The Yankees announced Wednesday that they’ve designated outfielder Michael Siani for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to newly acquired reliever Angel Chivilli, who just came over in a trade with the Rockies.
More to come.
Rockies Trade Angel Chivilli To Yankees
11:06am: The two teams have formally announced the swap. It’s a straight one-for-one deal.
10:45am: The Yankees and Rockies have agreed to a deal that will send reliever Angel Chivilli from Denver to the Bronx in exchange for minor league first baseman T.J. Rumfield, reports Jack Curry of the YES Network.
Chivilli is a hard-throwing 23-year-old righty who has shown an aptitude for missing bats and generating grounders but has yet to find consistent success in the majors. He averaged 97.1 mph on his four-seamer this past season and boasts an outstanding 14.4% swinging-strike rate in his young career, and he’s limited walks at a solid 8.1% clip. However, a penchant for serving up the long ball have undercut those swing-and-miss capabilities and otherwise solid command so far; Chivilli has served up an average of 1.99 homers per nine frames in each of his two partial MLB seasons.
Despite that big swinging-strike rate and a healthy 32.3% opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate, Chivilli comes to the Yankees with a below-average 17.4% strikeout rate in his career. His opponents have posted an awful 78.4% contact rate against Chivilli’s pitches that fall within the strike zone — league average in 2025 was 85.4% — but he’s put himself at a disadvantage by falling behind in counts far too often. Chivilli’s career 56.9% first-pitch strike rate (55.6% in 2025) is considerably lower than the 62% league average.
It bears mentioning that Chivilli has struggled more at Coors Field than on the road, though his ERA in both settings (7.06 at home, 5.03 on the road) is sub-par. He’s generated enormous swinging-strike rates on both his changeup (26.3%) and slider (23.4%) but struggled to miss bats with his four-seamer he threw in 2025 or the sinker he threw in 2024.
Though the bottom-line results haven’t been there yet, pitchers with Chivilli’s blend of velocity, command, ground-balls and raw bat-missing ability (even if it hasn’t manifested in big strikeout totals yet) are hard to come by. If the Yankees can coax some more swing-and-miss from one of his heaters and/or get him to throw first-pitch strikes with more frequency, there’s potential for Chivilli to develop into a high-quality late-inning option. He also has a minor league option remaining, so he’s someone the Yanks can send to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for further refinement if he doesn’t win a bullpen job in spring training.
Chivilli is controllable for at least five more seasons, which adds to his appeal. If he spends any notable time in the minors this year, the Yankees could push that to six full seasons. Chivilli currently has 1.036 years of big league service time, meaning he’ll need to spend 136 days on New York’s major league roster or injured list to remain on track for free agency following the 2030 season. If he spends about one-third of the season in the minors, that free agency timeline would be pushed back to the 2031-32 offseason, though he’d then project as a Super Two player who’d be arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three.
In exchange for that development project, the Rockies will pick up an interesting 25-year-old first baseman. Rumfield was blocked in the Bronx by Ben Rice but has a clear path to regular first base work in Colorado if he hits his way into the job. Based on his recent minor league track record, Rumfield has a good chance to do just that.
A 12th-round pick by the Phillies in 2021, Rumfield landed with the Yankees by way of the trade that sent righty Nick Nelson and catcher Donny Sands to Philadelphia. He spent the entire 2025 season with the Yankees’ top affiliate in Scranton, slashing .285/.378/.447 with 16 home runs, 31 doubles, a triple, five stolen bases (seven attempts), a huge 11.9% walk rate and an 18.4% strikeout rate that’s comfortably lower than average. The year prior, Rumfield hit .292/.365/.461 with 15 homers and similar rate stats in 114 Triple-A games.
More to come.
MLBTR Podcast: Examining MLB’s Parity Situation – Also, Bellinger, Peralta, Robert, And Gore
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Tim’s recent post looking at MLB’s economics and issues of parity (1:20)
- The possibility of a salary cap coming into existence at some point in the future (5:25)
- Comparing the salary cap path to alterations to the current revenue sharing system (8:40)
- The public relations battle with fans knowing all about players and their salaries but not necessarily knowing so much about the owners and their finances (17:35)
- Is there any hope of the owners working out some new revenue sharing arrangement? (20:45)
- Are deferrals a massive problem or is the Shohei Ohtani deal just an extreme outlier that had led to increased angst? (26:50)
- What kind of compromise are we likely to get in the next collective bargaining agreement? (32:45)
- The Yankees re-signing Cody Bellinger (37:35)
- The Mets acquiring Freddy Peralta from the Brewers and Luis Robert Jr. from the White Sox (47:20)
- The Brewers’ end of the Peralta trade (53:20)
- The White Sox’ end of the Robert deal (56:15)
- The Rangers sending five prospects to the Nationals to acquire MacKenzie Gore (1:02:00)
Check out our past episodes!
- What The Tucker And Bichette Contracts Mean For Baseball – Also, Nolan Arenado And Ranger Suarez – listen here
- The Cubs Land Cabrera And Bregman, Remaining Free Agents, And Skubal’s Arbitration Filing – listen here
- Contracts For Imai And Okamoto, And Thoughts On The Pirates And Giants – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images
Cubs Sign Charlie Barnes To Minor League Deal
The Cubs and left-hander Charlie Barnes have agreed to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Barnes’s MLB.com profile page. Tread Athletics reported the deal earlier this month.
Barnes, 30, was a fourth-round pick by the Twins back in 2017 who made his MLB debut back in 2021. He worked mostly out of the rotation during his time with Minnesota but with a lackluster 5.92 ERA alongside a 5.06 FIP in 38 innings across nine appearances (eight starts). During that time in the majors, Barnes walked (16) nearly as many players as he struck out (20). He was squeezed off the club’s 40-man roster that November ahead of the Rule 5 protection deadline, but after being designated for assignment he managed to land on his feet with a contract to pitch overseas for the KBO’s Lotte Giants.
That stint in South Korea worked out very well for Barnes. In his first three seasons with the Giants, Barnes started 86 games and posted a 3.42 ERA. He got his strikeout rate up to 22.4% while keeping his walks to just 6.9%, and was the ace of Lotte’s staff in each of his three full seasons with the club. Unfortunately, however, Barnes struggled upon returning to the club for a fourth season in 2025. He made just eight starts with a 5.32 ERA as his strikeout rate dipped to 18.6% while his walk rate crept up to 8.3%. He was released by the Giants back in May and returned stateside to land a minor league deal with the Reds. He made six starts at Triple-A Louisville but struggled badly with a 7.13 ERA in 24 innings of work.
Five dominant starts (2.84 ERA) in the Dominican Winter League offer some level of optimism that a bounce back could be on the way for Barnes, but the southpaw has yet to find significant stateside results in his career with a Triple-A ERA approaching 5.00 and an MLB ERA a run higher than that. With that said, he’ll enter 2026 coming off a generally successful run overseas and the Cubs will look for ways to translate that success over to stateside ball. Assuming Barnes remains a starter with Chicago, he’s buried rather deep on the team’s depth chart on paper. Cade Horton, Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon, and Colin Rea are all holdovers from last year’s rotation, and that’s before mentioning newly-acquired righty Edward Cabrera.
Cabrera figures to push Rea into a depth role alongside fellow swing men Javier Assad, Ben Brown, and Jordan Wicks. Justin Steele won’t be ready for Opening Day but is expected back from elbow surgery at some point in the first half, while top prospect Jaxon Wiggins could be a factor before the end of the year as well depending on how he develops. That leaves Barnes to compete with in-house players like Connor Noland for the 12th spot on the team’s depth chart, but virtually every player the Cubs have in their rotation mix has notable, recent injuries in their history.
That could lead to an opportunity even for someone as far down the depth chart as Barnes, especially if a player like Brown or Wicks is moved into a full-time bullpen role as a way to use the team’s deep cache of rotation options to upgrade the relief corps. It’s also at least theoretically possible the Cubs would try Barnes himself in a relief role, but the southpaw has started 228 of his 241 professional games and last pitched in relief back in 2021. Even that relief outing lasted 4 2/3 innings, so it goes without saying that a move to short relief would be well outside the parameters of Barnes’s usual work.
The Opener: Yankees, DFA Resolution, Outfield Market
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Yankees to hold press conference:
Yankees GM Brian Cashman is set to hold a press conference later today, as noted by Joel Sherman of The New York Post. The conference is surely going to focus on outfielder Cody Bellinger’s return to the organization after he re-upped with the team on a five-year deal last week. That deal became official on Monday, which opens the door for Cashman to speak more candidly about not only that deal, but the team’s roster and direction as a whole. Today’s press conference could offer insight into how the team plans to juggle playing time between the primary starters in the outfield (Bellinger, Trent Grisham, and Aaron Judge) and the up-and-coming youngsters on the roster like Spencer Jones and Jasson Dominguez. It’s also possible Cashman could indicate whether the team is done adding, or if there could be an addition or two yet to come prior to Spring Training.
2. DFA Resolution today:
The Mets designated infielder Tsung-Che Cheng for assignment one week ago today in a move that made room for right-hander Luis García on the 40-man roster. Since then, Cheng has remained in DFA limbo without certainty about where he’ll be playing next. That uncertainty figures to end today, as Cheng will either officially pass through waivers (allowing the Mets to outright him to the minors as non-roster depth) or be claimed by another a team and added to their 40-man roster. Cheng made his big league debut in Pittsburgh last year and made it into just three games. The Taiwan native is a career .218/.319/.280 hitter at Triple-A but is still just 24 years old and a quality defender all around the infield. He also has options remaining, which could make him an attractive depth piece for clubs short on infield help. Of course, his lack of hitting chops might make some teams shy away from committing a 40-man spot to him, even with his other attractive qualities.
3. Who’s left on the outfield market?
In recent days, we’ve seen not only Bellinger but also center fielder Harrison Bader come off the board in free agency. Those two were the best options in center remaining on the open market, and the pickings are fairly slim at this point even among corner bats. Veterans like Mike Tauchman, Tommy Pham, Starling Marte, and Randal Grichuk aren’t exactly the most exciting players at this point in their careers, but they can offer stability and consistency when healthy. Meanwhile, Miguel Andujar and Austin Hays are among the top players available still in their primes. The free agent market also features a few possible bounce back candidates, such as Michael Conforto and Jesse Winker. Teams that could still use some level of help in the outfield include the Guardians, Royals, Mets, Astros, and Phillies.
Poll: Will The Yankees Trade From Their Outfield?
After a winter-long staring contest between the Yankees and Cody Bellinger’s camp, the sides have finally reunited on a five-year pact. It’s great news for a Yankees lineup that benefited greatly from Bellinger’s production (125 wRC+, 4.9 fWAR) in 2025, but that news isn’t quite as exciting for the Yankees’ young outfielders. With Trent Grisham (129 wRC+, 3.2 fWAR) back in town via the qualifying offer, Bellinger’s return means it will be tough for former top prospect Jasson Dominguez and current top prospect Spencer Jones to push their way into the lineup.
That might not seem like a significant concern at first glance. After all, the Yankees have only returned the same group of outfielders they worked with last year, and playing time wasn’t a substantial concern for either Jones or Dominguez then. That’s an incomplete look at the situation, however. Slugging DH Giancarlo Stanton missed the first half of the season last year due to an injury impacting both of his elbows, which created ample playing time in the first half of the season for Dominguez. Jones, meanwhile, opened the year at Double-A and wasn’t realistically on the big league radar until near the end of 2025. By the time the trade deadline had passed (Aaron Judge’s brief trip to the injured list notwithstanding), New York was forced to get creative and use Ben Rice behind the plate on occasion just to fit all their players into the lineup.
While that’s not entirely a bad problem to have, it can be challenging for a young player to develop and succeed at the big league level without consistent playing time. That could spell trouble for Dominguez, whose 2025 campaign saw him post a 103 wRC+ with ten homers, 23 steals, and 0.6 fWAR due to lackluster defense in the outfield. That’s decent enough production for a rookie, but not exactly the sort of five-tool superstar he was once lauded as. Getting closer to that ceiling will surely require plenty of in-game reps, and it’s fair to wonder if the team will have enough of those to offer him at this point without an injury occurring. That’s before even considering Jones, who slugged 19 homers in 67 games at Triple-A last year and will certainly be ready for his first taste of big league action sometime this year (if he isn’t already).
With Bellinger, Judge, and Stanton all locked into the outfield/DH mix for years to come while Grisham figures to continue getting regular reps this season, the argument for a trade is fairly clear. If the Yankees could find substantial value on the trade market, it could make plenty of sense to upgrade the infield (where Jose Caballero and Ryan McMahon figure to kick off the season as regulars on the left side), a bullpen that lost both Devin Williams and Luke Weaver to the Mets across town, or even a starting rotation that will be without Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon to open the year.
With that said, it’s unclear just how available many interesting players are at this point. The Yankees missed out on Freddy Peralta and Edward Cabrera already. Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan are not expected to be moved as the Twins work towards competing this year. Someone like Brady Singer could still be available, but it seems unlikely that the Yankees would give up five seasons of Dominguez (never mind six of Jones) for a rental innings eater. Brendan Donovan is available, but he’s been pursued by many teams at this point. Unless the Yankees win the bidding war for Donovan or a shock trade of someone like Tarik Skubal happens, it’s unclear where the Yankees could look to move Dominguez or Jones without selling low.
Perhaps the Yankees would be best off holding onto both youngsters, at least for the time being. After all, it’s not impossible to imagine playing time opening up in the team’s outfield. Stanton, Judge, and even Bellinger have substantial injury histories, while Grisham was a bench player as recently as 2024. Bellinger is also capable of handling first base, so there are ways to squeeze another outfielder into the lineup even without sitting anyone from that group. Keeping both Jones and Dominguez in order to utilize them as trade chips come July could make sense, as more acute needs could pop up throughout the season due to injuries or other issues. On the other hand, if the team keeps both players in the fold throughout the first half, Grisham would then be only a couple of months away from free agency. At that point, the team might be best served simply holding both players for the whole season.
How do MLBTR readers think the Yankees will handle their glut of outfielders? Should they try and pull off a trade to make sure neither Jones nor Dominguez has their development stunted by a lack of MLB playing time? Or should they hold onto their depth to protect against injuries, at least until the deadline this summer? Have your say in the poll below:
Mets, Grae Kessinger Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mets are in agreement with infielder Grae Kessinger on a minor league contract, reports Mike Puma of The New York Post. A client of O’Connell Sports Management, he’ll be in camp as a non-roster invitee.
Kessinger is a former second-round pick who played in 48 games with the Astros between 2023-24. The right-handed hitting utilityman batted .131 with one home run over 70 trips to the plate. Kessinger has had a light bat throughout his minor league career as well, batting .234/.335/.361 over 403 games. His Triple-A production is more respectable but came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Houston designated Kessinger for assignment last offseason. They traded him to the Diamondbacks, who optioned him to Triple-A to begin the season. He played in 11 minor league games before being designated for assignment in the middle of April. Kessinger was on the injured list at the time, so the D-Backs released him. The team never announced what injury he had suffered, but he remained unsigned for the rest of the season.
In any case, it seems the 28-year-old is healthy again and will take aim at a bench spot in Queens. He’s unlikely to provide much offensively but can play anywhere on the infield. Kessinger joins Christian Arroyo and Jackson Cluff as non-roster infielders behind Ronny Mauricio and the out-of-options Vidal Bruján. Tsung-Che Cheng would also be in the mix if he gets through DFA limbo. The Mets designated him for assignment last Wednesday, meaning he’s currently on waivers. They should announce tomorrow whether he has been claimed or cleared, in which case he’d also get a non-roster invite to Spring Training.
MLB Sets August 3 Trade Deadline For 2026 Season
Major League Baseball has informed teams that this year’s trade deadline will be Monday, August 3 at 6:00 pm Eastern, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. It’s pushed back a few days relative to last season’s deadline, which was on the final Thursday in July.
MLB prefers to have the deadline on weekdays. They set the cutoff in the evening so there are no ongoing games. That reduces the chances of a player being traded mid-game and “hug watch” scenarios. MLB has at least one day game scheduled for each of July 29-31 of the preceding week. There are getaway games on Wednesday and Thursday, while the Cubs are hosting the Yankees for a standard Wrigley Field day game on Friday, July 31. It seems MLB preferred to push back a few days, as all eight games on August 3 begin at 6:40 Eastern or later.
The flexible deadline is a feature of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. Under previous CBAs, there was a fixed July 31 deadline. MLB now has the freedom to set the deadline on any date between July 28 and August 3. This is the first time that MLB has chosen the latest available date.
Mariners Designate Jackson Kowar For Assignment
The Mariners announced they’ve designated reliever Jackson Kowar for assignment. That opens a 40-man roster spot for catcher Jhonny Pereda, whom they acquired from the Twins in exchange for cash considerations. Minnesota had designated Pereda for assignment last week when they signed free agent catcher Victor Caratini to a two-year contract.
Kowar, 29, is a former supplemental first-round pick of the Royals. He allowed 79 runs in 74 innings over parts of three seasons with Kansas City. They swapped him to the Braves for injured starter Kyle Wright over the 2023-24 offseason. Kowar’s time with the organization lasted less than a month, as the Braves flipped him to Seattle as part of the multi-player deal that sent Jarred Kelenic to Atlanta.
It was a change-of-scenery sequence involving a number of former high draft picks, but none of the players involved performed as hoped. Kowar blew out during his first Spring Training as a member of the Mariners. He underwent Tommy John surgery and was out of action until May ’25. He was on and off the active roster for the next few months until suffering a season-ending shoulder impingement in August.
Kowar has ultimately made just 15 appearances in a Seattle uniform. He allowed eight runs over 17 innings, walking seven while recording 15 strikeouts. The Florida product gave up nine runs (five earned) across 16 Triple-A innings. He has an 8.21 earned run average with a 20.3% strikeout rate and elevated 13.1% walk percentage across 91 MLB innings.
Primarily a fastball-changeup pitcher earlier in his career, Kowar cut back on the change while ramping up his slider usage last season. It resulted in a few more whiffs in his Triple-A time, though his control remains an issue. He sits around 97 MPH with the fastball and could intrigue teams based on the arm speed and his draft pedigree despite the grisly MLB numbers. He’s out of options, so he’d need to break camp or again be designated for assignment if another team is willing to give him an offseason 40-man spot.
Pereda is a well-traveled depth catcher who has divided his 48 major league games between three teams. He debuted with 20 appearances for the Marlins two seasons ago and combined for 28 games between the A’s and Minnesota last year. The 29-year-old (30 in April) has hit .241 without a home run in 118 major league plate appearances. He has a strong upper minors track record, batting .296/.392/.419 in just shy of 1000 career Triple-A plate appearances.
The Venezuelan-born Pereda has a good arm and a generally solid defensive reputation. He also has a minor league option, so the M’s can send him back to Triple-A for the 2026 season. They signed Andrew Knizner to a $1MM free agent deal to work behind Cal Raleigh. Trading Harry Ford had left them without any other catchers on the 40-man roster. Pereda has a leg up on non-roster invitee Nick Raposo as the top depth option in case either of their MLB catchers suffer an injury. Knizner is a career .211/.281/.316 hitter, so it’s not out of the question that Pereda outplays him for the backup job during the season.
Make Or Break Year: Nolan Gorman
The Cardinals have more firmly committed to a retool than they did last offseason. They treated last season primarily as an evaluation year but weren’t as aggressive in selling off veteran pieces as they’ve been this winter. Unfortunately, they didn’t see any development from former first-round picks and top prospects Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman. They’re in a similar position now as they were 12 months ago, though the pressure is probably ramping up on both players.
MLBTR examined Walker’s situation as the ’25 season was nearing its end. He’ll enter camp as the everyday right fielder but needs to take a major step forward if he’s to project as a regular on the 2027 team. There might be even more urgency for Gorman, who is two years older than Walker and has more than 1500 major league plate appearances under his belt. He’ll turn 26 in May. If there’s a breakout season in the cards, it probably needs to be now.
The opportunity should be there. After more than a year of trade rumors, the Cards lined up the Nolan Arenado deal a couple weeks ago. Third base is open, at least in the short term. Top prospect JJ Wetherholt is on the doorstep of the majors and may even play his way onto the Opening Day roster. There’s a good chance the Cardinals trade Brendan Donovan within the next two months, though, which would open second base for Wetherholt. That’d leave Gorman competing with Thomas Saggese for playing time at the hot corner.
Saggese has a strong minor league track record, but his very aggressive approach probably leaves him in a utility role. Gorman has flashed a higher ceiling, yet it’s a couple seasons in the rearview. He hit 14 home runs in 89 games as a rookie, then slugged 27 longballs with a .236/.328/.478 slash line in year two. Gorman entered the 2024 season as a .232/.317/.454 hitter with 41 homers in his first season and a half as a big leaguer.
There was a significant amount of swing-and-miss, but Gorman’s power was enough to fit in the middle third of a lineup. That hasn’t been the case over the past two seasons. Gorman has taken roughly 800 trips to the plate in that time. His batting average and on-base percentage have dropped by 30 points each, while his slugging mark has fallen by more than 50 points. Gorman carries a .204/.284/.385 slash going back to the beginning of 2024.
His general profile is much the same as it was early in his career. The lefty hitter has a reasonably patient approach and works a decent number of walks, but his pure bat-to-ball ability is subpar. That’s probably not going to change as he gets into his late 20s. He needs to do damage when he does make contact. A combined 33 homers over his past 218 games isn’t enough.
Gorman battled a couple injuries last year. He missed time early in the season with a hamstring strain and was sidelined by lower back pain around the All-Star Break. The actual injured list stint was minimal, but it’s possible he was playing at less than full strength for the final two months. He finished the season with a .187/.278/.323 line while striking out at a near-40% rate in 45 games after returning from the IL stint. Gorman has battled intermittent back discomfort for a few seasons.
Whatever the cause, Gorman’s bat speed has gone slightly in the wrong direction. He’s still pulling a lot of balls to right field, which is where he’s most likely to hit for power, but it’s not with the same authority as he did in 2023. He also dramatically scaled back how often he swings at the first pitch and hunts pitches in the heart of the plate. That earned him a few more walks than he took the year before, but it’s not ideal for putting him in positions to drive the ball.
Gorman has between three and four years of service time. He’s playing on a $2.655MM arbitration salary. He still has a couple minor league option years remaining, so he’s not on the roster bubble right now. A third straight replacement level performance would make him a likely non-tender next offseason, however.
Image courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images.
