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Giants Outright Luis González

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Luis González cleared waivers this afternoon, and the Giants have sent him outright to Triple-A Sacramento. Because he has less than three years of MLB service time and has not been outrighted previously in his career, he cannot refuse the assignment.

González has been in the Giants organization since August 2021, when he was claimed off release waivers from the White Sox. He spent the rest of the season on the injured list with shoulder issues, making his debut in the Giants system the following spring. He played 11 games at Triple-A, slashing .283/.389/.500 before earning the call to the big league level. The outfielder bounced back and forth between Triple-A and the majors for the rest of the year, ultimately playing 98 games for San Francisco. He looked like a capable bench player if not much else, posting a 95 wRC+, swiping ten bases, and playing below-average defense in the outfield corners.

Unfortunately, González missed the first half of the 2023 season recovering from back surgery, and he has struggled at the plate since his return. In 14 games with Triple-A Sacramento, he’s batting .231 with no home runs and a 67 wRC+. His 13.1% walk rate and 18% strikeout rate are impressive, but he has had no power to speak of. In his first two seasons at Triple-A, he hit 13 home runs across 60 games.

Last Monday, González was designated for assignment amid a flurry of roster moves. Anthony DeSclafani was moved to the 60-day IL, and with two newly open spots on the 40-man roster, the Giants selected the contracts of Johan Camargo and Wade Meckler from Triple-A.

While González can’t decline the outright assignment, this is his seventh season logging at least some minor league action. As a result, he’d be eligible for minor league free agency next offseason if the Giants don’t select him back onto the 40-man roster before then.

Yankees To Promote Everson Pereira, Oswald Peraza

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The Yankees are promoting outfield prospect Everson Pereira before tomorrow’s series opener against the Nationals, reports Jack Curry of the YES Network (Twitter link). Infielder Oswald Peraza is also being recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, according to Curry. Both players are already on the 40-man roster, so New York will only need to make corresponding active roster transactions.

Pereira, 22, is headed to the majors for the first time. A native of Venezuela, he was one of the better prospects in the 2017-18 international signing class. While he didn’t have particularly flashy tools, he landed a $1.5MM bonus based on his advanced offensive ability and the chance to stick in center field. He has lived up to that billing by producing at every minor league stop, typically against older competition.

Early-career injuries and the pandemic cancelation of the 2020 minor league campaign meant Pereira didn’t reach full season ball until 2021. He played well enough there for the Yankees to add him to the 40-man roster at year’s end to ensure another club didn’t take him as a developmental flier in the Rule 5 draft. He spent most of last season in High-A, earning a brief look late in the year with Double-A Somerset.

Optioned back to Somerset to open 2023, Pereira hit .291/.362/.545 in 46 games. The Yankees bumped him to Scranton in early July and he’s responded with a .312/.386/.551 showing through 35 contests. Between the top two minor league levels, he has a .300/.373/.548 line over 343 plate appearances. He has connected on 18 home runs and stolen 11 bases in 13 attempts.

Despite the lofty batting average, Pereira hasn’t been an elite contact hitter. He’s gone down on strikes at a lofty 28.6% clip on the season. Pereira has hit for power and walked at a solid 9.3% rate to post strong numbers overall, though prospect evaluators have expressed concern about the swing-and-miss in his game.

Pereira has split his defensive work almost evenly between the three outfield spots. Scouting reports peg him as a viable if unexceptional center fielder. The Yankees figure to break him in at left field alongside Aaron Judge and Harrison Bader. They’ve given most of their left field work of late to Jake Bauers. The left-handed hitter had started his Yankee tenure well but has fallen into a .178/.247/.370 funk while striking out over 43% of the time since the All-Star Break.

Peraza has been on and off the MLB roster on a few occasions. A highly-regarded prospect in his own right, he’s hitting .268/.357/.479 in 63 Triple-A contests on the year. Peraza has scuffled in scattershot MLB time this season but had an impressive 18-game debut in 2022.

The impressive upper minors numbers for each player gets them a look on a free-falling New York club. The Yankees have dropped eight straight and sit at 60-64 after being swept by the Red Sox over the weekend. They’re 26-40 since the start of June and almost certainly going to miss the postseason for the first time in seven years.

Perhaps the promotions of Pereira and Peraza can inject some life into a struggling offense, but their calls seem more about evaluating the 2024 roster. They’re each highly-regarded young players who could plausibly play regular roles next season. Brendan Kuty of the Athletic tweets that both are expected to be everyday players for the stretch run. New York has had no stability in left field all season. Bader and Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who has taken over as the primary third baseman) are impending free agents.

Pereira and Peraza each appear on the back half of Baseball America’s recent Top 100 prospects update. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN included Pereira as an honorable mention behind his own Top 50 refresh. While Peraza will exceed rookie eligibility at season’s end, Pereira will remain rookie eligible so long as he takes fewer than 130 MLB at-bats. As with a number of other recent prospect promotions, that could be a meaningful distinction.

Teams that carry a prospect who appears on two of three Top 100 lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline for a full service year during their rookie seasons can receive a bonus draft choice under the Prospect Promotion Incentive. Pereira isn’t necessarily a lock to meet that prospect standard but certainly has a chance to qualify, particularly if he plays well down the stretch. If he does and the Yankees carry him on next year’s Opening Day roster, he could earn them an extra draft choice with a Rookie of the Year win or top-three finish in MVP balloting during his pre-arbitration seasons.

Giants, Yoshi Tsutsugo Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants have reached agreement on a minor league pact with first baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). The 31-year-old is looking to get back to the big leagues for a fourth consecutive season.

Tsutsugo began this season on a minor league contract with the Rangers. He spent a couple months in Triple-A, hitting .249/.380/.432 in 280 plate appearances. Tsutsugo opted out of that deal in late June but didn’t immediately land another affiliated opportunity.

Instead, he made the jump to the Atlantic League. Tsutsugo signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks but very quickly hit his way back out of independent ball. The left-handed hitter connected on seven home runs in 12 games, posting an overall .359/.479/.949 batting line in 48 trips. That excellent showing earns him another crack at Pacific Coast League pitching with the Giants’ top affiliate in Sacramento.

Tsutsugo has suited up for three MLB clubs since heading over from Japan during the 2019-20 offseason. He has struggled for the bulk of that time. Tsutsugo hit .187/.292/.336 in 77 games with the Rays, who had originally signed him to a two-year contract. Tampa Bay released him in the second season of that deal. He briefly caught on with the Dodgers before signing with the Pirates for the end of 2021. Tsutsugo had the best stretch of his career in Pittsburgh, hitting .268/.347/.535 in 43 games to close out that season.

The rebuilding Bucs re-signed him on a $4MM free agent deal that offseason. His production cratered, however, as he hit .171/.249/.229 through 50 contests before being released in August. Tsutsugo hasn’t returned to the big leagues since then, as successive minor league deals with the Blue Jays and Texas didn’t result in a call.

San Francisco has left-handed hitting LaMonte Wade Jr. and Joc Pederson as the primary first base/DH tandem. The offense has floundered lately, with each of Wade and Peterson putting up well below-average numbers since the All-Star Break (although the former has turned things around a bit in August after a dismal July).

Tsutsugo adds some depth to the upper minors. Since he’s in the organization before September 1, he would be eligible for postseason play if he hits well enough to warrant a look and should the Giants qualify. San Francisco currently occupies the second NL Wild Card spot but is just a game a half clear of the D-Backs, Reds and Marlins (the top non-playoff teams at the moment).

A’s Select Spencer Patton, Option Tyler Soderstrom

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The Athletics announced a handful of roster moves before this evening’s matchup with the Royals. Oakland selected reliever Spencer Patton onto the MLB roster. Starter Luis Medina landed on the 15-day injured list with a blister on the index finger of his throwing hand. The A’s also reinstated first baseman Ryan Noda from the 10-day IL while optioning rookie catcher/first baseman Tyler Soderstrom to Triple-A Las Vegas. To create space for Patton on the 40-man roster, righty James Kaprielian was transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day IL after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery.

Patton returns to the big leagues a little over three months since being outrighted off the roster. The 35-year-old hurler signed a minor league pact with Oakland in April. He was called up a few weeks later and pitched four times, allowing four runs in 5 1/3 innings of work. Patton returned to Las Vegas after clearing waivers and has had an alright showing there in an extremely hitter-friendly setting.

Over 40 outings, he owns a 4.68 ERA through 42 1/3 frames. He has struck out an above-average 24.3% of opposing hitters against a slightly elevated 10.1% walk rate. Including his early-season stint in the Bay Area, Patton has appeared in parts of six big league campaigns for a trio of teams. He has a 5.19 ERA in 109 1/3 MLB innings. Patton is out of minor league options, so the A’s will have to keep him in the big league bullpen or again put him on waivers.

Medina, acquired from the Yankees in the Frankie Montas trade, has had a tough debut campaign. The 24-year-old has started 13 of 18 appearances this year, allowing a 5.44 ERA through 86 frames. His 21.5% strikeout rate and 43.8% grounder percentage aren’t far off the big league averages, but he’s walking 11% of opponents. He’s looking to stake a claim to a rotation spot going into next season but will need at least two weeks off because of the blister issue.

Noda, yet another first-year player, has been one of the A’s best players this year. Selected out of the Dodgers’ system with the second pick in last winter’s Rule 5 draft, he’s reaching base at an excellent .375 clip through his first 90 games. Noda has been very prone to strikeouts, but he has collected 11 homers and is walking in nearly 18% of his plate appearances. He missed around a month with a fractured jaw.

His return pushes Soderstrom off the big league roster. The former first-round pick has been regarded as one of the better offensive talents in the minor leagues. He secured his first big league call during the All-Star Break and has gotten into 27 games. Soderstrom didn’t find initial success, however, mustering only a .165/.237/.247 line while striking out 29 times over 93 trips to the dish. He’s still just 21 years old, so it’s hardly surprising he didn’t hit the ground running at the MLB level. He’ll return to Las Vegas, where he’d hit .254/.303/.536 over 304 plate appearances.

The demotion isn’t likely to have an effect on Soderstrom’s time to arbitration or free agency. He wouldn’t have gotten a full service year in 2023 and was unlikely to accrue enough service time to have a path to Super Two eligibility. However, it could have an impact on his rookie status heading into 2024. Position players retain rookie eligibility if they’ve tallied fewer than 130 at-bats and spent 45 or fewer days on an MLB active roster.

Soderstrom has spent 38 days in the big leagues. If he spends the rest of the year in Las Vegas, he’d remain a rookie heading into next offseason. Assuming he’s still regarded by prospect evaluators as a top 100 caliber talent, which seems likely, the Prospect Promotion Incentive could come into play next spring. Teams that carry a top prospect on the MLB roster for a full service year can receive a draft choice if that player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes top three in MVP voting during their pre-arbitration seasons. There’s been a slew of top prospect promotions over the past few days; Masyn Winn, Noelvi Marté and Kyle Harrison have all gotten their first call once things got deep enough into the summer that they couldn’t exhaust their rookie eligibility this year.

Paradoxically, the promotion incentive could work against Soderstrom getting another MLB look later in the season. That’s not to say it’s the sole or even primary motivation for the A’s sending him down — he has unquestionably struggled in his first five weeks at the MLB level, and Noda’s return would cut into the first base/DH reps available — but could be a factor down the stretch.

Cubs Release Tucker Barnhart

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Aug. 21: Barnhart has now been released, tweets Sullivan. He’s a free agent and can sign with any team.

Aug. 19: The Cubs have informed reporters, including Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, that catcher Tucker Barnhart has been designated for assignment. Infielder Miles Mastrobuoni has been recalled in a corresponding move.

Barnhart, 32, was signed in the offseason to a two-year deal with a $6.5MM guarantee. It was a sensible addition for the Cubs at the time, given their uncertainty behind the plate. Willson Contreras had that position locked down for many years but reached free agency after 2022 and signed with the Cardinals. The Cubs still had Yan Gomes, but he was coming off a down year and entering his age-35 season. Miguel Amaya was a notable prospect on the 40-man roster, but he had missed significant development time thanks to the pandemic and Tommy John surgery, having not yet reached Triple-A by the end of 2022.

Bringing in another catcher to improve the depth was an obvious move and Barnhart was a logical choice as an experienced veteran. He debuted in 2014 and played with the Reds through 2021, then spent one season with the Tigers. He hit .245/.320/.360 in that time for a wRC+ of 80, indicating he was 20% below league average at the plate overall, but catchers often hit a bit less than average in general. He paired that with solid defense, having racked up 12 Defensive Runs Saved and winning a pair of Gold Gloves. On Statcast’s catcher blocking leaderboard, Barnhart was ranked the best backstop in the league from 2018 to 2022, and also earned good grades for his work with the running game.

Unfortunately, the results at the plate haven’t been there for Barnhart this year. He’s hit just .202/.285/.257 for a wRC+ of 53, striking out in 34.1% of his appearances, easily the worst such mark of his career. That’s coincided with a bounceback season from Gomes and a strong debut from Amaya. The former is hitting .269/.310/.433 for a 98 wRC+ with the latter at .245/.368/.383 and a 113 wRC+. The club has had all three backstops on the active roster for over two months now but Barnhart has been squeezed out of playing time, only getting two plate appearances since August 1. It seems the club would rather use that roster spot to add some extra infield depth, bringing up Mastrobuoni today.

With the trade deadline now passed, the Cubs will have to put Barnhart on waivers in the coming days. He would surely go unclaimed, given his recent struggles and his contract. His deal came with even salaries of $3.25MM this year and next, along with the ability to opt-out after the first season. There’s still roughly $770K left to be paid out this year and the full amount next year. Once he passes through waivers, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, with the Cubs remaining on the hook for that money. Any other club could then sign him for the prorated league minimum with that amount subtracted from what the Cubs pay.

Going forward, the Cubs will stick with the duo of Gomes and Amaya. The latter just debuted this season and still has years of club control remaining. Gomes is in the final guaranteed season of his contract but the Cubs have a $6MM club option for 2024 with a $1MM buyout. Perhaps the departure of Barnhart makes it more likely they pick up that option and keep Gomes for one more year, though they could always find another complement for Amaya in the offseason.

Mariners Place Emerson Hancock On Injured List

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2:17pm: The Mariners announced that Hancock has been placed on the 15-day IL due to a shoulder strain. A timeline hasn’t yet been provided. Seattle has also reinstated shortstop J.P. Crawford from the injured list, recalled righty Darren McCaughan from Triple-A Tacoma and optioned infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty to Tacoma.

12:20pm: Mariners righty Emerson Hancock left yesterday’s game — just the third start of his big league career — after two shutout innings due to what the team announced as a right shoulder strain. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes that Hancock is likely headed to the injured list with a lat injury of some degree. The team hasn’t yet formally announced that move.

Hancock, 24, looked like he was breezing through his first two innings, holding the Astros scoreless and yielding just two hits with two strikeouts on 31 pitches. Manager Scott Servais told Divish and others after the game that Hancock felt something “grab” in his shoulder/lat during that second frame, however.

An injury to Hancock all but derails the Mariners’ plans to move to a six-man rotation before the arrangement ever got underway. Right-hander Bryan Woo is expected to return from the injured list this week, but his activation will now simply push Seattle back to five starters. He’ll join Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller in Servais’ starting five.

The advent of a six-man rotation might have allowed the Mariners to more organically manage the workloads of young starters like Hancock, Kirby, Miller and Woo. The Mariners could still go the six-man route if they’re comfortable giving regular starts to righty Adam Oller or journeyman left-hander Tommy Milone down the stretch, but it’s not clear whether either of those scenarios is under consideration.

An injury to Hancock at this stage of the season is rather ill-timed. The former No. 6 overall draft pick (2020) was just getting his feet wet in the Majors, and he’d also only recently surpassed his total workload from the 2022 season. Hancock has thrown a career-high 110 innings this year, and the Mariners surely hoped to push that number a bit further in hopes of building him up for a larger workload in subsequent seasons. They may still get that chance, depending on the severity of the injury in question, but even a minimal stay on the injured list would sideline Hancock into early September and cost him a couple of starts.

The Mariners’ success in 2023 is largely attributable to both the quality and depth of their starting pitching staff. Seattle starters rank sixth in the Majors with a 3.86 ERA and are one of just three teams with 700-plus innings from their rotation at present, trailing only the Twins and Astros in that regard — and each by a margin of two or fewer innings. Had Hancock not incurred this injury, Mariners starters may well lead the big leagues in innings pitched.

Assuming the IL stint indeed goes through, Hancock will join southpaws Robbie Ray and Marco Gonzales on the shelf. Woo is also on the IL at the moment, though the expectation has been that he’ll return this week.

The Mariners have been baseball’s hottest team this month, churning out 14 wins against four losses. That follows up a similarly hot July, where their 17 wins were tied for the most in baseball. Dating back to July 1, the Mariners have played at an outstanding 31-13 clip. They’re now in possession of the third and final AL Wild Card spot and sit just three games back of the division lead in an increasingly tight AL West race.

Guardians Claim Eric Haase, Designate Zack Collins

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The Tigers announced Monday that catcher Eric Haase, whom they designated for assignment over the weekend, has been claimed off waivers by the Guardians. Cleveland designated fellow catcher Zack Collins for assignment in a corresponding move.

Haase, 30, goes from his hometown team back to the team that originally drafted him and gave him his Major League debut back in 2018. Cleveland selected Haase in the seventh round of the 2011 draft but traded him to Detroit for cash in Jan. 2020. He appeared in just seven games during the shortened 2020 season but broke out in 2021 and has seen semi-regular playing time over the past three seasons.

In 2021-22, Haase turned in a .242/.295/.451 batting line, swatting 36 home runs, 29 doubles and a pair of triples in 732 plate appearances. That offense clocked in about six percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+, and Haase showed some defensive versatility along the way. In addition to his work behind the plate, the Tigers frequently used him in left field (in addition to a pair of one-off appearances in right field and at first base).

The 2023 season has been a rough one for Haase, however. In 286 trips to the plate, he’s slashing .201/.246/.284. Haase has seen his ground-ball rate increase, while his exit velocity and hard-hit rate have both trended in the wrong direction. He’s also popping the ball up to the infield at a career-high rate.

Guardians catchers rank dead-last in offense this season, batting a combined .184/.258/.312. Even a small step toward Haase’s 2021-22 production would clear that remarkably low bar. For now, Haase will split time behind the plate with top prospect Bo Naylor. If he shows well down the stretch, Haase can be retained for another three years via arbitration, so there’s potential for him to stick around for awhile in his original organization. He’s out of minor league options, however, meaning he can’t be sent down without first clearing waivers.

Collins, 28, was the No. 10 overall draft pick by the White Sox out of Miami back in 2016 but has yet to establish himself at the MLB level. He’s spent parts of five seasons in the Majors and tallied 465 plate appearances during that time. His .188/.300/.329 slash is illustrative of his struggles to make contact, though. Collins has a huge 13.1% walk rate in his career, but he’s also fanned in 33.5% of his plate appearances. He’s a .252/.371/.468 hitter in 1040 Triple-A plate appearances.

Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, the only action the Guardians can take with Collins is to attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. He’ll be placed on either outright waivers or release waivers within the next few days.

Nationals Agree To Extension With Dave Martinez, Working On Deal With Mike Rizzo

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The Nationals are working to finalize extensions for manager Dave Martinez and president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Rizzo, report Ken Rosenthal and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. Martinez has already agreed to a two-year deal with a club option for the 2026 season, per the report. Rizzo is close to agreeing to a contract of “similar length.”

Both Martinez and Rizzo had club options exercised for the 2023 season and are in the final seasons of their current contracts. There’s been longstanding speculation regarding the contract status of both, with the ongoing rumblings of a potential sale of the franchise only muddying the waters. Even amid that uncertainty, current Nationals ownership will opt for continuity and give both Martinez and Rizzo the opportunity to see the rebuild that began under their watch through to completion.

Martinez and Rizzo helmed the Nationals’ stunning run, famously shaking off a 19-31 start to surge into postseason contention, seize a Wild Card spot, and ultimately emerge as World Series champions. Things have since taken a turn for the worse. Several stars who keyed that World Series run — most notably Anthony Rendon — have left in free agency. The decision to re-sign World Series hero Stephen Strasburg proved almost immediately regrettable, as Strasburg has been injured for the vast majority of the past four years and is facing questions about whether he’ll ever pitch again.

With the Nationals falling well shy of expectations in 2021, Rizzo made the difficult decision to trade ace Max Scherzer, star shortstop Trea Turner and several other veterans, kickstarting a rebuilding effort originally envisioned to be built around young phenom Juan Soto. However, when Soto rejected a 14-year extension offer, Rizzo & Co. bit the bullet and traded Soto for a franchise-altering package of young talent.

Scherzer, Turner, Soto, Daniel Hudson, Kyle Schwarber, Jon Lester and others were all traded in deals netting a combination of Keibert Ruiz, Josiah Gray, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Lane Thomas and a slew of prospects (James Wood, Jarlin Susana and Robert Hassell III among them). As with most rebuilding clubs, the Nats have also picked near the top of the past several drafts, landing notable prospects like Brady House, Elijah Green and 2023 No. 2 overall pick Dylan Crews.

Buoyed by that wave of young talent, the Nats have the look of an organization on the rise. But while the faces taking the field will have turned over almost entirely from the prior core that led the club to a World Series win, ownership clearly has faith in the same decision-makers who previously brought them to the dance.

Martinez is in his sixth season as the team’s manager and is now guaranteed another two years at the helm. The rebuild has taken a toll on his overall managerial record, which sits at 378-455. Rizzo, meanwhile, has been the team’s general manager since 2009 and was bumped to the title of president of baseball operations back. A two-year deal for Rizzo would lock him in for his 16th and 17th years running baseball operations in D.C. — and give him an extended window to see how the fruits of his latest rebuilding efforts will acclimate to the Major League level.

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.

Diamondbacks Sign Ryan Thompson To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Ryan Thompson, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Thompson was released by the Rays last week following a somewhat surprising DFA. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Reno. A source tells MLBTR that there’s an Aug. 28 opt-out on the deal if Thompson isn’t on the Diamondbacks’ active roster by that point.

The 31-year-old Thompson posted an unsightly 6.11 ERA this season but did so in a small sample of just 17 2/3 innings. He’s notched a 3.26 ERA in a comparable slate of Triple-A innings this year, punching out 30.4% of his minor league opponents against a 13.9% walk rate that could obviously stand to come down a ways. Thompson had been on the injured list with a minor elbow issue but received a clean MRI prior to his DFA. He’s headed directly to the active roster in Reno.

While this year clearly hasn’t been Thompson’s best, he’s been a strong contributor in Tampa Bay in recent seasons — particularly in 2021-22. Over those two years, the right-hander worked to a combined 3.17 ERA with a 24.1% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate, 50% ground-ball rate and 0.82 homers per nine innings pitched. Opponents averaged a paltry 87.1 mph off the bat against Thompson in that time — about two miles per hour south of the league average — in part because he was particularly adept at enticing hitters to chase pitches off the plate. From 2021-22, Thompson’s 36.5% chase rate ranked 28th among the 200 big league relievers who pitched at least 70 innings.

Thompson isn’t a flamethrower, averaging just shy of 92 mph on his fastball, and doesn’t miss bats at a prolific rate. But, he’s regularly limited hard contact at a high level, and outside of the current season, he’s posted strong walk rates as well. He was also playing the current season on a $1MM salary and has multiple minor league option years remaining, which made his release at least somewhat unexpected.

The D-backs will use the remainder of the season to take a look at Thompson. If he’s called to the big leagues and remains on the 40-man roster at the end of the year, Arizona will be able to control him for as many as three additional years via arbitration. If he’s not called to the Majors in the next week, the opt-out date provides Thompson and his reps at Northwest Sports Management Group to return to the market and look to latch on with another club prior to the Sept. 1 deadline for postseason eligibility.

The Arizona bullpen ought to present an opportunity for Thompson if he looks sharp in a potentially brief stay with Reno. The D-backs fortified the relief corps by picking up Paul Sewald in a deadline deal with the Mariners, and they’ve gotten strong work from lefty Kyle Nelson and righties Kevin Ginkel and Jose Ruiz this season. However, Scott McGough has stumbled over the past five weeks after an excellent start to his Diamondbacks tenure, and fellow offseason pickup Miguel Castro has faded after his own hot start. Arizona has been cycling relievers through the final couple spots of the bullpen in recent weeks, which could open the door for Thompson to get the call in hopes he can solidify a spot.

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