Athletics Select Brooks Kriske
The Athletics announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Brooks Kriske. Fellow righty Tyler Ferguson was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas in a corresponding active roster move. A 40-man move will be necessary to open a spot for Kriske. Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reported earlier that Kriske would be called up.
Kriske, 32, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason. He has been with Triple-A Las Vegas so far this year. He has faced 67 batters and struck out 25 of them, a huge 37.3% rate. He has also given out 11 walks, a 16.4% pace, and thrown two wild pitches. He has a 2.25 earned run average in 16 innings.
The lack of command has been a consistent feature in his career. He has 39 2/3 major league innings under his belt with a 9.53 ERA, with a 16.8% walk rate playing a role in that. In 167 2/3 Triple-A innings, he has a huge 36% strikeout rate and a nice 3.70 ERA but a 12.4% walk rate. He spent 2022 and 2023 in Japan, where he had a 2.31 ERA and 26.9% strikeout rate but also walked 15.1% of batters faced.
The A’s will be latest club to try to take a chance on the stuff. His four-seamer averages about 93 miles per hour but isn’t his primary pitch. He throws his splitter about half the time, with the four-seamer and the cutter roughly splitting the remaining half. The combo clearly allows Kriske to miss bats but also the zone. If it doesn’t work out for the A’s and they want to bump him off the roster later, Kriske is out of options.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Marlins Recall Dax Fulton For MLB Debut
1:45pm: The Marlins have now officially announced that they have recalled Fulton and optioned Kempner.
11:32am: The Marlins are set to recall left-hander Dax Fulton from Triple-A Jacksonville, Isaac Azout of Fish on First reports. Righty William Kempner, who made his own big league debut last night, will be optioned to Jacksonville in his place. Fulton has been a starter for the vast majority of his professional career but will make his debut in the Miami bullpen, Azout adds. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that left-hander Robby Snelling is still on track to make his big league debut Friday in place of recently DFA’ed veteran Chris Paddack.
Kempner tossed only eight pitches in last night’s debut, so it’s not a matter of him being unavailable. Perhaps the Marlins simply wanted another lefty in the ‘pen after Andrew Nardi tossed 22 pitches yesterday, or perhaps they preferred to add some more length after using five relievers Tuesday. Whatever the rationale, Fulton will head to Miami for his first call to the majors. He’s made five starts and two relief appearances this season in Jacksonville but been hit hard: 20 innings, 17 earned runs, 23 hits, 11 walks, three hit batters and 24 strikeouts.
It’s been a shaky start to his year, clearly, but Fulton is a former second-round pick and well-regarded prospect whose path to the majors has been set back by injuries. Most notably, he underwent an internal brace procedure on his left UCL in June 2023. (Fulton also had Tommy John surgery as an amateur.) That 2023 surgery wiped out his entire ’24 campaign. Fulton returned in 2025 with 103 2/3 innings, posting an unsightly 5.38 ERA with more encouraging underlying marks (3.55 FIP, 23.8% strikeout rate, 47.3% grounder rate).
Fulton is a towering 6’7″ southpaw who’s listed at 245 pounds. He’s sitting 93.6 mph on his heater and can ramp the pitch up to 96-97 at times. The big lefty’s other go-to offerings are a low-80s curveball and an upper-80s changeup, though he’ll occasionally sprinkle in a sinker.
Whether the move to a relief role has any permanence remains to be seen. The Marlins have a good bit of rotation depth even after Paddack’s DFA and offseason trades of Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers. The current staff includes Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Max Meyer and Janson Junk. Snelling, who sits 26th on Baseball America’s just-released update of their top-100 prospects, seems ticketed for a debut Friday.
Fellow lefty Thomas White, ranked even higher at No. 11 overall, will likely debut at some point this season. The Fish also have talented lefty Braxton Garrett in Triple-A — he started last night and is thus not a candidate to return to the big league rotation Friday — alongside swingmen Ryan Gusto and Bradley Blalock. Jacob Miller and Karson Milbrandt, the team’s second- and third-round picks in 2022, are both in their second stints at the Double-A level (with the latter throwing very well at present).
That stock of arms could make the bullpen Fulton’s clearest path to carving out a lasting spot on the big league roster, but he’ll likely need to get back to his pre-surgery form with another stint in Triple-A regardless. If he’s up to provide some length in the bullpen for the next couple days, he’ll be a candidate to be sent back down to Triple-A on Friday — assuming Snelling is indeed promoted for his debut that day.
Blue Jays Notes: Berríos, Scherzer, Bieber, Barger
Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos has been trying to get healthy for a long time now but appears to have hit another setback. Mitch Bannon of The Athletic was among those to relay that the righty went for an MRI Tuesday night. His most recent rehab outing featured decreased velocity followed by increased pain for the veteran.
Berríos hasn’t really been healthy since late last year, due to varying maladies that may or may not be connected. Right elbow inflammation put him on the injured list with just a few days remaining in the 2025 season.
He started this year healthy, or so it seemed, as he was pitching in spring training games early on. In mid-March, he was going to join the Puerto Rico team in the World Baseball Classic and underwent a physical which found some elbow inflammation, apparently in a different spot than last year’s inflammation. It was an unusual situation because he wasn’t feeling any discomfort. Stranger still, he was then diagnosed with a stress fracture in his elbow.
Despite the ominous diagnosis and starting the season on the IL, he began a rehab assignment a few weeks ago, but it hasn’t been going well. He has allowed 17 earned runs in 14 1/3 innings. As mentioned, his velo has been down, with Bannon noting a drop of about 3 mph from his first rehab start to his most recent. And with Berríos experiencing more pain than expected, the signs are generally worrying. The Jays are off tomorrow and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet notes that the Jays will likely have more information to share by Friday.
It doesn’t appear as though Max Scherzer is close to a return either. He hit the IL a little over a week ago due to both tendinitis in his right forearm and inflammation in his left ankle. He had been pitching through the tendinitis for a while but said the addition of the ankle issue was too much to juggle at once. Today, he expressed some frustration with the path forward.
“It’s confusing as heck because I have a clean MRI,” Scherzer said to Hazel Mae of Sportsnet. “That’s what has everyone pulling their hair out. The MRI is saying, ‘hey you should be good,’ and I’m like ‘No, the check engine light is on.'” Given that puzzling situation, it’s hard to say what the path forward is.
As for Shane Bieber, who has been on the IL all year due to forearm fatigue, there are some positive signs. Per Bannon, he did a “2-up” bullpen today, which effectively means he threw the equivalent of two innings with a break in between to simulate a game environment. He’ll do another bullpen like that next week and then could progress to live hitters. Presumably, he would be in line for a rehab assignment after that.
The Jays have been trying to get their rotation to a better state of health all year. They started the season with Berríos, Bieber and Trey Yesavage on the IL, leaving them with a rotation of Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Eric Lauer, Cody Ponce and Scherzer. Ponce suffered a season-ending knee injury in his first start, prompting the Jays to quickly sign Patrick Corbin. Yesavage came off the IL at the end of April, which was supposed to push Lauer to the bullpen, but then Scherzer hit the IL instead.
Lauer has been struggling this year, with a 6.03 ERA so far. Corbin has been doing better, entering today with a 3.65 ERA, but it’s fair to wonder how much longer he can keep it up. He’s approaching his 37th birthday and has had an ERA above 5.00 in most of his recent seasons. Ideally, the Jays would get some of their veterans healthy to push Lauer and/or Corbin out of the rotation but that may not be imminent.
There’s a bit more positivity coming on the position player side, since Addison Barger seems close to a return. He has already begun a rehab assignment and the plan is for him to rejoin the big league club on Friday, per Bannon. He struggled through the first eight games before a left ankle sprain put him on the IL. He hit 21 home runs for the Jays last year and slashed .243/.301/.454, so they will obviously hope to get him back in good form.
Barger played a lot of third base last year but Kazuma Okamoto‘s signing means he’ll be mostly in the outfield going forward. With Barger, Nathan Lukes and Anthony Santander on the shelf, the Jays have had an outfield mix including Daulton Varsho, Myles Straw, Jesús Sánchez, Yohendrick Pinango and Davis Schneider.
The Jays will have to make room for Barger somehow, which could lead to an interesting decision. They have been playing a lot of matchups with this group, as Varsho, Pinango and Sánchez are lefties while Schneider and Straw are righties. Schneider isn’t hitting well and has options but sending him down for Barger wouldn’t be ideal in the sense that it would tilt the group to four lefties with Straw as the only righty.
Pinango is hitting better than Sánchez but the latter is more experienced and out of options, whereas Pinango’s recent surge has come in just a handful of games and with a .500 BABIP he won’t sustain. Sending down Pinango might be the easiest decision in a sense but it also may be hard to option a hot hand while the club isn’t scoring tons of runs.
Photo courtesy of Brian Fluharty, Imagn Images
Rockies Sign Erasmo Ramirez To Minor League Deal
The Rockies have signed veteran righty Erasmo Ramirez to a minor league contract, as announced by his now-former Mexican League club, los Algodoneros del Unión Laguna. He’ll presumably start his Rockies tenure with their Triple-A club in Albuquerque. Ramirez is represented by NPG Sports.
Ramirez opened the season in Mexico and was hit hard, surrendering 11 runs on 17 hits and a pair of walks with nine punchouts in a dozen innings. Poor small-sample results notwithstanding, the Rockies were clearly intrigued by Ramirez’s stuff. He’ll hope to pitch his way into what would be a 15th season with some big league experience.
The Nicaraguan-born Ramirez debuted with the Mariners back in 2012. He’s pitched for seven teams — Mariners, Rays, Nationals, Tigers, Twins, Mets, Red Sox — most recently suiting up for Minnesota late last season. Ramirez tossed 11 innings as a Twin and held opponents to three runs (2.45 ERA) on 10 hits and a pair of walks with five strikeouts.
Ramirez has never been a hard thrower, but a heater that averaged 92-94 mph earlier in his career sat 90.4 mph with Minnesota in 2025. In 860 career innings, he has a 4.34 earned run average with an 18% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 43.8% grounder rate. He’s worked as both a starter and reliever and stands as a possible swingman option for a Rockies staff that ranks 25th in the majors with a 4.59 ERA.
MLB Mailbag: Gunnar Henderson, Skubal, Padres
This week's mailbag gets into potential Gunnar Henderson trade timing, the potential of Marlins lefty Braxton Garrett, possible All-Star Game starting pitchers, whether the Tigers might trade injured ace Tarik Skubal, who the Padres might add at the trade deadline, and more.
Drew asks:
Let's play a game, part 1: predict the odds on a Gunnar trade this year, offseason, 2027 pre trade deadline, or not at all. Part 2: What's his actual value in terms of prospect capital given his downturn in performance?
Henderson, 25 in June, is under team control through 2028. This is his first arbitration year, and he's earning $8.5MM. As a Boras client, Henderson isn't seen as a likely extension candidate for the Orioles.
As of Wednesday morning, the 16-20 Orioles have pretty much abandoned their hopes of winning the AL East, but are only one game back for a wild card spot. According to FanGraphs, they have a 31.4% chance of reaching the playoffs this year.
After a 1 for 5 effort against the Marlins on Tuesday, Henderson's wRC+ stands at just 95 through 163 plate appearances. He's shown good power with nine home runs, but is striking out nearly 31% of the time and thus has a .208/.270/.443 line. Henderson's expected batting average is .225, so he's mostly earned his ugly early-season line. In a full season, Henderson has yet to post a wRC+ below last year's 120, and he soared as high as 154 in 2024.
Has Henderson previously posted a .713 OPS over 35 games? Yes - he was notably worse from August 19th through September 27th last year, when he hit .248/.333/.308 (83 wRC+). He also had an early 2023 run of that length with a .684 OPS (.192/.328/.356 for a 94 wRC+). What's happened so far is well within the range of normal variation for Henderson. After that streak ended in '23, he posted a 130 wRC+ the rest of the way.
Henderson has spent ample time at both third base and shortstop in his career, though he's been at short exclusively since his monster '24 season. He's demonstrated roughly average defensive abilities at the position.
The Orioles could reasonably fall out of the playoff race prior to the August 3rd trade deadline. They could trade Henderson for three pennant races, moving on from his final 2 1/3 years of control.
Orioles president of baseball operations and GM Mike Elias is a pragmatic type, but I expect him to re-load (to a degree) for 2027 and try to win again with Henderson. Henderson projects to be worth 5 WAR this year and is making a fraction of his market value. There's just no good reason to cash him in this summer. I'll put the summer 2026 trade odds at 1%.
As we entertain this hypothetical, it's worth asking who would take over for the Orioles at shortstop. Jeremiah Jackson, getting most of the second base share at present, is one candidate. He was seen as having the athleticism for the position back in his prospect days, before he was traded to the Mets and then later released. Jackson Holliday has five more years of team control remaining and could be a long-term option, though he's been slow to return this year from a broken hamate bone. Jordan Westburg is on the 60-day IL with a partial UCL tear, so he's a major question mark right now. Neither Holliday nor Westburg has played shortstop regularly since 2023.
MLB.com suggests prospect Wehiwa Aloy could stick at shortstop, but he's currently at High-A. Former big leaguer Jose Barrero has been handling shortstop for the Triple-A Norfolk Tides and could be a 2026 stopgap.
Is Holliday the best long-term internal bet to take over at shortstop? He was seen as a plus defensive shortstop coming up, but as a second baseman last year he struggled mightily going to his right and did not demonstrate a strong arm. Holliday has five years of control remaining, but he also has one decent MLB season under his belt and has yet to get going in 2026.
I'm trying to talk myself into the Orioles trading Henderson during the 2026-27 offseason, and I find it to be a major stretch. They just don't have a ready replacement, so trading Henderson would be a huge concession for '27. The Orioles are committed to Pete Alonso and Shane Baz through 2030, the resurgent Adley Rutschman is under control through '27, Westburg through '29, and Holliday through '30. While I don't love that MLB core, pivoting to a reset this winter by trading their best player would be a gut-punch to fans. Throw in a lockout that will likely eat up three-plus months of the offseason, significantly shortening the window to make a franchise-altering trade, and it feels even less likely.
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Braves Select Jim Jarvis, Designate Jose Azocar
The Braves announced they’ve selected the contract of infielder Jim Jarvis from Triple-A Gwinnett. He’ll head to the majors for the first call-up of his career. Outfielder Jose Azocar has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Jarvis, a product of the University of Alabama, was an 11th-round pick by the Tigers in 2023. Detroit traded him to Atlanta at last summer’s deadline for middle reliever Rafael Montero. Jarvis was amidst a middling offensive season in Double-A but has posted stronger numbers since joining the Braves’ system.
The lefty batter hit .265/.344/.361 over 21 games with Atlanta’s Double-A affiliate after the trade. He earned a late-season bump to Gwinnett, where he has played the first five weeks of this season. Jarvis is out to an excellent .308/.415/.445 start through 153 plate appearances. He has worked walks at a lofty 15% clip against a lower than average 17.6% strikeout rate while stealing 15 bases in 17 tries.
Jarvis has shown a strong awareness of the strike zone throughout his minor league career. He hasn’t been much of a power threat despite connecting on four home runs and six doubles in Triple-A. That accounts a third of the longballs he has hit in nearly 1200 professional plate appearances. Jarvis’ exit velocities in Gwinnett are still middling, so he’s unlikely to hit for much power at the MLB level.
The lack of offensive impact has kept Jarvis mostly off the prospect radar. Baseball America ranked him 28th in the Atlanta system over the offseason, while Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs had him as an honorable mention in his March writeup of the organization. Both outlets credit Jarvis as a steady, if not particularly flashy, shortstop with a contact-based offensive approach.
Atlanta has moved Mauricio Dubón from shortstop to center field over the past week. That was initially driven by Michael Harris II battling minor quad discomfort that kept him out of the field. Harris donned a glove last night but started in left field for the first time in his career. They kept Dubón in center while pushing Mike Yastrzemski over to right field. That’ll probably be their primary outfield trio while Ronald Acuña Jr. is out, even if they flip Harris back up the middle and Dubón to left once Harris is back to full speed.
Jarvis gives them a little more depth on the infield behind stopgap shortstop Jorge Mateo. The Braves should get Ha-Seong Kim back from injury within the next week to 10 days. That’ll push Mateo back to a depth role alongside Kyle Farmer and could nudge Jarvis back to Triple-A.
Azocar was just selected onto the MLB roster as outfield depth when Acuña went down on Sunday. He made one start in right field, going 0-2. He pinch ran and stole a base on Monday. The 29-year-old has had a couple very brief stints on Atlanta’s roster over the last two years. Azocar was out to a .270/.348/.420 start with Gwinnett but has a modest .243/.288/.318 batting line over parts of five MLB campaigns.
Atlanta will trade Azocar or place him on waivers within the next five days. The latter outcome seems likelier. There’s a decent chance he’ll clear because he’s out of minor league options, meaning a claiming team would need to be willing to carry him on the big league roster. Azocar has been outrighted in his career a few times, giving him the right to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed again.
Carlos Correa To Undergo Season-Ending Ankle Surgery
The hits keep coming for the Astros. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports that third baseman/shortstop Carlos Correa will require season-ending surgery to repair a left ankle injury. Correa was scratched from last night’s game and subsequently reported to have suffered a potentially major ankle injury. He was in the clubhouse today on crutches.
Correa himself told reporters in Houston that he suffered a torn tendon in his left ankle (video link via McTaggart). The requisite surgery to repair the injury will sideline him for the next six to eight months. (Notably, that’s not the ankle that caused enough medical concern to scuttle a pair of major free agent deals a few offseasons back.) As Correa explains, it was a freak incident:
“I was hitting in the cage — normal day, feeling great. I went through my whole routine, took a swing, and felt a pop. It just completely snapped on me, and then I fell to the ground, couldn’t put weight on it. Just a normal swing, but I felt a loud pop. I heard it. I felt it. I knew right away something was wrong.”
With Correa’s season over, the Astros will entrust shortstop to Nick Allen and Braden Shewmake for the time being. Both are light-hitting defensive specialists, though Shewmake took Shohei Ohtani deep for a go-ahead home run last night. Star shortstop Jeremy Peña is on the mend from a hamstring strain and will reclaim everyday shortstop work once healthy. Peña’s return would have pushed Correa back to third base, but the hot corner will now be manned by Isaac Paredes moving forward, with a resurgent Christian Walker at first base, Jose Altuve at second base and Yordan Alvarez at designated hitter.
Correa is the latest in a dizzying line of major Astros injuries. He joins not only Peña but Hunter Brown (shoulder strain), Josh Hader (biceps tendinitis), Yainer Diaz (oblique strain), Jake Meyers (oblique strain), Tatsuya Imai (arm fatigue), Cristian Javier (shoulder strain), Joey Loperfido (quad strain) and Taylor Trammell (groin strain) as Astros to suffer new injuries this season. The ‘Stros are also still without pitchers Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski and Brandon Walter, all three of whom underwent UCL surgery during the 2025 season.
Suffice it to say, the 2026 season hasn’t gone according to plan. Houston’s 15-22 record is the fifth-worst in Major League Baseball. Long-term absences for key players like Correa, Brown, Hader and Peña have conspired to dig an early hole from which they’ll be hard-pressed to climb out. The pitching, in particular, has been egregiously bad. Houston not only ranks last in the majors with a team-wide 5.65 ERA — they’re 64 points north of the 29th-ranked D-backs, who sit at a collective 5.01. The bullpen’s 6.20 ERA is the highest in MLB by nearly a full run over the 29th-ranked Angels (5.35). The rotation’s 5.13 ERA ranks 29th, narrowly leading Arizona (5.20).
The 2026 trade deadline is still just under three months away, but the mountain of injuries and a dismal pitching performance thus far makes it hard to envision the ‘Stros recovering — even with Alvarez and Walker combining to create one of the more formidable lineup duos in the game. The Astros will face some tough decisions at this year’s deadline, due not only to the current state of affairs but also an increasingly concerning long-term outlook that doesn’t create much optimism.
[Related: The Astros’ Ominous Long-Term Outlook]
As for Correa, he’s still signed for another two seasons beyond the current year. He’ll earn $30.5MM in 2027 and $30MM in 2028, though the Twins are paying $10MM per year (2026-28) as part of the trade that sent Correa and more than $70MM of his remaining contract back to Houston. His six-year, $200MM deal also contains a quartet of vesting club options valued at $25MM, $20MM, $15MM and $10MM, spanning the 2029-32 seasons. Those options can vest based on the total plate appearances Correa logs in the immediately preceding season.
Nationals Sign Max Kranick
May 6: Kranick’s deal pays him $800K this season, reports Jessica Camerato of MLB.com. The 2027 option value is to be determined, in a sense. It’ll either be valued at $850K or $50K north of whatever the new league minimum is in 2027 — whichever of the two is higher. With the current collective bargaining agreement expiring, it’s of course possible that the $780K league minimum will increase further next year under a new agreement.
May 5: Washington officially announced the signing of Kranick to a one-year contract with a club option for 2027. He has been placed on the 15-day injured list as he continues working back from the elbow procedure. The team did not disclose salary terms.
May 1: The Nationals and right-hander Max Kranick have agreed to terms on a deal, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. The former Pirates and Mets righty underwent flexor tendon surgery last July and was non-tendered by the Mets in November. The Covenant Sports Group client’s contract is still pending a physical.
Kranick, 28, has pitched in parts of three seasons but never been able to carve out any staying power, thanks largely to injuries. He underwent Tommy John surgery in June of 2022 and missed the vast majority of the 2023 season as a result. The Mets claimed him off waivers in the 2023-24 offseason but didn’t call him to the majors in ’24 — despite solid results in the minors.
In 2025, the Mets gave Kranick a real look. He got out to a nice start and was sitting on a 3.65 ERA through 37 frames at the time of his flexor injury. Kranick’s 16.9% strikeout rate was well south of the 22.3% league average, but his 3.4% walk rate was outstanding. Those trends have been fairly typical for Kranick. He’s never missed many bats but has generally run a better-than-average walk rate (granted, not quite to his 2025 extent) when healthy.
Washington’s pitching staff has been one of the worst in the game this year. The Nats’ 5.11 team earned run average sits 29th in the majors. That’s due largely to struggles in the rotation (Miles Mikolas and Zack Littell, in particular), but Washington’s collective 4.90 ERA from the bullpen ranks 23rd in the game as well.
Given those poor results, it’s hardly a surprise to see the Nats bring in some outside arms. Kranick isn’t going to be ready to jump right into the mix, however. He threw for teams back in January and was said at the time to be targeting a second-half return from the injured list. Once the deal is finalized, he’ll presumably need to work through a throwing progression and then go through a lengthy minor league rehab stint.
Kranick has 3.011 years of big league service time, so if he makes it back to the majors with the Nats and pitches well, he can be controlled for another three seasons beyond the current campaign. He’s out of minor league options, so once he’s added to the active big league roster, Washington won’t be able to send him to the minors unless he clears outright waivers.
MLBTR Podcast: Skubal’s Injury, The Marlins’ Catchers, Eldridge Called Up, And Volpe Sent Down
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 Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- Tigers ace Tarik Skubal requiring elbow surgery (1:25)
- The Marlins calling up Joe Mack, optioning Agustín Ramírez and designating Chris Paddack for assignment (8:35)
- The Giants calling up Bryce Eldridge (21:50)
- The Yankees optioning Anthony Volpe (33:15)
- The Red Sox dealing with injuries to Garrett Crochet and others (41:55)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- What kind of package could the Rockies get if they traded Chase Dollander? (46:20)
- What can the Brewers do to address the left side of the infield? (56:50)
- Instead of using guys like Scott Kingery or Nicky Lopez on the bench, shouldn’t the Cubs call up a better player from the minors? (59:35)
Check out our past episodes!
- The Alex Cora Situation, Lucas Giolito Signs, And The Phillies Fire Rob Thomson – listen here
- Kevin McGonigle, The Padres’ Franchise Valuation, And Edwin Díaz To Miss Time – listen here
- Lenyn Sosa Traded, And Injury Concerns For The Astros, Cubs And Orioles – 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 Evan Petzold, Imagn Images
Joe Ryan Hoping To Avoid Injured List; No Structural Damage In Elbow
The Twins received good news on star right-hander Joe Ryan after he exited his most recent start in the first inning due to elbow pain. An MRI taken revealed no structural damage, the team told its beat (link via Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press). Ryan is planning to throw a bullpen today and may not even require a trip to the injured list.
Alarm bells sounded during Ryan’s most recent start, when he lasted only nine pitches before departing with a trainer. The right-hander himself explained that he felt some discomfort that he hasn’t experienced in the past on multiple pitches. Since it was in his elbow, he took the cautious approach of signaling for a trainer. The Twins, understandably, did not take any chances.
Time will tell if Ryan is completely out of the woods. He’s already played catch. Today’s bullpen session will be informative. However, even if he requires a brief trip to the 15-day IL, that’s a far better outcome than the one for which most Twins fans (and presumably Twins brass) were bracing.
Ryan, 29, has been one of the steadier pitchers in the American League since making his debut back in 2021, after the Twins acquired him from the Rays in exchange for Nelson Cruz. He’s made 123 appearances — all but one of them starts — and posted a 3.79 ERA with a strong 27.5% strikeout rate and an excellent 5.7% walk rate. He’s a fly-ball pitcher who lacks premium velocity, which has always made him a bit homer-prone, but Ryan’s ability to avoid walks and miss bats in the zone has helped him limit the damage nonetheless.
The Twins control Ryan through the 2027 season. He’s earning $6.2MM this year and is owed one more raise in arbitration. (This year’s deal has a mutual option on it, but that’ll very likely be declined by one side, and the two parties will reconvene to negotiate a new price for his final arb season.)
Minnesota entered the season widely expected to be one of the least-competitive teams in the league. They’ve outperformed expectations, to an extent, thanks to big strides from younger players like Austin Martin, Brooks Lee and especially Taj Bradley, while veterans Trevor Larnach and Ryan Jeffers have had resurgent performances. Byron Buxton has been terrific, homering 11 times in 33 games.
Those positive developments notwithstanding, the Twins’ decision not to invest anything meaningful in the bullpen after tearing down the relief corps and trading away their five best relievers last summer has left them with a sub-.500 record. Minnesota relievers rank 28th in the majors in ERA (5.26), 29th in strikeout rate (18.3%) and 21st in walk rate (10.9%). Only three teams (Mets, Red Sox, Angels) have a lower average fastball from their relievers.
The Twins play in baseball’s worst division, so their 16-20 record leaves them only 1.5 games out of first place, trailing a Tigers club that just lost ace Tarik Skubal to a monthslong absence. Perhaps that’ll be enough to keep all five AL Central teams in relative contention into the summer, but Ryan still stands as an obvious potential trade chip in light of last summer’s fire sale and some ownership turmoil that has left the team with a payroll about $50MM shy of its 2023 peak. Getting a clean bill of health on his right elbow both gives the Twins a better chance at making an improbable contention run and preserves most of the trade value for a veteran arm who’ll be their top deadline chip if they sell for a second straight summer.