Lou Trivino Opts Out Of Phillies Deal
Veteran reliever Lou Trivino exercised the May 1 opt-out right in his minor league contract with the Phillies, reports Matt Winkelman. According to the MLB.com transaction tracker, the team then granted Trivino his release.
Trivino pitched well over his month at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The 34-year-old righty struck out 20 of 56 batters faced (36%) while issuing four walks. He surrendered 15 hits and 10 runs, though only four of those were earned. Trivino’s sinker and four-seam fastball each sat in the 94-95 mph range and he used three other pitches — cutter, slider and changeup — with regularity.
This was Trivino’s second stint with the Philly organization. He signed a minor league deal last August and was selected onto the MLB roster at the end of the month. He worked nine innings of three-run ball to close the season. Trivino pitched for three different clubs overall and tallied a 3.97 earned run average across 47 2/3 MLB innings a year ago. It was first big league action in three seasons, as he’d missed most of 2023-24 due to Tommy John surgery.
Philadelphia’s bullpen ranks 19th in MLB with a 4.22 ERA. That’s somewhat inflated by a .328 average on balls in play, the second-highest mark (behind Minnesota’s). Philly relievers are 12th in strikeout rate. Chase Shugart and Tanner Banks each have a minor league option remaining, but the Phils opted to keep them on the MLB roster while allowing Trivino to explore other opportunities. The Phillies did select a non-roster reliever yesterday when they called up long man Trevor Richards.
Mariners Notes: Brash, Simpson, Robles, Right Field
The Mariners placed setup man Matt Brash on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 30, before tonight’s series opener against the Royals. He’s dealing with lat inflammation. Seattle recalled lefty Josh Simpson from Triple-A Tacoma in a corresponding move.
Brash made an early exit from Wednesday’s game in Minnesota. He threw two pitches before reporting side tightness that led the Mariners to lift him. General manager Justin Hollander told reporters (including Daniel Kramer of MLB.com) that Brash will be shut down for three to five days. He’ll resume throwing early next week and doesn’t seem to be in for a lengthy absence. There’s nothing structurally off.
The seemingly minor injury halts an excellent start to the season for Brash. He has allowed just one unearned run through his first 11 1/3 innings. Although Brash hasn’t had huge swinging strike or ground-ball numbers, he’s second on the team with four holds and has pitched in the highest-leverage situations aside from closer Andrés Muñoz.
Seattle’s bullpen is out to a strong start. Their 3.31 earned run average trails only that of the Rangers and Giants. They’re middle of the pack in strikeouts while ranking ninth in whiff rate. Muñoz has had a couple uncharacteristically poor outings (most notably against the Padres on April 15) but is typically one of the best closers in the game. Gabe Speier, Eduard Bazardo and offseason trade pickup Jose A. Ferrer have pitched well.
Simpson would be lined up for his team debut if he makes it into a game. Seattle acquired him from the Marlins over the offseason. The 28-year-old has fanned 12 over 9 1/3 innings of one-run ball with Tacoma, albeit with six walks. He posted a 7.34 ERA across 31 appearances as a rookie with Miami last season.
In other M’s news, Victor Robles will join Tacoma to begin a rehab assignment on Sunday (relayed by Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). He has been out since April 7 with a pectoral strain. Robles had a slow start over his first five games after a disappointing 2025 season in which he missed most of the year with a dislocated left shoulder.
Luke Raley and Rob Refsnyder have platooned in right field in Robles’ absence. Raley homered in each of the first three games of the season and went on a brief tear in the middle of April. He’s now mired in a 1-27 slump over his last 12 games. Refsnyder has limped to a .135/.214/.297 start through 17 games. Connor Joe gets the nod tonight against K.C. southpaw Cole Ragans.
Pirates Release Ryan Harbin
May 1: As expected, the MLB.com transaction log indicates that Harbin has been released. It stands to reason Pittsburgh will try to bring him back on a minor league contract.
April 29: Pirates right-hander Ryan Harbin has been designated for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to veteran reliever Chris Devenski, whose previously reported promotion to the major league roster is now official. Lefty Hunter Barco was optioned to Triple-A to open a 26-man roster spot for Devenski.
Harbin, 24, was the Pirates’ 17th-round pick back in 2019. The Bucs added him to the 40-man roster this past November in order to protect him from being selected by another organization in December’s Rule 5 Draft. He was rocked in his first taste of Triple-A last summer but had pitched 50 combined innings between High-A and Double-A prior to that, logging a 2.88 ERA with a massive 36% strikeout rate.
The 6’4″, 228-pound Harbin relies primarily on a three-pitch mix: a four-seamer that averaged 97.2 mph last year, a slider that sat 87 mph and a sinker that averaged 96.7 mph. He also mixed in a very occasional cutter (87.8 mph) and splitter (89.8 mph), though his usage rate on both pitches in Triple-A sat just north of 5%.
With a good start to the season in Triple-A, Harbin might have gotten his first big league look this year. Instead, injuries have derailed his season. Harbin suffered a strained teres major during spring training not long after being optioned to minor league camp. The Bucs put him on the 60-day injured list in the minors. He hasn’t pitched yet in 2026, and there’s no clear timetable for his return to the mound. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, so now that he’s been designated for assignment, Harbin will either be traded to another club or released.
Joey Lucchesi Elects Free Agency
May 1: Lucchesi has again exercised free agency after clearing outright waivers, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. It wouldn’t be surprising if he again returns on a minor league deal.
April 29: The Angels recalled lefty Mitch Farris from Triple-A Salt Lake and designated fellow left-hander Joey Lucchesi for assignment, the club announced Wednesday.
Lucchesi was selected to the major league roster Sunday, marking his second stint of the season with the Halos. The 32-year-old pitched in Sunday’s game and again last night, combining for an inning of work and surrendering three runs. The well-traveled southpaw has totaled 3 1/3 frames in the majors with the Angels this season and been tagged for five runs on seven hits, six walks and a hit batter. He’s fanned four of his 24 opponents (16.7%).
Lucchhesi made 56 solid starts for the Padres in 2018-19, his first two seasons in the big leagues, but has since bounced around the league, working mostly as a reliever and swingman. Dating back to the 2020 season, he’s pitched 142 2/3 innings for four teams (Padres, Mets, Giants, Angels) and logged a 4.16 ERA with a 19.4% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.
The Angels have already designated Lucchesi for assignment once this season. He passed through waivers unclaimed, elected free agency, and quickly re-signed on a new minor league contract. About two weeks later, he was back in the majors. A similar sequence could well play out again, though a team in need of some left-handed depth could always scoop him up to fill a short-term need. Lucchesi will be traded, placed on waivers or released within the next five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process, meaning his latest DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.
Randal Grichuk Elects Free Agency
The Yankees announced that outfielder Randal Grichuk has elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.
Grichuk, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in the offseason. That deal came with a $2.5MM salary if he got added to the roster, which he did, cracking the Opening Day squad. He is a right-handed hitter and has traditionally been better against lefties. The Yanks were hoping he could be a nice complement to their lefty-heavy lineup. Unfortunately, he has hit just .227/.261/.364 against southpaws this year. That line leads to a 71 wRC+, indicating he has been 29% below average in that split. He hit .194/.212/.323 overall.
That performance got him bumped into DFA limbo and none of the 29 other teams wanted to claim his contract off waivers. Players with at least five years of big league service time can reject outright assignments while keeping their salary commitments in tact. The Yankees will remain on the hook for the remainder of that $2.5MM. Another club could now sign Grichuk and would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the $780K league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Yankees pay.
Grichuk’s recent form isn’t much to garner interest. Last year’s .228/.273/.401 line was better than this year’s but still subpar, translating to a wRC+ of 82. Defensively, Grichuk is essentially a corner-only guy now. He has lots of center field experience but has just two innings at that position since the end of the 2023 season.
He’s not too far removed from being a useful complementary player. With the Diamondbacks in 2024, he slashed .291/.348/.528 for a 139 wRC+. Roughly two thirds of his plate appearances were against southpaws but he had above-average results against pitchers of either handedness. That led to him securing a $5MM guarantee for 2025 but, as mentioned, his results weren’t as good. He had to settle for a minor league deal for 2026. Even when he got called up, his base salary was half of the year prior.
Though 29 teams just passed on the chance to get him off waivers, signing him now would be much cheaper. On a prorated basis, the league minimum would be less than a third of his salary and it would also come with no commitment, as teams could cut bait at any time.
Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images
Orioles Place Ryan Helsley On IL With Elbow Inflammation
The Orioles announced that right-hander Ryan Helsley has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 29th, with right elbow inflammation. Fellow righty Albert Suárez has been selected to take Helsley’s place on the active roster. The 40-man roster had a couple of vacancies and the addition of Suárez brings the O’s up to 39 players on there.
It’s an out-of-nowhere IL stint for Helsley, as there wasn’t any previous indication that anything was wrong. He last pitched on Tuesday, recording a clean inning and earning a save as the O’s beat the Astros 5-3. His fastball averaged 99.3 miles per hour, right around his season average and a slight increase over his previous two outings. He didn’t pitch in the past two days but Baltimore didn’t have save chances in the interim. The game on Wednesday was postponed. The two games in yesterday’s doubleheader were not close, one being decided by six runs and the other by seven.
The club will presumably have more information later but it’s always a bit ominous when a pitcher’s throwing elbow is involved in an injury. For the O’s, they will have to figure out how to proceed with yet another hit to their bullpen. Their previous closer, Félix Bautista, underwent shoulder surgery in August of last year. That procedure came with a timeline of about a year. He could perhaps be back late in 2026 but it’s also possible he misses the entire season, which is why Helsley was signed to fill the closer’s role.
The O’s also have Dietrich Enns and Yaramil Hiraldo on the IL, meaning Helsey is now the fourth reliever on the shelf. Guys like Andrew Kittredge, Rico Garcia, Anthony Nunez or Grant Wolfram could step up to absorb some higher-leverage roles.
For Helsley personally, it could be a rough development as well. Not so long ago, he was one of the top relievers in the game and was trending towards cashing in as a free agent. Unfortunately, he had an ill-timed dip in performance in 2025, his walk year. His earned run average shot up to 4.50 after being around 2.00 in the previous three seasons.
He signed a two-year, $28MM deal with the Orioles, a pact which contained an opt-out halfway through. That would give Baltimore a replacement for Bautista in the closer’s role. For Helsley, ideally, he would return to form and then go back to free agency in search of a longer deal and a bigger guarantee.
The results have been mostly good so far, through 10 2/3 innings. His 15.2% walk rate is way too high but his 32.6% strikeout rate is a nice bounceback after it dropped to 25% last year. Obviously, a major elbow injury would kill that plan, so this will hopefully be just a minor issue and eventual footnote in his season.
Suárez, 36, began the season with the O’s on a minor league deal. His contract was selected a few days into the season. He spent close to a month in the bullpen as a long reliever, tossing 13 innings over five appearances with a 3.46 ERA.
Despite those pretty solid results, he was squeezed off the roster a few days ago. He cleared waivers and then elected free agency on Wednesday. It was reported at that time that he and the O’s would likely work out a new minor league deal. According to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, his new minor league deal was approved just a few hours ago. He was initially going to join the Norfolk Tides in Nashville before being rerouted to be added to the big league roster as a replacement for Helsley.
Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images
The Astros’ Ominous Long-Term Outlook
In case you're just tuning into the 2026 season, things aren't going great in Houston. The Astros escaped with a split in a doubleheader with the Orioles yesterday despite allowing a combined 15 runs in those games. They enter play Friday sitting on a 12-20 record. Houston's bullpen has been far and away the worst in baseball, due in no small part to star closer Josh Hader's lengthy stint on the IL to begin the season. Bryan Abreu went from arguably the game's best setup man to a low-leverage middle reliever in short order; his fastball is down more than two miles per hour, and his ERA sits just shy of 13.00. Veterans Enyel De Los Santos and Steven Okert were low-cost pickups last year who played big roles. Both have regressed (and then some) in 2026.
Meanwhile, a rotation that brought in several new arms this winter has only been marginally better. Again, injuries have played a role. Ace Hunter Brown is out with a shoulder strain. Offseason pickup Tatsuya Imai, a star righty in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, struggled before hitting the IL with arm fatigue. Cristian Javier is sidelined into at least June with his own shoulder strain. Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski are still on the mend from 2025 Tommy John surgery. Neither is expected back before the All-Star break.
The lineup has at least provided good production. Houston hitters are batting .265/.346/.438 as a team. A disproportionate amount of their production has come from slugger Yordan Alvarez, who's decimating opposing pitchers at an MVP-caliber clip, but he's not alone. Christian Walker has more than just righted the ship after an awful start in 2025 -- he's arguably hitting better than he ever has before. Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa have been comfortably better than average at the dish. Isaac Paredes has found his stride after a slow start himself.
Even on this side of the ball, however, the 'Stros have had challenges. Jeremy Peña has been limited to just 10 games thanks to a pair of injuries (broken finger, hamstring strain). Jake Meyers looked solid through a dozen games before an oblique strain sent him to the shelf. The reacquired Joey Loperfido was solid through 20 contests before straining his quad. In recent weeks, Houston has regularly trotted out lineups including players like Braden Shewmake, Daniel Johnson and Dustin Harris, each of whom was acquired simply because the club needed warm bodies and lacked depth.
That's a symptom of a much larger and more concerning trend in Houston -- one that calls into question the club's outlook well beyond the current season.
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Brewers’ Angel Zerpa Could Require Surgery
The Brewers placed lefty Angel Zerpa on the injured list earlier this week after he experienced forearm tightness. Manager Pat Murphy suggested not long after that the southpaw could be facing a lengthy absence. Murphy provided another ominous update Friday, telling the Brewers beat that surgery is on the table (via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
A specific diagnosis remains unclear. Forearm tightness can be a precursor to a host of serious injuries for pitchers, including UCL and/or flexor tendon damage and irritation of the ulnar nerve, among other possibilities. The nature of the injury and the still under-consideration surgery will determine the length of absence, but it seems the Brewers shouldn’t plan on Zerpa returning anytime soon.
Milwaukee acquired Zerpa from the Royals in an offseason trade sending Isaac Collins and Nick Mears back to Kansas City. The Brewers sold high on both players — Collins in particular — in apparent hopes of acquiring a more controllable, hard-throwing lefty with big ground-ball numbers. Given Zerpa’s solid track record with K.C. and the Brewers’ success in coaxing new levels of performance out of players, there was reason to be optimistic about a potential breakout.
That hasn’t panned out in the slightest. Zerpa has appeared in a dozen games and been roughed up for 11 runs (nine earned) on 16 hits and six walks in just 12 2/3 frames. His 14.5% strikeout rate is among the lowest in the league, and his 10.9% walk rate is a career-worst mark. Zerpa’s sinker is averaging 95.6 mph — down a full mile per hour over last year’s average of 96.6 mph.
From 2021-25 in Kansas City, Zerpa combined to record a 3.97 ERA with a 19.7% strikeout rate, a 7% walk rate and a massive 57.1% grounder rate. He tended to struggle against right-handed opponents, but the Brewers presumably had some ideas about how to help him correct that problem.
With Zerpa increasingly looking like a 60-day IL candidate, any such hopes from the Brewers will be placed on hold. They control him through 2028, so there’s still some hope for down-the-road contributions even if he ends up requiring a major surgery. He’d need to be tendered a contract, but Zerpa is playing this season on a $1.095MM salary, so even the generally frugal Brewers wouldn’t find his salary to be a true roadblock.
Zerpa joined fellow southpaws Rob Zastryzny and Jared Koenig on the injured list when he landed there. Zastryzny is dealing with a back strain. Koenig has a UCL sprain that he’s currently trying to rehab without surgery.
Three lefty relievers on the injured list would normally deplete an organization’s supply, but the Brewers are deeper in southpaw bullpen arms than nearly any team in the sport. Even with Zerpa, Koenig and Zastryzny out, the have Aaron Ashby, DL Hall, Shane Drohan and Brian Fitzpatrick in the MLB bullpen. Fitzpatrick was added to the roster after Zerpa’s injury and just recently made his big league debut. Ashby and Hall both have ERAs under 2.50 with big strikeout numbers but troubling command woes.
Ryan Pepiot To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery
Rays right-hander Ryan Pepiot will undergo hip surgery and miss the rest of the season, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Pepiot is already on the 60-day injured list and will stay there for the rest of the campaign.
It’s obviously an unfortunate blow for Pepiot and the Rays. The right-hander was healthy in spring training but some inflammation in his right hip sent him to the 15-day IL to start the season. It initially appeared as though that would be a minimal IL stint. As of April 4th, Pepiot had thrown a bullpen session and was in line to rejoin the Rays a little over a week later.
The tides shifted a couple of weeks ago. On April 14th, around the time Pepiot was supposed to be activated, the Rays instead transferred him to the 60-day injured list when they signed Michael Grove. Few details were available at that time but that at least signalled that Pepiot wasn’t going to return before late May. This latest update is even more ominous than that, with Pepiot now set to go under the knife and miss the whole season.
Acquired from the Dodgers as part of the Tyler Glasnow trade in December of 2023, Pepiot was largely a mainstay of the Tampa rotation in the past two seasons. He made 26 starts in 2024 and 31 last year. Between the two seasons, he gave the Rays 297 2/3 innings with a 3.75 earned run average, 25.4% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate.
So far, the Rays have done well this year, despite getting no contributions from Pepiot. They are 18-12 and in second place in the American League East. The rotation has been a key part of that, as the club’s starters have a combined 3.45 ERA, fifth-best in the majors.
Still, it’s less than ideal that Pepiot won’t be coming back to join the group at any point. They traded away Taj Bradley at last year’s deadline and then Shane Baz in the offseason, thinning out the rotation depth. This year, they’ve gotten multiple starts from Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, Steven Matz, Nick Martinez and Joe Boyle. The Rays put Boyle on the IL a few weeks ago due to a right elbow strain. Jesse Scholtens has effectively taken his place in the rotation, largely working behind an opener.
It’s not a sturdy group on the whole. McClanahan is pitching well but it’s fair to wonder if he’ll hit some kind of wall since he missed the previous two seasons. Rasmussen has a spotty health history with multiple surgeries on his chart. Martinez and Matz are mid-30s guys who were in swing roles as of last year. Scholtens was a waiver claim towards the end of last season.
At some point, the Rays will have to turn to other arms in the system, with Pepiot no longer part of the calculus. Joe Rock is on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment but he’s walking everyone in Triple-A. Prospect Brody Hopkins is in Triple-A but he only has six starts at that level and is also showing significant control issues. Yoendrys Gómez is working as a long reliever in the big leagues but he has a 6.23 ERA and is out of options.
For now, the Rays will do their best to keep making it work, though any further injuries could really hurt them. If they manage to stay in contention until the deadline, they will presumably look for reinforcements.
Turning back to Pepiot, he got his service clock just over three years in 2025, therefore qualifying for arbitration for the first time for 2026. He is making $3.025MM this season and can be controlled via arbitration through 2028. When arb-eligible players miss an entire season, they usually end up making the same salary in the following campaign. The Rays surely aren’t happy to be losing Pepiot but the one benefit for them is that they should be able to have him back in 2027 without giving him a raise.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
Brewers Place Brandon Woodruff On IL With Shoulder Inflammation
2:30pm: Woodruff spoke to members of the media, including Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, shortly after being placed on the IL. He said there are no structural concerns and it should be a pretty minimal IL stint.
2:05pm: The Brewers announced that right-hander Brandon Woodruff has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. Fellow righty Easton McGee has been recalled in a corresponding move.
The IL placement is unsurprising but ominous. Woodruff has been battling shoulder problems for years. He was limited to 11 starts in 2023 and eventually required surgery, which wiped out his entire 2024 season. He got back on the mound in the summer of 2025 and made 12 starts but then finished the season on the IL due to a lat strain.
The Brewers felt confident enough in Woodruff’s health to issue him a $22.025MM qualifying offer for 2026, a deal he accepted. He got healthy enough this spring to break camp with the club. However, alarm bells started ringing when he made his start yesterday, as his velocity was down about 7 mph. He had been averaging about 92 miles per hour in his previous starts but couldn’t really get past 85 mph yesterday.
Milwaukee removed him from the game but the details were a bit murky. Manager Pat Murphy said that Woodruff wasn’t experiencing any pain, but merely felt his arm was a bit dead. The Brewers weren’t sure if an IL stint would be necessary or if maybe they would simply try pushing his next start by a few days. He did go for an MRI and it seems there was enough concern to put him on the shelf for at least a couple of weeks.
Further details may be revealed later today but all the pieces add up to a worrisome situation. Woodruff hasn’t been fully healthy for an extended stretch of time since 2022 and it seems he can’t fully shake the shoulder problems.
For now, McGee gives them an extra bullpen arm. In a few days, they will need to figure out how to fill Woodruff’s spot in the rotation. Jacob Misiorowski is taking the ball today and should be followed by Kyle Harrison, Chad Patrick and Brandon Sproat in the subsequent games. By Tuesday at the latest, they’ll need either a bullpen game or another starter in the mix. If Woodruff is going to be out for a while, they will need to think about long-term solutions.
Shane Drohan, DL Hall and Jake Woodford have been throwing multi-inning stints out of the bullpen. Perhaps someone in that group could make a spot start or act as the bulk guy in a bullpen game, or maybe even a combo of those guys could cover a game. The Brewers also have options in the minors. Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Coleman Crow and Carlos Rodriguez are all on optional assignment in Triple-A right now, so someone in that group could be recalled.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images