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Mets To Designate Rico Garcia For Assignment

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The Mets are set to designate right-hander Rico Garcia for assignment according to a report from Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Garcia’s departure opens up spots on both the 40-man and active rosters, but it’s not yet clear what the corresponding move will be to replace Garcia.

Garcia, 31, was a 30th-round pick by the Rockies back in 2016 who made the majors with Colorado during the 2019 season. The journeyman has gone on to pitch in parts of five big league seasons over the past seven years with seven different organizations but has never pitched more than a handful of times in a single season. He’s accrued exactly 50 innings of work overall in his MLB career, and in that time he’s pitched to a 5.94 ERA with a 6.09 FIP for the Rockies, Giants, Orioles, A’s, Nationals, Yankees, and Mets.

Weak as those overall numbers may be, Garcia has actually pitched quite well during his time in Queens. In 11 2/3 innings of work across seven outings, Garcia entered today with a 0.77 ERA while punching out 35.7% of his opponents. It’s an extremely small sample, of course, but that dominance could be enough to create optimism that Garcia has figured something out. Of course, the right-hander’s DFA comes off the back of a performance where he surrendered two runs on two hits while recording a strikeout in one inning of work. Even that weak performance leaves him with a 3.52 ERA, a 3.23 FIP, and a 30% strikeout rate across 15 1/3 innings of work this season between the Mets and the Yankees.

If those solid numbers (albeit in a somewhat limited body of work) sell a club on Garcia’s ability to contribute to their bullpen, they’ll have the opportunity to claim the right-hander once the Mets place him on waivers. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, the Mets could send him outright to Triple-A. With that being said, Garcia has been outrighted to the minor leagues before and could reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he so chooses. If he did so, he would then be free to sign with any of the league’s 30 clubs. If a team picks him up and his success continues, Garcia can theoretically be controlled through the end of the 2030 season and won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2026 season at the earliest.

While Castillo is certainly a player who’s flashed some interesting upside this year, the Mets figure to do just fine without him in their bullpen. Star closer Edwin Diaz still leads the club’s bullpen, which was reinforced heavily at the trade deadline this past week by the additions of southpaw Gregory Soto as well as high-leverage arms Ryan Helsley and Tyler Rogers. That quartet figures to pair with Brooks Raley and Ryne Stanek to form one of the better bullpens in the entire sport down the stretch this year.

Angels Release LaMonte Wade Jr.

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The Angels have released first baseman and outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. and selected the contract of outfielder Bryce Teodosio, per a team announcement. The moves were first reported by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. The club also announced that infielder Kevin Newman has been released after he was designated for assignment on the day of the trade deadline to make room for infielder Oswald Peraza on the 40-man roster.

Wade, 31, was a ninth-round pick by the Twins back in 2015 and appeared in 42 games for the club early in his career before joining the Giants prior to the 2021 season. In San Francisco, Wade established himself as a quality first baseman with a .248/.352/.415 slash line (115 wRC+) between 2021 and 2024. After crushing 18 homers in his first 381 plate appearances with the club in 2021, he posted below-average numbers (93 wRC+) in a 2022 campaign derailed by both knee and hamstring issues.

After returning to health in time for the 2023 season, Wade lacked the power he had flashed in his first season with San Francisco but made up for it by serving as one of the league’s top on-base threats. While it was a non-traditional profile for a first baseman, it was nonetheless an effective one. Wade slashed .258/.376/.401 with a wRC+ of 120 over the 2023 and ’24 seasons, and only ten players posted a higher on-base percentage that him during those two seasons: Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Bryce Harper, Christian Yelich, and Kyle Tucker. It’s a list stacked with superstars and MVP candidates.

Given that elite company Wade found himself in, his fall from grace this year has been shocking. In 50 games with the Giants this year, Wade maintained his trademark plate discipline with a 20.7% strikeout rate against a 12.4% walk rate. A combination of a comically low .211 BABIP and a complete lack of power left Wade as a deeply unproductive bat in the club’s lineup, however, as he hit just .167/.275/.271 (59 wRC+) in 169 plate appearances. The production was weak enough that the Giants ultimately opted to designate him for assignment in early June. He was traded to the Angels just a few days later, and the Halos had plans to include him in their outfield mix going forward.

It’s a plan that did not work out particularly well. Wade performed even worse in Anaheim than he had been in San Francisco, posting a brutal 38 wRC+ as his plate discipline left him. He struck out in 31.5% of his 73 plate appearances with the Angels and walked at just an 8.5% clip. Now that he’s been released, he’ll be free to sign with any club with interest in his services. His poor performance this year might leave him relegated only to minor league deals, but there are surely teams around the league in need of first base depth as they gear up for the stretch run who would be interested in giving Wade a shot to prove himself for their team in the minor leagues.

Replacing Wade on the roster is Teodosio, who made his big league debut with the Angels last year before being outrighted off their 40-man roster during the offseason. He has just five games of big league experience under his belt but immediately becomes the best defensive center fielder on the club’s roster. A career .281/.342/.426 hitter at the Triple-A level in spite of playing in the Pacific Coast League’s inflated offensive environment, Teodosio is unlikely to offer much with the bat. Even so, he swiped 40 bases in 114 games last year and can provide plenty of value both defensively and on the bases for the club going forward.

Nicky Lopez Opts Out Of Minor League Deal With Yankees

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Infielder Nicky Lopez has opted out of his minor league deal with the Yankees and is now a free agent, according to a report from Robert Murray of FanSided yesterday. Lopez had signed with the organization early last month.

The 30-year-old was a fifth-round pick by the Royals back in 2016 and made his MLB debut during the 2019 season. He was a light-hitting middle infielder for his first two seasons in Kansas City, with an atrocious .228/.279/.307 (55 wRC+) line in 159 games across those two seasons. While he was roughly a replacement level player overall in those two seasons, he broke out in a big way during the 2021 season. That year, he slashed .300/.365/.378 with a wRC+ of 104, and combined that roughly average slash line with elite defense at shortstop and 22 stolen bases to put together a 5.5 fWAR season.

That version of Lopez from 2022 looked like a potential All-Star, but his .347 BABIP that year proved to be unsustainable. He dropped back down to a wRC+ of 55 in 2022, and while his strong defense and baserunning allowed him to remain better than replacement level he hasn’t fared quite that well in the years since. He bounced between Kansas City, Atlanta, and the south side of Chicago in 2023 and ’24, slashing a modestly improved .238/.317/.299 (77 wRC+) with a high-contact approach (15.1% strikeout rate) but still failed to hit for enough power or post a high enough BABIP to offer even average offensive production.

After demonstrating declining speed and defense as he entered his late 20s, Lopez has struggled to hold down a big league job in his age-30 campaign. He’s bounced between the Cubs, Angels, Diamondbacks, and Yankees organizations throughout the year but has made it into just 19 big league games with Chicago and Anaheim. In 28 plate appearances in the majors this year, he’s gone just 1-for-24 with four walks and four strikeouts. His numbers at Triple-A for Arizona and New York’s affiliates, meanwhile, have been better but still lackluster as he’s slashed .266/.316/.323 with an 11.5% strikeout rate.

No one should be signing Lopez for his offense, but he still provides above-average defense and can be a decent contact-oriented pinch hitter. That’s enough to be a potentially useful bench piece, and with the trade deadline having come and gone it seems likely some team will sign Lopez as a depth option in the coming days. He’ll likely be limited to minor league offers, but it’s possible a team with a particularly thin infield mix could look to add him to their bench immediately in order to shore up their roster for the stretch run. The Yankees, for their part, have much less of a need for that sort of infield depth after the club picked up Ryan McMahon, Amed Rosario, and Jose Caballero to transform their bench mix ahead of the deadline earlier this week. Jorbit Vivas and Braden Shewmake remain on the 40-man roster as potential depth options, as well.

Red Sox Transfer Luis Guerrero To 60-Day IL, Reinstate Nick Burdi

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The Red Sox announced some minor injury-related transactions today involving three right-handed relievers. Nick Burdi, who was on the 60-day IL with a foot contusion, has been reinstated and optioned to Triple-A Worcester. To make room on the 40-man roster, Luis Guerrero, who was on the 15-day IL with a sprained elbow, was transferred to the 60-day IL. In addition, Zack Kelly (oblique strain) has been reinstated from the 15-day IL and optioned to the minors.

Burdi, 32, was a second-round pick by the the Twins back in 2014 but didn’t make his big league debut until 2018 as a member of the Pirates. He struck out an impressive 38.3% of his opponents from 2018 to 2020, but did so in just 12 1/3 innings of work total as he was dogged by a series of elbow problems. He missed the entire 2021 season before re-emerging at the big league level with the Cubs in 2023, for whom he made just three appearances before he was sidelined once again due to appendicitis. He later pitched for the Yankees but battled hip issues before signing a minor league deal with the Red Sox this past season and having his contract selected in May. He’s spent most of his time as a member of the 40-man roster on the 60-day injured list due to a contusion of his right foot, however.

That laundry list of injury woes has left Burdi to total just 30 1/3 innings of work total for his career, which spans more than a decade in professional baseball and parts of six big league seasons. He’s struggled to a lackluster 5.34 ERA in that time as well, although it’s worth noting that his 31.2% strikeout rate and 3.84 FIP both indicate he’s pitched better than those lackluster results would imply. His strikeout rate is down to 23.1% in Boston this year, but he’s posted 5 1/3 scoreless innings across four appearances. He’ll head back to the minor leagues and serve as non-roster depth for the club going forward.

Making room for Burdi on the 40-man roster is Guerrero, a rookie who made his big league debut last year. He’s made 22 appearances while shuttling between Triple-A and the majors since then, and has generally pitched quite well with a 2.63 ERA and 3.49 FIP in 27 1/3 innings of work despite a lackluster 17.6% strikeout rate. Guerrero was shelved in late June due to an elbow sprain, but the injury appears to be serious enough that he’ll need to miss at least another month. He’ll now be ineligible to return to the majors until August 27 at the absolute earliest, but given the nature of elbow injuries it wouldn’t be a shock if Guerrero ends up being out for longer than that or even potentially not pitching again this year. No timeline for his return to action has been provided by the Red Sox at this point.

As for Kelly, the 30-year-old is in his fourth season as a member of the Boston relief corps. He’s struggled with his results this year, posting a 5.56 ERA in 22 2/3 innings of work, though a 3.63 FIP and 24.3% strikeout rate both offer at least some reason for optimism about his ability to turn things around now that he’s healthy and back to pitching. Of course, he’ll first need to prove himself at the Triple-A level given that the club’s middle relief mix is currently occupied by pieces like Jorge Alcala, Jordan Hicks, and the newly-acquired Steven Matz.

Orioles Claim Ryan Noda Off Waivers

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The Orioles have claimed first baseman and corner outfielder Ryan Noda off waivers from the White Sox, both teams announced. Baltimore has several open spots on the 40-man roster following the trade deadline, so no corresponding move was necessary. Noda has been optioned to Triple-A. It had not been previously announced or reported that he was placed on waivers. The White Sox also announced that right-hander Jesse Scholtens has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Charlotte.

Noda, 29, made his MLB debut as a Rule 5 pick with the A’s in 2023. It wasn’t hard for him to convince them to keep him on the 26-man roster all year, as he showed good power and great plate discipline en route to a .770 OPS and 122 wRC+. He hit 22 doubles and 16 home runs, and his 15.6% walk rate would have led the AL had he taken the seven more plate appearances he would have needed to qualify. Unfortunately for Noda, he could not keep it up the following year, and after a dismal start, he ended up spending most of the season at Triple-A Las Vegas.

The Angels claimed Noda off waivers following the 2024 season, but he failed to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster in 2025. After six weeks of continued struggles with Triple-A Salt Lake, he was designated for assignment and traded to the Red Sox. Barely two weeks later, it was the Red Sox’s turn to DFA him and the White Sox who scooped him up. It was with Chicago that he finally made his season debut. He appeared in 16 games with the White Sox in June and July, going 3-for-34, though he still managed to draw an impressive 10 walks.

Now the Orioles will give Noda a chance as depth. Considering how many bats they traded away at the deadline, it’s hardly out of the question that he could earn a call-up at some point later in August or September. It would certainly help if he starts hitting better at Triple-A than he has so far this year. In 58 games, he is batting .194 with a 103 wRC+. He’s had no trouble drawing walks, but he strikes out a ton. Noda is only two years removed from being an above-average major league bat, but he’s quickly losing the goodwill that season earned him. Figuring out how to punish minor league pitching like he once did would be a great first step as he looks to get back on track.

Royals Designate Thomas Hatch For Assignment

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The Royals activated recent trade acquisitions Bailey Falter and Ryan Bergert this morning, ahead of their afternoon matchup with the Blue Jays. To make room on the roster, Jonathan Bowlan was optioned to Triple-A, while Thomas Hatch was designated for assignment. In additional news, the team also announced that Michael Massey has been returned from a rehab assignment.

Hatch, 30, was selected onto the roster earlier this week, taking the place of veteran Rich Hill. However, after bolstering the starting rotation with Falter and Bergert ahead of the trade deadline, the Royals no longer had a job for Hatch. He didn’t help his cause when he gave up two runs on a double and a homer last night in his team debut. (He was also selected to the roster earlier this season but did not appear in a game.)

The Cubs drafted Hatch in 2016, and he debuted with the Blue Jays in 2020. The right-hander went on to appear in parts of four seasons with Toronto, pitching to a 5.40 ERA and 4.81 SIERA in 46 2/3 innings as a long reliever and occasional starter. The Blue Jays DFA’d him during the 2023 season, and he finished the year with the Pirates, pitching to a 4.03 ERA and 4.48 SIERA in another 22 2/3 innings (two starts). Meanwhile, he pitched to a 4.63 ERA and 4.94 FIP over 46 2/3 innings with both teams’ Triple-A affiliates in his first minor league season as a primary reliever.

Hatch spent the 2024 season in Japan, pitching for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, with whom he returned to a starting role. He then signed with the KBO’s Doosan Bears for 2025, but his contract was later voided due to concerns over his physical. Eventually, he inked a minor league deal with the Royals instead. Over 18 starts (91 2/3 innings) with Triple-A Omaha this season, he pitched to a 4.22 ERA and 4.10 FIP, striking out batters at a mediocre 20.1% rate but inducing grounders on 52.9% of balls in play.

A team in need of some quick innings could put in a waiver claim on Hatch, but a lack of options hurts his case; any club that claims him would need to add him to the active roster. If he passes through waivers, he has the right to reject an outright assignment, having already been outrighted by the Royals once this year.

Massey landed on the IL with a left ankle sprain on June 10. He then suffered a hairline fracture in his right wrist after he was hit by a pitch during his first rehab assignment later that month. While he began another rehab assignment on July 18 – and MLB.com’s Anne Rogers reported at the time that pain from his injuries had decreased – he has not played in a game since July 30. Today, manager Matt Quatraro told Rogers that Massey’s back, which has caused him pain in the past, is giving him trouble again. The team will provide an update on his timeline after he goes for further evaluation.

Tanner Houck To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Red Sox starting pitcher Tanner Houck will undergo Tommy John surgery. Manager Alex Cora broke the bad news to reporters today, including Christopher Smith of MassLive. The right-hander has been on the injured list since mid-May with a flexor pronator strain, and he was recently transferred to the 60-day IL after the team pulled him off a rehab assignment. Even in a best-case scenario, he will not return to the Red Sox until late in the 2026 season, and possibly not until 2027.

Boston’s first pick (24th overall) in 2017, Houck pitched well for the Sox from 2020-22 (3.02 ERA, 3.50 SIERA in 146 IP). Yet, rotation battles and a bad back kept him from earning a full-time job in the starting five until 2023, and a terrifying liner to the face that summer kept him from pitching his first full season until 2024. It proved to be a year worth waiting for, however, as Houck made 30 starts with a 3.12 ERA and earned an All-Star selection that summer.

Houck came into the 2025 season as Boston’s number two starter, but he struggled badly over the first six weeks of the year. He pitched to an 8.04 ERA with a 15.8% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate through nine starts. Those numbers were heavily affected by two different outings in which he gave 11 earned runs and failed to escape the third inning. In fact, as MLBTR noted back in May, “If those two games were scratched from the register, his ERA would drop to 3.92, and his strikeout and walk rates would look much closer to what they were last season.” That said, to overlook two starts of such poor quality would be a mistake. Something was clearly wrong.

Houck began a rehab assignment in mid-June. While he wasn’t particularly sharp in his first three rehab outings, he looked much better in the latter two, tossing a total of 9 1/3 innings while giving up just one run on six hits and two walks. He struck out 10. In his outing against the Rochester Red Wings on July 9, he averaged close to 95 mph on his sinker, topping out at 96.8. Yet, he has not pitched since. He suffered a setback, either during that start or sometime shortly after, and the Red Sox officially returned him from his rehab assignment on July 19. MLB.com’s Ian Browne reported at the time that the issue was most likely “a recurrence of the right pronator strain” that landed him on the IL in the first place.

Earlier this week, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported that Houck was seeking more opinions on his arm.  A couple of days later, the Red Sox transferred him to the 60-day IL, making room for trade acquisition Dustin May on the 40-man roster. Houck had already missed more than 60 days, so the move itself said nothing about his timeline, but chief baseball officer Craig Breslow seemed to imply the righty could be done for the season (per Cotillo). That is indeed the case, and now the question is if he will be able to return at all in 2026. The generally accepted timeline for a pitcher to return from UCL reconstruction is 12-18 months.

Breslow’s quiet trade deadline now looks even more disappointing. May adds depth to a pitching staff that has been severely hampered by injuries this year, but he’s not a high-upside arm. His days as a top-100 prospect are a ways behind him, and he has a 4.85 ERA and 4.30 SIERA in 19 games (18 starts) this year. He is also already well past his previous career-high in innings pitched. In other words, he’s not an arm the Red Sox can feel confident about starting in the playoffs (although they very well might have to). Until today, Red Sox fans could at least dream about Houck returning late in the season, pitching like he did in 2024, and taking the ball for game two of a postseason series. Now, however, that job will likely go to either Brayan Bello or Lucas Giolito, should the Red Sox hold onto their Wild Card spot.

Guardians Promote C.J. Kayfus

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Today: The Guardians made it official, selecting Kayfus’s contract from Triple-A. In additional roster moves, the Guardians activated right-hander (and recent waiver claim) Carlos Hernández and optioned outfielder Johnathan Rodríguez and left-hander Tim Herrin to Triple-A.

August 1: The Guardians are calling up first baseman/corner outfielder C.J. Kayfus, reports Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Cleveland has an opening on the 40-man roster and only needs to make an active roster transaction.

Kayfus, 23, was Cleveland’s third-round pick in the 2023 draft. The Miami product has raked sine entering pro ball. He hit .291/.393/.511 between High-A and Double-A in his first full pro season. Kayfus hit .364 in 18 games to begin this year in Double-A. The Guards bumped him to Triple-A Columbus by the end of April. That hasn’t much slowed him down, as he’s hitting .283/.367/.526 across 289 plate appearances. Kayfus has popped 13 homers with 14 doubles and four triples.

There is some swing-and-miss concern. The lefty-batting Kayfus has punched out in a quarter of his trips to the dish with Columbus. He takes a decent number of walks but has posted higher than average whiff rates. That’s somewhat alarming for a player at bat-first positions. Kayfus has overcome that to post excellent numbers at every stop. That includes more than three months at the top minor league level.

The upper level success has made Kayfus one of the better prospects in the league. He places among the back half on updated Top 100 lists at Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. He ranks a little lower in the estimation of Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs, who placed him ninth in the Cleveland system in late May. Kayfus is listed at 6’0″ and 192 pounds. He doesn’t have the usual size or plus raw power of most first basemen, but he has an extended track record of hitting dating back to his time as an amateur.

Kayfus has experience at both corner outfield positions. He’s a fringe-average runner who has enough athleticism to be a functional outfielder, though he’s viewed as an above-average defender at his natural position. Longenhagen writes that his well below-average arm strength should probably limit him to left field work when he is needed in the outfield.

Barring a Steven Kwan injury, the Guardians aren’t going to give Kayfus much left field playing time. Neither Nolan Jones nor Daniel Schneemann are performing well in right, so perhaps the Guardians will plug Kayfus into right field and live with the lack of arm strength. The other option would be to move on from Carlos Santana. The veteran first baseman is hitting .230/.321/.345 in 407 plate appearances. That includes a .195/.267/.284 showing since the beginning of June. Cleveland is paying Santana $12MM and strongly values him as a clubhouse presence, but it’s difficult to live with that kind of offense at first base.

Dodgers Activate Blake Snell

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The Dodgers have activated Blake Snell from the 60-day injured list, the team announced this morning. The two-time Cy Young winner signed a five-year, $182MM contract with L.A. in the offseason but landed on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation after just two starts with his new team. As expected, he will start this afternoon against the Rays. Right-hander Paul Gervase, whom the Dodgers acquired as part of the three-team trade that sent Zack Littell to the Reds, has been optioned to the minor leagues. MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports that the Dodgers will make room for Snell on the 40-man roster by designating fellow left-hander Zach Penrod for assignment.

When healthy, Snell is one of the most fearsome pitchers in the game. While injuries limited him to just 20 starts last year in his lone season with the Giants, the southpaw produced a 3.12 ERA and 3.16 SIERA in 104 innings of work. The Dodgers will hope he enjoys similar success upon his return in 2025, though it’s worth keeping in mind that neither of the injuries that sidelined Snell in 2024 (nor the injuries that sidelined him in 2022 or 2021) were arm injuries. On the bright side, he was utterly dominant in his four rehab starts, striking out 24 minor league batters in 13 2/3 innings of work and touching 97 on the radar gun.

Perhaps no team has suffered as many pitching injuries as the Dodgers this season, but no team entered the season equipped with more pitching depth, either. With Snell back in the mix, L.A.’s rotation is finally starting to look like the supergroup fans imagined it could be in the offseason. The two-time ERA leader joins Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw, and Emmet Sheehan in what will be a six-man rotation for the time being. Considering all six of those pitchers have dealt with injuries over the past 12 months, manager Dave Roberts’s decision to move to a six-man rotation is easy to understand.

The Dodgers are enjoying yet another strong season, but they have not been the unstoppable force many expected them to be. Injuries have been a big reason why. According to FanGraphs, they are the closest team to a lock to make the playoffs (99.4% playoff odds), but their division odds took a notable hit after on trade deadline day. San Diego made a huge splash, adding Mason Miller, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, Nestor Cortes, Jorge Quintana, Freddy Fermin, and Will Wagner, while L.A. had a relatively quiet deadline, picking up Brock Stewart and Alex Call but parting with Dustin May. The Dodgers remain the clear frontrunners in the NL West and the favorites to win World Series, according to both the FanGraphs and PECOTA odds, but they are now relying on their many injured players to get healthy (and their many injury-prone players to stay healthy) more than ever.

The Dodgers acquired Penrod for cash consideration in June after the Red Sox designated him for assignment. The left-hander initially signed with the Rangers as an undrafted free agent in 2018, and went under the knife for Tommy John surgery the following year. He did not pitch in affiliated ball again until he signed a minor league pact with the Red Sox in August 2023.

Penrod made his MLB debut for Boston the following September, pitching four innings over seven games and giving up two runs (one earned). He struck out three and walked four. Unfortunately, a left elbow sprain kept him from competing for a spot in the Red Sox’s Opening Day bullpen this year, and not long after he returned from the IL, Boston cut him from the 40-man roster. Clearly, the Dodgers were intrigued enough to strike a trade and keep him on the 40-man for six weeks, but he failed to earn his way back to the majors. L.A. will now have to place Penrod on waivers, and perhaps the potential that attracted the Dodgers to his arm will convince another team to put in a claim in the coming days. He still has three option years remaining.

Cubs Designate Brooks Kriske For Assignment

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The Cubs have designated right-hander Brooks Kriske for assignment to make room for recent trade acquisition Michael Soroka on the roster. This marks the second time the Cubs have DFA’d Kriske this year. The righty signed a minor league deal with Chicago over the offseason and was first selected onto the roster in May. He was DFA’d and outrighted back to Triple-A Iowa shortly thereafter, but earned another selection and promotion the weekend before the All-Star break. All in all, he has thrown six scoreless innings for the Cubs this year across four appearances, with four strikeouts and five walks.

Kriske, now 31, began his professional career in the Yankees organization and made his MLB debut for the club in 2020. In parts of two seasons with the Yankees and Orioles from 2020-21, he pitched 15 big league innings over 16 games, giving up 19 runs (18 runs) and seven long balls. Following the 2021 campaign, the Orioles granted him his release, and he inked a deal with NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars not long after.

Kriske briefly returned to affiliated ball in 2023, signing a minor league contract with the Royals in the offseason and eventually appearing in four games with Kansas City before he was optioned and later released to return to Japan. This time, he joined the Seibu Lions, with whom he finished out the 2023 campaign. He then returned stateside in 2024, although he failed to pitch in the majors, spending the year with the Reds’ and Orioles’ Triple-A affiliates.

Thus, Kriske’s 2025 season has been a success story, despite his limited big league playing time and multiple DFAs. He made it back to an MLB mound for the first time since 2023, and dating back to that last appearance for the Royals in June 2023, he has now made five consecutive scoreless appearances at the big league level. Never before had he made more than two. Kriske also pitched to a 3.13 ERA and 2.98 FIP in 31 2/3 innings for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, striking out an incredible 39.4% of hitters. Even more impressive is his 7.6% walk rate, considering his career-long struggles with control. Perhaps that will convince a team to claim him off waivers. If not, he will have the right to reject an outright assignment and return to free agency.

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