Kyle Teel Shut Down With LCL Sprain
It will be quite some time before Kyle Teel makes his season debut. The White Sox second-year catcher sprained the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) in his right knee, relays Brooke Fletcher of Chicago Sports Network. He’ll be down for 3-6 weeks before he’s able to start a new rehab assignment.
Teel suffered the injury on Saturday in a rehab game with Triple-A Charlotte. Manager Will Venable told reporters (including James Fegan of Sox Machine) that the lefty batter got hurt when his cleat got stuck during a swing. He was working his way back after sustaining a Grade 2 strain of his right hamstring while playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic.
It’s a frustrating setback for a surprisingly competitive Sox team. Chicago enters their series in Seattle with a 24-22 record that has them in a Wild Card spot and only a game behind Cleveland in the AL Central. A playoff berth still seems like a long shot given the Sox’s rebuilding pitching staff, but they’re a more live threat than most would’ve anticipated at the beginning of the season.
The offense has been a big part of that. Chicago is tenth in scoring and ranks in the top half of the league in both on-base percentage and slugging. Only the Yankees have hit more home runs than the Sox’s 66 longballs. Teel would likely have slotted into the top half of the lineup after a .273/.375/.411 showing over his first 78 MLB games.
Chicago has instead rolled with a Drew Romo/Edgar Quero pairing behind the plate. Romo, who entered the season with essentially no MLB track record, has connected on four homers in 13 games since being called up to supplant Reese McGuire as the backup catcher. Quero has had a very tough year, yesterday’s walk-off homer against the Cubs notwithstanding.
The Sox could transfer Teel to the 60-day injured list if they need to open a spot on the 40-man roster at some point. That’ll backdate to Opening Day and would be a formality, as he’s unlikely to be ready for MLB action until late June at the earliest. Quero and Romo are the only healthy catchers on the 40-man.
Nationals Planning To Recall Dylan Crews
The Nationals are likely to recall Dylan Crews from Triple-A Rochester tomorrow, reports Mark Zuckerman of Nats Journal. He’ll meet the big league club in D.C. for the second game of their ongoing series against the Mets.
Zuckerman writes that the call-up was independent of what happened in tonight’s game. Washington center fielder Jacob Young was hit in the midsection by a 93 mph fastball from Mets starter Christian Scott. He was replaced by Joey Wiemer. It’s too soon for the Nats to know whether Young will miss any time, but that could end up being a coincidental corresponding move for the pre-planned Crews promotion.
Crews will get his first MLB look of the 2026 season. Washington optioned the former #2 overall pick and top prospect at the end of Spring Training. Crews had a dismal camp, striking out 11 times in 34 plate appearances while collecting three hits (all singles). That followed a .208/.280/.352 showing in his first full MLB season in 2025.
Washington’s front office felt Crews needed a reset against Triple-A pitching. He had a middling start to the season, batting .247/.346/.404 in April. Crews has gone on a tear since the calendar flipped to May, hitting .291/.339/.527 with seven doubles and a couple home runs in 14 games. He has still fanned in a quarter of his plate appearances, but the recent form was enough to convince the club he’s ready for another shot against MLB arms.
The Nationals can justify Crews’ demotion based on the slow start to his MLB career and his unimpressive spring. That said, they’re surely also aware of the service time ramifications. Crews entered this season with one year and 35 days of MLB service. He needed to spend 137 days on the big league roster to cross the two-year mark in 2026. There are only 132 days remaining in the regular season, meaning Crews will fall narrowly short of that mark even if he’s in the Majors for good.
That’ll push his path to free agency back to the 2031-32 offseason at the earliest, barring an overhaul of the service time structure in the collective bargaining agreement. Crews would be on track for early arbitration as a Super Two player after the 2027 season if he sticks in the big leagues, though he still has a full slate of options and could plausibly be sent back down if he continues to struggle against MLB pitching.
Crews spent most of last season as Washington’s right fielder. He has divided his time between all three outfield spots in Triple-A. Young is one of the sport’s premier defensive outfielders but doesn’t provide much at the plate. James Wood and Daylen Lile aren’t coming out of the lineup. They could rotate through a designated hitter spot divided mostly between Jorbit Vivas and José Tena if the Nationals prefer Crews in a corner.
If Young requires an injured list stint, it’d be simple enough to plug Crews into the everyday center field role. They’d otherwise need to drop someone from the active roster if Young is day-to-day. Wiemer still has an option remaining and hasn’t hit since his out-of-nowhere tear in the first week of the season. The slumping Vivas would seem the other candidate if Washington needs an active roster spot, but he is out of options.
Dodgers Sign Jonathan Hernández
6:58pm: It’s a major league deal, the team announced. Chayce McDermott was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City in a corresponding move. L.A. transferred Ben Casparius to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
6:28pm: The Dodgers are signing righty reliever Jonathan Hernández, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. He was granted his release from a minor league contract with Philadelphia after triggering an opt-out over the weekend.
More to come.
Dodgers Acquire Eric Lauer
May 18: Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports that the Jays are sending around $2.5MM in cash to cover the bulk of Lauer’s salary. The Dodgers are picking up around $600K, though that’s only a marginal amount above the roughly $550K that a minimum salary player would have made the rest of the year. Davidi adds that the Jays will not receive a player to be named later, so it’ll be Lauer and cash for a nominal cash consideration.
May 17: The Blue Jays announced they’ve traded left-hander Eric Lauer and cash to the Dodgers for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Los Angeles transferred reliever Brusdar Graterol from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Toronto designated Lauer for assignment earlier in the week. They’re paying down some portion of the approximate $3.1MM remaining on Lauer’s $4.4MM arbitration salary, though the precise amount hasn’t been reported. The Dodgers will pay a 110% tax on whatever amount of Lauer’s salary they’re assuming.
Lauer posted solid numbers as a starter and swingman with the Padres and Brewers from 2018-22, but his career was at a crossroads after a rough 2023 campaign. The left-hander didn’t pitch in the big leagues at all in 2024, as he spent his time in the minors with the Astros and Pirates and also had a stint in the KBO League with the Kia Tigers. Toronto inked Lauer to a minor league contract in the 2024-25 offseason, and he ended up being one of the unsung heroes of the Jays’ run to the American League crown.
Initially called up as a long reliever and bulk pitcher, Lauer was moved into a full-fledged starting role by June before being shifted back into bullpen work in September and throughout the postseason. Lauer posted a 3.18 ERA, 23.9% strikeout rate, and 6.1% walk rate across 104 2/3 regular-season innings and then delivered a 3.12 ERA in 8 2/3 playoff frames.
Despite these solid numbers, the Jays still viewed Lauer as a swingman or depth option heading into 2026, as Toronto addressed the rotation by signing Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce, and then reuniting with Max Scherzer. However, fate intervened again with a swath of injuries that quickly thinned the Blue Jays’ pitching depth, leaving Lauer again in a starting job.
This time, Lauer came back to earth. He posted a 6.69 ERA over 36 1/3 innings and eight outings this season, and his 16K% and 9.9BB% also went in the wrong direction from 2025. Lauer wasn’t entirely healthy himself as he battled through a bad case of the flu, but there also seemed to be some discord between the left-hander and the team over his usage. Lauer went public with his displeasure over first his lack of starting opportunities, and then the Jays’ decision to use an opener for some of Lauer’s outings.
Ironically, Lauer now finds himself on a team known for non-traditional pitcher deployment, so it wouldn’t be a shock if the Dodgers again use an opener if Lauer is lined up to face a team with several tough right-handed batters atop a lineup. That assumes Lauer will start at all, though that is probably the likeliest scenario given the team’s rotation needs.
Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell are both on the injured list, leaving Los Angeles with two holes in its preferred six-man rotation model. Roki Sasaki‘s starting job is also less than stable given the right-hander’s shaky start to the 2026 campaign, though Sasaki might retain his rotation role just by dint of a lack of other options. Lauer could be inserted alongside Sasaski, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Justin Wrobleski, and Emmet Sheehan. Down on the farm, River Ryan might be approaching readiness for a return to the majors as well, so the Dodgers again find themselves in the odd position of both technically having a rotation surplus, yet also a shortage of arms.
Katie Woo of The Athletic first reported the Dodgers were acquiring Lauer.
Rangers Place Corey Seager On Injured List
The Rangers announced that shortstop Corey Seager has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 15th, due to lower back inflammation. Infielder/outfielder Michael Helman has been recalled as the corresponding move. Prior to the official announcement, president of baseball operations Chris Young revealed the Seager news on 105.3 The Fan, per Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News and Kennedi Landry of MLB.com noted that Helman was with the club in Colorado.
It’s been a rough campaign for Seager so far. He currently has a batting line of .179/.286/.353. His defensive metrics are also notably worse than last year. He last played on Wednesday, with the back issue keeping him sidelined since then. It was reported yesterday that he had undergone an MRI and would be visiting a specialist. It appears the Rangers decided that he could use a bit more time off. Due to the backdating, he could be back in a week, though it’s unclear if that’s a realistic expectation.
Ideally, some time off can get Seager healthy and then back on track. He has dealt with plenty of injuries throughout his career, as he has topped 123 games played in a season only once since 2019. However, he has usually been incredibly productive when on the field, with a .285/.359/.504 line in his career.
In the meantime, the Rangers will have to proceed without their season-opening middle infield tandem. They began the campaign with Seager as the regular shortstop and Josh Smith the primary second baseman. Smith landed on the IL earlier this month due to a glute strain. He won’t be returning soon. Since hitting the IL, he has dealt with some wrist soreness and then was hospitalized with viral meningitis. He’ll be in the hospital for another week or so before resuming baseball activities.
Since Seager has been out of action, Texas has had Ezequiel Durán at short and Justin Foscue at second. Duran is hitting .270/.336/.443 but Foscue’s line is way down at .182/.182/.318. Foscue’s work is in a tiny sample, as he was only just recalled when Smith hit the IL. The Rangers will need Foscue to pick up the pace or he could lose playing time to Helman, Sam Haggerty or someone not currently on the roster.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images
Mariners Recall Robinson Ortiz, Select Brennen Davis
The Mariners announced several roster moves today. Infielder Patrick Wisdom has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and left-hander Robinson Ortiz has been recalled from Triple-A. The lefty will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. To open spots for those two, Seattle optioned right-hander Domingo González and infielder Leo Rivas. Additionally, the Mariners selected outfielder Brennen Davis to the 40-man roster and optioned him to Triple-A. The 40-man had a vacancy but is now full with Davis taking the open spot.
Ortiz, 26, was just acquired from the Dodgers in an offseason trade. As a minor leaguer, he has missed significant time due to injuries. When healthy, he has been able to get batters out but has also flashed control issues.
That has been the case in his first season with the M’s so far. He has thrown 16 Triple-A innings, allowing 1.69 earned runs per nine. He has struck out 26.1% of the batters he has faced and induced grounders on half the balls in play he has allowed but has also given out walks at a massive 17.4% clip. If it weren’t for a .211 batting average on balls in play and no fly balls clearing the fence, he surely would have suffered far worse results.
He has mostly been a fastball-slider guy this year, throwing those two pitches almost 90% of the time. His cutter has made up the rest of his offerings. The four-seamer is averaging 94.4 miles per hour this year with the slider at 83.9 mph.
It’s possible the the Mariners wanted to get a fresh arm onto the roster. They have been utilizing a six-man rotation lately, leaving them with only seven relievers. González has been heavily used recently, with four appearances in the past six days, including the two most recent contests. If González was going to be unavailable for a day or two, that would drop the Mariners to only six available relievers. Instead, they have swapped in Ortiz, who will make his major league debut as soon as soon as he gets the call.
As for Davis, it was reported that he had an assignment clause in his minor league deal last week. If triggered, he would have to be offered up to the other 29 clubs in the league. If any one of them were willing to give him a 40-man spot, the Mariners would have to either trade him or give him a 40-man spot themselves.
It didn’t seem like the M’s wanted to let him get away. “I don’t see a scenario where we don’t keep him in our organization,” general manager Justin Hollander said. “He’s a right-handed bat with power and there aren’t a ton of them available.” Based on this move, it appears that Davis triggered his clause and had at least one club out there willing to roster him. The Mariners then used their open roster spot to prevent him from getting away, though Davis is being kept in the minors for now.
A former top prospect with the Cubs, injuries wiped out a huge chunk of his 2022 to 2025 seasons. He had to settle for a minor league deal with the Mariners coming into 2026. He has been crushing it in Triple-A so far this year, putting up a massive .281/.394/.548 line. Between that performance and his former prospect pedigree, the M’s have deemed him worthy of a roster spot.
In the big leagues, Seattle is sticking with the existing outfield mix, which consists of Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, Luke Raley, Dominic Canzone, Rob Refsnyder and Connor Joe. Davis can perhaps get called up if an injury arises but will keep getting reps in the minors for now.
Davis has one option remaining. Once he spends 20 days on optional assignment, that will make this his final option season. If he still has a roster spot going into next year, it’s possible there’s a greater path to playing time as Arozarena and Refsnyder are impending free agents and Joe is a potential non-tender candidate. It’s also possible that Davis gets squeezed off the roster at some point and ends up finding a better path to a big league opportunity via a trade or the waiver wire.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Astros Activate Jeremy Peña, Designate Cody Bolton
The Astros made a few moves going into tonight’s series opener in Minnesota. Jeremy Peña is back from the injured list, while the Astros officially placed Jose Altuve on the 10-day IL with a Grade 2 left oblique strain. Houston also recalled righty Jason Alexander from Triple-A Sugar Land and designated right-hander Cody Bolton for assignment.
Peña returns after a near five-week absence due to a Grade 1 strain of his right hamstring. He jumps right back atop the lineup tonight against Minnesota rookie southpaw Kendry Rojas. Peña had collected hits in eight of his first 10 games before the injury, albeit without much power. He batted .256 and is still looking for his first home run of the season.
Carlos Correa initially replaced Peña as Joe Espada’s primary shortstop. Correa’s season-ending ankle surgery has left Houston with a combination of Braden Shewmake and Nick Allen over the past two weeks. Shewmake has dramatically outhit Allen to seize the majority of the playing time. He’ll now slide to second base in Altuve’s stead, though he’ll be hard-pressed to continue hitting as well as he has. Shewmake is a career .241/.305/.384 hitter at the Triple-A level, so the Astros will mostly be counting on him to hold the fort defensively.
Alexander is up for the third time this season to provide a fresh arm in long relief. He hasn’t pitched in Triple-A since last Tuesday. Houston is pitching Tatsuya Imai tonight, leaving them without much certainty about the workload they’ll get from their starter. Imai has only gone beyond four innings once in his first four MLB starts. He gave up six runs on five hits and three walks over four frames last Tuesday against Seattle, his first big league appearance after a month-long IL stay.
Bolton pitched three innings of mop-up work in yesterday’s blowout loss at the hands of the Rangers. He wouldn’t have been available for at least a day or two. He’s out of options, so the Astros needed to DFA him to swap him off the big league roster. Bolton has logged 20 innings since Houston called him up in late March. He has a 5.40 ERA with a league average 23.2% strikeout rate but a near-15% walk percentage. Bolton has struggled to get opponents to expand the strike zone, leading to a lot of free passes.
The Astros have five days to trade the 27-year-old swingman or place him on waivers. An acquiring team would need to plug him directly onto the big league staff. Bolton has never been outrighted in his career, so he would not have the ability to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.
Twins Notes: Woods Richardson, Rojas, Lewis
The Twins are moving struggling starter Simeon Woods Richardson to the bullpen for at least this turn through the rotation, per Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. Left-hander Kendry Rojas, a well-regarded prospect whom Minnesota acquired in last year’s Louis Varland trade with the Jays, will take his place and start tonight against the Astros.
It’s not necessarily a full-fledged rotation change. Rojas is taking the ball in what’ll amount to a bullpen game. Woods Richardson may even factor into the contest in some sort of bulk relief role. However, the 25-year-old has struggled immensely as a member of Minnesota’s starting staff this year. Woods Richardson has started nine games but been tagged for a grisly 7.71 ERA. He’s been done in by extreme susceptibility to home runs (1.93 HR/9) and the lowest strikeout rate of any pitcher who’s thrown at least 20 innings this year (10.1%).
Woods Richardson is a former second-round pick and touted prospect who came to Minnesota alongside breakout left fielder Austin Martin back in the 2021 José Berríos trade with the Blue Jays. From 2024-25, he was a solid back-end starter, taking the ball 51 times (all but one of them starts) and recording a 4.11 ERA with a 21.5% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.
Woods Richardson hasn’t seen a massive drop-off in velocity, but his heater is down more than half a mile per hour, from last year’s 93.2 mph to a 92.6 mph average this season. He’s moved away from a curveball that was never all that effective and shifted from a traditional changeup to a harder splitfinger change that hasn’t produced the type of results for which he or the team hoped.
If the Twins were able, they’d likely have optioned Woods Richardson by now in hopes of getting him on track. He’s out of minor league options, though, so the solution isn’t so straightforward. Minnesota surely doesn’t want to completely jettison a formerly well-regarded prospect who gave them 50 mostly decent starts from 2024-25 and who still has four additional seasons of club control remaining.
Whether this is a full-on role change or just a temporary break to get him some bulk work in lower-leverage spots, a move to the ‘pen has seemed like an inevitability for some time now. It’s hard not to wonder what Woods Richardson’s arsenal might look like in shorter relief, however, especially since the Twins’ bullpen has been an unmitigated nightmare. Most pitchers see their velocity tick up when abandoning starting pitching and moving into one-inning, max-effort outings. Woods Richardson sat 93.2 mph last year and got strong results on his slider in both 2024 (opponents hit .214 and slugged .313) and 2025 (.214, .378). Bumping that velo into the mid-90s and focusing more heavily on that slider could produce better results.
Whatever shape it takes in the short term, Rojas figures to have a clear path to audition for a rotation spot in the long term. The Twins reluctantly parted with a homegrown (and hometown) Varland last year in large part because they were so enamored of Rojas’ potential in the rotation. The 6’2″, 190-pound southpaw has a 2.20 ERA in 16 1/3 minor league frames this season and has allowed two runs in his first 7 1/3 MLB frames out of the bullpen. Rojas has walked as many batters as he’s struck out (eight), which isn’t particularly encouraging, but he’s a 23-year-old in his first taste of major league action. Rojas walked 5.3% of his opponents in the minors and has generally been between 9-10% in most other seasons, so there’s no reason to expect command woes of this nature over a larger sample.
Rojas has sat 96 mph with his four-seamer in the majors and 97 mph in Triple-A this year. He’ll mix in an occasional sinker, but his go-to secondary offerings are a slider and changeup both thrown in the upper 80s. He’s a consensus top-10 prospect in an above-average Twins system that got stronger because of last summer’s fire sale and will get another boost this summer with the No. 3 overall draft pick. Rojas joins Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, Connor Prielipp, Zebby Matthews and top-100 prospect Dasan Hill in a collection of young arms around which the Twins hope to build the next core of their rotation.
While Woods Richardson struggles on the mound, Minnesota is facing a similar inflection point with struggling third baseman Royce Lewis. The 2017 No. 1 overall pick 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, Lewis went on to club four homers in 26 plate appearances during Minnesota’s 2023 postseason run. The sky looked to be the limit.
Injuries, however, have taken their toll. 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. That’s practically a career’s worth of lower-half injuries, but Lewis incurred them all before even turning 27 years old (which he’ll do on June 5).
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.
Dan Hayes of The Athletic spoke to Twins skipper Derek Shelton, who voiced praise for Lewis’ work ethic and the amount of effort he’s put in to climb out of this rut. That only goes so far, however, and sooner than later the Twins will need to see tangible gains or else consider a demotion similar to Matt Wallner, who was optioned to Triple-A last week after two-plus years on the big league roster. Hayes lists journeyman Orlando Arcia and top-100 prospect Kaelen Culpepper as potential options to swap out for Lewis. Both would need to be added to the 40-man roster. Culpepper is a shortstop but could play third base in the majors or perhaps push Brooks Lee to the hot corner. Arcia doesn’t have a big track record but is hitting .318/.376/.556 with eight homers over in St. Paul.
Lewis is controllable through the 2028 season. He’s making $2.85MM this season after avoiding arbitration over the winter. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining.
Mets To Select Zach Thornton This Week
The Mets are going to promote pitching prospect Zach Thornton this week. Manager Carlos Mendoza informed reporters, including Tim Britton of The Athletic, that Thornton will play some kind of role for the Mets on Wednesday. That could be as a starter or working as a bulk guy behind an opener. Thornton is not yet on the 40-man roster, so the Mets will have to make room for him somehow.
Thornton, now 24, was a fifth-round pick of the Mets in 2023. He put himself on the prospect map with a strong 2025 season. He only made 14 starts before an oblique injury ended his season, but the numbers were good. Between High-A and Double-A, he tossed 72 2/3 innings, allowing 1.98 earned runs per nine. He struck out 28.5% of batters faced and only walked 4% of opponents. He also induced grounders on 43.2% of balls in play.
Coming into 2026, Baseball America ranked him the #13 prospect in the system and FanGraphs had him 12th. He doesn’t have huge velocity, averaging just 91 miles per hour with his fastball these days, but both BA and FG highlight his excellent command. FG also highlights his vertical slot and his ability to hide the ball as part of his delivery. His full arsenal includes a four-seamer, sinker, slider, cutter, curveball and changeup.
He has continued to post good numbers this year, with five Double-A starts and two at Triple-A. Combined, he has thrown 37 innings with a 3.16 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 44.4% ground ball rate. BA bumped him up to #10 in the system in today’s update.
The Mets are dipping into their depth due to the recent injury to Clay Holmes, who fractured his right fibula and might be sidelined into August. Christian Scott is starting tonight and Nolan McLean tomorrow. Wednesday would have been Holmes’s turn. The Mets have some long relief options on the roster, although Sean Manaea just tossed four innings behind Freddy Peralta yesterday. Tobias Myers has starting experience but hasn’t tossed more than three innings in any game this year.
Thornton will at least get a spot start. What remains to be seen is if he’ll get sent back to the minors after that or if he’ll stick around. For the next turn, they could put Manaea or Myers into the Holmes spot. They could also turn to someone else on the farm, such as Jonah Tong, Jack Wenninger or Jonathan Pintaro.
Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images
Cardinals Outright Jared Shuster
For the second time this season, the Cardinals outrighted Jared Shuster to Triple-A Memphis (relayed by Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat). The left-hander has the right to decline the assignment in favor of free agency, though he previously forewent that option in the middle of April.
Shuster has made four MLB appearances with the Cardinals in two stints on the roster. He has worked multiple innings in three of those and allowed two earned runs. Shuster has tallied 7 2/3 frames with just six hits and two unintentional walks. He has only recorded two strikeouts, though, missing bats on 3.5% of his pitches.
A first-round pick by Atlanta in 2020, Shuster is a pitchability lefty whose arsenal was headlined by a plus changeup. The Braves hoped he’d move quickly and slot at the back of a rotation, but the lack of swing-and-miss has kept him in a depth/swing role. Atlanta traded him to the White Sox after the 2023 season in the Aaron Bummer deal. Chicago lost him on waivers to the A’s last summer, and he signed with St. Louis after the A’s released him in December.
Shuster carries a 5.12 earned run average with a 15% strikeout rate across 149 1/3 MLB innings. He has a 5.45 ERA over parts of five Triple-A seasons, including this year’s 9 2/3 frames of nine-run ball in Memphis. Shuster is out of options and needs to clear waivers each time a team wants to assign him to the minors.