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Archives for May 2024

Guardians Designate Ramon Laureano For Assignment

By Steve Adams | May 20, 2024 at 11:59pm CDT

The Guardians have designated outfielder Ramon Laureano for assignment, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic. In his place, the team is promoting outfield prospect Johnathan Rodriguez for his MLB debut. Rodriguez is already on the 40-man roster, so the move also frees up a 40-man spot for Cleveland. Guardians Prospective first reported that Rodriguez was getting the call to the big leagues.

Laureano, 29, came to the Guardians early last August after the A’s placed him on waivers in hopes of finding a taker for the remainder of last season’s salary. The Guardians obliged, hoping that Laureano would provide a boost down the stretch as they tried to keep pace in the American League Central. The veteran did provide a bit of offense, hitting .243/.342/.382 following the claim (106 wRC+), but the Guards wound up missing the postseason.

It was something of a surprise to see a budget-conscious team like Cleveland tender Laureano a contract this winter. He wound up agreeing to a $5.15MM salary, which amounted to a significant portion of the Guardians’ very limited offseason resources. The team made that commitment despite Laureano having turned in a bleak .224/.304/.371 slash (91 wRC+) on the season overall — and a .218/.296/.373 batting line in 2022-23 combined (93 wRC+).

The decision didn’t go at all as the Cleveland front office or the player himself hoped. Laureano’s strikeout rate has absolutely erupted to a career-worst 38.6% this season. He’s hitting just .143/.265/.229, albeit in a small sample of 83 plate appearances. Just four of his 10 hits have gone for extra bases (one homer, three doubles). The Guardians will have a week to try to trade Laureano, place him on outright waivers or release him.

Given the pronounced nature of Laureano’s struggles at the dish and his relatively notable salary, they won’t find a trade market for his services. Laureano is overwhelmingly unlikely to be claimed on waivers due to that salary and will thus likely clear and become a free agent. He has enough service time to retain all of his salary even if he rejects an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Earlier in his career, Laureano was a quality regular in Oakland. From 2018-21, he turned in a sound .263/.335/.465 batting line (119 wRC+) with 49 homers and 34 steals over the life of 1257 plate appearances. That came while playing strong defense across all three outfield spots. Laureano was an oft-rumored trade candidate and might well have been part of Oakland’s fire sale, but an 80-game PED suspension midway through the 2021 season tanked his value. That proved all the more costly, as his suspension surely played a role in pushing the A’s to part with left-hander Jesus Luzardo to acquire Starling Marte from the Marlins in a rental deal while Oakland made a push for the postseason.

As for the 24-year-old Rodriguez, he’ll step into the Cleveland outfield for his MLB debut after hitting .276/.389/.449 in 185 Triple-A plate appearances this season. The 2017 third-rounder entered the season ranked 23rd among Guarda farmhands at Baseball America, 16th at MLB.com and 30th at FanGraphs.

The 6’0″, 225-pound Rodriguez draws praise for his plus raw power but also some skepticism for his penchant to chase and whiff. He’s walked in a huge 15.7% of his plate appearances in Triple-A Columbus but also fanned at a 25.4% clip. That’s a suboptimal mark against Triple-A pitching but also a marked improvement over 2023’s 32.4% strikeout rate in 202 Triple-A plate appearances. Rodriguez is a former switch-hitter who now bats exclusively from the right side of the plate. He popped 29 homers between Double-A and Triple-A last season, and he’s already slugged seven long balls on the season.

Strikeouts will likely continue to be a part of his game, but probably not to the extremes that Laureano experienced this season. Rodriguez will also add some legitimate thump to a Cleveland lineup that in recent years has been light on power but is turning a corner this season. Thanks in part to a big step forward from emerging star Josh Naylor, the Guards rank ninth in the majors with 51 big flies on the season. Rodriguez gives them another power bat. He won’t be nearly as strong a defender in the outfield corners as Laureano was, but MLB.com pegs him as a potentially average right fielder and Baseball America touts his plus throwing arm.

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Cleveland Guardians Newsstand Transactions Johnathan Rodriguez Ramon Laureano

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Giants Sign Donny Sands To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | May 20, 2024 at 11:06pm CDT

The Giants recently signed catcher Donny Sands to a minor league contract. The 28-year-old made his organizational debut with Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday, going 0-5 with three strikeouts.

That was Sands’ first affiliated action of the 2024 season. The Tigers released him at the end of March. Sands subsequently had a brief stint in Mexico, suiting up in 16 games for the Toros de Tijuana. He hit .245/.339/.490 with four home runs to earn another crack at Triple-A pitching.

Sands spent most of last year with Detroit’s top affiliate in Toledo. Acquired over the 2022-23 offseason alongside Matt Vierling and Nick Maton in the deal sending Gregory Soto to Philadelphia, Sands slumped to a .225/.318/.353 batting line in 371 plate appearances with the Mud Hens. He never appeared in an MLB game with Detroit. The Tigers outrighted Sands from the 40-man roster in January and released him after he went 1-8 in Spring Training.

To this point in his career, Sands has appeared in just three major league games — all of which came with the Phillies in 2022. He’ll add short-term cover for a team dealing with a couple injuries behind the plate. Patrick Bailey is on the concussion injured list. Tom Murphy will be out until at least July because of a sprained left knee.

The Giants signed Curt Casali to a big league deal late last week. He and Blake Sabol are sharing the catching duties at the MLB level until Bailey returns. Jakson Reetz, who is on the 40-man roster, is on optional assignment to Sacramento. Sands joins him with the River Cats as a potential competitor for the third catcher role.

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San Francisco Giants Transactions Donny Sands

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Nabil Crismatt Elects Free Agency

By Anthony Franco | May 20, 2024 at 9:06pm CDT

Reliever Nabil Crismatt elected free agency over the weekend after going unclaimed on waivers, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. The Dodgers had designated the right-hander for assignment last week when they selected Elieser Hernández onto the big league roster.

Crismatt had two brief stays on the Los Angeles roster. The Colombian-born righty inked a minor league deal in December and was twice selected onto the MLB team. He tossed seven innings of low-leverage relief through five appearances. Crismatt allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits. He struck out six and didn’t issue a walk. Between his MLB stints, he tossed 12 2/3 frames over four appearances with Triple-A Oklahoma City. While Crismatt allowed eight earned runs on three homers in the Pacific Coast League, he fanned 15 without walking anyone.

The 29-year-old is looking to reestablish himself as a valuable long reliever in a major league bullpen. Crismatt played that role for the Padres very effectively between 2021-22, combining for a 3.39 ERA across 148 2/3 innings. He was hit hard over 13 MLB frames with San Diego and the Diamondbacks last season, leading him to clear waivers a few times over the past calendar year.

Crismatt should be able to land a minor league deal in the coming days. While he doesn’t throw hard, his command and ability to work multiple innings make him a solid non-roster relief option.

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Los Angeles Dodgers Transactions Nabil Crismatt

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Dodgers Designate Eduardo Salazar For Assignment

By Anthony Franco | May 20, 2024 at 7:52pm CDT

The Dodgers announced they’ve designated right-hander Eduardo Salazar for assignment. They needed to create a 40-man roster spot for Yohan Ramírez, whom they acquired from the Mets this morning. Los Angeles optioned Landon Knack to Triple-A Oklahoma City to open a spot on the active roster.

Los Angeles signed Salazar to a minor league deal early last offseason. The 26-year-old cracked the big league roster in April. He only made it into one game, tossing two scoreless innings of relief. Salazar has otherwise spent the season in OKC. He has worked out of the rotation at the top minor league level. Salazar has taken the ball seven times and thrown 33 2/3 innings. He has allowed 5.61 earned runs per nine with a well below-average 13.7% strikeout rate.

To his credit, Salazar has kept the ball on the ground at a huge 58.6% clip in Oklahoma City. He posted similar numbers last season as a member of the Cincinnati organization. Salazar had a 51.1% grounder rate in eight MLB appearances with the Reds. He induced worm-burners at a 54.8% clip for their Triple-A team in Louisville, but a subpar 16.1% strikeout rate contributed to him allowing more than a run per inning.

The Dodgers have a week to trade Salazar or put him on waivers. The Venezuela native went unclaimed on outright waivers after being designated by Cincinnati last summer. That gives him the right to decline any additional outright assignments in his career, so he’d be able to elect free agency if he clears again.

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Los Angeles Dodgers Transactions Eduardo Salazar

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Mariners Notes: Crawford, Raley, Emerson

By Anthony Franco | May 20, 2024 at 6:04pm CDT

Before tonight’s matchup with the Yankees, the Mariners reinstated J.P. Crawford from the 10-day injured list. Seattle optioned Leo Rivas to Triple-A Tacoma to open a roster spot. Dylan Moore is starting at shortstop tonight, but Crawford will be available off the bench and could return to the lineup tomorrow.

Crawford appeared in 22 games before suffering an oblique strain in late April. He was off to a slow start, hitting .198/.296/.302 with two homers over 98 plate appearances. The left-handed hitting infielder had the best season of his career in 2023, when he popped a personal-high 19 homers with a .266/.380/.438 slash over 145 games. Crawford walked at a near-15% clip while striking out less than 20% of the time.

Moore has played shortstop in Crawford’s absence. The right-handed hitter has performed admirably, hitting .239/.316/.507 with 11 extra-base hits in 22 games. Moore has played well enough that he should stay in the lineup in a multi-positional role with Crawford’s return. In the short term, that could come at second base, where Jorge Polanco remains day to day as he battles hamstring soreness. Luis Urías has drawn in the lineup at third base in recent days, pushing Josh Rojas to the keystone.

Seattle could also mix and match more frequently at first base, although that’s not on account of injury. Luke Raley got the start there against Corbin Burnes in yesterday’s series finale in Baltimore. That pushed Ty France to the bench and allowed Dominic Canzone to draw into left field. It was Raley’s fourth start of the season at first base, in addition to his 24 starts in the outfield.

Adam Jude of the Seattle Times writes that manager Scott Servais could more frequently pencil Raley in at first base against right-handed starters. That’d allow the M’s to get the lefty bats of Raley and Canzone into the lineup while cutting into France’s playing time. France, a 2022 All-Star, slumped to a roughly league average .250/.337/.366 line last season. He’s off to an even slower start in 2024, hitting .235/.285/.359 through his first 165 plate appearances.

Raley (.297/.327/.444) and Canzone (.220/.289/.488) have made more of an offensive impact, particularly from a power perspective. The Mariners aren’t planning to utilize a strict first base platoon that’d keep France out of action against right-handed pitching entirely. To that end, he’s in tonight’s lineup against Yankees righty Marcus Stroman. Raley and Canzone are starting in the corner outfield, pushing Mitch Haniger to DH and Mitch Garver to the bench. With each of Garver, Haniger and France underperforming, Servais could trim into the playing time for any of that group to keep Raley and Canzone in the lineup.

Beyond the major league shuffling, the M’s provided an update on one of their top minor league infield talents. Colt Emerson, whom Seattle took with the 22nd pick in last year’s draft, will miss some time for Low-A Modesto. MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer tweets that Emerson recently suffered a fracture after fouling a ball off his foot and is expected to be out of action for 4-6 weeks. The 18-year-old is a consensus top 100 minor league talent. He was out to an excellent .271/.441/.414 start with more walks than strikeouts over 19 games before the injury.

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Notes Seattle Mariners Colt Emerson J.P. Crawford Luke Raley Ty France

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Rays Place Zach Eflin On Injured List

By Anthony Franco | May 20, 2024 at 5:05pm CDT

The Rays announced a few transactions before this evening’s game against the Red Sox. Zach Eflin landed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to yesterday, with lower back inflammation. Brandon Lowe is back from the 10-day IL to take the vacated roster spot. Tampa Bay also optioned reliever Manuel Rodríguez to Triple-A Durham to open a bullpen spot for Richard Lovelady, who has joined the team after being acquired from the Cubs on Saturday.

Eflin has turned in solid results in 10 turns through the rotation. The right-hander is averaging just under six innings per start and has worked to a 4.12 earned run average. While his 17.9% strikeout rate is on track to be his lowest since 2017, he has compensated by essentially never handing out free passes. Eflin has only walked four batters all season, a 1.6% rate that is the lowest among all pitchers with 50+ innings.

The 30-year-old has been one of Tampa Bay’s more valuable pitchers this year, although his performance is a step down from last year’s work. Eflin had a brilliant first season in St. Petersburg, turning in 177 2/3 innings of 3.50 ERA ball to earn a sixth-place finish in AL Cy Young balloting. He did lose a couple weeks early in the ’23 campaign to lower back tightness, though.

Eflin told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (X link) that this year’s back issue feels similar to last season’s minor injury. Eflin suggested he could be back in around two weeks, while manager Kevin Cash indicated it was likely to be a 2-4 week absence. Tampa Bay has off days on Thursday and next Monday, so they could function with a four-man starting staff of Aaron Civale, Taj Bradley, Zack Littell and Tyler Alexander into next week.

Lowe returns after a nearly six-week absence due to an oblique strain. The second baseman is in the cleanup spot against Tanner Houck tonight. Since Lowe landed on the IL, the Rays have rotated Curtis Mead, Amed Rosario and Richie Palacios through the keystone. Mead struggled enough that he has since been optioned to Triple-A. Palacios and Rosario have each hit well in their first seasons in Tampa Bay. They’re each capable of playing multiple positions and should still see fairly regular playing time around the diamond.

In other injury news, the Rays sent Jeffrey Springs to the Florida Complex League on a rehab assignment. The left-hander threw one inning this afternoon in his first game action since he underwent Tommy John surgery last April. Pitchers are typically allotted 30 days on a rehab stint, but returnees from Tommy John are usually allowed more than a month to build back into game shape. Springs could be ready for MLB action by the second half of June.

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Tampa Bay Rays Brandon Lowe Jeffrey Springs Zach Eflin

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Mariners’ Sam Haggerty Suffers Torn Achilles

By Steve Adams | May 20, 2024 at 3:45pm CDT

Mariners utilityman Sam Haggerty suffered a torn Achilles tendon while trying to run down a deep fly-ball with the team’s Triple-A affiliate over the weekend, general manager Justin Hollander announced to reporters Monday (X link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times). The injury will cost him the remainder of the 2024 season.

Haggerty opened the season on the injured list, was optioned to Triple-A in mid-April, recalled in late April, and then optioned back to Tacoma just last week after a cold spell at the plate. Playing center field for Tacoma, he was tracking a hard-hit fly ball that dropped just beyond his reach. Haggerty, running hard toward the gap, climbed/ran up the outfield wall to slow himself down and crumbled to the warning track upon landing (video link via MiLB Mariners on X). He was in clear agony while being checked on by teammates and the training staff.

The 29-year-old Haggerty has played in just eight big league games this season and went 1-for-15 in that time, but he’s been an oft-used bench/utility player for manager Scott Servais when healthy in recent years. A shoulder injury, a groin strain and a concussion have limited his time on the field even before this gruesome Achilles tear, but Haggerty hit .255/.342/.382 in 135 games from 2022-23, appearing at all three outfield spots and every infield position other than shortstop.

In parts of six big league seasons, Haggerty is a .232/.312/.351 hitter with nine homers and 33 steals (in 36 attempts) through 477 plate appearances. His right-handed bat has been overmatched by fellow righties (.209/.278/.272), but he’s pounded left-handed opponents at a .263/.355/.452 pace in his big league career.

That the injury occurred in the minor leagues is particularly unfortunate for Haggerty, as he’ll be placed on the minor league injured list rather than the MLB injured list for the time being. If the Mariners want to free up a 40-man roster spot at any point, they can recall Haggerty to the majors and place him on the 60-day IL, where he’d accrue big league service time. Haggerty entered the year with 3.044 years of service and agreed to a $900K salary to avoid arbitration this offseason. He’s under club control through the 2026 season and would be arb-eligible again this winter. Coming off a season-ending injury after only 16 plate appearances, he’d very likely command that exact same salary again for the 2025 campaign.

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Seattle Mariners Sam Haggerty

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Royals Designate Matt Sauer For Assignment

By Steve Adams | May 20, 2024 at 2:39pm CDT

The Royals have designated right-hander Matt Sauer for assignment and selected the contract of left-handed reliever Sam Long from Triple-A Omaha, per a team announcement. Sauer was selected out of the Yankees organization in December’s Rule 5 Draft. The Royals will have a week to trade him or place him on waivers, and if he goes unclaimed he must be offered back to the Yankees for $50K. If he lands with a new team, his Rule 5 restrictions will roll over to that new club.

A second-round pick by the Yankees back in 2017, the now-25-year-old Sauer made his big league debut when he first took the mound for Kansas City this season. He held opponents to just two runs through his first 9 1/3 MLB innings but did so with an ugly ratio of just four strikeouts to eight walks. The lack of command and a put-away pitch proved problematic in the weeks since. Dating back to April 29, Sauer has been torched for a dozen runs in seven innings.

Overall, Sauer pitched 16 1/3 innings for the Royals and yielded a 7.71 ERA. He fanned only 10.7% of his opponents against an ugly 13.1% walk rate in that time. Were the Royals at or near the bottom of the division, perhaps they’d have been more patient, but at 29-19 on the year and standing in second place, Kansas City clearly felt that they couldn’t continue the experiment if it meant getting such minimal production out of a bullpen spot.

Long, 28, has spent the past three seasons in the majors with the Giants (2021-22) and A’s (2023). He’ s pitched 128 innings for the two Bay Area clubs, logging a 4.92 ERA with an 18.5% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 40.5% grounder rate. The southpaw averages 93.8 mph on his heater and couples that four-seamer with a curveball as his primary breaking pitch. Long used a changeup quite a bit during his Giants days but swapped that out for a slider with Oakland last season.

Though he doesn’t have a great track record in the majors, Long has been nails with the Royals’ Omaha affiliate this season. In 20 2/3 innings, he’s pitched to a tiny 1.31 ERA with an impressive 27.4% strikeout rate against a 6% walk rate. He hasn’t given up run since April 25, rattling off 8 1/3 shutout innings with nine punchouts and just one walk during that hot streak.

Long opened the season on a similarly impressive run of nine straight scoreless frames with a 12-to-3 K/BB ratio. Add in 8 2/3 innings of one-run ball with a 48.4% strikeout rate and 3.2% walk rate in spring training (15-to-1 K/BB), and it’s become increasingly difficult for the Royals to overlook his contributions to date.

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Kansas City Royals New York Yankees Rule 5 Draft Transactions Matt Sauer Sam Long

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Brewers Designate Thyago Vieira For Assignment, Promote Bradley Blalock

By Steve Adams | May 20, 2024 at 2:29pm CDT

The Brewers announced Monday that right-hander Thyago Vieira has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to right-hander Bradley Blalock, who’s been called up from Double-A Biloxi for what will be his MLB debut. Milwaukee also optioned outfielder Chris Roller to Triple-A Nashville and reinstated fellow outfielder Joey Wiemer from the injured list.

Vieira, 30, is one of the game’s hardest-throwing pitchers, averaging 98 mph on his heater this season and frequently touching triple digits. However, he’s been scored upon in nine of his 16 appearances this season, resulting in a 5.64 ERA over 22 1/3 innings. While Vieira has fanned a solid 23.6% of his opponents, he’s also walked 12.3% of the batters he’s faced. Even more troublesome has been his penchant for loud contact. Opponents have belted six homers off him already this year — an average of 2.42 round-trippers per nine frames.

One of just five Brazilian-born players in big league history, Vieira had a nice run with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball from 2020-22. He’s been with the Brewers since returning stateside and had brief looks with the Mariners (one inning in 2017) and White Sox (24 2/3 innings from 2018-19) prior to that. Overall, the flamethrowing righty has pitched 51 MLB frames and surrendered a 6.18 ERA with a 21.2% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate. The Brewers will have a week to trade him, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.

Blalock, 23, was a 32nd-round pick by the Red Sox in 2019 who was traded from Boston to Milwaukee in last year’s Luis Urias swap. The right-hander has elevated his status considerably since that humble draft selection, never more so than in 2024, when he’s opened the season with seven starts of 2.27 ERA ball at the Double-A level. That marks Blalock’s first action above A-ball. He’s fanned a below-average 20.6% of his opponents this year but posted an excellent 5% walk rate and roughly average 43.1% ground-ball rate.

Entering the 2024 season, Blalock ranked 13th among Milwaukee farmhands at FanGraphs, 17th at MLB.com and 22nd at Baseball America. The righty draws praise for his above-average command, a fastball that sits 92-96 mph and a smattering of average or nearly average secondary offerings (slider, split-change, curveball). FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen likens his upside to that of a Jose Urquidy type of back-end starter who could shift to a long-relief role on a playoff roster.

The Brewers don’t need a starter in the coming days, but Blalock will be on hand to give them some length in the event of a short start from righty Joe Ross today. It’s also possible he could slot into an injury-plagued staff within the next few days. Ross is slated to pitch today, with rookie Robert Gasser on the mound tomorrow and Freddy Peralta to follow Wednesday. Milwaukee is off Thursday and then set to go Bryse Wilson, Colin Rea and Ross again for their upcoming weekend slate in Boston, where Blalock could potentially face the organization that drafted him.

With Brandon Woodruff, Wade Miley, Jakob Junis and DL Hall all on the injured list at the moment, the Brewers have been patching things together in the starting staff. Even if he’s not stepping into the rotation right now, it’s possible Blalock could eventually be called upon to start some games later in the summer.

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Milwaukee Brewers Transactions Bradley Blalock Thyago Vieira

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Astros, Eric Lauer Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | May 20, 2024 at 2:22pm CDT

2:22pm: Lauer will be paid at a prorated $1.5MM base salary if he’s selected to the MLB roster, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC-2. His deal also contains opt-out dates on July 1 and August 1 if he’s not on the big league roster prior to those points.

2:04pm: The Astros and Lauer are in agreement on a minor league contract, per Rome. The CAA client is headed to Triple-A Sugar Land for now, but given the state of the back of Houston’s rotation, he could emerge as an option before long if he looks sharp to begin his time in the organization.

1:40pm: The Astros are showing interest in free agent left-hander Eric Lauer, reports Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. The former Brewers and Padres southpaw opted out of a minor league contract with the Pirates last week. As Rome further points out, Houston GM Dana Brown worked in the Blue Jays’ scouting department when they drafted Lauer out of high school in 2013. Lauer wound up choosing to go to college, which paid off handsomely; the Jays tabbed him in the 17th round of the ’13 draft, but three years later the Padres selected him with the No. 25 overall pick.

The 28-year-old Lauer (29 in June) debuted with the Padres in 2018 and spent the next two seasons on San Diego’s staff before being traded to Milwaukee alongside infielder Luis Urias in exchange for righty Zach Davies and outfielder Trent Grisham.

After three rather nondescript seasons in the majors from 2018-20, Lauer added a slider to his arsenal in early 2021 and looked to be breaking out as a high-end rotation option. He posted a 3.19 ERA and fanned 24% of his opponents in 118 2/3 innings that season (including a 2.41 ERA following the addition of that new breaking pitch). He continued his success into 2022 and wound up combining for 277 1/3 innings of 3.47 ERA ball with a 23.8% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate across those two seasons.

Shoulder and elbow injuries for Lauer popped up in 2022-23, and his health looked like a particular hindrance last season. Lauer’s average fastball plummeted from 93.3 mph in 2022 to 91.2 mph last season. In 46 2/3 innings, he was rocked for a 6.56 ERA with a diminished 20.4% strikeout rate against an elevated 10.4% walk rate. The Brewers optioned the southpaw to Triple-A in an effort to get him back on track, but Lauer was roughed up for a 5.15 ERA with their Nashville affiliate as well.

Lauer opened the 2024 season with the Pirates’ Triple-A club after signing a minor league deal late in the offseason. He pitched well for the bulk of hiss time there, although his ERA spiked from 3.95 to 5.52 after his final appearance, when he was tagged for six runs in just two innings of work. The left-hander’s 29.1% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate, however, looked far more like the 2021-22 version of Lauer than the 2023 version — an encouraging sign for the Astros or any other interested parties. It’s also worth noting that Lauer has 4.111 years of MLB service, meaning if he lands in Houston and is eventually added to the roster, he’d be controllable through 2025 via arbitration.

Houston could certainly use some rotation depth, so a pursuit of Lauer makes sense. Strong starting pitching has been a hallmark of the Astros in recent years, but the Houston rotation currently ranks 21st in the majors with 239 1/3 innings pitched and 26th with a 4.96 ERA. Astros starters have similarly uninspiring marks in FIP (4.61, ranking 28th), strikeout rate (21%, ranking 21st) and walk rate (11%, the second-highest in MLB).

Those struggles come in spite of a breakout performance from right-hander Ronel Blanco, who threw first no-hitter of the 2024 season earlier this year. The Astros have Lance McCullers Jr., Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy on the injured list at the moment, and they’ve also seen Justin Verlander, Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez all spend time on the shelf.

Former top prospect Hunter Brown and fellow sophomore righty J.P. France have both had brutal starts to the season, and in-house reinforcements like Spencer Arrighetti and Blair Henley have both been hit hard. At the moment, the ’Stros have a full complement of Verlander, Valdez, Javier and Blanco healthy in the first four spots of the rotation. That’s a boon in and of itself, but the club still has to keep trying to get at least one of Brown, France or Arrighetti on track — or else find a more palatable option from outside the organization. If a deal comes together, Lauer could eventually factor into the group before long, considering each of Brown, France, Arrighetti and Henley has an ERA of at least 7.16 on the season.

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Houston Astros Transactions Eric Lauer

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    Rafael Devers Unwilling To Play First Base

    Pirates Fire Manager Derek Shelton

    Mariners Claim Leody Taveras

    Rangers Hire Bret Boone As Hitting Coach

    A.J. Minter To Undergo Season-Ending Lat Surgery

    Blue Jays Sign Spencer Turnbull

    Blue Jays Sign José Ureña

    Recent

    Hayden Wesneski To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

    Cubs, Dodgers Among Teams With Some Interest In Ryan McMahon

    Marlins Place Xavier Edwards On 10-Day Injured List

    Dodgers Place Kirby Yates On 15-Day IL, Select Lou Trivino

    Dodgers Release Chris Taylor

    Angels Announce Three Roster Moves

    Braves Claim Kevin Herget

    Astros Claim Jason Alexander From Athletics

    Orioles Place Tyler O’Neill On 10-Day IL, Designate Kyle Gibson

    Jose Alvarado Issued 80-Game PED Suspension

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