Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for 2025

White Sox Acquire Gage Workman, Designate Nick Maton

By | at

The White Sox announced that infielder Gage Workman has been acquired from the Cubs in a trade for cash considerations.  To create roster space for Workman, the Sox designated infielder Nick Maton for assignment.

Workman was designated for assignment earlier this week, and he’ll now head from Wrigleyville to the South Side in a relatively rare trade between the two Chicago rivals.  Workman hit .214/.267/.286 over 15 plate appearances with the Cubs, and his nine games marked Workman’s debut at the Major League level.  A Rule 5 draft acquisition out of the Tigers system last December, the Cubs had to keep Workman on their active roster for the entire season to fully assume his rights, but the club chose to abandon the experiment a few weeks into April.

The trade has no bearing on Workman’s Rule 5 status, so the White Sox will also have to carry him on the 26-man for the rest of the season or else offer him back to Detroit.  This is nothing new for the Sox, who now have three Rule 5 picks on their roster between Workman, Shane Smith, and Mike Vasil.  Since the Pale Hose are in clear rebuild mode, there’s nothing to be lost for the White Sox in seeing what these prospects can do at the big league level, and both Smith and Vasil have thus far acquitted themselves quite well in their rookie seasons.

Workman has played mostly shortstop and third base in the minors, with some work at second base and right field to add to his versatility.  Chicago figures to utilize him all over the diamond in a backup role, and Workman might be something of a temporary replacement for infielder Chase Meidroth, who is on the IL due to thumb inflammation.

With the rebuild in mind, the Sox preferred Workman over more of an established player in Maton, who has appeared in 207 games over the last five big league seasons.  That total includes 23 games with Chicago this year, as Maton’s minor league contract was selected to the Opening Day roster and he hit .173/.295/.327 in 61 plate appearances.  That slash line roughly matches Maton’s career slash line, as some promising numbers in part-time work with the Phillies in 2021-22 didn’t translate when Maton received more playing time in an ultimately fruitless stint with the Tigers in 2023.  After playing in 93 games with Detroit in 2023, Maton got into just five MLB games with the Orioles last year.

Maton is out of minor league options, so Chicago had to designate him and expose him to waivers before attempting to send him to Triple-A.  If Maton clears waivers and is outrighted, he can choose to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency, since Maton has previously been outrighted during his career.

Angels Designate Carl Edwards Jr., Select Jose Fermin

By | at

The Angels announced four roster moves Saturday, including the news that right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. has been designated for assignment.  Right-hander Jose Fermin had his contract selected from Triple-A Salt Lake and southpaw Jake Eder was called up from Triple-A, while righty Victor Mederos was optioned to Salt Lake.

Edwards’ minors contract was only selected to the Halos’ roster on Wednesday, and he allowed three earned runs over three innings and two appearances during what might be a brief stint in the organization.  If Edwards clears waivers, he has enough MLB service time to reject any outright assignment in favor of free agency, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see Edwards quickly re-sign with the Angels on a fresh minors deal, or he might accept an outright assignment to Triple-A if he is comfortable in his current situation.

Now a veteran of 11 Major League seasons, Edwards has made seven or fewer appearances in five of those seasons, including a single-game cameo with the Padres in 2024.  Best known for his time in the Cubs bullpen during their last run of success and their World Series run in 2016, Edwards’ production fell off sharply from 2019-21 before he rediscovered some of his old form while pitching out of the Nationals’ bullpen in 2022-23.  A stress fracture in his shoulder prematurely ended Edwards’ 2023 campaign, and he has just the three MLB appearances in the last two years, though obviously there’s a ton of time left in the 2025 season for the veteran righty to find some more playing time.

Not to be confused with the Cardinals infielder of the same name, the Angels’ Jose Fermin is a 23-year-old righty who will be making his Major League debut whenever he appears in a game.  An international signing in 2023, Fermin isn’t considered one of Los Angeles’ top 30 prospects, but his relatively quick path to the majors does continue the Angels’ trend of rapidly promoting prospects.  Fermin is making the jump from Double-A to the Show without even any Triple-A experience, and Fermin’s Double-A tenure consists of just 10 innings over the last two seasons.

It could be that Fermin is just being called up for a cup of coffee and to give the Angels another fresh arm in the pen, yet the reliever will surely want to make a good impression even in what might be a brief stint in the big leagues.  Over 73 2/3 innings in the minors, Fermin has a 2.93 ERA, 10.33% walk rate, and a very impressive 35.33% strikeout rate, working exclusively as a relief pitcher.  As Baseball America’s Taylor Ward wrote in January, Fermin quickly put himself on the team’s radar with his strong work in 2024, and the righty’s arsenal includes an upper-90s fastball that can touch 99mph, and an outstanding slider with “double-plus potential.”

Brewers Select Daz Cameron, Place Garrett Mitchell On 10-Day IL

By | at

TODAY: As expected, the Brewers officially selected Cameron’s contract and placed Mitchell on the 10-day IL due to a left oblique strain.  Outfielder Blake Perkins (who has yet to place this season due to a shin fracture) was shifted to the 60-day injured list to create space for Cameron the 40-man roster.

APRIL 25: The Brewers intend to select Daz Cameron onto the major league roster, reports Francys Romero. Milwaukee had acquired him from the Orioles for lefty reliever Grant Wolfram a few weeks ago. They’ll need to create a 40-man roster spot to finalize the promotion.

That seems to be tied to Garrett Mitchell’s status. Milwaukee’s center fielder departed tonight’s loss in St. Louis after experiencing tightness in his left side. Manager Pat Murphy told reporters (including Todd Rosiak of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) that Mitchell will go for an MRI on Saturday. Any kind of oblique strain would lead to an injured list placement.

While the injury opened an outfield spot, Cameron has certainly earned the call. He has been on fire at Triple-A Nashville since the trade. Cameron has connected on five homers while hitting .372 in 10 games. The former supplemental pick and top prospect has a career .253/.341/.436 batting line over seven minor league campaigns.

Cameron has yet to find much success against big league competition. He’s a .201/.263/.330 hitter with 10 homers through 430 major league plate appearances. The 28-year-old appeared in a personal-high 66 games with the A’s a year ago. He hit .200 while striking out at an elevated 27.4% rate. Cameron can play all three outfield spots and provide some right-handed power off the bench.

Switch-hitting Isaac Collins replaced Mitchell in center field after the injury. He has hit .163 with a near-35% strikeout rate over 46 major league plate appearances. Collins had a strong year in Nashville in 2024, batting .273/.386/.475 with 14 longballs and 24 stolen bases. An extended absence for Mitchell could open up his first real opportunity for regular playing time. Milwaukee could also slide Sal Frelick over to center field if they’re comfortable with Christian Yelich taking regular work in left field. They’ve been cautious with Yelich’s defensive workload so far. He has made 20 starts at designated hitter and only five in the outfield.

Orioles Place Tyler O’Neill On 10-Day Injured List

By | at

The Orioles announced that outfielder Tyler O’Neill has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to neck inflammation.  The placement is retroactive to April 24.  Outfielder Dylan Carlson was called up from Triple-A to take O’Neill’s place on the 26-man roster.

O’Neill didn’t play in Baltimore’s game on Thursday and presumably wouldn’t have played yesterday either, had the Orioles’ game with the Tigers not been rained out.  Manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun) that the IL placement was meant “to get [O’Neill] right” and completely over his neck soreness, though the outfielder isn’t expected to miss more than the minimum 10 days.

Signed to a three-year, $49.5MM guarantee in December, O’Neill was the biggest acquisition of the Orioles’ offseason, though the deal could end up being a one-year, $16.5MM pact if O’Neill triggers an opt-out clause at season’s end.  After hitting his customary Opening Day home run, O’Neill has yet to really get rolling this season, as he has hit only two homers in total while batting .215/.284/.385 in 74 plate appearances.  The outfielder’s walk and hard-contact rates are down, and he has continued his high-strikeout ways with a 28.4% strikeout rate.

O’Neill’s .337 xwOBA is much higher than his .293 wOBA, so there is at least some evidence that he has just been somewhat unlucky in the season’s first month.  His IL stint might well act as an unofficial reset point for O’Neill’s 2025 season and Orioles tenure, once his neck heals up.

Red Sox To Activate Lucas Giolito From IL On Wednesday

By | at

Almost 17 months after signing with the Red Sox, Lucas Giolito is finally set to make his first official appearance in a Boston uniform.  Manager Alex Cora told reporters (including the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham) that Giolito will be reinstated from the 15-day injured list on Wednesday, and start that day’s game in Toronto against the Blue Jays.

Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5MM free agent deal with the Sox in January 2024, with the second season technically a player option year that Giolito could have declined in order to re-enter free agency.  There is also a conditional option that triggered when Giolito declined to opt out, as the Red Sox now hold a $14MM club option on Giolito’s services for 2026.  That club option can become a $19MM mutual option with a $1.5MM buyout if Giolito pitches at least 140 innings in 2025, which remains possible even though he has already missed a month of action.

Back in the 2023-24 offseason, the deal was seen as something of a bet-on-yourself type of pillow contract for Giolito, who was trying to rebuild his stock after underwhelming results in each of the previous two seasons.  The right-hander’s ideal scenario would’ve seen him post strong enough numbers in 2024 to establish himself as a frontline starter, and then opt out of the final year of his Boston contract in order to land a much lengthier and pricier deal with the Sox or another team last winter.

Unfortunately for Giolito, that plan was almost immediately ruined when he suffered a partial right UCL tear and a flexor tendon strain during Spring Training.  The injury required an internal brace procedure that ended Giolito’s season before it even began, though the one silver lining is that Giolito at least avoided a Tommy John surgery that would’ve delayed his return until closer to the middle of this season.  If anything, Giolito might’ve been back already if it wasn’t for a hamstring strain suffered in Spring Training that led to this month-long stint on the 15-day IL.

Giolito has made five starts during his minor league rehab assignment, and a 5.19 ERA across those 17 1/3 rehab innings isn’t as important as the fact that Giolito is feeling healthy and ready to re-launch his big league career.  With Brayan Bello also returning from a season-opening IL stint last week, Boston’s rotation is starting to round into form after a spate of injuries left the staff scrambling for depth.  Though Kutter Crawford and Richard Fitts remain sidelined, the Sox will now have a set starting five of Garrett Crochet, Walker Buehler, Tanner Houck, Bello, and Giolito.  Sean Newcomb will likely move from the rotation into a depth role at Triple-A, or perhaps a spot in Boston’s pen.

Twins Place Luke Keaschall On 10-Day IL Due To Forearm Fracture

By | at

TODAY: The Twins officially announced that Keaschall has been placed on the 10-day injured list.  His roster spot will be taken by Clemens, as the trade between the Twins and Phillies has now been officially announced.

APRIL 25: Twins rookie infielder Luke Keaschall suffered a non-displaced fracture in his right forearm during tonight’s win over the Angels. The team announced the injury to reporters (including Phil Miller of The Minnesota Star-Tribune and Dan Hayes of The Athletic).

Keaschall was hit by a Kyle Hendricks pitch on the inside of the arm. He stayed in the game to run the bases but was lifted for Mickey Gasper the next time through. Keaschall started tonight at designated hitter, so it wasn’t clear that he suffered an injury until the pinch-hit appearance. It halts a scorching start to the 22-year-old’s big league career. Keaschall has hit .368 with a .538 on-base percentage through his first 26 plate appearances. He has walked five times with just a pair of strikeouts.

Manager Rocco Baldelli quickly bumped Keaschall to the third spot in the Minnesota batting order. This was his fourth consecutive start there. The righty-hitting infielder has raked since entering pro ball as a second-round pick in 2023. He’s a .297/.415/.470 hitter over 662 minor league plate appearances. The bat has quickly put him among the sport’s top 50-100 prospects.

The Twins have been without Royce Lewis all season after a Spring Training hamstring strain. They lost Willi Castro to an oblique strain yesterday. Brooks Lee returned from an IL stint not too long ago. That pushed the scuffling Jose Miranda back to Triple-A. Minnesota has needed to look outside the organization to patch some of the holes. They acquired Jonah Bride from the Marlins last week and are reportedly in agreement to bring in Kody Clemens from the Phillies.

Keaschall is probably headed for an extended stay on the IL. The Twins will presumably shuffle most of their depth infielders through the DH spot, with Clemens an option to play second base on days when Edouard Julien works as the designated hitter.

Guardians Select Kolby Allard

By | at

The Guardians announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Kolby Allard from Triple-A Columbus.  Left-hander Erik Sabrowski was moved to the 60-day injured list and right-hander Zak Kent was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding moves. As reported yesterday, Cleveland also called up Doug Nikhazy as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader with the Red Sox.

Allard signed a minor league deal with the Guards back in February, after the Phillies outrighted the southpaw off their roster following the 2024 season and Allard elected free agency.  It was essentially an early non-tender move for Philadelphia, as Allard was arbitration-eligible and projected to earn $1.1MM in 2025, though the Phils still opted against paying this modest sum.

The veteran didn’t make a sterling case for himself in posting a 5.00 ERA in 27 innings for the Phillies last year, with only a 19.7% strikeout rate but a solid 6.8% walk rate.  Allard’s 4.18 SIERA was notably better than his ERA, and it was the second-best SIERA Allard has posted during a seven-year MLB career that has seen the lefty post a 5.99 ERA across 272 innings with three different teams.  Allard hasn’t posted particularly good numbers as either a starter or as a reliever, but his ability to work in both capacities as a swingman has kept getting him opportunities at the big league level.

Yesterday’s rainout gave the Guardians an unexpected off-day, and it lines up a busy upcoming stretch of the schedule.  Cleveland will now play 13 games over the next 12 days, so having a versatile innings-eater like Allard on hand is a useful way to help the pitching staff cope with this increased workload.  It remains to be seen exactly how long Allard might stick on the Guardians’ roster, however, and since he is out of minor league options, the Guards would have to first designate him for assignment and expose him to waivers before outrighting him back to the minors.  Allard would again have the ability to opt for free agency over an outright assignment, should this situation play out.

Sabrowski began the season the 15-day IL after elbow inflammation kept him from pitching during Spring Training.  A move to the 60-day injured list counts as no surprise since Sabrowski will still need a lengthy ramp-up period to make up for the lack of his regular prep time, though it means his 2025 debut will be held off until late May at the earliest.  (As a reminder, the clock for a 60-day IL placement starts at the time of an initial IL placement, not from the time a player is officially moved to the 60-day.)

Dave Dombrowski Discusses Phillies’ Offseason Talks With Jeff Hoffman

By | at

Reports emerged back in December that the Phillies had interest in re-signing free agent reliever Jeff Hoffman, before Hoffman eventually landed with the Blue Jays on a three-year, $33MM contract in early January.  Phils president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski confirmed the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber and other reporters this week that the club indeed had interest in a reunion with the All-Star, and “very aggressively” made an offer seemingly in range of Toronto’s offer early in the season.

“I can’t tell you that the number he ended up signing for was substantially different than the one that we ended up offering him,” Dombrowski said.  “But he wasn’t prepared to take that at that time. [Hoffman’s agents] just thought they were going to get much more.”

Hoffman technically did land more in two other offers — a three-year, $40MM agreement with the Orioles, and then a five-year deal with the Braves in the $45MM-48MM range that would’ve brought the righty more in overall value, if not average annual value.  However, Baltimore and Atlanta both walked away from those deals due to misgivings over Hoffman’s medicals.  The Braves’ issue wasn’t made public, but the Orioles had a concern over Hoffman’s right shoulder.  Notably, the O’s weren’t troubled enough to abandon their pursuit of Hoffman entirely, and made a new offer after taking their $40MM offer off the table.

The Athletic’s Matt Gelb paints a different picture of Philadelphia’s talks with Hoffman, as sources tell Gelb that the Phillies told agents that they were looking for relievers who would sign for one-year contracts.  This would naturally run entirely counter to Dombrowski’s claim of an offer in the three-year, $33MM range, and Gelb isn’t sure if the Phillies presented Hoffman with a formal offer whatsoever.  While the team did keep checking in Hoffman in the first month of the offseason, Gelb and Lauber writes that the Phillies stopped pursuing Hoffman once Jordan Romano signed in early December.

Romano, indeed, signed a one-year deal, worth $8.5MM.  It was essentially an unofficial swap of relievers between the Phillies and Jays, though while Hoffman had a strong 2024 season, Romano threw only 9 1/3 innings due to elbow problems that required an arthroscopic surgery.  The Blue Jays chose to non-tender Romano in the wake of this lost year, moving on from their former closer rather than pay him a projected $7.75MM in arbitration.

Dombrowski indicated at the end of last season and again this week that Philadelphia would only be re-signing one at most of Hoffman and Carlos Estevez, and the team ended up going with Romano over either of the free agent duo.  Unsurprisingly, Dombrowski framed the decision as a baseball move, rather than anything related to salaries or contractual demands.

“We just moved off [Hoffman] and did Romano because we thought [Orion] Kerkering was ready to step up and, I don’t want to say take on more because his role has been important, but pitch more at the back and high leverage,” Dombrowski said.

While we’re only a month into the 2025 season, the early returns on the Phillies’ decision haven’t been promising.  Philadelphia is near the bottom of the league in bullpen ERA, even despite superb numbers posted by closer Jose Alvarado and set-up man Matt Strahm.  Alvarado has quickly assumed closer duties since Romano has struggled to a 13.50 ERA in his first 9 1/3 innings as a Phillie, and Kerkering also has a 5.79 ERA in 9 1/3 frames of work this year.  Since we’re still dealing with small sample sizes here, it is worth noting that most of Kerkering’s damage took place in two rough outings this past week, though Romano has already allowed multiple runs over four of his outings.

Hoffman, meanwhile, has excelled in the first full-time closing assignment of his 10 MLB seasons.  The right-hander is a perfect 6-for-6 in save changes and has a 1.35 ERA over 13 1/3 innings for Toronto, with an eye-opening 39.6% strikeout rate and 2.1% walk rate.  Even with the caveats of a 92.1% strand rate and a .259 BABIP, Hoffman’s 1.16 SIERA is even lower than his already incredible ERA, further enhancing just how dominant Hoffman has been this year.

Should he keep pitching at anywhere near this level, Hoffman’s performance could lead to some second-guessing in Baltimore, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.  Turning to the Phillies in particular, Lauber feels the team will again find itself having to acquire some significant bullpen help before the trade deadline, perhaps with a particular aim of improving the relief corps’ strikeout numbers.

Twins Acquire Kody Clemens From Phillies

By | at

TODAY: The trade has been officially announced, with the Phillies receiving cash considerations in exchange for Clemens.

APRIL 25: The Phillies are trading infielder Kody Clemens to the Twins, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Philadelphia had designated him for assignment earlier in the week. Minnesota adds infield depth within an hour of losing rookie second baseman Luke Keaschall to a broken arm.

It’s the second DFA infield pickup for the Twins in as many weeks. They made a similar move to bring in corner bat Jonah Bride from Miami. Clemens, a left-handed hitter, has 402 MLB plate appearances under his belt. He owns a .197/.244/.367 slash over parts of four seasons. The Texas product has been far more productive in Triple-A. Clemens has hit .259/.331/.507 in nearly 1300 plate appearances at the top minor league level.

Clemens spent two-plus seasons in Philadelphia. He was included as part of the Gregory Soto/Matt Vierling trade during the 2022-23 offseason. They’d shuttled him on and off the active roster for the first two seasons, but he has now exhausted his minor league options. Philadelphia couldn’t get him back to Triple-A without running him through waivers. While he broke camp as a result, Clemens wasn’t playing enough to make that a worthwhile use of a roster spot. He didn’t start a single game and had come off the bench for just six plate appearances.

There should be a better path to at-bats in Minnesota. The Twins recently lost Willi Castro to the injured list as well. Clemens and Bride are multi-positional infielders off the bench. Neither can really play shortstop, but Clemens could factor at any of the other infield spots and in the corner outfield. He could play some second base when the Twins want to use Edouard Julien as the DH.

They’ll open an active roster spot by placing Keaschall on the injured list. They created a 40-man roster spot by running minor league catcher Diego Cartaya through outright waivers this afternoon.

Griffin Conine To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

By | at

Marlins outfielder Griffin Conine will undergo surgery on his left shoulder on Tuesday, the team announced to reporters (including MLB.com’s Josh Kirshenbaum).  The specific nature of the surgery will be established when Conine meets with Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Monday, though the fact that a surgery has already been scheduled in advance of this consultation certainly raises fears that the procedure may end Conine’s season.

It was a week ago that Conine dislocated his shoulder sliding into second base on an RBI double in the Marlins’ 11-10 loss to the Phillies.  Miami put the outfielder on the 60-day injured list the next day, and the direct 60-day placement (as opposed to even a token initial stint on the 15-day IL) was the first sign that Conine’s injury was particularly severe.  Even in the best-case scenario of a relatively minor surgery, Conine will surely be out of action until after the All-Star break.

Conine was hitting a solid .281/.352/.438 over his first 71 plate appearances before suffering the dislocation, which came on the heels of a similar .268/.326/.451 slash line in 89 PA in 2024 after Conine made his Major League debut.  The son of “Mr. Marlin” Jeff Conine, young Griffin was a second-round pick for the Blue Jays in the 2018 draft, and he was dealt to his dad’s former team back in August 2020.  Conine’s career minor league numbers have been more solid than spectacular, but he booked his first ticket to the Show after hitting .268/.350/.475 and 19 homers over 437 PA with Triple-A Jacksonville last season.

Though Conine is 27 years old and something of a late bloomer when it comes to his big league arrival, his early success has earned him more playing time.  Strikeouts have been a problem since Conine has whiffed in 47 of his 160 career trips to the plate against MLB pitching, but he has made a lot of hard contact this year, while also boosting his walk rate to above-average levels.  It was enough for the Marlins to deploy Conine in an everyday role, mostly as a left fielder with a few appearances in right field and as a DH.

Javier Sanoja, Ronny Simon, and Eric Wagaman have all seen time in left field in the past week, and outfield prospect Jakob Marsee could be in line to make his big league debut at some point in 2025.  The rebuilding Marlins aren’t likely to go out and get any kind of veteran outfield help outside of a pure stopgap measure, as the club is much more likely to keep giving playing time to younger players or players already in the organization.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top