balls through the end of May 2024.

It’s true that Hoskins has benefitted from a career-high .362 average on balls in play. That’s going to come down, and Hoskins is highly unlikely to hit above .300 all year. He was more reliably a .245 hitter for the Phillies. That’s a fairer baseline. That’s also sufficient for a player with 25-30 home run pop and an extremely disciplined plate approach. Hoskins was consistently around 25-30 percent better than an average hitter during his time in Philadelphia, as measured by wRC+. That was enough to make him a top 40 or so hitter in MLB.

Hoskins’ rebound also figures to make him an interesting trade candidate. The Brewers are out to a 24-26 start, putting them fourth in the NL Central. They’re six games back in the division and 4.5 out of the Wild Card race with five teams to jump. They’re certainly not out of it with more than 110 games to make up the gap, yet they’re also not clear-cut contenders as they were every season between 2018-24.

Even if the Brewers don’t find themselves as true “sellers,” they could try to move Hoskins. Like many small-market contenders, Milwaukee tends to take a more flexible trade approach — shopping expensive veterans with dwindling club control windows while targeting cheaper players who could immediately contribute to the MLB team. Hoskins would be a candidate for that kind of move even if the Brewers are at or slightly above .500 in July.

On the one hand, Hoskins would be a straightforward trade candidate as one of the best available rental bats. The Red Sox need first base help after the Triston Casas injury. The Giants have gotten a dismal .193/.294/.339 line from their first basemen and could use a short-term bridge before calling upon top prospect Bryce Eldridge. (That Hoskins is a Sacramento native who attended Sacramento State would be an added bonus.) The Mariners, Twins and Reds are other teams that could upgrade at first base.

That’s complicated by the contract, which could be onerous for some teams. Hoskins is living up to his salary in a vacuum, but many clubs are reluctant to take on significant money midseason. There will still be roughly $5.6MM of his $18MM salary to be paid from the deadline through the end of the regular season. More notably, there’s a $4MM buyout on an $18MM mutual option for 2026. The option is going to be declined — quite likely by Hoskins — and the team will need to pay the buyout on February 1, 2026. That might be a bigger stumbling block for an acquiring club. It’s possible teams will want the Brewers to cover a portion of the buyout to facilitate a trade.

Teams may negotiate conditional cash considerations for option buyouts in trade talks; last summer’s trade of Eloy Jiménez from the White Sox to Baltimore is one recent example. That’s not an option on waivers, however. Hypothetically, say the Brewers hold Hoskins past the deadline but fall firmly out of contention in August. It’s possible they’d take the increasingly common approach of trying to dump his salary by placing him on outright waivers before the September 1 deadline for playoff eligibility. There’s a decent chance Hoskins would clear in that scenario, as a claiming team would become responsible for the entire option buyout for what amounts to one regular season month (plus a hopeful playoff run).

Perhaps the Brewers will catch fire over the next two months and make that all a moot point. If Hoskins rakes all season and helps Milwaukee back to the postseason, they could hold him and even consider a qualifying offer to potentially recoup a draft choice if he walks as a free agent.

Image courtesy of Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images.

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