Mets Select Anderson Severino
The Mets announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Anderson Severino. He has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, so he will stick with that club, but he is now on the 40-man and could be recalled at any time. Right-hander Clay Holmes was transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move 40-man move. Holmes recently suffered a fibula fracture and is expected to be out of action until August.
The announcement from the Mets said that Severino was optioned after last night’s game, so the Severino/Holmes moves seemingly happened yesterday. The Mets also officially announced today’s earlier-reported outfield moves, with Austin Slater designated for assignment and Nick Morabito recalled. Those moves drop the 40-man count to 39, so the club has an opening for Zach Thornton, who is going to be selected on Wednesday. Thornton will fill the 40-man tomorrow but the Mets will need to make a corresponding active roster move for him.
Severino, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason. It’s possible that the pact contained some kind of opt-out or assignment clause. That usually explains why a club would add a player to its 40-man roster and then immediately option him. Giving him a spot prevents him from opting out or getting sent elsewhere, but also doesn’t require the club to immediately call the player up, which would then require a corresponding move. There have also been a few cases where a player has been given a roster spot to prevent him from pursuing an opportunity overseas.
Whatever the reasoning, it’s understandable that the Mets don’t want Severino to get away, as he is out to a hot start. He has thrown 17 1/3 Triple-A innings so far this year, allowing just 1.04 earned runs per nine. His 12.1% walk rate is quite high but he has punched out 27.3% of batters faced and induced grounders on 52.6% of balls in play. His ERA has gotten some help from a .231 batting average on balls in play and 83.3% strand rate but Severino’s 3.00 FIP suggests he would be getting good results even with more neutral luck. His fastball is averaging just over 96 miles per hour and he’s throwing a mid-80s slider almost a third of the time, along with a rarely-used curve.
It’s not the first time Severino has posted good numbers in the minors but he has only received a brief look the majors. His big league track record currently consists of just 7 1/3 innings tossed for the White Sox in 2022.
He is not quite back to the majors just yet but he is now in a good position to return to the show for the first time in four years. The Mets have two lefties in their bullpen at the moment but one of them is long man Sean Manaea, meaning that Brooks Raley is effectively the only proper southpaw reliever. If they want to add another lefty or just need a fresh arm at some point in the future, Severino is now on the 40-man and could get the call.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Michael Stefanic Elects Free Agency
Infielder Michael Stefanic has elected free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The Athletics outrighted him to Triple-A yesterday. Since he has a previous career outright, he has the right to reject further such assignments. He has exercised that right and heads to the open market.
Stefanic, 30, is a journeyman depth infielder. He can bounce around the infield and has torched Triple-A pitching in his career. That has led to a few big league opportunities that he hasn’t been able to capitalize on. In 294 major league plate appearances, he has a .231/.315/.269 batting line. The A’s just added him to their roster when Jacob Wilson got hurt, but they designated Stefanic for assignment a few days later when they acquired Alika Williams.
As mentioned, Stefanic has huge Triple-A numbers, with a .326/.422/.447 line at that level over the years. He generally has a contact-based approach, not hitting for too much power but rarely striking out. He provides defensive versatility, with experience at all four infield spots and the outfield corners in his minor league career. In the big leagues, he has mostly played second base, with brief appearances at third and shortstop.
Stefanic is out of options, which makes it hard for him to hold a roster spot for a lengthy period of time. The A’s added him when they had a need but quickly pivoted and bumped him off the roster.
In these situations, it’s common for the player to return to his previous club on a new minor league deal, but Stefanic can at least explore the market to see if there’s a better opportunity somewhere else. The A’s would probably be happy to get him back with both Wilson and Max Muncy on the IL right now, leaving them a bit shorthanded on the dirt.
Photo courtesy of Ed Szczepanski, Imagn Images
Ryan Jeffers Diagnosed With Hamate Fracture
11:47am: The Twins have now announced the full slate of moves. Righty Garrett Acton has been moved to the 60-day IL to open roster space for Jackson. Acton has been out since late April due to a shoulder strain, and he’ll now be sidelined into late June at the earliest.
11:20am: It’s shaping up to be quite a day for the Twins — and not in a good way. Not only are the Twins optioning former No. 1 pick and top prospect Royce Lewis to Triple-A, they’ll also lose their starting catcher for an extended period. Ryan Jeffers has been diagnosed with a fractured hamate in his left wrist, Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune reports. Jeffers broke his bat on a foul ball in the eighth inning last night and motioned for trainers a couple pitches later. He exited mid-at-bat. The Twins will select the contract of journeyman catcher Alex Jackson to replace Jeffers, per Aaron Gleeman. Victor Caratini will presumably shoulder the starting workload behind the plate.
It’s a brutal injury for Jeffers, a free agent at season’s end, and for the Twins. Jeffers has been not only one of the Twins’ best hitters in 2026 but one of the most productive players in the game. He’s hitting .295/.408/.541 with seven homers and as many walks as strikeouts (15.6% apiece). Jeffers’ 165 wRC+ (indicating he’s been 65% better than a league-average hitter) ranks seventh among the 186 major league players who’ve logged at least 140 plate appearances in 2026.
Jeffers, 29 next month, has somewhat quietly been one of baseball’s best-hitting catchers for several seasons now. Dating back to 2023, he sports a .258/.346/.445 batting line with 51 homers and 70 doubles in 1411 plate appearances. Strikeouts were once an issue for him, but he’s dropped his rate of punchouts in three straight seasons. Jeffers had an uncharacteristic power outage last year, hitting just nine homers, but he slugged 35 homers in 800 trips to the plate from 2023-24 and was on pace for 20-plus again in 2026. This year’s .246 ISO (slugging minus batting average) is a career-high and would be his third ISO of .200+ in the past four seasons.
The Twins haven’t provided a timetable, but hamate fractures tend to sideline players for around four to five weeks. They typically require a small surgical procedure to remove the “hook” at the end of the bone. It bears emphasizing, however, that a four-week timetable is far from certain. Corbin Carroll, Francisco Lindor and Andrew Vaughn all took about that long (give or take a few days) to return from their own hamate fractures this season, but Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday suffered a hamate fracture in mid-February and only just returned yesterday after multiple setbacks. A best-case scenario would see Jeffers return in mid-June, but that’ll hinge on how the surgery and the first few weeks of rehab play out.
In his place, Caratini will likely slide into the regular catcher’s role. The former Cubs, Brewers and Astros backstop signed a two-year, $14MM deal with the Twins as a free agent this winter. That contract positioned Caratini to serve as Jeffers’ backup while also mixing in at first base and designated hitter. He was coming off a nice three-year run between Milwaukee (2023) and Houston (2024-25), wherein he slashed a combined .262/.328/.400. That’s about five percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+, and about 17% better than the average catcher.
Things haven’t gone to plan for the switch-hitting Caratini so far in Minnesota. He’s appeared in 34 games and taken 127 plate appearances but posted a bleak .192/.299/.231 batting line. Perhaps more consistent playing time at one position will help his bat perk up.
Caratini is walking at an 8.7% clip with an 18.9% strikeout rate that’s nearly four points lower than league average, so it’s not as though his approach at the plate has completely evaporated. His contact rate on pitches within the strike zone is a superlative 95.7%. His 36.5% hard-hit rate is a career-low, but his 88.8 mph average exit velocity is right in line with last year’s 88.7% mark. Caratini, despite a sharp 22.4% line-drive rate, is hitting just .226 on balls in play. Statcast feels he’s been one of the game’s unluckiest hitters, pegging his “expected” batting average at .247 and his “expected” slugging percentage at .363.
Jackson, 30, is having a typical season for himself over in St. Paul. For him, that means good defense and power with poor on-base marks and far too many strikeouts. He’s batting .239/.295/.511 with seven homers in 95 Triple-A plate appearances, but he’s struck out nearly 33% of the time he’s set foot in the batter’s box.
The Twins acquired Jackson in an offseason deal with the Orioles, sending minor league utilityman Payton Eeles the other way in the deal. At the time, Jackson was viewed as the backup to Jeffers. The Twins were going through some ownership uncertainty and didn’t know what kind of resources — if any — they’d have to spend in free agency. Once they announced three new minority stakeholders and received the green light for some modest free agent spending, Caratini was brought in on his two-year deal. Jackson was passed through waivers in spring training and stuck around as a depth piece. He’s being paid $1.35MM this year and will now find himself in the backup role he initially envisioned — just behind a different starting catcher.
Acton, 27, was acquired from the Marlins in an April trade sending minor league righty Logan Whitaker back to Miami. He’d previously been designated for assignment by the Fish. Acton tossed 6 2/3 solid innings for Minnesota before hitting the injured list. He still only has 13 1/3 major league innings to his credit, but Acton has big strikeout numbers in his minor league career and enjoyed a strong season with the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate last year in his return from a yearlong injury absence: 3.68 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate, 11.4% walk rate in 58 2/3 innings.
The Twins haven’t specified how long they expect Acton to be sidelined. Assuming his injury isn’t season-ending in nature, there should be plenty of opportunity for him in a patchwork bullpen that’s been one of the worst in Major League Baseball through the season’s first eight weeks.
Orioles Select Albert Suarez, Designate Maverick Handley
The Orioles on Tuesday selected the contract of righty Albert Suarez from Triple-A Norfolk and designated catcher Maverick Handley for assignment, per a team announcement. Handley’s DFA opens a 40-man spot for Suarez. Baltimore optioned righty Cameron Foster to Norfolk to make room on the active roster.
Suarez, 36, has been a heavily used swingman for the Orioles since making a 2024 return from the Korea Baseball Organization. He started 24 games and made another eight relief outings in ’24 and has appeared in 11 games over the past two seasons, mostly out of the ‘pen, while also missing time with injuries.
Overall, since Suarez joined the Orioles on a minor league deal in the 2023-24 offseason, he’s given them 161 innings of 3.58 ERA ball split between 25 starts and 18 relief outings. This will be his second big league stint of the season. The O’s already passed him through waivers once. He’s made two starts in Norfolk, totaling nine innings and allowing four runs with a 7-to-2 K/BB ratio.
An ugly start from Trevor Rogers yesterday led to both Foster and Dietrich Enns throwing 35-plus pitches. Suarez will give the bullpen a fresh arm in the event that the O’s need some more length in today’s game. Since he’s been starting in Norfolk, he’s stretched out for multiple innings if need be.
The 28-year-old Handley has been up-and-down between Norfolk and Baltimore and on-and-off the Orioles’ 40-man roster over the past calendar year. He’s totaled only 48 major league plate appearances and gone 3-for-42 with a trio of singles and a 39.6% strikeout rate. Handley posted decent numbers in Triple-A last year (.258/.373/.367) and has steadily posted big walk rates throughout his time in the minors. He’s a glove-first backup who can work counts but has a sub-par hit tool and well below-average power.
Baltimore will have five days to trade Handley or place him on waivers. If he clears waivers, he’ll have the option to reject an outright assignment and become a free agent, which hasn’t been available to him in the past. However, he’s spent his whole career in the Orioles organization since being selected in the sixth round of the 2019 draft, so he may opt to stick with the only club he’s known.
Twins Option Royce Lewis, Select Orlando Arcia, Designate Justin Topa
11:02am: Right-hander Justin Topa is being designated for assignment to make room for Arcia on the 40-man roster, per MLB.com’s Matthew Leach. It sounds as though there’ll be additional roster juggling for the Twins at some point today, as this sequence leaves them at 25 players and short one arm in the ‘pen.
10:58am: Minnesota is selecting the contract of veteran infielder Orlando Arcia to take Lewis’ spot on the big league roster, Hayes further reports. They’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move to get Arcia onto the roster.
10:52am: The Twins have optioned third baseman Royce Lewis to Triple-A St. Paul following a dismal start to his 2026 season, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports. It’s the first time since 2022 that the former No. 1 overall pick has been optioned, and it’s the second member of Minnesota’s Opening Day lineup to be sent down in the past week. The Twins also sent struggling right fielder Matt Wallner out last Thursday — his first time being optioned in two years.
Now 26 years old, Lewis looked bound for stardom when he debuted in 2022-23 with a .307/.364/.549 slash and 17 homers in his first 70 MLB games (280 plate appearances). On top of that performance, he went on to club four homers in 26 plate appearances during Minnesota’s 2023 postseason run. Injuries have taken their toll and derailed the promising slugger’s trajectory. Lewis has twice torn the ACL in his right knee. He’s also had three strains/partial tears of his left hamstring, a quad strain in his right leg and (earlier this year) a mild sprain in his left knee.
In 31 games and 119 plate appearances this season, Lewis is hitting just .163/.261/.279. Strikeouts have never been a prominent issue for him in the past — he posted a 21% strikeout rate from 2022-25 — but he’s fanned in 31.1% of his plate appearances this season. Lewis’ 32.8% chase rate on balls off the plate isn’t egregiously higher than his 31.4% career mark, but it’s way north of the 28.2% mark he showed during that 2022-23 flash of potential stardom. Meanwhile, his contact rate on pitches within the zone has dropped from 83.7% entering the year to just 78.3%. His contact rate when he does chase off the plate has cratered, falling from 59.1% in 2022-25 to only 44% this season.
Because it’s been so long since he was sent down, Lewis is still in the second of three minor league option years. He’s making $2.85MM this season after avoiding arbitration over the winter, and he’s already crossed the four-year threshold in service time this season, so a minor league assignment doesn’t change his potential timeline to free agency. Getting to six years of service and free agency isn’t a guarantee at this point, however. He’ll need to get back on track in the minors or else risk being non-tendered following the season.
With Lewis headed across the Mississippi River for the time being, third base seems likely to be handled by a combination of Arcia and utilityman Ryan Kreidler. Left fielder Austin Martin and shortstop Brooks Lee both have experience at third base, but Martin is enjoying a breakout in the outfield while the Twins are trying to give Lee a long leash to see if he can handle shortstop in the long run. Neither seems all that likely to change positions — at least for now. (Top prospect Kaelen Culpepper could potentially push Lee off shortstop at some point this summer.)
Arcia, the younger brother of former Twins top prospect and outfielder Oswaldo Arcia, has an inconsistent big league track record but has been on a tear in St. Paul this season. Once ranked as one of the sport’s 10 best prospects, the younger Arcia never found his footing with his original organization, the Brewers. Milwaukee wound up trading him to Atlanta in 2021, and Arcia went on a nice two-year run with the Braves, hitting .258/.319/.419 in 767 plate appearances from 2022-23. The same struggles he experienced with the Brewers resurfaced in 2024, however, as Arcia batted just .214/.263/.337 in 816 plate appearances between the Braves and Rockies from 2024-25. Overall, he’s a .239/.292/.369 hitter in 3537 big league plate appearances.
Arcia will get a chance to bounce back with the Twins after hitting .318/.376/.556 with eight homers, 10 doubles, a triple, three steals, an 8.5% walk rate and an 18.8% strikeout rate in 39 games (165 plate appearances) with the Saints to begin the year. He’s accrued well beyond eight years of big league service time, so even if Arcia does put together a rebound effort, he’ll be a free agent at season’s end.
Topa, 35, has spent parts of three seasons with the Twins after coming over from the Mariners alongside prospect Gabriel Gonzalez in the Jorge Polanco trade. He missed nearly all of the 2024 season following a spring knee injury but was a solid middle-relief presence in 2025, tossing 60 innings with a 3.90 ERA, an 18.3% strikeout rate, a 6.7% walk rate and a 47.7% ground-ball rate.
The 2026 season hasn’t been kind to Topa. He’s pitched 19 innings and served up 18 runs (17 earned) on 27 hits and 11 walks. He’s yielded four home runs, struck out only 13% of his opponents and walked 12% of them.
Earlier in his career, Topa was frequently injured but showed premium stuff when healthy, leading to plenty of “what if” speculation about a potentially high-end reliever who simply couldn’t stay healthy. He broke out with the 2023 Mariners, logging a 2.61 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and 56.7% grounder rate in what’s still a career-high 69 innings. The power sinker that Topa showed that season is down from an average of 95 mph to 93.2 mph in 2026, however. Topa isn’t missing bats anywhere close to a league-average level, and his command has worsened.
The Twins are paying Topa $1.225MM this season. Between that salary and his struggles, it’s likely that he’ll either clear outright waivers or be released, though the Twins can spend up to five days looking for a trade partner before going the waiver route.
Braves Release Aaron Bummer, Place Drake Baldwin On Injured List
The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve released left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer and placed catcher Drake Baldwin on the 10-day injured list due to an oblique strain. Atlanta also activated lefty Dylan Dodd from the 10-day IL, recalled righty Victor Mederos from Triple-A, selected the contract of catcher Chadwick Tromp and optioned right-hander JR Ritchie to Triple-A.
The Baldwin injury is a massive setback for an Atlanta club that’s also once again without veteran Sean Murphy (fractured finger). The 25-year-old Baldwin won National League Rookie of the Year honors in 2025 and has thus far played like he has his eyes set on some additional hardware; Baldwin has played at an MVP-caliber pace in 2026, sprinting out of the gate with a .303/.389/.543 batting line. After swatting 19 home runs in 446 plate appearances as a rookie, he’s already clubbed 13 in just 216 trips to the batter’s box in his sophomore season.
By measure of wRC+, Baldwin has been 60% better than average at the plate this season — the eighth-best qualified hitter in the sport. That’s a feat in and of itself, but considering the average catcher is about 12% worse than average at the plate, Baldwin’s immense production is all the more valuable. Couple that with strong blocking skills and average framing grades, and Baldwin has been one of the best all-around players in baseball. Both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference peg him at 2.2 wins above replacement through just over one quarter of the regular season.
The Braves have yet to put a timetable on Baldwin’s potential absence. Every injury case is different, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for upwards of one month. A more severe strain would come with a lengthier absence. Atlanta skipper Walt Weiss will surely provide more details prior to this afternoon’s contest against the Marlins, who pounced the now-optioned Ritchie and the now-released Bummer for a combined 12 earned runs — six apiece — last night.
With Baldwin and Murphy both shelved, Atlanta will go from one of the sport’s most potent catching tandems to perhaps the lightest-hitting backstop tandem in baseball. Tromp joins 37-year-old Sandy León in handling catching duties for the foreseeable future. León hasn’t topped 100 plate appearances in a big league season since 2021 and carries a .176/.245/.268 batting line over his past 930 trips to the plate in the majors. Tromp is a career .221/.230/.390 hitter in 178 major league plate appearances. They’re both solid defenders, and Tromp has some modest pop in his bat, but both can be reasonably projected for an OBP in the .250 range.
As already referenced, Bummer was tagged for six runs last night in what will go down as his final appearance with the Braves. He lasted only one inning. Were that meltdown an isolated instance, the veteran Bummer’s track record would surely have spared him. The entire 2026 season, however, has been a calamitous one for the 32-year-old southpaw.
Bummer has pitched 15 1/3 innings for the Braves this season and been shelled for a 7.63 ERA. He’s given up multiple runs in five of his 19 appearances, and most of the damage has come in the past five weeks. Dating back to April 13, Bummer has been torched for 15 runs (13 earned) on 17 hits and seven walks in 11 1/3 innings. Opponents have belted six home runs in that span, and he’s fanned only 16.9% of his opponents along the way.
Prior to 2026, Bummer gave the Braves two seasons of quality middle relief. He rarely found his way into high-leverage spots but still combined for 109 2/3 innings of 3.69 ERA ball. He set down 25.1% of his opponents on strikes and logged a tidy 7.3% walk rate over those two seasons. It wasn’t star-level performance, but Bummer was a perfectly serviceable bullpen arm.
There were some warning signs last season, however. Bummer’s strikeout rate dipped by several percentage points, while his average four-seamer and average sinker both fell by about two miles per hour. The strikeout and velo declines have worsened in 2026. Bummer sat 94.7 mph on his four-seamer and 94.3 mph on his go-to sinker as recently as 2023. He’s averaging 90.5 mph and 90.2 mph, respectively, on that pair of pitches this season.
Atlanta originally acquired Bummer from the White Sox in a volume trade sending five players back to Chicago: Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster, Nicky Lopez, Braden Shewmake and Riley Gowens. He was signed to a five-year, $16MM contract with club options for the 2025-26 seasons at the time. After a strong debut campaign in Atlanta, the Braves restructured the contract, effectively guaranteeing both option years in advance while trimming $500K from their combined value and pushing the bulk of the salary into the 2026 season. Bummer earned $3.5MM last year and is being paid $9.5MM this season.
The Braves will remain on the hook for the entirety of that contract. Bummer will be free to sign with any team, and a new club would owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the major league roster. That small sum would be subtracted from what Atlanta owes the veteran southpaw, but they’ll eat the vast majority of the contract regardless of Bummer’s next steps.
The Opener: Ginn, Emerson, Crews
Seattle is going with a tag-team approach for Tuesday’s matchup against the White Sox. Right-hander Luis Castillo is expected to piggyback fellow righty Bryce Miller. The club initially went with a six-man rotation when Miller returned, but will move Castillo to a bulk relief role, at least for now.
1. Ginn loses no-no, then the game
Athletics right-hander J.T. Ginn took a brutal loss on Monday night. He tossed eight no-hit innings with 10 strikeouts. After getting shut out for eight frames, the A’s opened the scoring with a tally in the top of the ninth inning. Ginn gave up a leadoff single to Adam Frazier in the bottom of the inning to break up the no-hitter. Zach Neto then ended the game with a walk-off home run. “You just keep your head up and keep moving forward,” Ginn told reporters (h/t Martin Gallegos of MLB.com). “It’s just the nature of the game that we play.” The 26-year-old righty has emerged as a reliable member of the A’s rotation. He’s delivered three straight quality starts to lower his ERA below 3.00. Ginn has gone 8+ innings in two of his last three appearances.
2. Emerson on the board
Mariners infielder Colt Emerson was called up on Sunday and immediately inserted into the starting lineup. The promotion happened so suddenly that his family wasn’t in attendance for his debut. Emerson went 0-for-3 in his first game. With more time to make the trip, Emerson’s parents and more than a dozen friends and relatives were in the stands on Monday against the White Sox. The 20-year-old snuck a line drive over the right field wall in the eighth inning for his first big-league hit. Emerson became the 11th player in Seattle history to homer for their first career knock (h/t Daniel Kramer of MLB.com). The last player to do it was Jarred Kelenic in 2021. Kelenic was in right field for Chicago, watching Emerson’s three-run blast soar over his head.
3. Crews headed back to the big leagues
Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews is expected to be recalled on Tuesday. The former No. 2 overall pick was somewhat surprisingly sent to Triple-A to open the season. Crews has rebounded from a slow start at Rochester with a strong May. The 24-year-old has hit .291 with nine extra-base hits in 14 games this month. Crews will get another shot to stick in the big leagues after a disappointing beginning to his career. The top prospect has a 78 wRC+ across parts of two seasons. He’s slashed .211/.282/.352 across 454 plate appearances. Crews has racked up 29 steals in 116 games, so the speed element has been there. He’ll just need to find a way to get on base more consistently.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
Mets To Promote Nick Morabito
The Mets are planning to recall outfield prospect Nick Morabito for his major league debut, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. He’ll fill the 26-man roster spot that’s being vacated by the previously reported DFA of veteran outfielder Austin Slater.
Morabito, the No. 75 overall pick in the 2022 draft, entered the season generally ranked between 10th and 20th among Mets farmhands. The 23-year-old has held his own thus far in his first taste of Triple-A, slashing a roughly league-average .253/.364/.390 in 175 trips to the plate. Morabito has walked at a hearty 12% clip, fanned in 22.9% of his plate appearances, connected on four home runs and gone 14-for-16 (87.5%) in stolen base attempts.
Morabito hasn’t hit the ball particularly hard in the upper minors, and despite this season’s four home runs, he’s considered to have well below-average power. He’s a plus runner who’s capable of handling all three outfield spots at an above-average level.
The Mets already have a crowded outfield mix, thanks in part to a pair of fellow rookies; Opening Day right fielder Carson Benge has come alive at the plate lately, and A.J. Ewing has hit the ground running since last week’s promotion to the big leagues. Juan Soto entered the season as the everyday left fielder, but he’s spent more time at designated hitter lately while playing through forearm and ankle issues (the latter stemming from an at-bat last week where he fouled a ball into his right foot).
Soto’s uptick in DH time and Slater’s DFA could create more outfield opportunities for the fleet-footed Morabito. The influx of youth and steady presence of Soto’s bat will likely continue to cut into playing time for outfielder/designated hitter MJ Melendez. The former Royals top prospect has predictably cooled off after a blistering start to the season. Melendez provided an early spark when he hit .345/.406/.655 in his first 33 turns at the plate, but that production was buoyed by a .533 average on balls in play and came in spite of a 36.4% strikeout rate and 68% contact rate. Melendez’s lack of contact has caught up with him. He’s hitting .133/.278/.200 with a 33.9% strikeout rate this month and is currently in a 1-for-20 slump.
Morabito was selected to the 40-man roster back in November in order to shield him from selection in December’s Rule 5 Draft. As such, he’s in the first of three minor league option years. Enough time has passed in 2026 that he can’t accrue a full year of major league service this season, meaning Morabito will be under club control for at least six additional years — all the way through 2032. That timeline could change, depending on whether Morabito is optioned back to Syracuse at any point (and on how long said optional assignments last).
Mets To Designate Austin Slater For Assignment
The Mets are expected to designate outfielder Austin Slater for assignment, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The veteran latched on with New York in late April after getting DFAed by the Marlins. The team has yet to announce the move.
Slater took the spot of another well-traveled outfielder, joining the club when Tommy Pham was designated for assignment. The Mets were Slater’s third team in a little over a month. He opted out of a minor league deal with the Tigers before signing with the Marlins. After a dozen games in Miami, the outfielder lasted just nine games in New York.
A platoon bat for much of his career, Slater has just four plate appearances against right-handed pitching this season. He picked up two hits in those chances. The veteran scuffled against lefties, posting a .444 OPS with a bloated 33.3% strikeout rate.
Slater’s skillset is somewhat duplicative of Tyrone Taylor‘s contributions, and he doesn’t offer the same defensive ability. With A.J. Ewing emerging as an everyday option in the outfield, the Mets didn’t need two right-handed bench outfielders. Slater will now head back through the DFA process. If the Mets don’t find a trade partner, and no club claims him, the veteran can forego a minor league assignment and choose free agency. That’s how he landed with the Mets after departing the Marlins.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Nationals Option Brady House
The Nationals announced they’ve optioned third baseman Brady House to Triple-A Rochester. That creates an active roster opening, which they’ll reportedly fill tomorrow by recalling former #2 overall pick Dylan Crews.
It’s a surprise demotion, as House has started 38 of Washington’s 48 games this year. He was in the lineup for tonight’s extra-inning loss to the Mets and still hitting third in Blake Butera’s lineup. Despite continuing to hit him in the middle of the order, the Nats now decide to send House down for his first work against Triple-A pitching since he made his MLB debut last June.
House, the #11 overall pick in the 2022 draft, limped to a .234/.252/.322 line over 73 games as a rookie. This year’s numbers are better but still middling. House carries a .227/.282/.399 mark across 177 trips to the plate. He’s drawing walks at a modest 7.3% clip against a 28% strikeout rate. He’s in the bottom 15 among hitters (minimum 150 plate appearances) in contact rate.
The plate discipline remains a work in progress, but House’s seven home runs tied him with Daylen Lile for third on the team behind James Wood and CJ Abrams. He’d connected on three of those homers this month, albeit with a .224 average and .264 on-base percentage entering tonight’s game. House has graded poorly defensively, tying Junior Caminero for the lead among third basemen with eight errors. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have him bottom five at the position.
Washington’s infield defense probably won’t improve much with a combination of Jorbit Vivas and José Tena covering third base. Curtis Mead has hit well off the bench and could get a look there too, though the Nationals seemingly prefer him as a first baseman. That’ll open some at-bats at designated hitter for Wood and Lile, as Crews will surely be in the lineup on an everyday basis. Jacob Young is the team’s best defensive outfielder; he’s day-to-day after taking a fastball to the ribs this evening, though Butera said postgame that x-rays were negative (via Mark Zuckerman of Nats Journal).
House entered this season with 105 days of MLB service. He needs to be on the big league roster for 67 days this year to cross the one-year threshold before the end of the season. He’s a little less than two weeks short of that right now, but there’s ample time for him to play his way back onto the active roster during the summer.