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White Sox Designate Tim Hill For Assignment

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The White Sox announced today that outfielder Andrew Benintendi and right-hander Steven Wilson have been reinstated from the injured list. In corresponding moves, outfielder Duke Ellis was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte while left-hander Tim Hill was designated for assignment.

Hill, 34, signed with the White Sox in the offseason on a one-year deal with a guarantee of $1.8MM. The Sox were surely hoping that the experienced groundballer could provide a veteran presence to the club while also perhaps turning himself into a midseason trade chip.

Unfortunately, the results haven’t quite been there for Hill so far this year. He has made 27 appearances for the Sox but has an earned run average of 5.87. That’s obviously not a great number, but it’s possible that Hill has been more unlucky than bad.

His 11% strikeout rate is less than half the league average, but that’s not terribly unusual for him. He only struck out 12.6% of batters faced with the Padres in 2022, a season he finished with a 3.56 ERA. His 8.5% walk rate this year is right around league average while his 65.6% ground ball rate would actually be a career high, as his previous best was a clip of 61.8% in his rookie season.

The major difference in Hill this season seems to be a .436 batting average on balls in play. That’s well beyond the .286 league average and Hill’s career number of .310. ERA estimators like FIP and SIERA have Hill at 3.44 and 3.87 respectively, suggesting it’s possible he’s been closer to his previous form than it would appear at first glance, as he had a 3.72 ERA from 2020 to 2022. His exit velocity and hard hit numbers are roughly in line with previous seasons as well.

It’s possible the club’s poor defense isn’t doing him any favors, as the Sox have a collective -51 Defensive Runs Saved this year and -20 Outs Above Average. That DRS tally is the worst in the league while the OAA number in tied for last with the Marlins.

The Sox will now have one week to trade Hill or pass him through waivers. It’s possible that he could garner interest if some clubs are willing to overlook the earned runs this year and focus more on the underlying metrics. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining his salary.

Yankees Reinstate, Option Jasson Domínguez

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The Yankees announced that outfielder Jasson Domínguez has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. To open a 40-man roster spot, infielder Jon Berti was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Domínguez, now 21, has long been one of the higher-ranked prospects in the Yankee system. He arrived on the major league scene with a splash late last year, hitting four home runs in his first eight contests as a September call-up. Unfortunately, he was then diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow and had to undergo Tommy John surgery.

That procedure generally has a lesser return timetable for position players as opposed to pitchers, with the Yankees providing an estimate of nine to ten months when announcing the surgery. He began this year on the injured list and has began a rehab assignment in the middle of May, eight months after going under the knife.

Domínguez has been hitting well on his rehab, with a line of .368/.415/.658 in his 20 games, but it he’ll have to stay in Triple-A due to a crowded outfield picture in the Bronx. The Yanks have mostly used an alignment of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo on the grass this year, with Giancarlo Stanton the regular in the designated hitter slot and Trent Grisham providing depth from the bench.

All of those players are hitting well this year except for Grisham, but the Yanks don’t want their prized prospect to come up to the big leagues just to sit on the bench in a depth role. He’ll continue getting regular action for the RailRiders after his long layoff but will be a candidate to rejoin the major league club if anyone in that outfield mix needs a stint on the injured list. Soto has been dealing with some elbow inflammation of late but returned after a brief layoff.

From a service time perspective, it’s likely to have an impact on Domínguez’s future. He was able to get 31 days of service time during his call-up last year and would have been able to get to 1.031 this year if he were on the injured list or with the big league club all season long. If he stays an optional assignment for a number of weeks, he will fall short of that one-year mark here in 2024. If that comes to pass, the earliest he could qualify for free agency would be after 2030. If he is called up early enough to get to that one-year line, then free agency after 2029 would still be a possibility.

As for Berti, 34, he was acquired on the cusp of Opening Day as the Yankees were looking for some extra infield help while both DJ LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza were injured. Unfortunately, Berti himself has been injured for much of the year at this point. He missed the latter half of April due to a left groin strain, returning in early May. But a left calf strain sent him back to the IL on May 25.

Berti was told that he could miss six to eight weeks, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post on X, so the Yanks have decided to use his roster spot for this move. He now won’t be eligible for activation until late July.

Jorge López Agrees To Minor League Deal With Cubs

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Right-hander Jorge López has agreed to a minor league deal with the Cubs, according to a report from Will Sammon and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic on X. The righty is expected to report to the club’s Arizona complex, per Sammon and Mooney at The Athletic.

López, 31, was recently released by the Mets after an unusual scene. During a rough outing against the Dodgers, he argued with umpires and was ejected. While leaving the field, he tossed his glove into the crowd and untucked his shirt.

Things took another strange turn after the game. The Puerto Rican-born López spoke with reporters in English without an interpreter present, saying he did not regret his actions. He also said he had not spoken with manager Carlos Mendoza or president of baseball operations David Stearns about the outburst, though this was contradicted by others. There was also some confusion about something else he said to reporters, as some thought he was calling the Mets “the worst —-ing team” in MLB, but later clarified he was actually calling himself the “worst teammate” in the league.

After all of that, some in the baseball world tried to put a spotlight on the challenges López has faced. He has a child with significant medical complications that is currently on a transplant list and waiting for a donor, while the elder López also missed some time last year due to his mental health. Regardless of the explanations, the Mets considered his behavior unacceptable. He was designated for assignment and released, sending him out to free agency and keeping the Mets on the hook for most of his $2MM salary. The Cubs will bring him into the organization, though he has not yet been added to that club’s roster.

López had a stint as one of the better relievers in the league a few years ago, but with more middling results since then. After years as a starter without a lot of success, the Orioles moved him to a bullpen role in 2022 and he found immediate success. He tossed 48 1/3 innings for the O’s that year, allowing just 1.68 earned runs per nine frames. He struck out 27.6% of batters faced, gave out walks at an 8.7% pace and kept 60% of balls in play on the ground.

But he was traded to the Twins at that year’s deadline, with the results falling off from there. From that trade to the present, he has a 5.08 ERA, 18% strikeout rate, 9.8% walk rate and 48% ground ball rate. That includes his 3.76 ERA with the Mets this year prior to his release, though his 17.1% strikeout rate and 44.2% ground ball rate this season are still pretty far from his peak.

Though the numbers haven’t been amazing lately, there’s sense in the Cubs bringing him aboard. There’s no harm in taking a look on a minor league deal and López wouldn’t really cost them anything even if added to the roster. They would only have to pay the prorated league minimum for any time López is on the club, with that amount subtracted from what the Mets pay.

The bullpen has been an issue for the Cubs this year, with the relievers having a collective ERA of 4.47, which puts them 24th out of the 30 clubs in the league. Guys like Adbert Alzolay, Yency Almonte, Julian Merryweather and Keegan Thompson are all currently on the injured list. López can give them a boost if he’s able to make any sort of movement towards his previous form.

Ryan O’Hearn Leveled Up … Again

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It’s been just shy of a year since MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald wrote, “The Orioles may have found the lefty bat they wanted” when writing about Ryan O’Hearn’s then-nascent breakout in Baltimore. Acquired from the Royals in exchange for cash on the heels of a DFA, O’Hearn was subsequently designated for assignment by the Orioles as well before being passed through waivers unclaimed and sent outright to Triple-A Norfolk.

It was the sort of ostensible unremarkable trade that is made hundreds of times over the course of a calendar year and quickly forgotten — until it wasn’t. As most are aware — certainly every Orioles fan — O’Hearn indeed emerged as the left-handed bat Baltimore had sought. At the time of Darragh’s piece last year, O’Hearn was slashing .308/.348/.542 with six home runs in 115 plate appearances. It wasn’t a big sample and he wasn’t walking much (5.2%), but O’Hearn’s batted-ball data supported much of that early flurry. He finished the year in strong fashion, seeing regular playing time against right-handed pitching and ending the year with a stout .289/.322/.480 slash — 18% better than league-average, by measure of wRC+.

For a player who’d hit .211/.282/.351 with a 27% strikeout rate over the four prior seasons in Kansas City (2019-22) before being designated for assignment, last season was a stunning breakout. The Orioles would’ve been thrilled just to have that one year, but O’Hearn came to Baltimore with four-plus years of playing time, making him controllable through the 2024 season. It was a no-brainer to tender him a contract and go through the arbitration process with him, and even if he reverted back to his 2019-22 form or regressed some at the plate, the entire gambit of acquiring him would’ve been well worth it based on 2023 alone.

O’Hearn, however, hasn’t reverted to his 2019-22 form. He hasn’t regressed closer to league-average. He hasn’t maintained the status quo and or even taken just a small step forward. Rather, he’s taken his game to an entirely new level, not just in terms of his raw run-production but also his approach at the plate.

In 189 plate appearances this season — all but 11 coming against right-handed pitching, it should be noted — O’Hearn is batting .287/.384/.489. He’s been 38% better than league-average, per wRC+. He’s already belted nine homers, six doubles and a triple.

He’s also struck out 19 times. In 189 plate appearances. Lest you think that was a typo, let’s write it out: nineteen times.

O’Hearn, who entered the 2024 season with a lifetime 25.6% strikeout rate in the big leagues, has at 30 years old simply become allergic to strikeouts. He’s also nearly doubled his walk rate from last year’s 4.1% to 7.9%. That feat isn’t as eye-popping on its own, given O’Hearn’s penchant for drawing free passes earlier in his career (11.5% from 2018-20), but it does serve to further underscore the evolution of his approach at the plate.

By measure of Statcast, O’Hearn chased 32% of pitches off the plate in 2023. This year, that number is down to 26.5%. He’s making contact on balls out of the strike zone at a career-best 64.4% clip, and his ability to connect on pitches within the strike zone has also ticked up. This year’s 90.6% mark is a career-best and sits more than five percentage points north of the 85.3% league average.

The uptick in volume of contact has come at the expense of some of his quality of contact, but that’s not to say O’Hearn is getting by with a series of well-placed bloops and weak grounders. His 90.4 mph average exit velocity and 41.9% hard-hit rate are both strong — they’re just down from last year’s respective marks of 91.9 mph and 51.5%. He’s in the 72nd and 75th percentile of MLB players in terms of exit velo and hard-hit rate, plus the 85th percentile of hitters in terms of whiff rate. Even with less life on his average batted ball, the increased frequency of contact leads Statcast to project O’Hearn in the 94th percentile or better in terms of his expected batting average, slugging percentage and wOBA.

It bears repeating that some of the reasoning for both his quality of contact and his gaudy expected stats is that O’Hearn is shielded nearly entirely from left-on-left matchups. His career performance in such situations (.168/.236/.286) rather emphatically shows that he’s benefited from Baltimore’s aggressive platooning. That somewhat specialized role doesn’t detract from his usefulness however, and when coupled with the nonexistent cost of acquisition, O’Hearn continues to cement himself as one of the current front office regime’s savviest acquisitions.

Speaking of savvy, any discussion of O’Hearn’s production should also touch on the slugger’s contract status. As noted before, O’Hearn came to Baltimore with two seasons of club control remaining. However, the two parties weren’t able to agree on a middle ground in arbitration prior to exchanging figures. O’Hearn filed for a $3.8MM salary to the Orioles’ $3.2MM figure. The two parties ultimately avoided a hearing at the eleventh hour, agreeing to a $3.5MM salary for the 2024 season — the midpoint between their submitted figures — as well as a club option for the 2025 campaign.

That would’ve been O’Hearn’s first free-agent season, but the O’s now have control over next year at a $7.5MM price point. O’Hearn would boost that option value by $500K upon appearing in 120 and 150 games. The latter of those two numbers won’t happen. O’Hearn has already been absent from 14 Orioles games. He’s on pace to appear in 127 games, however, making the first of those $500K escalators still not only attainable but likely.

The club option was notable at the time but hardly a lock to be exercised or even emerge as a borderline decision. But, as MLBTR’s Anthony Franco quipped to me when chatting about O’Hearn’s newfound contact skills, few realized he was going to “turn into Luis Arraez with power.” That’s a bit of an overstatement of course — Arraez has fanned at a ridiculous 5.7% clip since Opening Day 2023 — but O’Hearn currently possesses the seventh-lowest strikeout rate of the 248 hitters with at least 150 plate appearances this season. Of the 30 players in that set who have a strikeout rate of 15% or lower, the only one hitting for more power than O’Hearn (by measure of ISO) is Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez. Securing what now looks to be a wildly affordable club option for a third season in order to avoid a hearing over a $600K difference in figures looks like a raucous bargain for the Orioles.

O’Hearn may be a limited player by virtue of his platoon splits and lackluster defensive ratings both in the outfield corners and at first base, but he’s developed one of the most unique skill sets in the game and made himself a vital member of one of MLB’s top offenses. On two different occasions in the 2022-23 offseason, any club could’ve acquired O’Hearn for nothing more than cash or a waiver claim.

The Orioles clearly didn’t expect this level of outcome — they wouldn’t have designated him for assignment if they did — but they deserve credit for seeing value where others didn’t. Much of the focus on Baltimore’s success is rightly placed on young core of players either drafted by the O’s (Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, etc.) or acquired via trade (Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish, Cade Povich), but hitting the jackpot on a small-scale pickup like O’Hearn is the sort of move that can be a separator, providing a high-end complementary player to help take an impressive core to the next level.

White Sox Return Rule 5 Pick Shane Drohan To Red Sox

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The White Sox have returned Rule 5 pick Shane Drohan to the Red Sox, with Chris Cotillo of MassLive among those to relay the news on X. Drohan won’t need to take up a spot on Boston’s 40-man roster.

Drohan, 25, was selected by the White Sox with the fourth pick in last year’s Rule 5 draft. Unfortunately, he underwent shoulder surgery in February and had to begin the season on the injured list. He started a rehab assignment about a month ago but struggled to get into good form, allowing nine earned runs in 9 1/3 innings. He struck out 15 opponents but gave out eight walks.

As a Rule 5 pick with his 30-day rehab window closing, Drohan needed to be added to the active roster but Chicago wasn’t willing to do that. The designated him for assignment last week and any club could have claimed him off waivers, but doing so would have meant taking on the same Rule 5 restrictions. Since they all apparently passed, the Red Sox are able to reacquire Drohan as non-roster depth.

He’ll now look to continue his development in the Red Sox’ system. Through May 10 of 2023, he had thrown 252 1/3 innings in the minors in 56 games, including 54 official starts. He had allowed 3.57 earned runs per nine frames in that time with a 26.3% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate.

Since then, things have been a bit shakier. He was promoted to Triple-A at that point but had a 6.47 ERA in 89 innings at that level, walking 14.9% of batters faced. The White Sox had him working relief outings on his recent rehab but it’s possible the Red Sox will stretch him back out now.

Marlins Reinstate JT Chargois

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The Marlins announced that right-hander JT Chargois has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Right-hander Emmanuel Ramírez was optioned to Triple-A to open an active roster spot for Chargois. The club already had a vacancy on its 40-man roster, which is now full after this move. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com relayed the Chargois move on X prior to the official announcement.

Chargois began the season on the IL due to neck spasms. He began rehabbing shortly thereafter but experienced an unspecified setback at the end of April, per De Nicola on X at that time. He was transferred to the 60-day IL in early May but has now finally gotten himself into game shape and will make his season debut when he first gets into a game.

It’s likely that the next few weeks will be a trade showcase for Chargois, as the Fish are already out of contention. Their current record of 23-43 is the worst in the National League and they already essentially waved a white flag on their season a month ago by trading Luis Arráez to the Padres for prospects, signalling a clear intent to focus on the future.

Chargois is 33 years old and has one remaining arbitration season after this one. That makes him a logical trade candidate with the Marlins not looking at contening in the near future. He’s making a modest $1.285MM salary this year and has a pretty good track record of results. In 195 major league innings, he has allowed 3.55 earned runs per nine.

His strikeout rate has dipped over the years but he has continued to get ground balls. With the Dodgers in 2018 and 2019, he ran strikeout rates in the 30% range but has been hovering around 20% more recently. But he has a 52.9% ground ball rate in his career, including a 54.6% clip last year and a rate of 59.7% with the Rays in 2022.

With over six weeks until the July 30 deadline, Chargois has some time to demonstrate his health for rival clubs. Contending clubs are always looking for an extra reliever or two to bolster their bullpens prior to the stretch run, with clubs like the Royals and Orioles already reportedly on the hunt, so Chargois should have plenty of interest if he’s in good form.

Padres Prioritizing Right-Handed Bullpen Help

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The Padres are known to have strong interest in White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet as they seek upgrades in the rotation, but Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that a “shutdown right-handed reliever” is San Diego’s “top” priority at the moment.

A right-handed reliever makes sense for the Padres, whose contingent of late-game arms skews somewhat left-handed. Beyond closer Robert Suarez, the Friars’ top right-handed arms are Jeremiah Estrada and Enyel De Los Santos. Estrada has been sensational this season, logging 21 innings of 0.86 ERA ball with an enormous 43.2% strikeout rate against an 8.6% walk rate. De Los Santos sports a solid-looking 3.54 earned run average, but he’s surrendered a whopping eight home runs in just 28 innings of work (2.57 HR/9). He has six holds but generally hasn’t been the preferred option in leverage spots — hardly all that surprising given his home run woes.

Other right-handed options in manager Mike Shildt’s bullpen include Rule 5 pick Stephen Kolek and long reliever Jhony Brito. Kolek has been knocked around for an ERA just shy of 6.00 while sporadically working into low-leverage spots as the Padres try to navigate the season with him on the big league roster. Brito has been used primarily for long relief and has pitched well in that role. He’s unlikely to move into shorter, higher-leverage stints.

Estrada and southpaw Yuki Matsui have been the primary options in setup situations for Suarez. But Estrada pitched only 39 1/3 innings last season and has no track record of big league success aside from this year’s out-of-the-blue breakout. He’s also been more effective against lefties than righties, though neither has been able to mount much in the way of offense against him.

San Diego’s reported interest in Crochet and their early-season trade activity could be instructive when looking to potential bullpen targets. Beyond the Crochet’s general excellence, he’s also being paid just an $800K salary this season. In the Padres’ acquisition of Luis Arraez, they not only convinced the Marlins to pay down the remainder of Arraez’s salary to league minimum but also to take back the two-year, $4.5MM contract of reliever Woo-Suk Go. It’s logical to expect they’ll have particular interest in lower-salary relievers (or in paying a heavier prospect premium to convince a trade partner to pay down salary).

San Diego is just about $12MM shy of the luxury-tax threshold, per RosterResource, with a bottom-line payroll of $166MM. They’ve been unafraid to spend beyond their means in the past, but the Padres also slashed payroll by more than $80MM this past offseason. It seems unlikely they’d take back a reliever on a notable contract unless said reliever’s current team included cash to help facilitate the swap.

Oakland’s Mason Miller stands as one obvious option — and he’s precisely the type of star-caliber player Padres president of baseball operations tends to pursue with nearly unrivaled aggression. Teammate Lucas Erceg, just reinstated off the injured list today, is another speculative candidate who’d fit the bill. Other names will become clearer as July 30 inches closer and as teams more concretely plot their deadline trajectories. Some speculative names to keep in mind on current fringe contenders include the Ryan Helsley (Cardinals), Yimi Garcia (Blue Jays) and Hunter Harvey (Nationals) to name only a few.

The Orioles Need More Out Of Center Field

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The Orioles have been one of the sport's best teams. They've won two-thirds of their games and trail only the Phillies and Yankees in overall record. A lot has gone right -- from an MVP-caliber performance out of Gunnar Henderson to a Jordan Westburg breakout and quietly excellent performances from Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O'Hearn (the latter of whom MLBTR's Steve Adams will spotlight later this week).

No team is perfect, though, and the O's go into deadline season with a couple questions. Their rotation depth has taken hits with the losses of John Means and Tyler Wells. The back end of the bullpen could be a bit shaky, especially if Danny Coulombe misses time with an elbow injury. Most surprisingly, the Orioles have had one of the least productive center field situations in the majors. Cedric Mullins was a top ten finisher in MVP voting a couple years back. He's now arguably the only question mark in one of the game's deepest lineups.

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Phillies Likely To Pursue Additional Catching Depth

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The Phillies lost catcher J.T. Realmuto for at least a month while he rehabs from a meniscus procedure on his right knee. They’ll go with backstops Rafael Marchan and Garrett Stubbs behind the plate in the meantime, but Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports that the Phils will also likely seek some additional catching depth to stash in Triple-A alongside journeyman Aramis Garcia.

Between Marchan and Stubbs, the Phillies seemingly feel content at the moment. That’s understandable, given a relatively short timetable for Realmuto to recover and an MLB-high 10-game lead over their division at the moment. Marchan has missed much of the 2024 season due to a back injury but is healthy now and has hit .233/.382/.395 in 55 plate appearances since coming off the IL. He also hit .297/.331/.440 in Triple-A last season, and president of baseball operations sang praises for Marchan’s defensive capabilities when chatting with Gelb.

The Realmuto injury could give Marchan a big league run with some consistent playing time for the next few weeks — something he’s never received before. Though he’s long been a well-regarded catching prospect, Marchan has been blocked by Realmuto for years and has also repeatedly struggled to stay healthy in the minors. He’s appeared in just 23 MLB games and taken 65 plate appearances.

Marchan will be out of minor league options next season, so this will in some ways be an audition for a part-time role either next season or perhaps even later this year. Stubbs only has 63 plate appearances on the season and has delivered just a .179/.270/.196 slash. Manager Rob Thomson plans to split playing time fairly evenly between the two catchers and hopes to keep them lined up with the same starting pitchers during Realmuto’s absence, per Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

There’s not a ton out there when it comes to catching depth, though old friend Donny Sands was just released by the Giants and the Mets recently designated Tomas Nido for assignment. The Phillies won’t take on the remainder of Nido’s $2.1MM salary but could add him on a minor league deal whenever he clears waivers following that DFA. (Nido has five-plus years of service and can reject an outright in favor of free agency without needing to surrender the remainder of his guarantee.) The Mets also recently released veteran catcher Omar Narvaez.

A major catching acquisition for the Phillies is unlikely, barring some kind of setback in Realmuto’s recovery. Coffey notes that Dombrowski was asked whether Realmuto’s injury impacts the Phillies’ trade deadline outlook, to which the veteran baseball ops exec replied, “Not at this moment.” That said, a signing from the Narvaez/Nido/Sands bucket, a cash swap for a veteran playing in Triple-A with another club, or perhaps even signing a former big leaguer currently playing independent ball could all make sense.

Blue Jays Trade Cavan Biggio To Dodgers

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12:15pm: The teams have now announced the trade.

11:16am: The Dodgers are optioning Miguel Vargas to Triple-A to open a spot on the roster for Biggio, reports Jack Harris of the L.A. Times. Vargas has hit well in his tiny sample of work this season, but the Dodgers have moved him from the infield to left field this year and don’t have much playing time available for him at the moment. Vargas has just one plate appearance in the past five days and has only appeared in three games this month despite being on the active roster since mid-May.

Meanwhile, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet adds that the Jays are sending some cash to the Dodgers in the trade. It’s not clear how much, but the Dodgers won’t take on the full $2.49MM remaining on Biggio’s salary. They’ll still pay a 110% tax on whatever portion of his contract they do absorb, however, just as the Jays will pay a 30% tax on any cash included to offset Biggio’s salary.

8:30am: The Dodgers and Blue Jays are in agreement on a trade sending infielder/outfielder Cavan Biggio from Toronto to Los Angeles in exchange for a minor league player, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. Minor league righty Braydon Fisher is heading back to Toronto, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Biggio was designated for assignment earlier in the week. The Dodgers have an open 40-man roster spot, so they’ll only need to clear space on the active, 26-man roster for Biggio.

The trade formally closes the book on Biggio’s tenure with the Blue Jays after nearly a decade-long run. Selected in the fifth-round of the 2016 draft, the now-29-year-old Biggio emerged as one of the organization’s better prospects prior to his debut and looked early in his career to be a potential core member of the Jays. From 2019-20, Biggio batted .240/.368/.430 with 24 home runs and 20 steals in roughly one full season’s worth of playing time (159 games, 695 plate appearances). His massive walk rate and blend of power, speed and defensive versatility made him one of the more intriguing young players on the Jays’ roster, setting up a potential core trio of second-generation talents alongside Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

As those high-profile teammates blossomed into All-Stars for the Jays, however, Biggio trended in the other direction. Over the next two seasons, he turned in a tepid .213/.320/.353 batting line with 13 homers and seven steals. His strikeout rate climbed from 2020’s mark of 23% into the upper-20s, and Biggio’s walk rate dropped by three percentage points as well. He rebounded to post roughly league-average numbers at the plate in a limited role last year but has slipped to .200/.323/.291 with a career-worst 32% strikeout rate this season.

Overall, since that promising 2019-20 start to his career, Biggio has batted .219/.327/.351 with a 12.1% walk rate against a 27.5% strikeout rate. That production comes despite a fair bit of platooning. Biggio has mostly even platoon splits in his career, but the overwhelming amount of his production against lefties came back in 2019-20. His bat fell off against southpaws, in particular, in 2021 (.200/.290/.250), and the Jays began limiting his time against lefties more regularly in subsequent seasons.

Flawed as he may have been over his past several seasons, Biggio is a sensible flyer for a Dodgers club that has received minimal production out of second base (and, to a lesser extent, left field) in 2024. The bottom of the L.A. lineup has been an issue throughout the season. Veterans like Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez have struggled immensely, as has former top prospect Gavin Lux, who’s been the team’s primary second baseman but hit just .223/.277/.297 through 188 trips to the plate in his return after his 2023 season was wiped out by a torn ACL.

Biggio passed five years of major league service time earlier this season, meaning he can’t be optioned to Triple-A without his consent. He’ll likely join the big league roster and do so at the expense one of those struggling veterans. Lux has minor league options remaining and could be sent down in order to preserve maximum depth.

Biggio could step in as the Dodgers’ primary second baseman against right-handed pitching, perhaps taking a seat on the bench in favor of star Mookie Betts against lefties. Veteran Miguel Rojas could handle shortstop on those days. It’s also possible that Biggio could see some time at third base, where the Dodgers are currently without Max Muncy (oblique strain). Hernandez has filled in at the hot corner in Muncy’s absence but is hitting just .207/.277/.314 on the season. Biggio has plenty of outfield experience as well, but with Teoscar Hernandez, Andy Pages and Jason Heyward all healthy at the moment, there’s a greater need in the infield.

Biggio is earning a $4.21MM salary this season and has about $2.49MM of that sum left to be paid out. The Dodgers are in the top luxury bracket and will pay a 110% tax on that salary, meaning they’re effectively spending a bit more than $5MM to acquire Biggio. He’s controlled through next season via arbitration, so if he’s able to turn things around following the change of scenery, Biggio could be a multi-year piece for the Dodgers. The Blue Jays are also luxury tax payors at present, so they’ll save not only that $2.49MM but also a 30% tax hit on that sum.

In addition to sheer cost savings, the Blue Jays will pick up a 23-year-old righty whom the Dodgers selected with their fourth-round pick back in 2018. Fisher is a pure relief prospect who has missed bats in massive quantities throughout his minor league tenure but as also regularly battled subpar command. He’s worked to a combined 5.68 earned run average between Double-A and his first taste of Triple-A work this season. Nearly all of the damage against him came in one meltdown outing that saw him yield six runs in just 1 2/3 innings late last month.

This season, Fisher has struck out exactly one-third of his opponents (30 of 90) but also walked one-sixth of them (15). The 6’4″ Texas native punched out 30.8% of his opponents in 2022 and 32.7% of them last season but also logged walk rates of 17% and 13.4% in those respective seasons.

Given that Fisher has climbed to Triple-A this season, he could be an option for the Blue Jays in the short term. His walk rates are an obvious red flag, but it’s hard not to be intrigued by a relief prospect who’s regularly whiffed 30-33% of his opponents while posting gaudy swinging-strike rates along the way.

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