Orioles Acquire Eduarniel Núñez, Designate Christian Roa
The Orioles acquired right-hander Eduarniel Núñez from the A’s in exchange for cash, the clubs announced Friday. He’d previously been designate for assignment and has now been optioned to Baltimore’s Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk. To open space on the 40-man roster, the O’s designated another right-handed reliever, Christian Roa, for assignment.
More to come.
Jordan Westburg To Undergo Season-Ending Elbow Surgery
Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg will undergo elbow surgery and miss the rest of the season, reports Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner. Westburg is already on the 60-day injured list and will stay there for the rest of the campaign.
It’s a disappointing but unsurprising result. Westburg was diagnosed with a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament back in February. He and the O’s initially tried for a non-surgical approach, as he was given a platelet-rich plasma injection at that time. Earlier this month, some continued discomfort in his elbow led to him being shut down from throwing. Now it seems the surgical path could no longer be avoided.
Some observers may wonder why he didn’t just undergo surgery in the first place. Generally speaking, surgeries require long recovery timelines, so players and teams usually try to explore the alternatives first. The player often ends up going under the knife in the long run, but there are some cases where the alternate possibilities are effective, allowing the player to return sooner. In this case, perhaps Westburg had a path to helping the Orioles late in 2026 if all went well.
That best-case scenario won’t happen but the O’s likely haven’t lost anything by trying. UCL surgeries for pitchers often take a year or so to recover but position players can come back sooner than that. It’s possible Westburg could return for the start of 2027, which would have been the outcome if he had surgery back in February anyway.
More to come.
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Rays Designate Aaron Brooks For Assignment
The Rays have designated right-hander Aaron Brooks for assignment and recalled fellow righty Trevor Martin from Triple-A Durham in a corresponding move, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Their 40-man roster is now at 39 players.
Brooks, 36, signed with the Rays earlier this month after beginning the season in the Mexican League. His contract was selected to the major league roster last weekend, and he made his team debut Wednesday evening. It didn’t go well. The journeyman righty recorded only one out and was tagged for three earned runs on a pair of walks and a homer. That could end up representing the entirety of his time with the Rays; he’ll now be traded, placed on outright waivers or released within the next week. Brooks has been outrighted in the past and thus has the right to reject a minor league assignment if he passes through waivers unclaimed.
This now becomes the seventh season in which Brooks has logged at least one big league appearance. He has just under three total years of major league service time, during which he’s compiled 207 innings with a 6.48 ERA, a 15.2% strikeout rate and a 7% walk rate.
Though he hasn’t had much success in the majors, Brooks has pitched in parts of 10 Triple-A seasons and piled up more than 800 innings there. A 4.80 ERA doesn’t stand out, but he’s spent most of his Triple-A career pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and has had some successful seasons there. Brooks also spent two years pitching with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kia Tigers, for whom he logged a 2.79 ERA in 229 1/3 innings from 2020-21.
Angels, Austin Wynns Agree To Minor League Deal
The Angels and free agent catcher Austin Wynns are in agreement on a minor league deal, MLBTR has learned. The Klutch Sports client opened the season with the division-rival A’s but was designated for assignment a week ago. The A’s asked to assign him to Triple-A Las Vegas, but as a player with five-plus years of service, Wynns had the right to refuse, which he did. The A’s then placed him on release waivers, and he subsequently became a free agent.
Wynns spent nearly one calendar year with the A’s after they acquired him in a cash swap with the Reds last June. He’d taken 63 plate appearances with Cincinnati and turned in a mammoth .390/.429/.661 slash (three homers, seven doubles), but that sort of production was never going to be sustainable; Wynns had a modest track record prior to that outburst, and while the short uptick in power was impressive, his overall batting line was also buoyed by a sky-high .513 average on balls in play.
Now 35 years old, Wynns wound up taking 110 plate appearances with the A’s and slashing .167/.204/.304 in that time. The well-traveled backstop’s career marks are somewhere between the extremes of those Cincinnati highs and West Sacramento lows. He’s suited up for the Reds, A’s, Orioles, Giants, Dodgers and Rockies, compiling a lifetime .231/.276/.347 slash line in 826 big league plate appearances (293 games).
Wynns doesn’t draw premium framing grades, but Statcast thinks he’s solid when it comes to blocking balls in the dirt. More impressively, Wynns has shut down 30.2% of attempted base thieves in the majors — right in line with his career 31% mark in the minors. He’s quite strong when it comes to controlling the run game, and clubs clearly value his experience, defensive acumen and work with pitchers, as evidenced by his five-plus years of service despite sub-par work in the batter’s box.
Because Wynns has five-plus years of service, he was able to elect free agency and still retain the remainder of this year’s $1.1MM salary. The A’s are on the hook for the vast majority of that sum. The Angels will owe Wynns only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That would be subtracted from what the A’s have left to pay out.
The Angels’ catching depth has taken a major hit in recent weeks. Logan O’Hoppe suffered a broken wrist in late April. That injury pushed Travis d’Arnaud into the starter’s role, but he went on the injured list last week due to plantar fasciitis.
That pair of injuries left the Halos with Sebastián Rivero and rookie Omar Martínez as the catching tandem at present. Both signed minor league deals over the winter. Rivero entered the season with only 162 days of big league service. He’s a .169/.220/.202 hitter in 134 big league plate appearances and a .248/.296/.369 hitter in 785 Triple-A plate appearances spread across six seasons.
Martinez, 25, had never played in the majors before being called up earlier this week. He’s 1-for-3 in his fledgling MLB career. The Venezuelan-born backstop posted decent numbers in the lower minors with the Yankees but slashed .208/.297/.358 with a 34.4% strikeout rate in 259 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A dating back to last season. Given that tandem’s minimal track record, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Wynns found himself catching games at Angel Stadium in the near future.
The Opener: Subway Series, Suarez, Lee
With Shohei Ohtani getting the day off, catcher Will Smith led off for the first time in his career. The move paid off for the Dodgers. Smith took Landen Roupp deep in his first at-bat. Ohtani is expected to return to the lineup on Friday, which will likely bump Smith back to the middle of the order.
1. Aces battle in New York
The first Subway Series of the season begins on Friday, with the Yankees heading to Citi Field. It’s a matchup of unexpected top starters for each side. Cam Schlittler will get the ball for the Yankees. He’s built on his 2025 postseason success to become a legitimate AL Cy Young contender. Clay Holmes will oppose Schlittler. The veteran slipped out of the rotation down the stretch last year, but has bounced back in a big way this season. Holmes has allowed two earned runs or fewer in all eight starts. He’s been one of the most effective members of a rotation that includes Nolan McLean and Freddy Peralta.
2. Suarez cruises in revenge game
Red Sox lefty Ranger Suarez faced his former club for the first time on Thursday. He delivered 5 1/3 scoreless frames against the Phillies, striking out eight. Suarez was coming off a minor hamstring injury and was pulled after 76 pitches. “To be honest, it was like a regular game,” Suarez told reporters through an interpreter, including Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. “Obviously, I know they were my old teammates, but I wanted to just get deep in the game.” Philadelphia signed Suarez as an international free agent in 2012. He’d spent his entire pro career with the organization until this season. Boston handed Suarez a five-year, $130MM deal this offseason.
3. Lee makes history against the Dodgers
Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee sliced a line drive down the left field line in the fifth inning against the Dodgers last night. The ball skipped off the side wall and past Teoscar Hernandez. Lee zoomed around the bases for an inside-the-park home run. It was the first inside-the-parker for a Giant at Dodger Stadium, according to multiple reports, including from Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. It was also Lee’s first at any level, even Little League, he told reporters. The play momentarily tied the game, but L.A. would score three times in the sixth inning. Hernandez was at the center of the rally following his defensive miscue.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images
What Should The Cardinals Do With Riley O’Brien?
It’s been a weird year for closers. Edwin Díaz, Josh Hader, Ryan Helsley, Emilio Pagán, Carlos Estévez and others are on the injured list. Jeff Hoffman lost his job with the Blue Jays. Pete Fairbanks, just reinstated from the IL, has an earned run average of 10.00. Devin Williams and Andrés Muñoz have ERAs over 5.00. Bryan Abreu, filling in for Hader, has an ERA over 8.00. The Cardinals, meanwhile, are getting great results from a guy who hardly pitched in the majors before his 30th birthday.
St. Louis acquired Riley O’Brien in a very small trade in November of 2023. At the time, O’Brien didn’t even have a 40-man roster spot with the Mariners. All 29 other clubs had passed on claiming him when Seattle placed him on outright waivers in the summer of 2022. He was about to become a minor league free agent, but the Cards saw enough in O’Brien to send cash to Seattle to acquire him and place him on their 40-man roster so he couldn’t hit the open market.
The track record at that time wasn’t much to go on. An eighth-round pick of the Rays in 2017, O’Brien began his career as a starting pitcher. He was flipped to the Reds in August of 2020 for left-hander Cody Reed. Cincinnati added O’Brien to the 40-man roster that November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Things didn’t work out with the Reds. O’Brien made a brief major league debut in 2021 but posted a 4.55 ERA in Triple-A. He was designated for assignment early in 2022 and shipped to the Mariners for cash or a player to be named later.
O’Brien was moved to a relief role in 2022, a switch that didn’t immediately bear fruit. He finished the year with a 7.03 ERA in 39 2/3 Triple-A innings. He seemed to turn a corner in 2023 when he threw 55 Triple-A innings with a 2.29 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. O’Brien struck out 37.7% of batters faced and induced grounders on 57.1% of balls in play. His 13.6% walk rate showed that he was still working on his control, but the Cards were intrigued enough to make that small trade and dedicate a 40-man spot to him.
That didn’t pay off right away. O’Brien suffered a flexor strain early in 2024 and missed most of the season. He was only able to make eight big league appearances and 14 more in Triple-A. He went into 2025 with only 10 1/3 major league innings under his belt. He turned 30 in February of that year, just before the season started.
O’Brien was finally able to break out in the big leagues last year, as he gave the Cards 48 innings with a 2.06 ERA. He wasn’t really as good as that ERA would suggest, however. His 11.1% walk rate was quite high and his 22.6% strikeout rate only average. His 54.1% ground ball rate was good but he got a lot of help from a .252 batting average on balls in play and 82.8% strand rate. His 3.61 FIP and 3.82 SIERA suggested he was good but not quite as dominant as the ERA made it seem.
The Cardinals sent him to the minors a few times last year and burned his final option year. That situation could push a pitcher off the roster, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon with O’Brien. He has taken over the closer’s role in St. Louis, with a 2.70 ERA and 12 saves in 20 innings so far this year. Though that ERA is higher than last year’s, the numbers under the hood look far better. His 29.5% strikeout rate, 2.6% walk rate and 62% ground ball rate are all huge improvements. His .320 BABIP this year actually skews a bit to the unlucky side. His 2.06 FIP and 1.67 SIERA think he actually deserves far better than his ERA.
The results are backed by a strong arsenal. O’Brien is averaging 98.4 miles per hour with his sinker, a pitch he is throwing 59.2% of the time. This year’s most-used secondary pitch is a sweeper that comes in around 83.8 mph, though he’s also using a 91.5 mph slider, giving hitters two different breaking pitches to watch out for. There’s also a changeup nominally in the mix, though that has made up less than 1% of his offerings this year.
O’Brien’s success is a big reason why the Cardinals are playing a bit above their heads right now. They have a 24-18 record despite an essentially even run differential. They have scored 194 runs and allowed 193. The +1 run differential gives them an expected win-loss of 21-21, but they have gone 8-3 in one-run games and 5-1 in extra innings. In short, they’ve played like a .500 team on the whole but have eked out three extra wins in close contests. O’Brien locking down 12 saves and earning three wins has surely played a role in tipping those scales.
It puts the Cards in an interesting spot this summer. They had planned for this season to be an evaluation year. They traded away Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan in rebuilding moves. The plan was to spend 2026 letting less-established guys accumulate lots of playing time, so the club could figure out who is a building block and who has trade value.
Perhaps the Cardinals will fall back in the standings and make things easier for the team brass. If not, it could lead to some tough decisions. The front office probably doesn’t want to buy at the deadline since that would require subtracting from the farm system, at a time when they are trying to build it. In fact, they probably want to do more selling, with guys like Lars Nootbaar, JoJo Romero, Dustin May, Nolan Gorman and Alec Burleson being some logical trade candidates.
O’Brien will be a very interesting player to track as well. On the one hand, he is not close to free agency. He came into this year with one year and 129 days of service time. He’s under club control for four more seasons after this one. He could qualify for arbitration this offseason as a Super Two guy, but even he does, four arb years for what looks like a potential high-end reliever is a great thing to have. There’s a case for keeping him around.
On the other hand, reliever performance tends to be quite erratic. O’Brien is 31 years old and doesn’t have a long track record of big league success. He walked 11.6% of batters faced in his minor league career. He had a 13.1% walk rate in the majors coming into this season. He’s now walking just 2.6% of opponents this year. Did he suddenly go from poor control to elite, or is this going to regress?
There’s also the ever-present injury concerns with a pitcher, especially one who throws almost 100 mph. Most high-velocity pitchers deal with arm issues these days and O’Brien had that aforementioned flexor strain in 2024.
There are many moving pieces here, making O’Brien an interesting player to watch in the coming months. As mentioned up top, lots of clubs have gotten poor results from their closers. Relievers are always in demand at the deadline and that need will perhaps be even greater this year. There’s an argument for the Cards to cash in while O’Brien is putting up good numbers. When they plan to truly contend in a few years, he’ll be pushing into his mid-3os and who knows what his status will be at that point?
Between now and the August 3 deadline, there are many ways it could tip. O’Brien could keep locking down games but he could also see his control slip or he could perhaps get hurt. The team could keep winning games and hang in the race or they could slip back. Trade talks won’t earnestly ramp up for a while but the Cardinals will have some interesting phone calls this summer.
Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images
Buzz Capra Passes Away
Former All-Star and ERA champion Lee “Buzz” Capra passed away on Monday at age 78. The news was confirmed this afternoon by his alma mater, Illinois State University.
A Chicago native, Capra helped Illinois State to a Division II national championship as a senior in 1969. The 5’10” righty was drafted by the Mets in the 27th round that summer. Capra would reach the big leagues two years later, making three appearances for New York as a September call-up.
Capra bounced between the Majors and Triple-A over the next two seasons, working as a starter in the minors while pitching in a swing role at the MLB level. The Mets sold his contract to the Braves for $25K in Spring Training 1974.
Atlanta used Capra in a relief role for the first six weeks of the season. He drew into their rotation by the middle of May and surprisingly broke out as one of the best pitchers in MLB that year. Capra would fire a complete game shutout in three of his first six starts and allowed three runs or fewer in each of his first 12. The Braves won all 12 games with Capra getting the decision in nine of them while combining for a 1.11 ERA across 89 1/3 innings.
He was selected to the All-Star Game but didn’t appear in the contest. Capra would finish the season with a 2.28 mark and a 16-8 record over 217 innings. He had the lowest ERA in MLB, narrowly topping Hall of Fame teammate Phil Niekro for that honor. Capra finished ninth in NL Cy Young voting and 20th in MVP balloting.
It proved a very brief peak. An arm injury limited Capra to 12 mostly ineffective starts the following year. He missed almost all of the ’76 season and was knocked around in a swing role in 1977. The Braves released him the following spring, and Capra retired as a player. He had a second act as a minor league pitching coach with a handful of organizations into the 1990s.
MLBTR sends our condolences to Capra’s family, friends, former teammates and loved ones.
2026-27 Club Options: AL West
In recent weeks, MLBTR has looked forward to next winter’s option classes. We’ll move now to the AL West, where the Athletics have the two most notable decisions.
Previous: AL East, AL Central
Athletics
- Jeff McNeil, 2B: $15.75MM club option (Mets responsible for $2MM buyout as part of December trade)
The A’s landed McNeil in what amounted to a salary dump trade for the Mets. The A’s needed a second baseman and pivoted to the former batting champion shortly after Ha-Seong Kim declined a four-year free agent offer. They picked up $10MM of McNeil’s $15.75MM salary for this season, with the Mets agreeing to cover the $2MM buyout on a matching club option if the A’s don’t bring him back in 2027.
It’ll probably be a one-year stop in Sacramento for the two-time All-Star. McNeil has a league average .276/.343/.362 batting line across 144 plate appearances. He’s following his usual high-contact approach but only has one home run and nine extra-base hits overall. He’s a league average hitter who plays decent but unexceptional defense at second base. McNeil is still a solid player, but he’s not going to command a near-$16MM salary for his age-35 season.
- Jeffrey Springs, LHP: $15MM club option ($750K buyout)
This one could be a trickier decision for GM David Forst and his front office. The A’s acquired Springs from Tampa Bay over the 2024-25 offseason, assuming the remaining two years and $21MM on his contract in the process. Springs was excellent when healthy with Tampa Bay but had barely pitched between 2023-24 on account of April ’23 Tommy John surgery.
The veteran southpaw has avoided the injured list over his year-plus in Sacramento. He hasn’t been as good as he was back in 2022 with the Rays. Springs has settled in as a mid-rotation arm, a control artist with league average strikeout stuff. He can miss bats with his secondary pitches, especially his changeup, but it’s a hittable fastball. He attacks the top of the strike zone with a 90-91 mph heater, an approach that gets a decent number of weak fly balls but also makes him susceptible to home runs.
That’s especially true at the hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park. Springs has a 4.93 ERA over 20 home starts compared to a 3.36 mark in 21 road appearances with the A’s. He’s certainly not their only pitcher to have a tougher time in Sacramento. The end result is a low-4.00s ERA that makes him a #4 caliber starter.
That has value, especially for an A’s team that could be at a disadvantage in pursuing free agent arms. If Springs stays healthy enough to make 30 starts with league average numbers, the A’s would probably bring him back on what amounts to a $14.25MM decision. They have some younger starters on the way (or in the case of J.T. Ginn, already performing at the big league level) but don’t have many proven innings sources behind Springs and Luis Severino.
Houston Astros
- Ryan Weiss, RHP: $5MM club option ($500K buyout)
Houston signed Weiss to a $2.6MM free agent deal over the winter. The 29-year-old righty hadn’t pitched in MLB but was coming off an excellent season and a half with the Hanwha Eagles in Korea. Weiss had turned in a 2.87 ERA over 30 starts while ranking fourth among KBO pitchers with 207 strikeouts last year.
The Astros brought him in to compete for a spot at the back of a wide open rotation. Weiss instead landed in long relief and has struggled to throw strikes, walking 15% of opponents en route to a near-8.00 ERA through his first 26 MLB innings. He has fanned 23% of batters faced and is averaging 95 mph on his fastball, but the walks and early home run issues led the Astros to option him to Triple-A last week. He worked 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball with three strikeouts in his first start for Sugar Land.
The $5MM option is affordable enough that Weiss could still get the front office’s attention if he dials in the command. This addition hasn’t started the way the Astros had hoped, though, and it’s likelier he’ll be bought out.
Isaac Paredes’ arbitration deal includes a $13.35MM club option for 2027. He’d be eligible for arbitration for a final time even if Houston declines the option.
Los Angeles Angels
- Robert Stephenson, RHP: $2.5MM club option (no buyout)
Stephenson’s three-year, $33MM contract has been almost a complete wash. The Angels bet on the righty’s monster second half of the 2023 season, adding what they hoped to be a late-inning weapon. Injuries have unfortunately wiped out essentially all of the last three years.
The former first-round pick blew out during Spring Training ’24 and underwent Tommy John surgery that April. He was unable to make his team debut until May 2025. Stephenson immediately went back down with biceps inflammation and was out into August. He came into Spring Training healthy but suffered yet another elbow ligament injury and underwent season-ending surgery last month.
Stephenson’s contract contained a stipulation that the Angels would get a $2.5MM club option for 2027 if he suffered a serious elbow injury. That’s in play now, but it seems likely the Halos will move on after he was only able to pitch 12 times in a three-year span.
Seattle Mariners
- Andrés Muñoz, RHP: $8MM club option (no buyout)
The Mariners have one of the easiest calls for a team to exercise on Muñoz. Seattle signed him to what became a bargain extension as he completed his rehab from early-career Tommy John surgery. The hard-throwing righty has gone on to consecutive All-Star appearances as one of the best closers in the game from 2024-25.
Muñoz has unexpectedly struggled through his first six weeks of the ’26 season. He has blown a couple save opportunities and allowed 11 runs (10 earned) across 17 innings. The strikeout and walk profile is as strong as ever, though, and only three pitchers with at least 10 frames — Mason Miller, Kyle Hurt and Dylan Lee — have a better swinging strike rate than Muñoz does. He should be just fine, and the M’s will have a $10MM option for 2028. The ’27 option has an $8MM base value that’ll climb to $9MM if he finishes 45 games this year.
- Victor Robles, RF: $9MM club option ($500K buyout)
Seattle signed Robles to a two-year, $9.75MM extension in August 2024. He’d only been on the roster for around two and a half months, as the Nationals had released the outfielder that June. Robles went on an absolute tear in his first few months with Seattle, hitting .328/.393/.467 while stealing 30 bags across 77 games.
The extension window has not gone as hoped. Robles injured his left shoulder making an exceptional catch at the wall in April 2025. He suffered a fracture and dislocation that wound up costing him four months (extended slightly by a seven-game suspension when he threw his bat at a Triple pitcher after a hit by pitch while on a rehab assignment).
Robles suffered another injury within the first two weeks of this season. A right pectoral strain has kept him on the IL for the past month. Robles is with Triple-A Tacoma on a rehab stint and should be back within the next week, but he’ll probably be in a fourth outfield role now that Luke Raley has broken out of a late-April funk. This is trending towards a buyout.
Bryce Miller’s arbitration deal contains a $6.075MM club option with a $15K buyout. He’d remain eligible for arbitration even if Seattle declines the option.
Texas Rangers
- Kyle Higashioka, C: $7MM mutual option ($1MM buyout)
The Rangers have built in a few mutual options, which essentially never get picked up by both parties. They just delay the payment of a portion of the guarantee in the form of an option buyout. Higashioka will collect a $1MM buyout to conclude his two-year, $13.5MM free agent contract signed over the 2024-25 offseason.
The veteran catcher played pretty well in the first year of the deal but is out to a .203/.271/.266 start in 20 games this season. The Rangers signed Danny Jansen to a similar two-year contract last offseason and will probably look for a cheaper catching partner for him in 2027. They should decline their end.
- Jakob Junis, RHP: $5MM mutual option ($1.25MM buyout)
Texas built their bullpen with a bunch of cheap one-year free agent pickups for a second straight offseason. It’s working well again, thanks in no small part to Junis. The 33-year-old has allowed just four runs through his first 19 innings, collecting five holds and three saves without giving up a lead.
The market rarely seems to buy into Junis’ slider-heavy approach. He sits in the 91-92 mph range on his fastball and has one of the lowest swinging strike rates (6.4%) in MLB. Junis nevertheless has made a career of outperforming modest expectations. He has topped 60 innings in four straight seasons and carries a 3.13 ERA over 238 2/3 innings going back to the start of 2023.
There’s only a $3.75MM difference between the option value and the buyout price. That’s similar to his respective $4.5MM and $2.75MM salaries of the past two seasons. There’s an argument that both sides should be happy with their end of the mutual option, but history suggests at least one will opt for the buyout. Junis’ camp might hold out hope he’ll follow the Phil Maton path and find a two-year deal, or the Rangers could cut him loose despite a seemingly reasonable salary — as they did with Jacob Webb in arbitration last winter.
- Joc Pederson, DH: $18.75MM mutual option
Texas will have an easy call to decline their end of Pederson’s mutual option. That’ll conclude his two-year, $37.5MM free agent signing. Pederson has rebounded slightly from a dismal first season in Texas but is still hitting at a below-average level this year. He has a .190/.296/.331 line over 424 plate appearances as a Ranger.