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A’s Claim Angel Felipe

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The Athletics have claimed right-hander Angel Felipe off waivers from the Padres, per a team announcement. Felipe has been optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. The A’s transferred righty Zach Jackson from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Felipe, 25, joins the rebuilding Athletics as a power-armed righty reliever with questionable command. Baseball America ranked him 29th among Padres prospects just a few weeks ago, touting a four-seamer and two-seamer that could both reach triple digits, as well as a potentially plus slider and potentially above-average changeup. Felipe is still relatively new to pitching, having played shortstop in his teenage days before moving to the mound upon signing as an amateur with the Rays.

This had been Felipe’s second season with the Padres, with whom he signed a minor league deal in the 2021-22 offseason. He’s yet to make his MLB debut and has spent the entire season in Triple-A El Paso, where he’s posted an ugly 6.20 ERA in 24 2/3 innings. Poor command has contributed to those ugly run-prevention numbers, evidenced by a 14.9% walk rate, a pair of hit batters and seven wild pitches in his brief time on the mound this year. However, Felipe has also fanned 32.2% of his opponents and has a history of gaudy ground-ball rates — even if this year’s 46.7% clip is “only” a few percentage points above league-average.

The Athletics have virtually no stability in their big league bullpen at the moment, and given the bleak outlook on their current rebuild, it’s only logical that they’d roll the dice on a big arm even with command issues. Flamethrowers who struggle to locate the ball aren’t exactly uncommon in today’s game, but the A’s can afford a longer leash than most clubs given that they’re not close to competing. Felipe has an option year remaining beyond the current season, so Oakland doesn’t need to make any kind of decision on the right-hander’s future in the short term.

Twins, Mark Kolozsvary Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Twins have agreed to a minor league deal with catcher Mark Kolozsvary, as first reported by Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News and SKOR North Radio (Twitter link). He’ll head to Triple-A St. Paul to serve as catching depth. He rejected an outright assignment with the Orioles in favor of free agency late last week.

Kolozsvary, 27, made his big league debut with the Reds last summer and won a Silver Medal with the United States Olympic team a year prior. He went 4-for-20 with a homer and a pair of doubles in last year’s brief MLB cup of coffee but was removed from Cincinnati’s 40-man roster following the season. The Orioles claimed him off waivers and eventually succeeded in outrighting the catcher themselves. Baltimore selected Kolozsvary back to the big league roster eight days ago, but he appeared in just one game and didn’t make a plate appearance before being designated for assignment.

In parts of six minor league seasons, Kolozsvary is a .211/.320/.339 hitter, including a tepid .172/.250/.299 slash in 96 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A in the Orioles’ system this year. He’s thwarted 31% of stolen base attempts against him in the minors, and his framing has improved throughout his career, per Baseball Prospectus’ framing runs metric. Baseball America ranked Kolozsvary 26th among Reds prospects a year ago, labeling him as a good defender, framer and blocker whose offensive skill set still needed refinement.

The Twins don’t have an immediate need for catching help on the big league roster, where Christian Vazquez and Ryan Jeffers have handled the entirety of the workload. Kolozsvary will join veteran Tony Wolters and 23-year-old Jair Camargo as catching options on the Saints’ roster in St. Paul for the time being.

Jon Singleton Elects Free Agency

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Brewers first baseman Jon Singleton went unclaimed on waivers following his recent DFA and elected free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A, tweets Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He’s now free to sign with any team.

Singleton, 31, returned to the Majors for the first time since 2015 this season but struggled in 11 games and 32 plate appearances for the Brewers. During that time, he slashed just .103/.183/.138 –a far cry from the more robust .258/.384/.483 line he delivered in 216 Triple-A plate appearances prior to his call to the big leagues.

Once one of baseball’s top-ranked prospects, Singleton was out of the game entirely from 2018-20 before resurfacing with a strong showing in the Mexican League back in 2021. He parlayed the .321/.503/.693 batting line (in a comically hitter-friendly setting) into a minor league deal with the Brewers, with whom he spent the entire 2022 season and the 2023 season until today’s decision.

Since returning to affiliated ball, Singleton has displayed plenty of power and a prodigious walk rate in Triple-A Nashville, batting a combined .230/.378/.448 with 34 home runs, 30 doubles and three triples in that time. Along the way, he’s walked at a gaudy 19.3% clip and punched out in 25.3% of his plate appearances — though he’s actually cut down on the strikeouts substantially this season (27.7% rate in 2022 compared to 19% in 2023). He obviously hasn’t put things together in the big leagues at any point in his brief MLB career, but Singleton’s power and plate discipline profile in his recent work at the Triple-A level could still intrigue a club hoping to add some left-handed pop to its depth chart.

Nationals Select Derek Hill, Place Victor Robles On Injured List

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The Nationals have selected the contract of outfielder Derek Hill from Triple-A Rochester, per a team announcement. In a corresponding 26-man roster move, center fielder Victor Robles was placed on the 10-day IL due to lower back spasms. Washington already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move was not necessary in that regard. MASNsports.com’s Bobby Blanco noted prior to the announcement that Hill was in the Nationals’ clubhouse.

Hill 27, was the No. 23 overall pick by the Tigers back in the 2014 draft but has yet to deliver on that draft status and several years ranking among Detroit’s top farmhands. He spent parts of three big league seasons with the Tigers, appearing in 95 games and taking 254 plate appearances from 2020-22. The resulting .240/.291/.339 slash line was underwhelming and ultimately led to a DFA for Hill just prior to last summer’s trade deadline. The Mariners claimed him a few days later but outrighted him off the 40-man roster in October. Hill elected minor league free agency and caught on with the Nats.

It’s been a brilliant start to the season for Hill up in Rochester, where he’s turned in a .324/.381/.533 batting line with eight homers, 10 doubles, a pair of triples and 10 steals (in 11 tries). His 7.8% walk rate is a bit below average, but his 21.6% strikeout rate is also slightly lower than that of an average big league hitter. It’s Hill’s third season with time spent at the Triple-A level, and he now carries a .283/.344/.470 batting line at that level in an even 600 plate appearances. Hill is out of minor league options, so the Nats can’t send him back down unless they first designate him for assignment and pass him through outright waivers.

Robles, 26, will head to the injured list in the midst of his best showing since a 21-game cup of coffee with the Nats back in 2018. The longtime top prospect is hitting .299/.385/.364 in 126 plate appearances this season, with the uptick in production largely attributable to a career-low 14.3% strikeout rate. Robles’ 8.7% walk rate is also the second-highest mark he’s posted since his 2017 MLB debut and a far sight better than the career 5.9% mark he carried into the current season.

The Nationals haven’t yet provided a timetable for Robles’ return, but Hill figures to see plenty of time in center field while Robles is out. Hill is in the lineup hitting eighth and playing center this afternoon. Lane Thomas and Alex Call are the only other outfielders to log any innings in center this season, but Call is currently in Triple-A Rochester and Thomas has just 11 innings there.

Check Out Hoops Rumors For NBA Draft Coverage

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The 2023 NBA draft is tomorrow night at 7:00 pm CT, and Hoops Rumors has all the latest news and rumors! Last offseason saw the majority of the league’s 30 teams involved in trades for coveted draft picks, and the expectation is that Thursday could be even more action-packed. We’ve already seen two deals leading up to the draft, including a blockbuster involving a couple multi-time All-Stars, but that was just the tip of the iceberg, because the rumor mill is buzzing about several other possibilities.

There’s no mystery with the first overall pick, as the Spurs will take French big man Victor Wembanyama, who has been widely hailed as the top prospect since LeBron James was the No. 1 pick 20 years ago. However, there’s a significant amount of uncertainty for the remainder of the first round, including the other projected top-three picks — Charlotte is reportedly still weighing whether to select Alabama’s Brandon Miller or G League Ignite’s Scoot Henderson at No. 2.

The Hornets, Trail Blazers (No. 3), Rockets (No. 4) and Pistons (No. 5) are all reportedly open to moving their draft picks in the right deal, which is rare. All of the teams just below them — the Magic (Nos. 6 and 11), Pacers (Nos. 7, 26, 29), Wizards (No. 8), Jazz (Nos. 9, 16, 28) and Mavericks (No. 10) — have been linked to trade rumors as well. We’ll soon find out if any of those selections will be headed elsewhere.

Over at Hoops Rumors, we’ll be keeping tabs on all the latest NBA news and rumors ahead of the draft, in addition to tracking each of this year’s 58 draft picks. With the draft nearly upon us and free agency only nine days away, this is the most eventful time of year for the NBA rumor mill, so be sure to visit Hoops Rumors and follow @HoopsRumors on Twitter for all the latest updates!

Alex Verdugo Open To Extension With Red Sox

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Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo is currently slated to become a free agent after the 2024 season but is open to staying in Boston longer. “I’m all ears,” he tells Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. “I do love Boston. I’ve been saying it for many years. I’ve really been able to come into my own in this organization. I like it a lot.”

However, Verdugo says that he and the club haven’t had any talks about a contract that would prevent him from hitting the open market. There’s still time for such talks to take place though and the outfielder doesn’t seem especially concerned. “However they and we want to handle it, that’s how it happens,” he says. “All in good time. It will happen when it happens.”

The 27-year-0ld is having his best season to date in 2023. His 8.9% walk rate is around league average, but his 12.1% strikeout rate is excellent, placing him in the top 10 among qualified hitters in the league. He only has five home runs on the year, but his contact approach has led to a .301/.374/.462 batting line. His 128 wRC+ indicates he’s been 28% better than the league-average hitter and represents the highest such tally of his career.

Verdugo is having a solid campaign on defense as well, having tallied nine Defensive Runs Saved, two Outs Above Average and a grade of 8.2 from Ultimate Zone Rating. Those figures all put him on pace to set personal bests in those categories by season’s end if he keeps it up. FanGraphs grades him as having produced 2.4 wins above replacement on the season, which is already better than his high of 2.1 from back in 2019 with the Dodgers. Baseball Reference gave him 3.0 WAR for that 2019 campaign but he’s already at 2.8 this year with more than half the season remaining.

If Verdugo can keep up that level of play for the rest of this year and the 2024 season, he’ll be setting himself up for a nice payday. He will turn 28 next May and will be set to become a free agent prior to his age-29 season, allowing him to market several of his prime years to potential suitors.

The Red Sox could prevent him from reaching the open market with an extension but apparently haven’t shown much interest in doing so, at least not yet. If they do have interest, it’s possible that they will sit down with Verdugo and his representatives this offseason, since contract talks during this stage of the season are rare. At that point, he will have more than five years of service time and be within a year of free agency.

Looking at some recent extensions for players in that service time bracket, there are some players obviously on a tier above Verdugo. MVP-caliber players like Francisco Lindor and Verdugo’s teammate Rafael Devers got $341MM and $313.5MM, respectively. Slightly below those guys, there’s players like Byron Buxton and Ketel Marte, who have shown MVP upside on occasion but have struggled to stay healthy for lengthy stretches. They each signed deals with lesser guarantees but heavy incentives that would allow them to earn more money if they stayed healthy, with Buxton getting $100MM and Marte $76MM.

Verdugo is a solid contributor but hasn’t quite reached the elite levels of those players. A better comparison is probably Ian Happ, who just signed a three-year, $61MM extension with the Cubs. Decent but not elite corner outfielders tend to be capped near that level even when they reach the open market. This past winter, we saw Andrew Benintendi get a $75MM guarantee over five years from the White Sox while Mitch Haniger got $43.5MM over three, as injury concerns for the latter undoubtedly tamped that down a bit.

The Red Sox have generally shied away from extensions, even with their star players, which is how Verdugo came to Boston in the first place. When the Sox were clearly not going to extend Mookie Betts, they flipped him and David Price to the Dodgers for a package of players headlined by Verdugo. More recently, Xander Bogaerts and the club couldn’t agree to a second extension and he wound up with the Padres. They bucked that trend with Devers this winter and made him their face-of-the-franchise player.

It’s fairly understandable that the Sox don’t have too much urgency to lock up Verdugo, in that they already have a long-term commitment to one corner outfielder. This offseason, they signed Masataka Yoshida to a five-year, $90MM guarantee that also involved paying a $15.375MM release fee to the Orix Buffaloes, his NPB team. Teams generally lean towards making their signature commitments in the middle of the diamond, with catchers, shortstops and center fielders often outpacing similar hitters in the corners. The Sox have one such deal with Trevor Story but are also significantly embedded with Devers and Yoshida. Perhaps they would prefer to save their chips to address other areas of their roster such as their pitching staff or catching corps.

Of course, these situations are always fluid. With Happ and the Cubs, the team already had significant commitments to players like Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki and nothing came together by Opening Day this year. It didn’t feel like it would get done, but the two sides finally put pen to paper on April 12, when he was just a few months away from free agency. Though it doesn’t seem like there’s much progress between the Sox and Verdugo right now, these things can come together quickly, especially when the player is open to staying.

Pirates Ownership Supportive Of Buyers’ Mentality At Trade Deadline

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The Pirates’ success for much of the season has been one of the surprise storylines of the 2023 campaign. Pittsburgh burst out of the gates with a torrid April, capping off that month by winning 11 of 12 games. They’ve since endured losing streaks of seven and eight games (currently active) but also enjoyed a six-game winning streak in what’s been a roller-coaster performance. All told, the Bucs sit at 34-38, with their recent slide and a corresponding 10-game winning streak from the Reds dropping Pittsburgh to four games back in a feeble NL Central division.

That sub-.500 record might sink them in other divisions. They’re right in the mix in the Central, though, and Pirates president Travis Williams made clear in an interview with Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that with the trade deadline approaching, general manager Ben Cherington will have the support of ownership to pursue upgrades that improve the team both in 2023 and beyond.

Pirates fans, in particular, will want to check out the full interview for Williams’ comments on the deadline, the 2023 MLB draft, potential contract extensions and more. By and large, however, Williams stressed that he and owner Bob Nutting will “give [Cherington] the opportunity or the freedom to do what he needs to do” in order to bring about a 2023 postseason berth if the opportunity exists. While the team president went on to say it’d be “silly” to forecast the context of the trade market and the moves his team might make with the Aug. 1 deadline so far down the road, he doubled down that the goal is now to “be a winning team, not only this year but for the long term.”

It’s worth again noting that the Pirates are in the midst of an eight-game freefall in the standings. While they’re currently still easily within arm’s reach of the division, Williams, Nutting and Cherington may well view things differently if the team can’t stop the bleeding and finds itself looking up at a more sizable deficit a month from now. It’s unlikely the Pirates would strike up deals for any rental players if they were eight-plus games out of the postseason chase, for instance. That said, the progress made this year and Williams’ mention of winning beyond the current season would likely still leave the door cracked for the Bucs to add some MLB talent that’s controllable through 2024 and beyond, regardless of the current season’s standings.

As far as potential areas of improvement, the Pirates have any number of avenues to explore. Pittsburgh ranks anywhere from the bottom-third of MLB teams to the middle of the pack club in terms of runs scored (300, 23rd in MLB), home runs, (67, 25th in MLB), rotation ERA (4.34, 16th in MLB) and bullpen ERA (4.41, 24th in MLB). Injuries have taken some of the shine of the team and strained the team’s depth. Shortstop Oneil Cruz underwent ankle surgery on April 10 and isn’t expected back until later this summer. Right-handers JT Brubaker and Vince Velasquez have both undergone season-ending elbow surgery. Relievers Wil Crowe, Jarlin Garcia, Jose Hernandez and Colin Holderman are all on the injured list.

The Bucs appear more set in some areas than others. Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski have locked themselves into outfield spots with strong performances, and Andrew McCutchen is having a resurgent year between designated hitter and right field. The recent promotion of top prospect Henry Davis gives the Pirates three catching options and also puts Davis in position to solidify right field for the time being. Ke’Bryan Hayes isn’t hitting as well as hoped at third base, but his elite defense will keep him in the lineup regularly. Infielders Ji Hwan Bae, Tucupita Marcano and Carlos Santana have all struggled to varying extents with the bat, while utilityman Rodolfo Castro has hit fairly well but with shaky glovework.

In the rotation, Mitch Keller has enjoyed a long-awaited breakout — recent slump notwithstanding — while Johan Oviedo and veteran Rich Hill have provided nearly identical 4.30 and 4.31 ERAs, respectively, in a combined 29 starts. Top prospect Quinn Priester could get a look before too long, but the Pirates could certainly use some additional help on this front. In the bullpen, David Bednar has been his typically excellent self. Dauri Moreta and the currently injured Hernandez and Holderman have both filled key roles, too, but it’s been a top-heavy group that’s rotated more than a dozen relievers through the final few spots in the ’pen.

There’s still just under six weeks until the actual trade deadline, and as the recent streaks in both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati illustrate, the standings can change in only a fraction of that time. Still, it’s encouraging for Pirates fans to hear leadership discussing a buyer’s mentality this late into the season. If the Bucs can right the ship and remain in contention, they’ll be looking to add at the trade deadline for the first time since 2018.

Reds Announce Several Roster Moves

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The Reds announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Silvino Bracho from Triple-A Louisville and recalled fellow righty Alan Busenitz. Cincinnati optioned outfielder Stuart Fairchild to Louisville and placed righty Casey Legumina on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder issue in a pair of corresponding 26-man roster moves. The Reds already had a vacant spot on the 40-man roster for Bracho after designating Wil Myers for assignment yesterday.

Bracho returns to the Reds for a second time in 2023, having already appeared in four games earlier this season. He pitched 5 1/3 innings in that time, yielding three runs on a pair of hits and five walks with four strikeouts. The 30-year-old righty (31 next month) has had a better run in Louisville, posting a 4.22 ERA with a 23.9% strikeout rate and much-improved 9.1%  walk rate in 21 1/3 frames. Bracho has appeared in parts of seven big league seasons, totaling 99 1/3 innings of relief work with a 4.89 ERA and strikeout/walk rates that match his 2023 rates in Triple-A.

The 32-year-old Busenitz resurfaced in the Majors as a member of the Reds this year — his first big league work since a 2017-18 run with the Twins. He’s allowed a pair of runs on seven hits and a walk with three punchouts through four frames thus far in the big leagues. He owns a sharp 1.96 ERA in 23 Triple-A frames, though that mark is accompanied by a slightly below-average 21% strikeout rate and a bloated 12% walk rate.

After his run with the Twins, Busenitz spent the 2019-22 seasons pitching with the Rakuten Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, where he worked to a 2.83 ERA and picked up 18 saves through 155 2/3 innings of bullpen work. He returned to North American ball this past offseason when he signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati. Overall, in addition to that strong run in NPB, Busenitz has a 4.57 ERA in 61 big league innings and a 2.80 ERA in 119 Triple-A frames.

Legumina, 26, was acquired from the Twins in the trade that sent Kyle Farmer to Minnesota back in November. He’s pitched to a 4.22 ERA with an outstanding 13-to-1 K/BB ratio in 10 2/3 innings with Louisville but been rocked for a 6.17 ERA with an 11-to-8 K/BB mark in 11 2/3 innings at the MLB level. He’s now missed time this season due to ankle and shoulder problems. Cincinnati did provide a formal diagnosis on Legumina’s current shoulder injury, describing the issue only as “right shoulder pain.”

The 27-year-old Fairchild has batted .237/.331/.404 in 184 plate appearances while logging time in all three outfield spots this season. The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans tweets that the move to option Fairchild will give the Reds some short-term bullpen help before a reliever is likely sent out this weekend to accommodate righty Graham Ashcraft’s return from the injured list.

Brewers Release Roman Quinn

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The Brewers have released outfielder Roman Quinn, per an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate, the Nashville Sounds. The journeyman outfielder signed with Milwaukee on a minor league deal on June 2 and has been suiting up for the Sounds since.

Quinn, who turned 30 in May, has split the 2023 regular season between the Triple-A affiliates for the Guardians and Brewers, struggling at both stops. In a combined 21 games, the speedster is hitting just .149/.337/.194 through a tiny sample of 89 plate appearances. It’s been the polar opposite of the 2022 season, when the right-handed-hitting Quinn posted a mammoth .296/.475/.636 slash in a similarly tiny sample of Triple-A playing time. On the whole, the former top prospect is a .265/.364/.397 batter in 484 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

A second-round pick by the Phillies back in 2011, Quinn long rated as one of that organization’s top prospects and briefly landed on the back end of top-100 prospect rankings from Baseball America (2013) and MLB.com (2016). He’s appeared in 222 games over parts of six MLB seasons, however, posting a tepid .226/.303/.348 slash in 599 turns at the plate.

Quinn was in the 96th percentile of MLB players in terms of sprint speed and 98th percentile for arm strength in 2022, per Statcast. Given that pair of tools, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that in 1004 career innings of center field work in the Majors, he’s been credited with positive marks in both Defensive Runs Saved (+4) and Outs Above Average (+7). Quinn has also shown well in brief looks in the outfield corners, and he’s swiped 43 bags (in 54 tries) despite his lackluster on-base numbers.

There’s plenty of speed and defensive upside to be had with Quinn, but his bat simply hasn’t produced at the game’s top level — and he’s had even greater struggles in limited Triple-A work so far in 2023. He’ll head back to the market in search of an opportunity with another club in need of some outfield depth.

The Opener: Swanson, Wade, Red Sox

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As the 2023 season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Swanson getting x-rays:

Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning of yesterday’s game against the Pirates, and Taylor McGregor of Marquee Sports reports that Swanson’s wrist was swollen after the game, prompting the club to send him for x-rays yesterday. Results of the testing seem likely to be announced ahead of today’s series finale against the Pirates.

The Cubs have recently surged to just 3.5 games back after winning nine of their last 11 games. Swanson’s been a major part of that success, as he’s combined elite defense at shortstop with a solid .263/.351/.399 slash line, good for a wRC+ of 109. In the event that Swanson does miss time, Nico Hoerner figures to slide over from second base to shortstop with Christopher Morel, Nick Madrigal, and Miles Mastrobuoni among the club’s options to man the keystone.

2. Wade to undergo MRI:

Also undergoing testing is San Francisco’s LaMonte Wade Jr. The first baseman was scratched from yesterday’s lineup against the Padres thanks to side tightness, and Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area notes that he’s scheduled to undergo an MRI to determine the severity of the issue. Like the Cubs, the Giants have been on a substantial hot streak, winning nine straight games in part thanks to Wade’s offensive contributions. It’s been a career year for the 29-year-old, who’s batted .280/.415/.463 (147 wRC+) in 272 plate appearances.

Should Wade miss time, the Giants could shift third baseman J.D. Davis over to first base, with Casey Schmitt or David Villar taking over at the hot corner. Still, the loss of Wade would be a major blow to the club’s infield depth, particularly with versatile infielder Wilmer Flores already on the injured list.

3. Red Sox infielder could make MLB debut:

MassLive’s Chris Cotillo reported yesterday that infielder David Hamilton is set to join the Red Sox ahead of today’s game in Minnesota to provide insurance against infielder Pablo Reyes making a trip to the injured list. Reyes was scratched from yesterday’s lineup due to an abdominal issue. Per Cotillo, it’s unclear if Hamilton will be activated today, but in the event that he is, he’ll be poised to make his major league debut after slashing .255/.339/.486 in 237 plate appearances this season. A 40-man roster move would not be necessary to accommodate Hamilton, as he is already on the 40-man roster. The 25-year-old Hamilton joined the Red Sox organization as one of the two prospects they effectively purchased in the Dec. 2021 Hunter Renfroe/Jackie Bradley Jr. trade.

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