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Big Hype Prospects: Cowser, De La Cruz, Rushing, Vientos, Keith

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Last week’s lead Big Hype Prospect, Andrew Abbott, is already on his way to the Majors. Let’s see if we can pull the trick two weeks in a row.

Five Big Hype Prospects

Colton Cowser, 23, OF, BAL (AAA)
186 PA, 8 HR 5 SB, .347/.484/.590

When he hit the injured list with a quad injury in mid-May, Cowser was playing his way into Major League consideration. Cowser returned to action over the weekend, going a combined 4-for-5 with two walks, a double, and a homer. He’s produced multiple hits in 14 of 39 games this season. Cedric Mullins is currently sidelined with a groin injury. Although replacement center fielder Aaron Hicks has played well in his absence, underlying metrics suggest Hicks is toast. The club also has a partial opening at designated hitter which can be filled on a more permanent basis by Anthony Santander. Cowser has the athletic ability to stick in center field, but he could be a truly plus defender in the outfield corners. There’s concern he’ll struggle against left-handed pitching early in his career. At worst case, he looks like a high-probability strong-side platoon hitter. That’s why he’s creeping towards Top 10 prospect status on many lists.

Elly De La Cruz, 21, 3B/SS, CIN (AAA)
186 PA, 12 HR, 11 SB, .297/.398/.633

My recent fantasy chat included at least a half dozen questions about when De La Cruz will debut. I don’t have any special insight into the Reds thought process. The decision is complex, made even more so due to new service time and draft pick compensation rules. Role playing as the Reds, there is a certain attractiveness to following the Corbin Carroll model. As you’ll recall, Carroll debuted in late-August and performed decently in his debut. He’s now on pace to handily win the NL Rookie of the Year Award. The timing of his initial promotion ensured he would be club-controlled through 2028 (a contract extension has since further extended the Diamondbacks control). A later debut for De La Cruz would ensure he’s under control through at least 2029.

Were it up to me, he would be in the Majors tomorrow. Of all prospects in the minors, he has the least to prove. To my eyes, he’s the most physically impressive prospect since Fernando Tatis Jr. Among his most impressive traits are a 93.4-mph average exit velocity with a 118.8-mph max EV. This season, Matt Olson leads the league with a hardest-hit ball of 118.6-mph.

Dalton Rushing, 22, C, LAD (A+)
188 PA, 7 HR, 1 SB, .261/.431/.507

Rushing has followed up a wild 2022 debut with an impressive, discipline-forward performance. Defensive reviews of the left-handed hitting catching prospect skew vaguely negative. He’s a high-effort receiver who will need to work hard to polish his game. Since his bat is so advanced, a move to a corner position might be required so he can progress through the minors at a more rapid pace. The Dodgers are blessed with a number of highly regarded catchers. They can certainly afford for Rushing to play elsewhere. It might be advisable to get Rushing’s bat in Double-A before he becomes too accustomed to a 19.7 percent walk rate. Discipline is an excellent trait to possess, but it needs to be coupled with selective aggression within the strike zone.

For clarity the speculation about Rushing moving off catcher is my own based on the Dodgers inventory. I’ve not seen a scout suggest it’s necessary.

Mark Vientos, 23, DH, NYM (MLB)
(AAA) 166 PA, 13 HR, .333/.416/.688

Vientos possesses (and gets to) incredibly consistent power in-game. Although he’s only hitting .188/.206/.281 in 34 plate appearances, his exit velocities (96.1-mph average, 112.8-mph max) tell another story. Among hitters with over 30 plate appearances, only Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have tallied higher average exit velocities. While it’s in part a small sample fluke, Vientos did average 94.5-mph in Triple-A. The flaws in his game could limit his ceiling. In particular, he tends to make low-angle, pulled contact. He’s expected to be strikeout prone. He could find himself cast as a second-division starter or limited to facing certain pitcher types.

Colt Keith, 21, 3B, DET (AA)
217 PA, 10 HR, 1 SB, .321/.396/.563

Keith has built upon a breakout 2022 in High-A by doing much the same in Double-A. He’s even trimmed three points from his swinging strike rate. There’s risk he’ll continue to move down the defensive spectrum. He was being trained as a second baseman last season, but he’s made only three starts at the keystone in 2023. His bat is his carrying characteristic, fueled by plus discipline and a willingness to ambush mistakes in the zone. Wherever he winds up defensively, his bat looks like it will play in the Majors.

Three More

Bryan Woo, SEA (23): The Mariners opted to jump Woo straight from Double-A for his debut last Saturday. His performance in Double-A was masterful (44 innings, 2.05 ERA). His first start, not so much (2 IP, 7 H, 6 R). Scouts have long loved the life and shape of his fastball. His slider and changeup remain works in progress.

Chase Hampton, NYY (21): One of the top-performing pitching prospects in the minors, Hampton is beginning to draw attention from scouts. His mid-90s fastball reportedly tunnels well with a plus slider and curve. As with many young power pitchers, his changeup lags behind his other offerings. Hampton has an 18.8 percent swinging strike rate in High-A.

Luken Baker, STL (26): A former second-round draft pick, Baker experienced a breakthrough in Triple-A this season, bashing 18 home runs in 244 plate appearances. He produced a 92.8-mph average and 113.5-mph max EV. Baker made his debut as the designated hitter on Sunday.

Did I miss a detail or nuance? DM me on Twitter @BaseballATeam to suggest corrections.

Rangers Transfer Jacob deGrom To 60-Day Injured List

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The Rangers announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating right-hander Spencer Howard from the 60-day injured list. He will take the active roster spot of right-hander Jonathan Hernández, who has been optioned to Triple-A Round Rock. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, righty Jacob deGrom was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

At this point, it’s unclear if anything has meaningfully changed in deGrom’s timeline. He has already been on the injured list since April 29 due to inflammation in his throwing elbow and had yet to begin a rehab assignment. Today’s transfer officially rules him out until 60 days from that initial IL placement, meaning he could be reinstated as soon as June 28. Even if he were cleared to start ramping up his pitch count tomorrow, he likely would have needed a few weeks to get back to a full starter’s workload anyway. It’s possible that this is merely a procedural move and that his health status hasn’t changed. If there has been some kind of setback, that information has yet to be publicly revealed. He will have a follow-up MRI this week, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

Health has been the major question mark surrounding deGrom in recent years. Arguably the best pitcher on the planet when healthy, it’s been quite some time since he remained on the mound for an extended period of time. He logged over 200 innings in each season from 2017 to 2019, but then the pandemic-shortened 2020 season kept him to just 68 frames. In 2021, he went on the injured list with forearm tightness in July of 2021 and never returned. He then missed the start of 2022 due to a stress reaction in his shoulder blade, returning in August after missing over a year of action.

He was still excellent when on the mound, posting a tiny 2.05 ERA over that 2020 to 2022 stretch, striking out 42.4% of opponents against a 4.5% walk rate. The pandemic was obviously unrelated, but it nonetheless combined with the injuries to limit him to 224 1/3 innings over those three years. The Rangers made a bet on him by signing him to a five-year, $185MM deal this winter. He made six starts for his new club with a 2.67 ERA but has been on the shelf since then with an uncertain outlook.

Howard, 26, has been on the injured list all year after suffering a lat strain during the spring. He recently began a rehab assignment and pitched two scoreless relief outings. Howard had the #27 slot on Baseball America’s top 100 list in both 2020 and 2021 while with the Phillies. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to put it all together in the big leagues just yet. Coming over to the Rangers in a 2021 deadline deal, he has 111 1/2 major league innings between the two clubs with a 7.09 ERA.

The righty had a chance to establish himself as a future rotation building block last year, as he was one of several younger hurlers given a shot in the Texas rotation. Unfortunately, he spent much of the year either in the minors or on the injured list, only tossing 37 2/3 innings in the majors with a 7.41 ERA. The club then totally revamped their rotation this winter by re-signing Martín Pérez and acquiring deGrom, Andrew Heaney, Nathan Eovaldi and Jake Odorizzi to slot alongside incumbent Jon Gray.

Odorizzi is done for the year due to a shoulder procedure and deGrom is obviously not an option for a while, but it still seems as though Howard has been pushed out of the rotation mix, at least for now. His recent rehab assignment could have been as long as 30 days and allowed him to get stretched out but he’s instead been reinstated after just a couple of short outings. That doesn’t mean the book has totally closed on him being a starter but he is in his final option year. With the Rangers’ bullpen having posted a collective 4.47 ERA on the season, perhaps they would like to take some time to see if he can be of use to them in a relief capacity.

One of the struggling members of the relief corps has been Hernández. He posted a solid 2.90 ERA in 2020 but required Tommy John surgery in April of 2021, wiping out that entire season. He returned last year and was able to make 29 appearances with a 2.97 ERA. Unfortunately, his results have taken a big dip here in 2023, as he currently has a 6.65 ERA through 25 outings.

The remaining months of the season will be important for the righty as he has just one option year left, meaning he’ll be out of options next year as long as he spends at least 20 days in the minors this season. His trajectory for free agency could also potentially be impacted as he came into this campaign with three years and 41 days of service time. Spending roughly a couple of months in the minors would prevent him from getting to the four-year mark this season and delay his free agency by a year. He could also wind up as a non-tender candidate if he’s out of options and his results don’t improve.

Best Deadline Rental Returns In Recent History: Honorable Mentions

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The calendar has flipped to June, and more than one-third of the season is in the rearview mirror. While there’s still plenty of time for the standings to change in dramatic fashion — just ask the 2022 Phillies or 2019 Nationals — the “early” portion of the season is a bit behind us. As the weather heats up and playoff pictures begin to take a more definitive shape, the baseball world inherently turns its focus to a few things: the looming All-Star Game, the upcoming amateur draft and, of course, the annual trade deadline.

June trades of note are admittedly rare — particularly over the past ten years or so — but we’re fast approaching the portion of the season where trade needs, potential trade candidates and many other deadline-adjacent minutiae begin to crystallize. It’s common for fans of rebuilding and/or underperforming clubs to begin to wonder just what sort of returns their favorite team might be able to eke out for veteran players with dwindling club control.

Some of the most common questions we’re asked in chats at MLBTR these days center around what a team might be able to get for a certain player — rentals in particular. Names like Lucas Giolito, Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery and Jeimer Candelario were just a few readers asked me about this past week. To be clear, it’s not a given that all or even any of those specific names will change hands in two months’ time (or sooner), but it’s obviously a hot topic that’s on people’s minds.

As such, it only seemed natural to take a look back through recent history and look at some high-profile trades of rental players and see which panned out the best for the team selling off the veteran player in question. Over the next couple weeks, we’ll roll out a look at the ten “best” returns for rental players in recent trade deadline history.

A few caveats of note! At times, it can take three, four, five years or even longer for a team to begin reaping the benefits from such a deal. An immediate return isn’t always apparent, particularly when you’re only selling two months of a player or players. As such, we’re not considering trades completed at last year’s deadline for our top ten, even though they could well prove excellent as soon as 2024 or 2025. It’s simply too soon to evaluate those swaps. Also, these rankings are subjective; they’re not based on a hard-and-fast WAR criteria or anything of the sort. If you think we should’ve ranked No. 7 higher and No. 4 lower, let us know. It’s all part of the fun.

While I said we’re omitting last year’s deadline from our top ten, that doesn’t mean we’ll completely ignore the results of the 2022 deadline. To kick off the series, here’s a quick look at three honorable mentions from 2017-21 as well as a handful of 2022 trades that will be worth keeping an eye on in the years to come. Present-day impact of these 2022 trades has either been minimal or nonexistent, but each brought the “selling” team some nearly MLB-ready help that could be impactful as soon as this season. These honorable mentions and 2022 swaps aren’t ranked — they’re just sorted alphabetically by the last name of the player who was traded.

Let’s begin!

Honorable Mentions

Orioles acquire RHPs Dillon Tate, Cody Carroll and LHP Josh Rogers from the Yankees in exchange for LHP Zack Britton (7/24/18)

Two-thirds of this return for Baltimore wound up making little to no impact, but the acquisition of Tate, a former No. 4 overall draft pick, wound up paying dividends. Though Tate isn’t the rotation piece the Rangers hoped for when drafting him or the Yankees envisioned when acquiring him for Carlos Beltran, he’s emerged as a quality setup man at Camden Yards. The O’s gave Tate just ten starts after the trade before moving him to the bullpen, and while his rookie effort in 2019 left plenty to be desired, he’s since pitched quite well.

Dating back to 2020, Tate has a 3.65 ERA in 158 innings of relief, adding 25 holds and eight saves along the way. Tate’s 19.1% strikeout rate is below-average, but his 6.8% walk rate is better than average and his 57.9% grounder rate is outstanding. In 2022, he pitched to a pristine 3.05 ERA through 73 2/3 frames, tallying five of those saves and 16 of those holds. A forearm strain has kept Tate out of action this year, however.

Tate isn’t peak Britton and likely never will be, but trading two months of an elite reliever and winding up with six years of club control over an above-average reliever isn’t a bad outcome for Baltimore. As for the Yankees, they got the tail end of Britton’s prime. He notched a 2.88 ERA in 25 innings down the stretch and re-signed on a three-year deal with a fourth year option (that had to be exercised after the contract’s second season to prevent a Britton opt-out). Britton posted a sub-2.00 ERA in both 2019 and 2020, but he pitched just 19 innings over his final two years in New York due to injuries.

Rays acquire LHP Jalen Beeks from the Red Sox in exchange for RHP Nathan Eovaldi (7/25/18)

Few could’ve predicted what an impactful trade this would end up being at the time it was made. At the time of the swap, Eovaldi was in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and had pitched 57 innings of 4.26 ERA ball for Tampa Bay. He’d long intrigued teams with his power arsenal but was inconsistent and carried a career ERA that more or less matched that season total.

Eovaldi took off in Boston, however, tossing 54 frames of 3.33 ERA ball as the Sox marched to the postseason, where he cemented his status in Red Sox lore. Eovaldi was a star that October, tossing 22 1/3 innings of 1.61 ERA ball with a 16-to-3 K/BB ratio. Those are impressive numbers on their own, but they only tell part of the tale. Eovaldi won his first two starts of the playoffs before moving to the bullpen and picking up a pair of holds. But it was Game 3 of the World Series, where Eovaldi gutted out six innings of relief in an 18-inning marathon and finished out the game, that many will remember. The Dodgers wound up winning when Eovaldi’s 97th (!) pitch out of the bullpen was deposited in the seats by Max Muncy, but he saved the Boston bullpen with six innings of one-run ball that night. The Sox went on to win the World Series in five games.

As for the Rays, they came away with a lefty who’d come up through Boston’s system as a starter but would be used in a jack-of-all-trades role in St. Petersburg. Beeks has served as a long reliever, a setup man and an opener in parts of five seasons with Tampa Bay, totaling 258 innings of 4.12 ERA ball along the way. He’s been the type of versatile arm whose value can’t be neatly encapsulated in what looks like an otherwise modest WAR total. Beeks has handled just about any role the Rays could ask, and he’s generally been effective in doing so. He’s not a star, but he’s been an important member of their pitching staff for a half decade now and is still under team control through the 2024 season.

Tigers acquire RHP Reese Olson from the Brewers in exchange for LHP Daniel Norris (7/30/21)

The 23-year-old Olson made his big league debut on Friday when he stepped into the Detroit rotation to take the spot of the injured Eduardo Rodriguez. As far as debuts go, it was nearly as good as a young pitcher could ask for. Olson carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before being tagged for a pair of runs and departing five frames of two-run ball in the books.

Olson isn’t regarded among the sport’s top 100 prospects and isn’t even universally considered to be among the Tigers’ top 10 prospects, but he’s missed bats consistently in the upper minors and is regarded as a potential long-term rotation piece if he can improve upon the command of his fastball. Scouting reports at Baseball America, FanGraphs, The Athletic and MLB.com praise Olson’s secondary pitches, particularly his changeup, which he’s begun using effectively even in right-on-right situations.

Detroit has seen a lot of turnover in the baseball operations department since this trade, but former GM Al Avila, AGM David Chadd and others will be in line for some praise if the Tigers get a viable big leaguer in exchange for two months of the veteran Norris, who was sitting on a 5.38 ERA in 36 2/3 innings at the time of the deal. Norris had been tough on lefties, and the Brewers surely felt they could coax a higher level of performance out of him with some tweaks. That didn’t happen, however, as Norris was rocked for a 6.64 ERA in Milwaukee, walking 15 of the 63 batters he faced (23.8%) and serving up five homers in 20 1/3 frames (2.2 HR/9).

2022 Deadline Swaps to Watch

Pirates acquire RHP Johan Oviedo, INF Malcom Nunez from the Cardinals in exchange for LHP Jose Quintana, RHP Chris Stratton (8/2/22)

Yes, technically this isn’t a pure rental. Stratton had an additional year of club control, and that surely factored into the return. But he was also sitting on a 5.09 ERA at the time of the deal, and this was largely a trade centered around getting Quintana to land some much-needed rotation help in St. Louis.

The Cardinals got just what they wanted out of this deal — and then some. Quintana stepped into the rotation and not only solidified the staff but pitched to a brilliant 2.01 ERA in 62 2/3 frames down the stretch. The lefty was so excellent that St. Louis wound up tabbing him as the Game 1 starter in last year’s National League Division Series. Quintana had signed a one-year, $2MM deal in the offseason and was acquired as a back-end starter but pitched like an ace. The script doesn’t get much better for the acquiring team.

That said, this trade also has the makings of a winner for Pittsburgh. The 25-year-old Oviedo has been inconsistent but shown flashes of brilliance with the Bucs. He’s throwing fewer fastballs and more breaking pitches — particularly more curveballs, which has been an extremely effective offering for him through 11 starts. Oviedo’s 4.50 ERA in 58 innings looks pretty pedestrian, but he’s upped his ground-ball rate and improved his velocity even in a rotation role. He’s allowed one or zero runs in six of his 11 starts this year. The Pirates can control Oviedo for four more years beyond the current season, and if he’s a legitimate starter or even a multi-inning relief piece, that’ll be a fine return for their modest Quintana flier. Nunez, meanwhile, hit .286/.381/.476 in Double-A following the trade and is at .255/.338/.369 in 160 Triple-A plate appearances this year.

Cubs acquire RHP Ben Brown from the Phillies in exchange for RHP David Robertson (8/2/22)

Robertson was one of the most in-demand relievers — or trade candidates in general — at last year’s deadline, and the rebuilding/retooling Cubs needed to get their return right. So far, it looks like they’ve done just that. Brown is out to a sensational start in the upper minors this year, pitching to a combined 2.63 ERA with a 35.5% strikeout rate against a less-appealing 11.7% walk rate. Baseball America ranked him sixth among Cubs prospects heading into the season, and The Athletic’s Keith Law called him a “heck of a get for two months of a 37-year-old reliever.” FanGraphs currently has him ranked 87th on their top-100 prospect list, and MLB.com moved him into its top-100 just this morning.

Despite Brown’s wide-reaching acclaim, the Phillies might not even regret making the swap. Robertson struggled with his command following the trade but still posted 22 1/3 innings of 2.70 ERA ball and saved six games for Philadelphia down the stretch in a tight Wild Card race that saw them edge out the Brewers by exactly one win. The Phillies needed every single victory, and if they’d held onto Brown and targeted a different reliever(s), who knows whether they’d have reached the playoffs? Were it not for Robertson — who pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the playoffs — the Phils may never have experienced J.T. Realmuto’s NLDS inside-the-parker, Rhys Hoskins’ four-homer NLCS, or Bryce Harper’s iconic NLCS-clinching bomb.

Angels acquire OFs Mickey Moniak, Jadiel Sanchez from the Phillies in exchange for RHP Noah Syndergaard (8/2/22)

This trade might not have gone as well as the Phillies hoped. Syndergaard was decent down the stretch, pitching to a 4.12 ERA in 10 appearances, nine of them starts. He started just twice in the postseason and made one relief appearance. Syndergaard pitched like a fourth or fifth starter but saw his already diminished velocity and strikeout rate step even further back following the trade. Again, the Phils needed every last win to get to the playoffs, though, so it’s hard to say they’d definitively have done anything different. They won six of Syndergaard’s nine starts and also picked up the victory in the lone game they used him out of the bullpen, when he tossed two scoreless frames.

At least thus far, Angels fans can’t complain about the return. Moniak isn’t going to sustain a .429 batting average on balls in play, but he’s hitting .327/.340/.694 in 50 plate appearances. The BABIP and a 34% strikeout rate scream for regression, but the former 1-1 pick has already hit as many homers through 50 trips to the plate with the Halos (four) as he did in 167 with the Phillies. He’s played good defense, run well and given some hope that he can carve out a role moving forward.

Red Sox acquire INF Enmanuel Valdez, OF Wilyer Abreu from the Astros in exchange for C Christian Vazquez (8/1/22)

Trading Vazquez was part of a disjointed Red Sox trade deadline that saw Boston trade away their longtime catcher and lefty reliever Jake Diekman while also acquiring Eric Hosmer and Tommy Pham. It wasn’t clear that their 2023 roster was improved, and the decision to hold onto other trade targets while adding Pham’s salary left them just over the luxury tax line (thereby reducing their compensation for qualifying offers extended to Xander Bogaerts and Nathan Eovaldi).

Digression aside, the swap might prove beneficial to the Sox in the long run. Valdez has already made his big league debut, and although his bat faded after a hot start, he’s still sporting a passable .244/.292/.422 batting line (91 wRC+) in his first 97 big league plate appearances. He’s picked up four homers, four doubles and three steals (in four tries) while subbing in at second base in the wake of a slew of middle-infield injuries. Valdez posted absolutely massive numbers in 205 Double-A plate appearances last year (.357/.463/.649) before moving up to Triple-A and hitting .265/.327/.488.

Abreu, meanwhile, was added to the 40-man roster over the winter and is hitting .264/.379/.479 in 40 Triple-A games so far. He’s regarded as a potential plus outfield defender, and his success in Triple-A and status on the 40-man roster mean the Red Sox could possibly have two MLB contributors within a year or so of trading Vazquez.

It’s hard to say anything moves the 2022 Astros made “didn’t work out,” as the team won the World Series in the end. But Vazquez took a backseat to Martin Maldonado both in the regular season and the playoffs, hitting just .250/.278/.308 in 108 regular-season plate appearances following the swap (plus .235/.316/.235 in just 19 playoff plate appearances).

Brewers Reinstate Luis Urías, Transfer Darin Ruf To 60-Day IL

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3:55pm: In addition to the laceration, Ruf has a non-displaced fracture of his patella, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The expected recovery timeline is six to eight weeks, leading to today’s transfer.

3:30pm: The Brewers announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating infielder Luis Urías from the 60-day injured list. Fellow infielder Mike Brosseau was optioned to open a spot on the active roster. To open a spot on the 40-man, first baseman Darin Ruf was transferred to the 60-day IL.

Urías, 26, played in Milwaukee’s Opening Day game this year but hurt his left hamstring in that contest. He was diagnosed with a strain and it was estimated that he would miss six to eight weeks. He was eventually transferred to the 60-day injured list and now returns after a slightly longer absence than that initial estimated time frame.

In the past couple of seasons, he has established himself as a solid and versatile member of the club. Over 2021 and 2022, he hit 39 home runs and slashed a combined .244/.340/.426 for a wRC+ of 111. He was also able to bounce around the infield, slotting in at the three positions to the left of first base as needed.

His recent absence led to greater playing time for certain utility players, one of which was Brosseau. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to take advantage of the opportunity, hitting .205/.256/.397 so far this year for a wRC+ of 75. Other players like Owen Miller and Andruw Monasterio have fared better this year, leading to Brosseau getting squeezed out today. Assuming Urías is able to get back to his previous form, the swap should be a positive one for the club.

The move could potentially impact Brosseau’s path to free agency, as he came into the season with three years and 31 days of service time. If he were to spend more than a month in the minors, it could prevent him from reaching the four-year mark this season. But he also might find himself at risk of being non-tendered at season’s end anyway since he’s making $1.4MM this year and would be in line for an arbitration raise for next season.

As for Ruf, he suffered a laceration on his knee last week when he was chasing after a foul ball and collided with the rolled-up tarp. He was placed on the 10-day IL on the weekend but it seems the issue is serious enough that he’ll need to miss a couple of months. Ruf had just joined the club a couple of weeks ago and effectively replaced the now-released Luke Voit as the right-handed platoon partner for the lefty-swinging Rowdy Tellez. The club recently called up first baseman Jon Singleton, though he also swings from the left side.

Players like Miller, Brian Anderson and Abraham Toro have a small amount of first base experience and bat from the right side, with Toro being a switch-hitter. Perhaps one of them could attempt to take that short-side platoon role. Tellez could also play on a more everyday basis as his career splits aren’t that drastic. He’s hit .237/.308/.486 against righties for a 110 wRC+ and .242/.313/.396 against lefties for a 93 wRC+.

Astros Select Grae Kessinger

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June 5: The Astros have now made all of this official, announcing the selection of Kessinger, the optioning of Salazar and the transfer of Garcia to the 60-day IL.

June 4: The Astros are expected to promote infielder Grae Kessinger, reports Mark Berman of Fox 26, with catcher César Salazar optioned in a corresponding move. Kessinger isn’t on the 40-man roster and will require a corresponding move to get a spot there though that could easily be accomplished by transferring someone like Luis Garcia, who is out for the year due to Tommy John surgery, to the 60-day injured list.

Kessinger, 25, was selected by the Astros in the second round of the 2019 draft. He made some appearances in Low-A and Single-A that year and was ranked the club’s #10 prospect by Baseball America going into 2020. After the pandemic wiped out the minor leagues that year, he spent 2021 in Double-A but struggled. He hit just .209/.287/.330 for a wRC+ of 67, though he did steal 12 bases and play the three infield positions to the left of first base. He stuck in Double-A in 2022 and improved slightly, hitting .211/.327/.366 for a wRC+ of 82 while swiping 23 bags.

Those tepid results put a dent in his prospect stock but he was promoted to Triple-A for this year and has fared better, walking in 15.4% of his plate appearances against a 19.5% strikeout rate. His .284/.400/.443 batting line amounts to a 107 wRC+ and he’s continued to bounce around to the different infield positions. He’ll now be in position to make his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

The promotion of Kessinger is likely due to the oblique soreness that has kept Jose Altuve out of the lineup for the past two days. With Altuve unavailable for the past two contests, the clubs has run out an infield of Alex Bregman at third, Jeremy Peña at short and Mauricio Dubón at second. But with three catchers on the roster in Salazar, Martín Maldonado and Yainer Diaz, they didn’t really have a backup in the event of any of those guys suddenly needing to leave a game. Swapping in Kessinger and reverting to the standard two-catcher setup will give the club a bit more infield security until Altuve is ready to return to action.

Upcoming Club Option Decisions: AL East

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Last week, MLBTR took an early look at offseason option decisions facing teams in the National League. We’ll continue our division by division series by checking in on players in the AL East whose contracts contain club or mutual options for next season. The Rays are the only AL East team not slated to have any option calls to make.

Previous entries: NL East, NL Central, NL West

Baltimore Orioles

  • Mychal Givens: $6MM mutual option ($2MM buyout if team declines, $1MM buyout if player declines)

Givens has bounced around in journeyman fashion over the past few seasons. The middle reliever returned to his original stomping grounds in Baltimore on a $5MM free agent guarantee. He hasn’t had any chance to get into a rhythm yet, however. He opened the season on the injured list with left knee inflammation. He was out until late May and made four appearances, allowing six runs in four innings while working with diminished velocity. The O’s put him back on the IL last week, citing inflammation in his throwing shoulder.

Boston Red Sox

Kluber signed a $10MM free agent guarantee with Boston over the offseason. He’d been a reliable innings-eating veteran for the Rays last year. Kluber hasn’t been a Cy Young-caliber pitcher for quite some time, but Boston envisioned him as a stabilizing mid-rotation presence in a starting staff full of unproven or injury-riddled options.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Kluber was tagged for a 6.26 ERA through his first nine starts. His strikeout rate dropped to a career-worst 17.7% clip, and he served up home runs at an untenable 2.38 HR/9 pace. The Sox bumped Kluber out of the rotation two weeks ago, pushing him into multi-inning relief. He’s tossed three innings of two-run ball in his first bullpen appearances in a decade.

An injury to Chris Sale could get Kluber another rotation opportunity, but he’ll have to pitch much better than he did in the first two months of the season for the Sox to entertain an $11MM+ option. The option price would escalate by $500K if Kluber makes 20 starts and an additional $750K apiece at 25 and 30 starts (which look unlikely based on the bullpen move).

The Sox signed Rodríguez to a $2MM free agent deal at the beginning of last offseason. He suffered an oblique strain in Spring Training and was knocked out of commission for six weeks. The 31-year-old has returned to pitch in four games but surrendered nine runs. He went back on the 15-day IL over the weekend with shoulder inflammation. This appears on its way to a buyout.

Rodríguez isn’t the only veteran lefty reliever who’s battling injury problems. Bleier landed in Boston via a change-of-scenery bullpen swap that sent Matt Barnes to Miami. While the soft-tossing southpaw is inducing ground balls at a strong 51.5% clip, that’s below the career 61.5% grounder rate he carried into the year. He’s never missed bats. The 36-year-old is a grounder specialist with elite control. He’s been uncharacteristically prone to hard contact in his early stint in Boston, contributing to a 5.85 ERA through 20 innings. The Sox placed Bleier on the 15-day IL due to shoulder inflammation a couple weeks ago. It’s early but trending towards a buyout as well.

New York Yankees

Donaldson is playing out the final guaranteed season of the four-year free agent deal he signed with the Twins in 2020. The Yankees took on the contract in the 2022 trade that also brought in Isiah Kiner-Falefa. (That trade converted a ’24 club option into a mutual option.) It’s a move New York would like to have back, with both Kiner-Falefa and Donaldson underwhelming in the Bronx.

Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, had his worst offensive showing in a decade last year. He hit .222/.308/.374 over 546 plate appearances while striking out at a career-worst 27.1% rate. Public metrics still loved Donaldson’s defense at the hot corner. Despite some offseason speculation the Yankees could try to offload some of his contract, they didn’t seem to come close to finding a taker and opened this season with Donaldson back at third base. He played only five games before suffering a right hamstring injury that cost him almost two months. The Yankees activated him from the IL over the weekend, and he promptly hit two home runs in his return — followed by an 0-for-4.

With a hefty $6MM buyout, there’s only a $10MM net call on the option. That’s not an outlandish price for a solid everyday player, but Donaldson’s offensive drop-off, age, and recent injury history all raise questions about whether he should be a regular on a team with playoff aspirations. Barring a summer offensive outburst from the three-time All-Star, the team is probably buying this out.

Toronto Blue Jays

  • Chad Green: Team has three-year, $27MM option (if declined, Green and team have conditional options)

Green signed a complex free agent deal as he works back from May ’22 Tommy John surgery. He’s making $2.25MM this year. At season’s end, the Jays will have to decide whether to trigger three consecutive $9MM options (essentially a three-year, $27MM contract for 2024-26). If the team declines, the right-hander would get a $6.25MM player option for next year only. If Green passes on that, the Jays would have to make a call on a two-year, $21MM option for 2024-25.

With a year removed from surgery, Green recently progressed to throwing batting practice (via MLB.com injury tracker). A post All-Star Break return to MLB action is on track. While guaranteeing Green $27MM based on a couple good months after Tommy John surgery seems unlikely, the Jays were at least open enough to the possibility to sign him to the contract in the first place. There haven’t been any notable setbacks in the four months since they put pen to paper.

The Jays acquired Merrifield from the Royals last summer. It was a buy-low move while the former American League hits leader was scuffling, and he’s gotten on track north of the border. Merrifield has a .292/.339/.413 batting line as a Blue Jay. That includes a .299/.349/.399 showing in 2023 that has locked him in as Toronto’s starting second baseman.

While Toronto has gotten what they’d wanted from Merrifield, it’s hard to envision them exercising this option. The $17.5MM price point is lofty, particularly when considering the market has tended to devalue contact-oriented second basemen. The Phillies bought out a $17MM option on Jean Segura last winter, for instance; he found a $17MM guarantee spread over two years from the Marlins on the open market. The Brewers did exercise a $10MM option on Kolten Wong but promptly traded him to Seattle in a buy-low flier for Jesse Winker. An $8-12MM per-year salary for Merrifield is more reasonable, particularly when considering that he’ll turn 35 next January.

  • Yimi García: $5MM club option ($1MM buyout); option vests at $6MM with 49 appearances or 49 innings pitched in 2023

García signed a two-year guarantee with a club/vesting option over the 2021-22 offseason. The option would vest at $6MM if he combines for 110 innings or 110 outings between 2022-23. García threw 61 innings in as many appearances last season, leaving 49 more to check off.

He’s well on his way to doing so. García has made 26 appearances and tossed 24 2/3 innings entering play Monday. He’s 23 outings or 24 1/3 frames shy of triggering the vesting provision. Unless the veteran righty sustains a notable injury, he should clear that threshold.

Even if García doesn’t vest the option, it’s not out of the question the Jays would bring him back. There’d be a $4MM difference between the club option price and the buyout. García was solid in year one, working to a 3.10 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate. A massive .368 average on balls in play has led to a 6.20 ERA thus far in 2023, but García’s peripherals are strong as ever. He’s striking out 26.5% of batters faced while inducing grounders on half the batted balls he allows. He’s averaging 96 mph on his heater. His ball in play results figure to stabilize.

Note: Austin Voth signed an arbitration contract that contained a 2024 club option. He’d remain eligible for arbitration next season even if the option is declined and has accordingly been excluded from this list.

Braves Claim Luke Williams From Dodgers

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The Braves announced that they have claimed infielder Luke Williams off waivers from the Dodgers and optioned him to Triple-A Gwinnett. There had been no public indication that Williams lost his roster spot with the Dodgers but they evidently tried and failed to pass him through waivers in recent days. Atlanta transferred left-hander Max Fried to the 60-day injured list in order to open a 40-man roster spot for Williams. Additionally, righty Michael Soroka was also optioned to Gwinnett.

Williams, 26, was signed by the Dodgers to a minor league deal in the offseason. He was selected to their roster in mid-April but then optioned to Triple-A 10 days later. He got just 10 big league plate appearances in four games and hit .100/.100/.100 in those. He’s spent most of the season in Triple-A Oklahoma City, hitting .268/.364/.452 there for a wRC+ of 93. That indicates he’s been 7% below league average at the plate but he’s stolen 11 bases while playing shortstop, third base and left field this year. Previous seasons have seen him line up at every position except catcher, giving him plenty of defensive versatility.

That type of production generally aligns with his previous seasons. He now has 141 major league games on his ledger, spending time with the Phillies in 2021 and then the Giants and Marlins last year. Combined with his brief stint with the Dodgers this year, he has a career batting line of .234/.291/.306 and a wRC+ of 67. But he’s created value elsewhere by swiping 14 bags in 20 tries and bouncing all around the diamond to fill in as needed.

Atlanta was able to easily add Williams as a depth piece since they essentially had a roster spot to burn. Fried has been on the injured list since May 6 with a forearm strain and the plan was to shut him down completely until he healed before building him back up again. It’s now been about a month since that IL placement and he’s yet to get close to a return. As of two days ago, per Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the lefty was throwing but still hadn’t progressed to mound work. He will still need to get to that stage before likely throwing a few bullpens, maybe some live batting practice as well, before embarking on a rehab assignment for a few weeks to build up properly.

Given the time he’s still set to miss, it was inevitable that he’d get moved to the 60-day IL once the club wanted to use that roster spot on someone else. He will be officially eligible to return after 60 days from his initial IL placement, which was in early May. That means he could technically be activated in early July but that doesn’t seem especially likely given his current progress.

As for Soroka, he just returned to the big leagues for the first time in almost three years. He twice ruptured his Achilles tendon in the interim and battled some other lesser injuries in that time as well. He was finally healthy enough to get into a decent groove this year, making eight Triple-A starts with a 4.33 ERA. That led to a couple of outings in the big leagues, though he allowed nine earned runs through 9 2/3 innings in those. He wasn’t likely to be a permanent solution in the rotation anyway, as he will likely need to have his innings managed after so much missed time. He’ll now head back to the farm to continue that progression.

Another factor potentially leading to Soroka’s optioning is the emergence of prospect AJ Smith-Shawver. He was recently called up to the majors despite being just 20 years old and having barely 100 innings pitched in the minors thus far. He entered yesterday’s game out of the bullpen and tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings. He struck out three, walked one and didn’t allow a hit while throwing 39 pitches. It’s possible that he’ll now get a chance to make a start or two, though the club hasn’t made any official announcements in that regard.

Rays Place Brandon Lowe On Injured List

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The Rays have placed infielder Brandon Lowe on the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his lower back, per a team announcement. The move is retroactive to June 4. Infielder/outfielder Vidal Brujan has been recalled from Triple-A Durham to take Lowe’s spot on the roster.

Lowe, 28, sprinted out of the gates with an impressive power display early in the season, slashing .257/.368/.581 with seven homers through his first 87 trips to the plate. His OPS has plummeted by more than 250 points since that time, however, as he’s fallen into a dismal slump. Over his past 114 plate appearances, Lowe is slashing just .157/.237/.255 with a huge 30.7% strikeout rate.

The Rays held Lowe out of yesterday’s lineup with what was initially termed discomfort in his lower leg, but Lowe told reporters not long before the game that he’d also been experiencing discomfort in his back following a recent slide into third base. That issue, it seems, has proved problematic enough that he’ll be shelved for at least the next nine days. The team has not yet provided any sort of timetable for his return to the roster.

Brujan, 25, was long rated as  one of the game’s top overall prospects but has yet to find any success in the big leagues. He’s seen time in each of the past three seasons but managed only a .161/.215/.233 output in 209 plate appearances. That includes a .250/.286/.250 slash in 21 trips to the plate this season. He’s been far better in Triple-A, where he sports a .268/.355/.435 batting line, 22 home runs and 79 steals in 198 games (883 plate appearances).

With Lowe sidelined, the ever-versatile Rays will have plenty of options to step into the lineup in his place. Each of Taylor Walls, Isaac Paredes and the newly recalled Brujan is plenty familiar with Lowe’s customary second base. The switch-hitting Walls and the righty-swinging Paredes are both much better against left-handed pitching than against righties. Brujan, also a switch-hitter, has typically been better from the left side of the plate, and that’s especially true in 2023: .286/.380/.484 versus righties, .167/.297/.241 versus lefties. For today, with the Rays taking on Red Sox righty Brayan Bello, it’ll be Brujan drawing the start and batting eighth.

Fantasy Baseball Chat With Brad Johnson

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Brad Johnson is a veteran of the fantasy baseball industry with a decade of experience in Roto, H2H, dynasty, DFS, and experimental formats. As an expert in the field, Brad participates in the Tout Wars Draft and Hold format and was crowned the league’s winner in 2020. Brad’s writing experience includes RotoGraphs, NBC SportsEDGE, and right here at MLB Trade Rumors. He’s also presented at the First Pitch Arizona fantasy baseball conference.

Click here to read the transcript of today’s fantasy baseball chat with Brad!

Brad will also be holding fantasy baseball chats exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers, where he’ll be able to answer a much larger percentage of questions asked. Click here to learn more about Front Office.

Mets Designate Tomas Nido For Assignment, Activate Omar Narvaez

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11:53am: The Mets are hopeful of working out a trade involving Nido before his DFA window expires, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. They’ll have five days to do so before Nido must be placed on either outright or release waivers.

11:35am: The Mets have formally announced Nido’s DFA. Narvaez has been reinstated from the injured list in a corresponding move.

11:15am: The Mets are expected to designate catcher Tomas Nido for assignment and move to a catching tandem of young Francisco Alvarez and veteran Omar Narvaez, tweets Andy Martino of SNY. Narvaez, who’s been out since early April due to a calf strain, has played six minor league rehab games and has been trending toward a return to the big league roster.

Nido, 29, inked a two-year deal to buy out his final two arbitration seasons this offseason. That contract guaranteed him a total of $3.7MM. He’s now just 15 days shy of reaching five years of MLB service time, at which point he’d have been able to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency while still retaining the entirety of that guaranteed salary. However, because he’ll fall shy of five years of service if placed on outright waivers, he’d forfeit the remainder of that salary upon rejecting an assignment to the minors.

The timing of Narvaez’s return likely played a larger role in the decision to DFA Nido, but the fact that the Mets can make this move now and quite likely retain Nido because of that contractual situation was surely a consideration. It’s unlikely that another club would pick up the remainder of this year’s $1.6MM salary and all of next year’s $2.1MM salary when Nido has struggled to a .125/.153/.125 batting line through 61 plate appearances this season.

The Mets would’ve been on the hook for the majority of that money regardless, but if they can’t work out a trade, they’ll now be able to stash Nido in Triple-A as a depth option in hopes that he can get back on track. Given that Narvaez has an opt-out in his two-year contract following the current season, the possibility of retaining Nido at an affordable rate through the 2024 campaign likely holds some additional appeal.

Prior to this season — one in which he was on the injured list due to vision-related issues — Nido has been a solid, albeit glove-first backup option behind the plate in Queens. From 2020-22, the former eighth-round pick tallied an even 500 plate appearances while posting a .236/.275/.338 batting line. That was about 26% worse than the league-average hitter and about 15% worse than the average catcher, by measure of wRC+.

On the other side of the ball, Nido ranked among the game’s best. He piled up a huge 18 Defensive Runs Saved in that stretch despite logging just 1192 innings behind the plate, and he rated among the game’s top backstops in terms of pitch framing as well. After struggling with throwing out runners early in his career, Nido posted a sensational 57% caught-stealing rate in 2021 and sat at 29.8% from 2021-22. He’s just 2-for-13 in 2023 under the new rules and while dealing with his reported vision troubles. Statcast’s new Blocking Runs Above Average metric pegs Nido 22nd in MLB dating back to 2018 despite having far fewer chances than many of the names ahead of him in that cumulative metric. On a per-game basis, he’s tied for 19th in the Majors among qualified catchers (since 2018).

All told, Nido is a light-hitting, quality defensive catcher who’s signed at a generally reasonable rate. Teams tend to bypass taking on even modest sums — particularly multi-year commitments — via waivers, so the likelihood remains that if things get to that point, Nido could stick in the Mets organization. In the days leading up to when he’ll have to be placed on waivers, however, the Mets can discuss trade scenarios and perhaps offer to kick in some cash to sweeten the pot. If he hasn’t been traded within five days, that’ll be a sign that Nido is likely on waivers, the outcome of which would be known within 48 hours of his placement.

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