Padres Place Miguel Andujar On IL With Wrist Fracture
The Padres announced that infielder/designated hitter Miguel Andujar has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right wrist fracture. Catcher Rodolfo Durán has been recalled as the corresponding move. Per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com, the Padres expect Andujar to return some time in August.
The injury occurred yesterday. As seen in this clip from Baseball Savant, a pitch from Lucas Erceg runs inside and hits Andujar on the arm. Andujar stayed in the game but presumably felt sore after, which led to some tests and the revelation of this fracture.
Though Andujar is apparently only going to miss a few weeks, it’s a notable development for the club. Andujar is having a solid season, hitting .259/.303/.423 for a wRC+ of 100, indicating his offense has been exactly league average. That may not sound incredibly important but the Padres have been struggling to get offense this year. Ty France, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Gavin Sheets are the only three guys on the team with at least 110 plate appearances and a wRC+ above par.
The Padres are 49-50 and 2.5 games back of a playoff spot. With the trade deadline two weeks away, they are reportedly on the fence about whether to buy or sell, with their play in the near future to play a large role in that decision. Losing one of their few decent bats could potentially tip the scales.
If the Friars did decide to sell, Andujar would be a logical trade candidate. He is an impending free agent, as the club signed him to a one-year deal worth $4MM in the offseason. He wouldn’t have huge value as a serviceable role player, but the club may have been able to flip him for a lottery ticket prospect. He can still be traded if he is on the injured list but his value will naturally be lower while his status is questionable.
Andujar has mostly been serving as the designated hitter, with occasional appearances at third base. The recall of Durán was mostly due to him being there. Per Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune, he was on the taxi squad due to catcher Luis Campusano having an oblique issue. Perhaps the Padres will call up someone else and send down Durán in the coming days, or put Campusano on the IL.
If Campusano is feeling all right, he could pick up some DH at-bats while Durán serves as the backup catcher. Luis Rengifo, Sung-Mun Song and Jase Bowen are on the bench and could get some more playing time as well. Will Wagner and Mason McCoy are on the 40-man roster and could be recalled from their optional assignments.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images
Marlins Place Max Meyer On Injured List
The Marlins announced that right-hander Max Meyer has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to July 19, with a neck strain. Fellow righty Zach Brzykcy has been recalled in a corresponding move.
The club hasn’t yet provided many updates on Meyer’s status. Per video provided by Kevin Barral of Fish on First, manager Clayton McCullough says that Meyer felt discomfort prior to the All-Star Break but felt good after getting some extra rest during that break. Unfortunately, the discomfort cropped up again in his first start out of the break. He’ll now see a specialist to get more information and a clearer timeline.
Even if the issue proves to be minor, it’s a blow for the Fish. Meyer has been a huge part of the club’s success this year. He has logged 111 innings over 20 starts, allowing 2.68 earned runs per nine. He has a strong 26.2% strikeout rate while his 8.9% walk rate and 41.2% ground ball rate are both roughly league average.
Losing that kind of production would be a blow under any circumstances but it’s particularly noteworthy for the Marlins. They were red hot not too long ago but have just lost six in a row, dropping them to 52-48, effectively tied with the Cardinals and Pirates for the final National League Wild Card spot.
The rotation depth has looked precarious for a while. They released Chris Paddack earlier this year to make room for youngsters like Robby Snelling and Thomas White. Unfortunately, Snelling required internal brace surgery after just one big league start. White hasn’t yet been called up and is probably done for the year due to a capsular sprain in his throwing shoulder.
The Marlins have nonetheless been playing good ball in recent weeks, prior to the six-game losing streak, with a rotation consisting of Meyer, Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Tyler Phillips and Janson Junk. With Meyer now out of action for at least a couple of weeks, they will have to reach into their depth.
Ryan Gusto is currently in a long relief role in the bullpen and could factor in as a starter or bulk guy behind an opener. Dax Fulton was stretched out in the minors before being recalled last week but he now hasn’t pitched in over two weeks. Braxton Garrett has been pitching well in the minors but the Marlins seemingly don’t trust him much, as he hasn’t been called up for similar opportunities earlier in the year. Bradley Blalock is on the 40-man but not having great results on the farm. Prospect Karson Milbrandt hasn’t had success at Triple-A yet.
The Marlins are expected to act as buyers at this year’s deadline. Even before this Meyer injury, the rotation seemed like an area for them to bolster. Unless Meyer is able to make a very quick recovery, this could add to their urgency in that department, assuming they stay in the race over the next two weeks.
Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images
Cubs Designate Drew Pomeranz For Assignment
The Cubs announced that right-hander Jameson Taillon has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. The club also activated righty Aaron Civale, who was recently acquired from the Athletics. In corresponding moves, they have placed righty Phil Maton on the 15-day injured list due to right knee tendinitis and designated left-hander Drew Pomeranz for assignment.
Pomeranz was added to the roster earlier this month. The Cubs were able to scoop him up on a minor league deal after the Angels had released him. Since joining the Cubs, the lefty has made six appearances but allowed five earned runs in 5 2/3 innings while issuing four walks and only striking out one opponent.
It was with the Cubs that Pomeranz had a huge bounceback season last year. He missed three entire seasons, from 2022 to 2024, due to various injuries related to his throwing arm. He got back to the big leagues with the Cubs last year and fired off 49 2/3 innings with a 2.17 earned run average, 28.1% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. He parlayed that into a $4MM deal with the Halos but hasn’t been able to keep it going. Between the Angels and Cubs, he now has a 5.59 ERA, 12.6% strikeout rate and 11.9% walk rate over 29 innings this year.
Given the poor results, Pomeranz will almost certainly be a free agent again in a few days. He won’t garner much interest on the waiver wire. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment. The Cubs might skip that formality and release him. He could probably find another minor league offer at that point based on his track record. He was one of the best relievers in baseball for parts of the 2019 to 2021 window. He has mostly been hurt since then but looked good as recently as last year.
If he ends up on another roster at some point, he would be cheap. The Angels are on the hook for the remainder of his salary since they released him. Another club could sign him and only pay him the prorated league minimum for whatever time he spends on the roster, as the Cubs just did.
The return of Taillon, who missed over a month with a hamstring strain, will hopefully help to stabilize a rotation that has been severely impacted by injuries this year. Cade Horton is out for the year due to Tommy John surgery. Justin Steele is trying to return from his own UCL surgery but has hit some setbacks. If he does make it back this year, it will be as a reliever. Ben Brown and Edward Cabrera are also currently on the IL.
The Cubs have recently been giving the ball to Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and Colin Rea. They acquired David Peterson from the Mets late last month and plugged him into the mix. The Civale deal gave them an extra arm as well. That group will hold things down for now. The Cubs will surely look to make additional moves ahead of the August 3 deadline. Despite all the injuries, the Cubs are 56-43, holding a Wild Card spot and in position to buy in the next two weeks.
The Maton injury has apparently been ongoing all year. This is his third IL stint of the season due to that same knee issue. Even when he has been on the field, he hasn’t been effective. He has a 6.18 ERA over 31 appearances. That’s a far cry from the 2.79 ERA he posted with the Cardinals and Rangers last year. That performance was why the Cubs gave him a two-year deal worth $14.5MM.
Maton’s injuries have been part of a larger team-wide issue, much like in the rotation. Hunter Harvey, Porter Hodge, Riley Martin, Shelby Miller, Hoby Milner, Daniel Palencia and Ethan Roberts are all on the IL and now Maton is once again joining them. In addition to their rotation pursuits, the Cubs should be on the lookout for relief arms in the coming weeks.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
Report: Giants Have Not Discussed Extension With Luis Arraez
Infielder Luis Arraez is a logical trade candidate but recently expressed an openness to staying in San Francisco with an extension instead. There hasn’t been any indication the Giants are looking to extend Arraez and Justice delos Santos of The Mercury News reports that there have been no formal extension talks between Arraez and the club.
A trade has always seemed the most likely outcome and this report adds to that framing. Arraez is an impending free agent, as he was signed to a one-year deal with a $12MM guarantee. He’s having arguably the best campaign of his life. His batting average has returned to a very strong .326 mark this year. He had dipped to .292 last year, still a strong figure but low for him personally.
Perhaps more importantly, he has been playing second base and doing it well. He played that spot a decent amount earlier in his career but didn’t perform especially well and gradually spent more time at first base. The Giants gave him a chance to return to the keystone and have been rewarded. Defensive Runs Saved still considers him to be subpar but Arraez has been credited with ten Outs Above Average, second only to JJ Wetherholt at the position.
With the Giants sitting on a 42-57 record and 9.5 games back of a playoff spot, they are one of the few clear sellers in the league. With Arraez a few months from returning to free agency, he’s a logical trade candidate.
Other possibilities have been floated, with some fans hoping for the club to extend Arraez. As mentioned, the player himself has said he is open to such a scenario. However, that path is much more convoluted. For one thing, the Giants are currently trying to free up future payroll space. Various reports have indicated they are very open to moving guys with big contracts like Matt Chapman, Willy Adames or Rafael Devers. Adding another deal to the books by extending Arraez would go counter to that.
Extending Arraez and trading Chapman is a preferred path for some fans, but that’s not easy to pull off. Chapman is still owed $25MM annually through 2030, meaning his deal will still pay him $100MM over four seasons after this one. Since he is 33 years old, is having a down year and is currently on the injured list, that would be a hard contract to move. Chapman also has a full no-trade clause and has spent most of his life in California, which could add further complications to lining up a trade.
It’s also worth considering Casey Schmitt. A natural infielder having a breakout season at the plate, he has played a lot of left field this year due to the club having Chapman, Adames, Arraez, Devers and Bryce Eldridge filling up the infield positions and designated hitter slot. A trade of either Chapman or Arraez would open up an infield spot for him, giving the Giants motivation to move one. And as mentioned, trading Arraez is easier. Trading Schmitt is another possibility that some people have floated but he is controlled for three more seasons and won’t qualify for arbitration until this winter. That’s valuable for a club clearly worried about its budget.
On top of the roster concerns, there are reasons to be skeptical of Arraez going forward. Despite his strong season, he has a long track record of shaky defense and lower-body injuries. For a guy who is going to turn 30 next year, there would be some risk in investing in him for the long term, especially for a club that is already concerned about its older and expensive players.
Put it all together and a trade of Arraez seems to be the most likely outcome. The Giants could pivot in the coming weeks, particularly if they don’t get offers to their liking, but the smart money seems to be on a trade. He’s the club’s best chance at salvaging something from a lost season. Robbie Ray is their other notable impending free agent but he is having a so-so performance and is making $25MM this year.
Arraez has said it would be his preference to stay at second base if traded, though he doesn’t have much say in the matter. He doesn’t have any no-trade protection in his deal. The Giants should be looking to get the best trade return, regardless of which team offers it. The team that ultimately wins the bidding may prefer him at first base or designated hitter. Teams like the Rays, Red Sox and Rangers are in contention and could use some help at the keystone. The Guardians, Twins and Diamondbacks could use upgrades at first base and/or designated hitter.
Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images
Astros Reinstate Ronel Blanco, Bennett Sousa From 60-Day IL
The Astros announced that right-hander Ronel Blanco and left-hander Bennett Sousa have been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. The 40-man roster already had three vacancies, so these moves put the Astros at 39. Infielder Ray Delgado and lefty Bryan King have been optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land as the corresponding active roster moves. The club had a 14-12 split in terms of position players to pitchers yesterday but this gets them back to an even 13-13.
Blanco will be starting tonight’s game, making his first big league appearance in over a year. He required Tommy John surgery last May, wiping out the latter months of that season and the early parts of this campaign.
Prior to that lengthy injury absence, he had a tremendous out-of-nowhere breakout. He went into the 2024 season as a 30-year-old with a limited and unimpressive track record. At that time, he had a 4.78 earned run average in 58 1/3 innings.
He began that season as depth but injuries opened a path for him. He threw a no-hitter against the Blue Jays that April and just kept putting up good numbers after that. He finished the year with 30 appearances, 29 of those being starts, with a 2.80 ERA. He got some help from a .220 batting average on balls in play and an 83.6% strand rate. His 24.6% strikeout rate was a couple of ticks better than average but his 10.1% walk rate and 39.8% ground ball rate were both slightly worse than par.
Since he was fortunate in terms of batted balls and sequencing, his 4.15 FIP and 4.32 SIERA suggested he was more decent than elite. That was still an amazing outcome considering his profile. He began his career as an infielder but didn’t make much progress and started pitching at age 18. He signed with the Astros as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic when he was 22, for a modest $5,000 bonus.
Most future big leaguers from the international free agent system negotiate bonuses worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. Though they can’t officially sign until they are 16, those deals are often worked out when the player is even younger than that. For the Astros to get anything at all from an under-the-radar signing like Blanco is a win.
He will now try to get back on track after a lengthy absence. The Houston rotation was in shambles earlier this year but has steadied more recently. Hunter Brown missed significant time with a shoulder strain but has been back for over a month now. Peter Lambert has been doing his own out-of-nowhere breakout, with a 3.03 ERA in 16 starts. Tatsuya Imai and Spencer Arrighetti have been inconsistent. Thanks in part to that healthier rotation, they are more viable contenders now than they were earlier, currently sitting 4.5 games back of a playoff spot.
The club could look to bolster that group ahead of the trade deadline but they have other priorities and a self-imposed payroll crunch. They are still looking for left-handed bats to add into the outfield, a search that has been ongoing for years now. They’re also looking for relief help. Accomplishing those goals is a bit tricky with a thin farm system and a preference to avoid the competitive balance tax. MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker has the club about $8MM below the $244MM base threshold at the moment.
If the Astros don’t add rotation help between now and the August 3 deadline, they will rely on internal arms. They traded Lance McCullers Jr. and Colton Gordon to the Brewers recently. That added some payroll space but subtracted some rotation depth. Teng should be in the mix. Cristian Javier is currently pitching in relief but has lots of starting experience. Mike Burrows and Hayden Wesneski are on the injured list but could be viable candidates in the near future. Ethan Pecko is having a decent season in Triple-A but is not yet on the 40-man roster.
Sousa’s return also bolsters the bullpen, assuming he can get back to last year’s form. In 2025, he gave the Astros 50 2/3 innings with a 2.84 ERA, 29.6% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. This year, he hasn’t been able to get going yet. He started the year on the IL due to an oblique strain. He was reinstated in late April and made five shaky appearances before elbow inflammation put him back on the shelf. In between those IL stints, he allowed three earned runs in 3 1/3 innings with five walks to four strikeouts. Houston already had three lefty relievers in Josh Hader, Steven Okert and King. Today’s moves keep them at three, with Sousa replacing King.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Orioles Place Adley Rutschman On IL, Designate Rudy Martin Jr.
The Orioles on Monday placed catcher Adley Rutschman on the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his left wrist. In a corresponding move, Baltimore selected the contract of backstop Chadwick Tromp from Triple-A Norfolk. Recently acquired outfielder Rudy Martin Jr. was designated for assignment in order to open a 40-man roster spot.
It’s the third IL trip of the season for Rutschman, who’s also missed time due to a concussion and inflammation in his left ankle. This trio of injuries has limited him to 67 games on the season, but the switch-hitting All-Star has been productive when healthy. Rutschman is batting .251/.331/.433 with eight homers, 19 doubles and a triple in 284 turns at the plate. He hasn’t bounced all the way back to the form he showed in his first two major league seasons (.268/.369/.439) but has been a far sight better than he was in 2024-25, when he hit just .240/.314/.382 in 1003 plate appearances.
The O’s haven’t given a definitive timetable on Rutschman’s return. While he’s on the shelf, Samuel Basallo seems likely to get the lion’s share of playing time behind the dish. Either Tromp or Sam Huff, also on Baltimore’s active roster, can also mix in. They’ll proceed with three catchers for the time being.
Tromp, 31, has ping-ponged between the Orioles and Braves on several occasions over the past two seasons. He’s slashed .250/.241/.286 in 30 MLB plate appearances this season and carries a career .225/.232/.375 slash in 208 trips to the batter’s box at the big league level. Tromp’s aggressive, free-swinging approach has left him with a staggeringly low 1.4% walk rate; he’s drawn a base on balls only three times in 80 major league games. That allergic-to-walks approach is always going to limit his offensive production, but he does have a bit of pop in his right-handed swing.
Martin, 30, exercised an upward mobility clause in his minor league contract with the Royals last week, which prompted Kansas City to trade him to Baltimore. Any player who exercises an upward clause must be made available to all 29 other clubs. If a new team is willing to add him to its 40-man roster, the current team must either select him to its own 40-man roster or send him to the team that’s willing to do so. Kansas City chose to send Martin to Baltimore rather than select his contract.
Martin didn’t appear in a major league game during his short time on the Orioles’ 40-man roster. He’s also yet to appear in a Triple-A game with them. In 255 plate appearances with the Royals’ top affiliate in Omaha, the former 25th-round pick hit .284/.414/.441 with eight homers and a 33-for-40 showing on the basepaths. Baltimore will now have a week to trade Martin (again), place him on outright waivers or release him.
Anthopoulos On Braves’ Deadline Needs
The Braves have spent the bulk of the season in first place in the National League East, but a once-comfortable lead has dwindled to three games over the resurgent Phillies (six and eight over the upstart Marlins and Nationals, respectively). As their division rivals have improved their play in recent weeks, Atlanta has struggled both with starting pitching depth and with run-scoring. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported last week that most of the Braves’ early trade focus has been on bats over arms, but president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos made clear in a recent appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (audio clip) that he’s casting a wide net and not solely focused on any one specific need.
“We’re definitely not a complete team,” said Anthopoulos. “I think we’ve got the upside to be a complete team, but we can add rotation, bullpen, bats. As much as we all like to say ‘I need to get this’ or ‘I need to get that,’ … sometimes you just need to take what ends up being available to you.”
Anthopoulos went on to opine that a formidable offense is of extra importance during the regular season, whereas the scale shifts more toward needing a strong rotation and bullpen during postseason play, when the baked-in slate of off-days affords more rest to a team’s best pitchers and allows clubs to use their top arms more aggressively.
“It’s been pretty obvious that if there’s a playoff caliber out there, we would jump at that,” said Anthopoulos. “But if there’s a reliever, we would jump at that. We see it all the time in the playoffs with all the off-days, not that many guys are going deep in terms of starts. Having a deep bullpen is pretty important.”
Atlanta’s need are fairly plain to see. They lost Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep to elbow surgeries before the season even started. The former has yet to return. The latter has looked shaky in limited work since his activation. Meanwhile, Spencer Strider has missed most of the season. Minor league signee Martín Pérez, who’s been a savior for the injury-plagued staff, went down with an injury himself earlier this month. Righty Bryce Elder stepped up big for the first couple months but has wilted over his past seven starts, allowing nearly a run per inning. Reynaldo López, after an early move to the ‘pen, is being stretched back out as a starter.
The Braves have leaned heavily on Chris Sale, Grant Holmes, Pérez and Elder this season. Sale has been dominant. Holmes has posted a mid-3.00s ERA despite poor strikeout and walk numbers. He’s begun to fade a bit, too, only averaging 4 1/3 innings per appearance over his past nine outings. Atlanta starters improbably rank ninth in the majors with a 3.97 ERA this season, but over the past month that number is a far more discouraging 4.97 — 24th in MLB during that timeframe.
It shouldn’t be a major surprise that Anthopoulos specifically mentioned a playoff-caliber starter. His club hopes to get Schwellenbach back before too much longer. Assuming full health, a Sale/Schwellenbach pairing atop the rotation could be excellent. The rest of the group is far less certain. Strider was a Cy Young-caliber arm early in his career but hasn’t been as sharp since returning from 2024’s internal brace procedure. He missed time earlier this season with an oblique injury and has now been out since mid-June due to elbow inflammation. He’s on the 60-day IL and thus sidelined into mid-August at least.
The rest of Atlanta’s staff consists largely of journeymen or unproven arms. López has been a playoff-caliber starter in the past but missed nearly all of 2025 following shoulder surgery. Workload is a concern with him, as is the case with Waldrep and Smith-Shawver, both of whom are former top prospects who’ve shown flashes of excellence in the majors but without a full season of results. Holmes and Elder profile more as back-of-the-rotation arms. Prospects like Didier Fuentes, JR Ritchie and Owen Murphy have debuted this season but haven’t established themselves yet.
On the position side of things, Atlanta could clearly use some help in left field and/or at shortstop. The offseason signings of Mike Yastrzemski and Ha-Seong Kim haven’t paid dividends. Yastrzemski has been just below league-average against righties (.235/.322/.385, 96 wRC+) and hasn’t hit lefties at all. Kim, who required offseason surgery to repair a tendon in his hand after a fall on some ice, is just 5-for-73 (all singles) in 82 plate appearances, leading to a brutal .068/.171/.068 batting line. Both are currently on the injured list, as is star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr., who’s been shelved since early June due to a hamstring strain. All three are expected back soon.
While a front office leader broadcasting such an open-minded approach doesn’t tell us much about the specific targets the team will pursue, it’s still somewhat telling that Anthopoulos doesn’t have one specific area of focus. We’ve seen some other baseball operations executives pretty clearly indicate a narrower approach to the deadline. We know the Astros will be pursuing left-handed outfield bats, for instance. The Cubs are turning over every possible stone to help address an injury-depleted rotation. A broader approach from Anthopoulos means we’ll likely see the Braves connected to a larger swath of targets in the next couple weeks, but that only opens the door for more creativity and more volume in their deadline activity.
“I just don’t think at the deadline we can say ‘We have to get this reliever’ or ‘We have to get this bat,” Anthopoulos concluded. “We [need] literally anything that will make the team better — and my thought right now is I just don’t know what’s going to materialize.”
Mets Reinstate Luis Robert Jr. From 60-Day IL
The Mets announced that outfielder Luis Robert Jr. has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. The 40-man roster had a vacancy but is now full with this move. Infielder/outfielder Eric Wagaman has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse to open an active roster spot. Will Sammon of The Athletic reported on Robert’s activation prior to the official announcement. The Mets also announced that infielder Zack Short, who was designated for assignment last week, has been outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse.
Robert was acquired in an offseason trade that hasn’t worked out. The Mets sent infielder/outfielder Luisangel Acuña and minor league pitcher Truman Pauley to the White Sox to get Robert. The Mets were surely hoping for Robert to stay healthy while he produced at a strong level but that has not happened. He hit .224/.327/.329 in 98 plate appearances before lumbar spine disc herniation put him on the IL at the end of April.
Now that he is returning, the Mets will have different hopes than they did a few months ago. At this point, they are just hoping to salvage some value in a trade before the August 3 deadline. The club is 42-58 and ten games out of a playoff spot. They have reportedly already started fielding offers for a sell-off. Robert’s contract has a $20MM club option for 2027, with a $2MM buyout, but that doesn’t look attractive since Robert has been injured and/or performing poorly for almost three whole years now.
At his best, Robert is a borderline MVP candidate. He showed that form in 2023. He stayed healthy enough to get into 145 games. He hit 38 home runs and stole 20 bases while running the ball down in center field. FanGraphs considered the whole season to be worth five wins above replacement. He finished 12th in American League MVP voting that year.
But that level of production from Robert has been rare. Due to frequent injuries, that’s his only season with more than 110 games played. Earlier in his career, he was usually putting up good numbers when healthy. But since that 2023 campaign, he hasn’t even been good when on the field. He has a .223/.292/.367 line in 954 plate appearances dating back to the start of the 2024 season.
The Mets will hope that Robert can show a glimpse of his best self between now and the deadline. For what it’s worth, he has hit .323/.400/.548 on his minor league rehab assignment, though in a small sample of 35 plate appearances. Even if he does stay hot against major league competition, teams will be skeptical due to his injury history and inconsistent track record. Still, good center fielders are hard to find, so the Mets should garner some interest. They would have to eat a notable portion of his remaining salary to facilitate a deal but should be willing to do so.
It will be interesting to watch the playing time in the near future. The outfield is fairly set with A.J. Ewing in the middle, flanked by Juan Soto and Carson Benge. Jorge Polanco has only been used as a designated hitter since he came off the IL earlier this month. Presumably, the Mets should want to have Robert out there while they are trying to drum up trade interest. That could mean some occasional off-days for those other guys, though the logjam will be alleviated if Robert is flipped elsewhere in the coming weeks.
As for Short, he has bounced around the league this year as a depth infielder. He is a .169/.270/.286 hitter in his career, so teams presumably value his glovework. The Mets have twice rostered him in a bench infield role this year. The first stint lasted a little over a week in June. He was designated for assignment and then sent outright to Triple-A Syracuse. He was added back to the roster this month but the second stint lasted less than a week.
Since Short has been previously outrighted in his career, he has the right to elect free agency. The Mets didn’t indicate today whether or not he would do so. For what it’s worth, he also had the right to elect free agency last month but decided to report to Syracuse. If he goes that route again, he can provide the club with some non-roster depth. If he hits the open market, he will likely be limited to minor league offers, based on the fact that all clubs just passed on the chance to scoop him off waivers.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
Rockies Trade Seth Halvorsen To Dodgers
The Rockies and Dodgers lined up on an intra-division trade that’ll see hard-throwing righty Seth Halvorsen go from Colorado to L.A. in exchange for minor league righty Nick Frasso and minor league outfielder Landyn Vidourek. The teams have announced the swap. Halvorsen is on the 15-day injured list due to shoulder inflammation at the moment, so he’ll head to Triple-A Oklahoma City to finish off a rehab assignment he recently started. The Dodgers can then decide whether to formally option him upon his activation or bring him right to the major league bullpen.
The 26-year-old Halvorsen brings mammoth fastball velocity, shaky command and more than five seasons of club control to the Dodgers. Colorado’s seventh-round pick back in 2023, he appeared in the majors barely a year after being drafted and has now amassed 71 innings across parts of three major league seasons. He’s posted a pedestrian 4.31 ERA in that time but done so with big velocity (99.6 mph average on the four-seamer), a sharp 12.4% swinging-strike rate and a strong 48.8% ground-ball rate. Halvorsen has walked a bloated 12.1% of his opponents and been far too homer-prone (1.52 HR/9), but there are a lot of interesting components in his profile.
Halvorsen sports an unappealing 4.74 ERA in 19 major league innings this season, but he’s posted a 2.04 ERA, 32.4% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 45.2% grounder rate while averaging an absurd 99.9 mph on his heater in 17 1/3 Triple-A innings. This is the first season in which he’s used a minor league option. He’ll have two more option years remaining after this one.
Halvorsen joins the Dodgers as something of a development project, but that’s an area in which L.A. has excelled. They’ve expended relatively humble acquisition costs to add players like Evan Phillips, Will Klein, Alex Vesia, Anthony Banda and others in recent years, going on to coax strong bullpen performances from all of them. That’s not an exhaustive list of every Dodgers bullpen success story, and there are plenty of misses along the way as well, but the organization has a clear competency when it comes to unlocking bigger performances from talented-but-unestablished bullpen arms of this nature.
Addressing the bullpen isn’t a dire need for the Dodgers, but that’s to be expected for a team with a Major League Baseball-best 63-37 record. Los Angeles doesn’t necessarily have many glaring deficiencies, but every contender is always on the hunt for bullpen help. Bringing in an arm with this type of power repertoire and remaining club control/minor league options is all the more appealing.
Halvorsen joins several important Dodgers relievers on the major league injured list. Edwin Díaz has been out since late April after having a bone spur removed from his elbow. Blake Treinen hit the injured list in mid-June due to elbow inflammation. Brusdar Graterol hasn’t pitched this season and underwent back surgery on June 1. Ben Casparius, a vital arm for the ’25 Dodgers, has been out since mid-April due to shoulder inflammation.
The current bullpen group remains strong. Tanner Scott is enjoying a rebound season and has more than capably filled the closer role for the injured Díaz. Klein, Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez and Jack Dreyer all have earned run averages under 3.00. Henriquez and Vesia are at 2.25 and 2.14, respectively. It’s a strong group that’ll only get even deeper if Díaz can make a full recovery. That said, Henriquez is the only member of this group who can match — or, in his case, exceed — Halvorsen’s velocity.
In exchange for a high-upside, highly volatile bullpen play in Halvorsen, the Rockies will acquire a former top-100 prospect (Frasso) and a player the Dodgers selected in the third round just last summer (Vidourek). Colorado general manager Josh Byrnes — second on the team’s baseball ops hierarchy behind president Paul DePodesta — is eminently familiar with both players. Byrnes, who was hired this past offseason, spent more than a decade in the Dodgers’ front office as their senior vice president of baseball operations.
Frasso, 27, has yet to pitch in the majors (though he does have two days of MLB service). He’s a 2020 fourth-round pick (Blue Jays) that the Dodgers originally acquired in the 2022 trade sending right-hander Mitch White to Toronto. Two years later, Frasso cracked the back end of the top-100 lists at MLB.com (No. 80), Baseball America (No. 97) and Baseball Prospectus (No. 79).
Injuries have frequently set Frasso back. Not long after cracking those top-100 rankings, he wound up requiring surgery to repair the labrum in his right shoulder. That spring injury naturally wiped out his entire 2024 campaign.
Frasso, who’d been a starter up until that point in his minor league career, returned in 2025 and pitched 77 innings with diminished results during a season split between starting and relieving. A late-May move to the ‘pen didn’t do much to improve Frasso’s middling ERA, but his strikeout and walk rates improved dramatically in relief. He’d been sitting between 14-15% in both categories but jumped to 23.4% and 10.7% upon being moved to the ‘pen full time.
This year, Frasso has worked exclusively as a reliever (except for a 1 2/3-inning “start” as an opener) and posted a 4.74 ERA with a massive 35.1% strikeout rate against an ugly 14.9% walk rate. Further distancing himself from that 2024 surgery has restored some life to his arsenal. He sat 94.6 mph on his four-seamer in 2025 but is at 96.2 mph so far in 2026. His swinging-strike rate has jumped from 9.3% to a hearty 12.7%. His opponents’ chase rate has surged from a poor 24.5% to a strong 33%; opponents have gone from a 78.1% contact rate to just 72%. The ERA might not be much to look at, but beyond the shoddy command, Frasso has been dogged by a through-the-roof .407 average on balls in play — despite holding opponents to an average exit velocity of only 87.1 mph and a paltry 32.1% hard-hit rate.
Since Frasso has yet to make his major league debut, he still has his entire slate of club control remaining. The Rockies could call him up to the majors and control him for six seasons beyond the current one — all the way through 2032. Frasso is already in his final minor league option year, however, so he’ll need to break camp with the team in 2027 or else be traded or exposed to waivers. With that in mind, it’d behoove the Rox to get a real look at him in the season’s final couple months.
The 22-year-old Vidourek is a toolsy but contact-challenged outfielder whom the Dodgers took with the No. 104 overall pick last summer. He’s hitting just .170/.332/.311 in 256 Low-A plate appearances this season, due in no small part to a massive 38.7% swinging-strike rate.
Vidourek draws praise for above-average raw power, plus speed and a plus-plus arm in the outfield. The University of Cincinnati product also posted standout exit velocity, barrel rates and hard-hit rates in his brief minor league career. When Vidourek does make contact, it’s typically impactful, but he’ll need to substantially reduce his swing-and-miss to have hope of becoming a regular.
The Dodgers have been playing Vidourek in center field this season. FanGraphs noted back in December that he was likelier to end up in right field as he continues to fill out an athletic 6’1″, 192-pound frame. Baseball America touted his 70-grade throwing arm as the best in the Dodgers’ entire system.
There’s a lot to like with Vidourek, but the penchant for whiffs is a glaring, prominent red flag. Given his blend of power, speed and defense, Vidourek doesn’t need to suddenly develop a plus hit tool in order to become a potential regular in the majors, but the current rate of whiffs — particularly in the low minors — simply won’t cut it.
Vidourek has the potential to substantially (and quickly) improve his stock if he can hone his bat-to-ball skills, but the Dodgers were willing to take that risk due not only to their desire to acquire a controllable high-octane reliever but also to the outfield depth in the system overall. Center fielder Andy Pages is controlled through the 2030 season, and the Dodgers incredibly have three outfielders ranked inside the top 20 on Baseball America’s latest top-100 list: Josue De Paula (No. 4), Mike Sirota (No. 14) and Eduardo Quintero (No. 18). Zyhir Hope, ranked No. 55 at BA, gives the Dodgers a fourth high-profile outfield prospect. The Rockies aren’t nearly as deep in outfield prospects — or prospects in general — so they’ll buy an extremely tooled-up prospect in hopes of catching him before his stock soars.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post first reported that Halvorsen was being traded to the Dodgers for a pair of minor leaguers. His colleague, Jon Heyman, first reported the names of the two prospects.
Royals To Sign Aaron Bummer To Minor League Deal
The Royals and left-hander Aaron Bummer have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The lefty reported to Triple-A Omaha today and should be in that club’s bullpen once the paperwork is officially completed, if it hasn’t been already.
Bummer, 32, has a strong track record but his recent trend lines are down. From 2019 to 2025, he posted a 3.70 earned run average across 328 innings. He struck out 26.8% of batters faced in that span, gave out walks at a 9.9% clip and induced grounders on 64% of balls in play.
There were some signs of worry last year, though he managed to finish the season with a respectable 3.81 ERA. His ground ball rate had dropped to 53.9%, still well above average but a career worst for him. His strikeout rate also went to 21.7%, a drop of almost seven points from the year before. That all coincided with a loss of velocity. Bummer averaged 94.7 miles per hour with his four-seamer in 2023 but that dropped to 93.6 mph in 2024 and then 91.7 mph last year.
Those trends have gotten even worse in 2026. Bummer made 19 appearances with Atlanta with a 7.63 ERA. His 46.2% grounder rate was still better than par but another big drop relative to his previous work. His strikeout rate plummeted even further to 16.9%. His four-seamer averaged 90.5 mph.
Atlanta released him in mid-May. Bummer then landed a minor league deal with the Cubs, who initially sent him to their Arizona Complex. He eventually made his way to Triple-A Iowa. He made four appearances there, allowing four earned runs in four innings. His velo ticked up slightly to 91.4 mph in those appearances, though he only punched out 3 of the 19 batters he faced. He opted out of that deal last week.
For the Royals, there’s no real risk in sending Bummer to Omaha to see what happens. He is making $9.5MM this year but Atlanta is on the hook for that after releasing him. If the Royals decide to call him up, they would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what Atlanta pays.
Kansas City has suffered a number of injuries to its pitching staff. Starters Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic and Stephen Kolek are on the injured list, putting more strain on a bullpen that currently has Carlos Estévez, James McArthur, Nick Mears and Connor Seabold on the IL.
For the season, Royals relievers have a collective 5.42 ERA, which is worse than every MLB club except for the Athletics. The current group might also get thinned out since the Royals are in clear seller position, so they might flip a few arms to other clubs. There’s a path for Bummer to get back to the big leagues if he shows some signs of life with the Storm Chasers.
Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images