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Archives for July 2024

Mariners Place Ty France On Outright Waivers

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The Mariners have placed first baseman Ty France on outright waivers, according to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times. France remains on the club’s 40-man roster and can still play for the Mariners while on waivers until or unless he is claimed.

Should France clear waivers, the Mariners would then be able to outright or release him, though it’s worth noting that France has enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency and that Seattle could also simply opt to retain France on their roster afterwards, as the Blue Jays did with center fielder Kevin Kiermaier earlier this month. As was the case with Kiermaier, the move appears to be motivated by a desire on the part of Seattle to find a taker for France and the remainder of his $6.75MM salary this year, though ESPN’s Jeff Passan suggests that the move is also designed to open up full-time at-bats at the big league level for top first base prospect Tyler Locklear.

France, who celebrated his 30th birthday last week, is in the midst of a difficult season at the plate. The first baseman has slashed just .224/.313/.351 good for a wRC+ of just 97 and is striking out at a career-worst 24.5% clip. It’s the second consecutive down year for France, as he posted a somewhat lackluster 104 wRC+ in 158 games with Seattle last year as well. That down 2023 season led the club to listen to offers for the first baseman last summer, although no deal ultimately came together. Nearly a year later, the club is now evidently open to parting ways with France for nothing but salary relief with Locklear knocking at the door of the majors and France still struggling to produce at a level commensurate with the offensive expectations of his position.

It’s been a somewhat surprising drop off in production for France, who was a well-above average bat as recently as 2022. Acquired from the Padres as part of the seven-player deal that sent Austin Nola to San Diego back in 2020, France did nothing but hit during his first three seasons with the Mariners. From 2020 to 2022, France slashed an excellent .285/.355/.443 while striking out just 16.7% of the time and clubbing 42 homers in 335 games. It’s at least feasible to imagine a club that has a need at first base and believes they can unlock that old form in France would be willing to pay the remainder of his 2024 salary in order to take that chance, although it’s fair to wonder if interested clubs may prefer to see if France clears waivers before trying to acquire him at a lower price in the final week prior to the July 30 trade deadline.

In the meantime, rival clubs will have 48 hours from the time France was first waived to claim him, immediately adding him to their 40-man roster by doing so. Should he pass through waivers unclaimed, the Mariners will then need to decide whether to release France or retain him on their roster. Should France be released, he would then be eligible to be signed by any club for only a prorated portion of the major league minimum salary. If the club retains him on the roster, they would presumably continue to look for a suitor for France’s services in the run-up to the trade deadline. It’s even possible that Seattle could look to put France on waivers a second time after the deadline has passed, similar to how clubs like the Angels and Yankees handled pieces such as Lucas Giolito and Harrison Bader last summer after falling out of contention in August.

Seemingly poised to replace France in the Seattle lineup is Locklear, 23. Seattle’s second-rounder in the 2022 draft, Locklear has just 11 big league games under his belt, having slashed .200/.250/.433 in a brief cup of coffee while France was on the IL earlier this year. In 71 games between the Double- and Triple-A levels this year, Locklear has slashed an excellent .283/.389/.504 while striking out at a 24.5% clip that is, coincidentally, identical to France’s own strikeout rate this season.

Giants Acquire Mike Baumann

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The Giants have acquire right-hander Mike Baumann from the Mariners in exchange for cash considerations, per an announcement from both clubs. San Francisco’s 40-man roster now stands at 39. Baumann was designated for assignment by the Mariners earlier this week.

Baumann, 29 in September, was a third-round pick by the Orioles back in 2017 and made his big league debut for the club in 2021. He spent much of his professional career as a starter before moving to the bullpen full-time following the 2022 season and enjoyed some noteworthy success in Baltimore’s bullpen with a 3.69 ERA in 83 innings since converting to relief full time. He struck out 21.7% of batters faced during that time, but an elevated 11.7% walk rate during that time in conjunction with his lack of minor league options ultimately made him expendable in a relatively deep Orioles bullpen.

That led Baltimore to designate Baumann for assignment back in May, at which point he was promptly acquired by the Mariners alongside veteran minor league catcher Michael Perez in exchange for catching prospect Blake Hunt. Unfortunately, Baumann’s time in Seattle left something to be desired, as he struggled badly to a 5.51 ERA with a 6.04 FIP thanks in part to a massive uptick in hard contact. Baumann’s barrel rate in Seattle soared to an eye-popping 17% after sitting at just 3.6% with the Orioles this year and 8.2% from 2022 to 2023. That led Baumann to surrender a whopping four homers in just 16 1/3 innings of work, or more than two per nine innings. Those struggles left Baumann in a precarious spot in Seattle, and the club ultimately decided to part ways with the 28-year-old earlier this week when lefty Gabe Speier was ready to be activated from the IL.

Now, Baumann is headed to his third club of the season to join the San Francisco bullpen. With right-handers Sean Hjelle, Luke Jackson, and Randy Rodriguez all struggling to varying degrees in the club’s bullpen, it’s not necessarily a shock that the Giants, whose cavernous home ballpark is known for its homer-suppressing tendencies, would be interested in taking a shot on the services of a player who has gotten solid results in the past but has developed issues with the long ball. Baumann fits that description perfectly, and he’ll now look to get things back on track going forward with a Giants club that ranks bottom-five in the majors and better than only the Rockies among NL clubs with a 4.42 bullpen ERA.

Pirates Re-Sign Domingo German To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates have re-signed right-hander Domingo German to a minor league deal, according to MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf. Stumpf adds that German’s new pact with the club includes an opt-out on August 9. German has spent the entire 2024 season to this point pitching for the Pirates but opted out of his deal with Pittsburgh last week, though now it seems he’ll remain in the organization for at least a few more weeks.

German, 32 next month, made his big league debut with the Yankees back in 2017. While the righty appeared in just seven games as a multi-inning relief arm in his first MLB season, he went on to carve out a much more significant role for himself in the following years. 2018 saw German pitch in 21 games, including 14 starts, as a swing man for the Yankees, and by 2019 he had been promoted to a full-time starter. Off-the-field issues, including an 81-game suspension for violating the MLB-MLBPA joint domestic violence policy, saw him miss the 2019 postseason and the entire 2020 campaign, but upon his return to action in 2021 he spent three more seasons as a semi-regular fixture in New York’s rotation mix.

In all, German posted a 4.22 ERA (102 ERA+) with a 4.56 FIP in 422 1/3 innings of work for the Yankees between 2019 and 2023. German’s Yankees tenure including highs such as his outing against the A’s last June, where he threw the 24th perfect game in MLB history, but also lows such as his aforementioned suspension, a subsequent ten-game suspension for violating the league’s foreign substance policy on the mound, and a trip to the restricted list last September while he underwent treatment for alcohol abuse. Those numerous off-the-field issues help to explain why German, despite a track record as a fairly reliable back-end starter when healthy, settled for a minor league deal with the Pirates back in March.

Upon joining the Pirates, German was placed in the club’s Triple-A rotation, where he has struggled through ten starts. In 50 1/3 innings of work at the level this year, German has posted a lackluster 5.36 ERA with a similar 5.50 FIP. While his 20.6% strikeout rate is respectable enough, he’s walked a bloated 12% of batters faced at the level this year. That 8.6% K-BB% ratio is a far cry from the much more respectable 17.5% ratio he’s posted throughout his career in the major leagues, where he’s punched out 24.9% of batters faced while walking just 7.4%.

With Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Martin Perez, Marco Gonzales, Luis Ortiz, and Quinn Preister all seemingly ahead of German on the organizational depth chart among healthy starting options, it was hardly a surprise that German departed the club in hopes of finding a more pitching-hungry team interested in his services. Evidently, however, German was unable to find a deal he liked in free agency with another club, and as a result re-upped with Pittsburgh on a new deal that provides him an opt-out date after the Trade Deadline on July 30. It’s easy to imagine German exercising that opt-out opportunity as well, in hopes that a club that wasn’t able to address its rotation needs before the deadline at the end of the month shows interest in adding him to their mix as an innings-eating depth option. Until then, however, he figures to continue pitching in his current non-roster depth role with Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate as he waits for his next big league opportunity.

Report: Cardinals Have “Strong Interest” In Erick Fedde

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The Cardinals have “strong interest” in White Sox right-hander Erick Fedde, according to a report from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale this morning. Fedde is among a number of controllable pieces that the White Sox have made available this summer, alongside breakout left-hander Garrett Crochet and star center fielder Luis Robert Jr.

Fedde, 31, lacks the star power of either Crochet or Robert but is nonetheless one of the most attractive pieces expected to be available this summer. The former first-round pick was a consensus top-100 prospect in baseball in the late 2010’s but generally struggled at the big league level after debuting with the Nationals back in 2017. In parts of six season with the club, Fedde posted a lackluster 5.41 ERA in 102 appearances, including 88 starts. Those struggles led Fedde to depart affiliate ball to pitch in the Korea Baseball Organization last year, and the stint overseas hardly could’ve gone better for the righty. In an MVP campaign for the NC Dinos, Fedde posted a sterling 2.00 ERA in 180 1/3 innings of work across 30 starts while striking out 29.5% of batters faced.

The righty’s success overseas earned him renewed stateside interest this past winter, and the White Sox ultimately pounced by offering him a two-year, $15MM guarantee. The deal has gone about as well as anyone could’ve have hoped so far. Through 19 starts this season, Fedde appears to be an entirely different pitcher than he was in his days with the Nationals. His 21.6% strikeout rate is a near-match for his career-best mark from 2021, and his 6.6% walk rate is by far the lowest of his MLB career. After allowing a whopping 18.1% of his fly balls to the leave the yard for home runs during his time with the Nationals, Fedde has greatly improved in that regard this year as well with just 9.2% of his fly balls ending up in the stands so far. In all, that’s left Fedde with an excellent 2.99 ERA (138 ERA+) and a solid 3.53 FIP (82 FIP-) in 111 1/3 innings of work this season.

That sort of production would be welcome in virtually any contender’s rotation, and it’s surely all the more enticing for clubs that Fedde is under control for the 2025 season at a bargain $7.5MM price tag as well. That combination of low financial cost, team control, and production makes Fedde a strong candidate for virtually any pitching-hungry team in the league, so it’s easy to see why the Cardinals would have interest in the right-hander’s services.

Injury woes have kept veteran lefty Steven Matz out of action since late April, forcing the Cardinals to rely on pieces like Andre Pallante and Matthew Liberatore to fill out the rotation behind Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, Miles Mikolas, and Kyle Gibson. Even that front quartet has yielded mix results, with Gray and Gibson’s solid numbers being offset by the struggles of Lynn and Mikolas. Altogether, Cardinals starters this season have delivered a lackluster 4.43 ERA that ranks in the bottom ten among all major league clubs.

Despite those woes in the rotation, St. Louis has surged since an early-season slump and is currently sitting at a 52-47 record that places them firmly in the NL Wild Card picture and just five games back of the Brewers for the NL Central crown. The addition of a quality, playoff-caliber starter to their rotation would be a huge boost not only for their chances of making it into the postseason, but also for their odds in a potential Wild Card series, where Fedde could pair with Gray to make an impressive front two that could go toe-to-toe with most contenders in the NL. What’s more, Fedde’s additional year of team control could make him a particularly attractive option for a club that currently boasts 33-year-old Matz as the youngest arm in the rotation, and could stand to lose both Gibson and Lynn to free agency this winter if the club declines their club options on the veteran duo.

Ozzie Albies To Miss Eight Weeks With Wrist Fracture; Braves To Select Nacho Alvarez

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4:58pm: The Braves announced this afternoon that X-Rays on Albies’s wrist revealed a fracture in his left wrist. He’s expected to miss approximately eight weeks. Atlanta is “expected” to select Alvarez’s contract tomorrow to replace Albies on the roster, according to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. Bowman suggests that the youngster will play second base despite Alvarez’s lack of experience at the keystone, leaving Arcia as the club’s everyday shortstop.

4:33pm: Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies exited today’s game in the ninth inning due to a left wrist injury. As noted by David O’Brien of The Athletic, Albies’s wrist was bent backwards when he attempted to tag a runner out a second base amid a stolen base attempt. The Braves have not made an official move yet, but manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including O’Brien) after the game that Albies will be placed on the injured list and that while further evaluation necessary, the outlook on the injury is “not good.”

The loss of Albies is another devastating blow to a Braves club that has already seen both reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. and right-handed ace Spencer Strider undergo season-ending surgery. With Albies set to join that duo as well as center fielder Michael Harris II and star lefty Max Fried on the shelf, the Braves will limp towards the trade deadline protecting a four-game lead in the NL Wild Card race without five of their biggest stars. While Chris Sale and Reynaldo Lopez have stepped up this season as front-of-the-rotation arms and Jarred Kelenic has performed admirably since being thrust into an everyday role as the club’s center fielder in place of Harris, there are no obvious solutions for replacing Albies on the club’s active roster.

Even average offensive production would be an adequate replacement for Albies at the plate, as the 27-year-old has been dealing with a bit of a down season this year. In 89 games this season, the infielder has slashed a roughly league average .255/.308/.403 across 390 trips to the plate. Even so, the club’s dearth of quality infield depth means that the Braves are likely to be scrambling for solutions in Albies’s absence, particularly if it proves to be a lengthy one as Snitker implied.

Earlier this year, infielder Zack Short was tapped to handle third base in place of an injured Austin Riley and rose to the call effectively. While he has experience at second base as well, he’s slumped badly in bench role since Riley’s return to the lineup and sports a slash line of just .077/.250/.077 since the start of June. That could lead the Braves to look toward the minor leagues. The club turned to David Fletcher in a utility role earlier this year, but he is no longer on the 40-man roster and has begun attempting to convert to pitching at the Double-A level, suggesting he’s unlikely to be called up to replace Albies. One option currently on the 40-man would be infielder Luke Williams, although his career .220/.280/.287 slash line in the majors certainly leaves something to be desired.

Perhaps the most exciting moves the Braves could make, barring a trade to improve the club’s overall infield mix, would be the promotion of top infield prospect Nacho Alvarez. Alvarez is ranked as the club’s #5 prospect by MLB Pipeline and has lit up the scoreboards in the minor leagues this year. In 75 games split between the Double- and Triple-A levels this year, the 21-year-old has slashed an eye-opening .295/.398/.420 while going 21-for-24 on the basepaths. One potential hiccup in that plan would be Alvarez’s complete lack of experience at second base, though the club could always plug him in at shortstop and shift veteran Orlando Arcia, who played 50 games for the Braves at the keystone in 2022, over to the right side of the infield alongside first baseman Matt Olson.

It’s possible that a lengthy absence for Albies could prompt the Braves to explore the infield market, particularly if the club feels Alvarez isn’t ready for his big league debut. Pieces such as Amed Rosario of the Rays and Brandon Drury of the Angels are among the veteran rentals who could be made available this summer, although the Rays have gone 6-3 over their last nine games to put themselves back into contention while Drury has suffered through an abysmal season at the plate this year. With clear needs in the starting rotation and outfield as well, it’s possible at Atlanta brass opt instead to rely on their internal options at the keystone while Albies is injured, instead working to add an outfield who can replace Acuna while taking pressure off of Kelenic and Adam Duvall, both of whom have been forced into everyday roles by injuries after starting the season as platoon partners.

Brewers Acquire Tyler Jay From Mets

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The Mets have dealt left-hander Tyler Jay to the Brewers in exchange for minor league right-hander TJ Shook, per a club announcement. Jay had been designated for assignment by New York last week to make room for lefty Alex Young on the club’s 40-man roster. The Brewers had an open spot for Jay on their 40-man roster after designating Joel Kuhnel for assignment earlier today.

Jay, 30, was the sixth overall pick in the 2015 draft by the Twins. Jay struggled to establish himself in the upper levels of the minors, however, and he departed affiliated ball following the canceled 2020 minor league season to pitch the 2022 campaign for the Frontier League’s Joliet Slammers. He pitched well in Indy Ball with a 3.53 ERA with 88 strikeouts in 79 innings of work between the 2022 and ’23 seasons. The lefty returned to affiliated ball on a minor league deal with the Mets partway through last year and after struggling in his Triple-A debut last year, looked solid in 41 1/3 innings of work as a multi-inning reliever at the level this year with a 2.40 ERA despite a relatively lackluster 18.6% strikeout rate.

That performance was strong enough to earn Jay his first taste of big league action with the Mets back in April. He looked good in two appearances with the Mets, allowing one run on five hits and a walk while striking out one in four innings of work, but was designated for assignment after a week in the majors to make room on the club’s roster for Michael Tonkin. Jay remained with the Mets following his outright assignment and continued to put up strong numbers at the Triple-A level, earning him another big league opportunity on July 1. That appearance went poorly, however, as Jay surrendered four runs (three earned) while recording just two outs against two hits, two walks, and two strikeouts. That was Jay’s only appearance of his second stint in New York, and his time with the organization now comes to an end with a career ERA of 7.71 at the big league level.

Now, Jay is headed to the Brewers where he figures to join a bullpen full of reclamation relief arms who have managed to put together strong results in Milwaukee. The club is currently relying on Bryan Hudson, Jared Koenig, Hoby Milner, and Rob Zastryzny as lefty relief options, and Jay figures to be the next man up behind that group from the left side while Kevin Herget acts as the top depth option behind the bullpen’s right-handed pitchers.

In exchange for Jay’s services, the Brewers are parting ways with Shook, who they signed as an undrafted free agent back in 2020. The 26-year-old right-hander worked his way through the minor league system fairly quickly in his first few years in the organization but has stalled out a bit at the Double-A level in the years since then, having pitched there since partway through the 2022 season. In 242 career innings at the level, Shook has a 5.06 ERA despite a solid 24.2% strikeout rate thanks to an elevated 10% walk rate and a tendency towards allowing home runs. Things have improved slightly for Shook this year, however, as he’s posted a 4.90 ERA with a 27.4% strikeout rate against a more manageable 8.9% walk rate with just seven home runs allowed in 64 1/3 innings of work.

White Sox Release Martín Maldonado

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Today: Maldonado has cleared waivers, and the White Sox have granted the catcher his unconditional release (per the White Sox via Scott Merkin of MLB.com).

July 17, 7:11pm: Chicago will recall Robinson from Charlotte for his first MLB work since 2022, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times.

July 17, 6:10pm: The White Sox have designated catcher Martín Maldonado for assignment, per Ken Rosenthal and Chandler Rome of The Athletic on X. The Sox don’t play again until Friday, so the corresponding move or moves may not be immediately known.

Maldonado, 37, signed a one-year deal with the Sox in the offseason. The veteran backstop secured a $4.25MM guarantee in the form of a $4MM salary with a $250K buyout on a $4MM club/vesting option for 2025. The option would have vested with Maldonado making 90 appearances at catcher but he’s only at 48 this year.

He’s never been much of a hitter but has long received praise for his defense and his leadership abilities in working with a pitching staff. Teams have generally been willing to take that tradeoff over his career but he has declined on both sides of the ball to the point that it pushed him off his roster spot with the Sox.

Coming into this year, Maldonado had a career batting line of .207/.282/.349. That production translated to a wRC+ of 72, indicating he had been 28% below the league average hitter overall. Catchers tend to be roughly 10% below par, so that kind of hitting isn’t disastrous if there are defensive contributions to go with it. But his bat has been even less effective that unusual this season, as he has a dismal line of .119/.174/.230. His wRC+ of 11 is dead last in the majors among batters with at least 140 plate appearances this year.

On top of that, the marks on his glovework have also declined. He has 58 Defensive Runs Saved in his career but was at -10 last year and is at -8 already here in 2024 despite limited playing time. FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus and Statcast have considered him to be a positive pitch framer in his career but he’s been in negative territory in 2024. The subpar bat was once palatable with strong defense, but declines in both departments have made him harder to stomach, so the Sox will apparently be moving on.

The Sox will need to call up another catcher to share time with Korey Lee and they have a couple of options. Chuckie Robinson was added to their 40-man about a month ago but kept on optional assignment. He’s hitting .246/.292/.382 in Triple-A this year for a wRC+ of 70 but the Sox presumably like him as they gave him that roster spot to prevent him from triggering an opt-out clause.

There’s also prospect Edgar Quero, who came over in last year’s trade that sent Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López to the Angels. He’s having a great year, with a batting line of .274/.362/.462 and 141 wRC+ between Double-A and Triple-A so far. He’s a consensus top 100 prospect and arguably the club’s catcher of the future. He has just six games above the Double-A level on his track record and isn’t yet on the 40-man roster, but perhaps the Sox want to use the second half to have him get acquainted with some of their staff and/or face major league pitching.

The Sox will technically have a week from when the move becomes official to either trade or pass Maldonado through waivers, though the he’s likely to end up released in the coming days. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and no club will want to take on what’s left of his salary. If any team really believes in his game-calling abilities, he could perhaps garner interest after he’s released, when the Sox will be on the hook for the majority of the money he’s still owed. Another team could sign him at that point and only pay him the prorated version of the $740K league minimum, with that amount subtracted from what the Sox pay.

Dodgers To Sign Nick Anderson To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers are signing right-handed pitcher Nick Anderson to a minor league deal. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the two sides were in agreement on a contract, while Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic confirmed that it would be a minor league pact. Bob Nightengale of USA Today later added that the deal has opt-outs on August 15 and 28. Anderson was designated for assignment by the Royals before the All-Star break and cleared release waivers on Saturday.

Anderson pitched well for the Braves over the first half of the 2023 season, posting a 3.06 ERA and 3.47 SIERA in 35 games, while collecting four wins, one save, and 15 holds. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury ended his year in mid-July. Despite his promising first half, the Braves dealt Anderson to the Royals following the season in exchange for cash considerations.

The 34-year-old right-hander was unable to replicate his first-half success in 2024, pitching to a 4.04 ERA and 4.39 SIERA in 37 outings with Kansas City. Although his fastball velocity is slightly up from last season, Anderson has struggled in almost every respect: His strikeout rate is down, his walk rate is up, and he has given up twice as many home runs as last year in close to the same number of innings. Considering his poor numbers this season and extensive injury history over the past few years, it wasn’t too surprising that Anderson was DFA’d after the Royals traded for fellow right-handed reliever Hunter Harvey. That said, Kansas City might have been hoping another team would claim Anderson off of waivers and take his 2024 salary off its books.

Instead, the Dodgers waited and signed Anderson to a minor league deal, which means they will only need to pay him a prorated portion of the league minimum salary. Although Clayton Kershaw and Tyler Glasnow are set to return from the IL this coming week, the Dodgers can still use all the pitching help they can get. The injury bug has hit their rotation much more than their bullpen, but L.A. is currently missing relievers like Brusdar Graterol, Ryan Brasier, and Michael Grove. More to the point, the Dodgers simply need to ensure they have enough healthy arms – starters or relievers – to get them through the remainder of the season.

That being said, the Dodgers are surely hoping Anderson can be more than just a warm body. This organization has a great reputation for developing arms and helping veteran pitchers reinvent themselves. Perhaps L.A. can help Anderson rediscover what has made him such an effective reliever at previous points in his career. In addition to his strong 2023 campaign with the Braves, he was dominant from 2019-20 with the Marlins and Rays, pitching to a 2.77 ERA and 2.14 SIERA in 87 games.

Red Sox, Yankees Have Reportedly Talked To Cubs About Jameson Taillon

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Both the Yankees and Red Sox have checked in with the Cubs and discussed the potential availability of right-hander Jameson Taillon, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes in his weekly Sunday Notes column. The Cubs have yet to determine whether they’ll off any veteran pieces prior to the deadline, per the report. However, Chicago has dropped consecutive games coming out of the All-Star break and now sits 10 back in the NL Central and 4.5 back in the Wild Card chase, so it’d hardly register as a surprise if they were at least getting a feel for the market on some of their potential trade assets.

The 32-year-old Taillon (33 in November) is in the second season of a four-year, $68MM contract he inked with the Cubs in the 2022-23 offseason. After a very rocky showing last May and June, he’s righted the ship. Taillon is sitting on a pristine 3.10 ERA (3.81 FIP, 4.18 SIERA) in 93 innings this season, but his turnaround really dates back to the second half of the ’23 season. Though he finished out his first Cubs season with an ERA just shy of 5.00, that brutal stretch in May/June heavily weighed down his season-long line.

Over the past calendar year, Taillon boasts a tidy 3.34 ERA (4.05 FIP, 4.11 SIERA) with a 21.1% strikeout rate that’s only about a percentage point shy of league-average and an outstanding 5.1% walk rate. That walk rate is the 11th-lowest among qualified starters in the majors.

Taillon is still owed about $6.8MM of his 2024 salary as of this writing. He’s also being paid $18MM in each of the next two seasons. That’ll bring the tab on him to a bit less than $43MM over the next two-plus seasons. On its face, that’s a generally reasonable rate for a pitcher of Taillon’s caliber.

However, it’s also worth noting that the Yankees are a third-time CBT payor who are in the top tier of luxury penalization. They’d pay a 110% tax on Taillon, at least this season and possibly in future seasons, depending where their luxury ledger lands in 2025-26. Boston currently has a projected $218MM worth of luxury considerations, per RosterResource, so they could acquire Taillon and take on his full contract without crossing into luxury territory this season. As for the Cubs, they’re just $3MM shy of the $237MM luxury threshold; moving Taillon would create some breathing room in the event that the front office opts to deal from its rotation depth but simultaneously bring in some other players to address needs (e.g. third base, bullpen).

As far as the Red Sox go, the reported interest in Taillon is pretty straightforward. Boston has seen Lucas Giolito, Garrett Whitlock and depth starter Chris Murphy go down with season-ending injuries. Righty Bryan Mata recently had another setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury. At the moment, the Sox have a rotation comprised of Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Nick Pivetta and Brayan Bello. Both Cooper Criswell and Josh Winckowski have gotten looks in the fifth spot of the rotation. The depth beyond that quintet is fairly suspect.

The current top four in Boston’s rotation is solid, but both Houck and Crawford are going to sail well beyond their 2023 workloads as they set new career-high marks for innings pitched. Even if they avoid injury while doing so, there’s real possibility of fatigue setting in and impacting the quality of their results (which have thus far been excellent). Taillon would add some stability and push Criswell and Wincowski down the depth chart. He’d also add a solid veteran arm to the 2025-26 rotations, which surely has some appeal with Pivetta slated to become a free agent this offseason.

The Red Sox currently hold the third Wild Card spot in the American League. They’re a long shot within the AL East but certainly not buried, sitting 6.5 games behind the division-leading Orioles and 4.5 games behind the second-place Yankees.

Speaking of the Yankees, they’re of course no stranger to Taillon. The righty pitched the 2021-22 seasons in the Bronx and fared well, logging 321 1/3 innings of 4.08 ERA ball over the life of 61 starts. The Yankees have a mostly healthy rotation now that Gerrit Cole is back from the elbow injury that sidelined him into June, but they did lose breakout righty Clarke Schmidt to a late-May lat strain that’s going to sideline him for a considerable period. The Yankees announced on May 30 that Schmidt would be shut down up to six weeks. He was transferred to the 60-day IL on June 18. He’s out until at least the end of this month, but that’ll likely stretch into next month. Schmidt only began throwing off a mound this weekend, and he’ll need to make multiple minor league rehab starts (and dodge any possible setbacks) before he’s an option.

Right now, manager Aaron Boone’s rotation includes Cole, Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes, Marcus Stroman and Luis Gil. It’s a talented quintet, but Gil has faded considerably after posting a sub-2.00 ERA for the first couple months of the season. His sky-high walk rate always made his ERA a little dubious, but over the past seven starts Gil has pitched to a 6.00 ERA. He’s not the only Yankee starter struggling, either. Each of Rodon, Cortes and Stroman has an ERA north of 5.30 in the past month. Rodon has been clobbered for 24 runs in his past 22 innings. If anything, Gil has begun to right the ship with a pair of excellent starts his last two times out, but it’s plenty understandable if his workload concerns and the generally shaky performance from the rest of his rotationmates has the Yankees seeking external help.

Royals Release Jordan Lyles

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Today: The Royals reinstated Lyles from the restricted list today, the team announced. He cleared release waivers and is officially a free agent.

July 20: The Royals have released veteran right-hander Jordan Lyles, according to Anne Rogers of MLB.com. Should he pass through waivers unclaimed, he will become a free agent in the coming days. Lyles, 33, was placed on the restricted list back in April due to an undisclosed personal matter. Per Rogers, Lyles reported to the organization last month, opening up a 30-day window for him to either be added back to the roster or released. Today was day 30 of that window, prompting the right-hander’s placement on release waivers.

A veteran of 14 MLB seasons, Lyles has posted an above average season by measure of ERA+ just once in his lengthy career but has nonetheless managed to stick around the majors consistently thanks to his workhorse tendencies. From 2019 to 2023, the right-hander posted a lackluster 5.20 ERA with a similar 5.09 FIP, both well below the league average. In doing so, however, he covered a whopping 735 1/3 innings of work. Just fifteen pitchers in the league ate more innings than Lyles over that period, and that ability to handle a sizable workload has earned him big league deals with rebuilding clubs such as the 2020 Rangers and 2022 Orioles that were in need of reliable volume in the rotation.

The latest rebuilding club to offer Lyles a contract to solidify its rotation mix was the 2023 Royals. The right-hander signed a two-year, $17MM pact with Kansas City during the 2022-23 offseason, and while the righty posted his typical volume of 177 2/3 innings and 31 starts, the results were borderline disastrous. His 6.28 ERA was by far the worst among all qualified pitchers last year, as were his 5.62 FIP and 5.34 xFIP. Only Patrick Corbin and Miles Mikolas stuck out batters at a lower clip than Lyles’s 16% rate last year, and his 39 home runs allowed last year was less than only Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito.

Those lackluster numbers led the Royals to aggressively pursue rotation upgrades this winter, adding veterans Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha to a rotation that had already acquired young lefty Cole Ragans over the summer. The new additions pushed Lyles to the bullpen to open the 2024 campaign, and the veteran actually took to the new role quite well in the early going. He made just five appearances prior to being placed on the restricted list, but each of those outings was scoreless. In all, Lyles allowed just two hits and two walks across five innings of work while striking out three in his limited work as a short relief arm prior to his departure from the club.

Rival organizations will now have the opportunity to claim the veteran (and the remainder of his $8.5MM salary for 2024), though it’s extremely unlikely that any club will do so between the hefty price tag and the fact that the veteran seemingly hasn’t pitched competitively since mid-April. In the likely event that he clears waivers, Lyles will become a free agent and be available for any club to sign at the pro-rated league minimum, which would be subtracted from the amount Kansas City owes Lyles for the remainder of the season.

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