The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve claimed infielder Brett Wisely off waivers from the Giants and optioned him to Triple-A Gwinnett. Lefty Aaron Bummer was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL in order to create space on the 40-man roster. San Francisco designated Wisely for assignment earlier in the week.
More to come.
Left-hander Clayton Kershaw is going to retire as a player after the current campaign, per an announcement from the Dodgers. His final regular season start at Dodger Stadium will be on Friday.
“On behalf of the Dodgers, I congratulate Clayton on a fabulous career and thank him for the many moments he gave to Dodger fans and baseball fans everywhere, as well as for all of his profound charitable endeavors,” said Mark Walter, owner and chairman of the Dodgers, in a club press release. “His is a truly legendary career, one that we know will lead to his induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame.”
In the next few weeks, Kershaw will be wrapping up a surefire Hall-of-Fame career. He will have spent the entirety of that span with one club, an increasingly rare phenomenon in today’s game. The Dodgers selected him with the seventh overall pick back in 2006 and he’s never been a part of any other franchise.
More to come.
Major League Baseball has ordered a new policy, the Amateur Recovery Period Policy, which adds some new rules applying to the scouting of amateur players over the winter. Reports from Jeff Passan of ESPN and J.J. Cooper of Baseball America provide the details.
There are plenty of complicated nuances involved, but the gist of the new policy is that no team employee is to scout amateur players, either with their own eyes or video/data-tracking equipment, for a period of the winter. This is to encourage players to rest, rather than staying in top game shape for showcases. This applies only to domestic, draft-eligible players. It doesn’t apply to international players or undrafted free agents.
The moratorium covers a period from October 15th to January 15th for high school players. There is a slightly narrower window for college players, going from November 15th to January 15th. During those windows, MLB team personnel are not allowed to see any draft-eligible player in a baseball setting. That includes games, showcases, training sessions “and any other activities related to throwing, hitting, catching or fielding.” They are also not allowed to procure video or data-tracking info on players. If any player submits unsolicited video to a team, the club must notify MLB within 24 hours. Cooper notes that the NCAA also has a quiet period for off-campus recruiting of baseball players from October 13th to February 28th, which also gives players less incentive to stay in game shape during the winter.
All baseball fans are surely aware that arm injuries have become increasingly common in the modern era. Major elbow and shoulder surgeries that require absences of more than a year — particularly for pitchers — are a regular occurrence nowadays. The amateur ranks have not been spared this trend, as the frequency of injuries has also impacted high school and college players.
Both articles cited above mention a December 2024 study from MLB which looked into this problem. Cooper cites an American Sports Institute study which found that pitchers were five times more likely to require surgery if they did not have an offseason rest period. Under these new rules, players can still work out if they choose to, but the hope is that the lack of scouting opportunities will encourage them to take a break and create a “dead period” of scouting.
There are some exceptions. Employees are allowed to watch players in a non-baseball setting, which includes playing other sports such as basketball. Cooper notes that there are four fall ball games scheduled on November 15th, which are grandfathered in. Additionally, scheduled regular-season games played before January 15th are eligible to be scouted. Team personnel can also watch their own children play baseball but only in a non-professional setting, meaning no data can be collected for a team’s database. Scouts can also visit players at their homes as long as no baseball activity is involved.
As mentioned, this policy does not apply internationally. Only players from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico are eligible for the MLB draft. Players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico and other countries are part of the international signing bonus system. The policy also does not cover agents, who are regulated by the MLB Players Association and not the league.
Any employee who violates the rules could face individual punishment, such as fines or suspensions. Their team could potentially face penalties in terms of sanctions in the draft or in the amateur signing system.
MLB’s memo, sent to all 30 teams, states that the hope is to “reduce the incentive for amateur players to perform at maximum effort year-round by designating a period in the calendar, during which time clubs are prohibited from evaluating amateur players, to ensure appropriate rest, recovery and development for players.” Cooper notes that all 30 amateur scouting directors were consulted, along with coaches and medical experts. The policy also has the support of the MLB Owners Competition Committee.
Photo courtesy of Greg Derr, Imagn Images
A lot has changed in the AL Wild Card scene in the two weeks since MLBTR’s last poll about the race. At the time, there were three clubs within two games of catching the Mariners for the final Wild Card spot, and aside from an outside chance of Houston losing the AL West the rest of the playoff field looked more or less set.
Now, the Mariners have surged ahead of the pack to run down the Astros in the West, while the Red Sox have slumped badly to the point where their ticket getting punched is no longer a foregone conclusion. The Rays (nine games back of a Wild Card spot), Royals (seven games back) and even the Rangers (4.5 games back) are all extreme long shots, meaning that if anyone is going to shake up the AL playoff field, it will be a team that wasn’t even included in our poll from two weeks ago: the Cleveland Guardians.
Cleveland has won 11 of its last 12 games, and the 80-71 Guards now sit 2.5 games back of Boston for the final Wild Card spot. Starters Gavin Williams, Parker Messick, and Joey Cantillo have all been excellent since the All-Star break, while Kyle Manzardo and Jose Ramirez have carried the offense. The fabled bullpen that pushed Cleveland into the postseason last year has shown up again this season (even without Emmanuel Clase), and that unit has done a lot of the heavy lifting for the Guardians with the lowest FIP and second-lowest ERA in baseball since the start of August.
What makes the Guardians most interesting as a possible late entrant into the postseason picture, however, is that they actually control their own destiny in the AL Central as well. The division has looked more or less locked up for the Tigers all year long, but a 5-9 record so far in September alongside Cleveland’s surge has left them vulnerable with four games (including one today) left on the schedule between the two clubs.
With two avenues to a playoff spot on the table, the Guardians are arguably the most interesting team to watch over the final few days of the regular season. The playoff odds at FanGraphs are skeptical, giving Cleveland a 16.4% chance to make the postseason this year entering play today. That’s actually the best odds of any team not currently in playoff position, but it still highlights the tough road the Guardians will have to hoe if they’re going to play in October.
That said, Cleveland does have one thing in its favor: the schedule. The Guardians benefit from four games against the lowly Twins, who have been one of the worst teams in baseball since their massive sell-off at the trade deadline. Cleveland also has a remaining series against an injury-ravaged Rangers team to wrap up the 2025 campaign. Meanwhile, the Tigers and Red Sox actually face each other in the final series of the regular season. If the Guardians can just remain in spitting distance of both teams until then, they’ll have an opportunity to make up a game or two in the standings over that final weekend.
What do MLBTR readers think? Will the Guardians be able to pull it off and shake up the playoff field? Or will they be left on the outside looking in this October? Have your say in the poll below:
The Diamondbacks announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Philip Abner from Triple-A Reno. Whenever he makes his first appearance out of the bullpen, the 2023 sixth-rounder out of Florida will be making his MLB debut. Arizona optioned fellow lefty Kyle Backhus to Reno in order to clear an active roster spot. Arizona’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.
Abner, 23, has breezed through three minor league levels this season. He opened the year in High-A and has since climbed to Double-A and Triple-A, posting strong numbers at each stop. The end result is a 3.07 earned run average in 58 2/3 innings of bullpen work. He’s strictly a reliever, with his only two professional “starts” coming for Arizona’s Complex League affiliate last summer, with neither lasting more than an inning. He started just one game in his NCAA career with the Florida Gators.
Abner has fanned 29.8% of his opponents in the minors this season and limited walks at a sharp 6.8% clip. His 40.1% ground-ball rate is only a couple points below league-average, and he’s done a fine job keeping the ball in the yard, yielding an average of 0.77 homers per nine frames across those three levels. He doesn’t throw hard, sitting just 90.7 mph on his four-seamer, but Abner has still recorded a hearty 13.7% swinging-strike rate across his three minor league stops in 2025. He complements his heater with a slider that sits 80 mph.
Although he doesn’t rank among the organization’s top-30 prospects at any of Baseball America, MLB.com or FanGraphs, Abner turned in a strong performance that’s difficult to ignore. The Snakes didn’t need to add him to the 40-man roster, as he wouldn’t have been eligible for selection in the Rule 5 Draft until the 2026-27 offseason, but his strong numbers merit a big league look and now have him in the mix for a potential bullpen spot next year. He’ll very likely head into 2026 on the 40-man roster and with a full slate of minor league options, and D-backs brass can use the final couple weeks of the current season to get a look at him against MLB opponents.
The Tigers have activated reliever Paul Sewald from the 60-day injured list and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by releasing fellow right-hander Codi Heuer, who’d been pitching in Triple-A Toledo. Veteran right-hander Jose Urquidy, who has more than five years of major league service time, has consented to be optioned to Toledo, thereby clearing a spot on the roster for Sewald and keeping Urquidy in the organization.
Sewald, 35, was a July acquisition from the same Guardians club he’ll now potentially face in today’s series finale. He was on the IL due to a shoulder strain at the time of the swap and has yet to make his Tigers debut, though he’s pitched well in 4 2/3 rehab innings (one run allowed). He also missed considerable time with Cleveland prior to the trade. The veteran closer has pitched just 15 1/3 innings in the majors this year and sports a 4.70 ERA, 29% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate in that time.
The Guards signed Sewald to a one-year, $7MM contract over the winter. That guarantee took the form of a $5MM salary, a $1MM signing bonus and a $1MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option. The mutual nature of that option makes Sewald a pure rental; it’s been more than a decade since a mutual option was exercised by both parties anywhere in Major League Baseball.
Though Sewald has scarcely pitched in 2025, he brings a notable track record to manager A.J. Hinch’s bullpen. The right-hander had a nondescript four-year run with the Mets from 2017-20 before emerging from obscurity in Seattle, where he broke out as a high-end reliever. From 2021-23, Sewald pitched 189 1/3 innings between the Mariners and D-backs (who acquired him at the ’23 deadline) and logged a combined 2.95 ERA with 65 saves, 24 holds, a massive 33.9% strikeout rate and a solid 8.6% walk rate.
Oblique and neck injuries limited Sewald to just 39 2/3 innings with Arizona last year. He was reasonably effective, logging a 4.31 earned run average, but wasn’t close to his prior excellent form. Sewald has never been a hard thrower, but his already pedestrian velocity has dipped considerably since that 2021-23 peak. The right-hander averaged 92.3 mph on his four-seamer in that span but was sitting just 91.4 mph last year and 90.3 mph in this year’s limited sample with the Guardians. He posted a matching 90.3 mph average in his Triple-A rehab work with Detroit’s affiliate in Toledo.
Sewald joins the Tigers just a couple weeks after their primary deadline pickup for the bullpen, Kyle Finnegan, went on the injured list due to an adductor strain. Finnegan rattled off 14 1/3 shutout innings in his time with Detroit. His loss clearly stings, but he’s on a rehab assignment of his own now, Detroit could soon have Sewald, Finnegan and fellow July addition Rafael Montero all healthy for the first time before too long.
Heuer was acquired from the Rangers in July as well, though that was a simple cash swap that came with lower expectations. He allowed a pair of runs in 3 1/3 innings for the Tigers and was optioned back to Toledo, where he’s allowed two runs in 9 1/3 innings. That marked Heuer’s first big league action since 2021, as injuries have regularly kept him off the field. It’s a bit late in the season for him to land with another club — barring an unlikely scenario where a team wants to sign him to a big league deal and retain him via arbitration in the winter — so he’ll likely look to land a minor league deal in free agency this winter.
The Urquidy move is the most interesting of the bunch. Since he has more than five years of service, he needed to consent to be optioned. He granted that to the team but will technically be designated for assignment first. That’s a necessity for players with five-plus years of service who agree to be optioned, but because of that service standing, he doesn’t need to be placed on outright waivers or release waivers. He’ll be run through optional waivers before being optioned to Triple-A tomorrow.
This past offseason, the veteran Urquidy signed a one-year, $1MM contract that contains a $4MM club option for the 2026 season. The longtime Astros righty was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery at the time, so the Tigers signed the deal knowing he’d spend the bulk of the season rehabbing. He’s allowed two runs on four hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings (14 batters faced) since returning. Urquidy looked sharp in 19 2/3 innings of rehab work (3.20 ERA, solid K-BB numbers), so by consenting to the option he’ll stay on the 40-man roster and remain an option for Detroit down the stretch — while retaining the possibility that the Tigers pick up that $4MM option for the 2026 season.
The Nationals are continuing to their attempts to get a front office in place before the offseason. Per a report from Ken Rosenthal and Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic, the Nats recently interviewed Eddie Romero, assistant general manager of the Red Sox. In a tweet, Ghiroli also mentions Royals assistant general manager Scott Sharp, though it’s unclear if Sharp has interviewed for the job.
Romero was been with the Red Sox a long time, having been hired in a scouting role back in 2006. He has since risen through the ranks, getting the assistant GM and executive vice-president titles in 2018. His work in Boston is clearly respected within the Red Sox franchise. In the fall of 2023, after the Sox had fired chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, Romero interviewed to be his replacement. That job ultimately went to Craig Breslow.
Romero is the second Boston assistant GM to be connected to the opening in Washington. It was reported last week that Paul Toboni is also a candidate. Today’s reporting confirms that Toboni did indeed interview for the job. However, Breslow is planning to a hire a GM to work as his second-in-command and Tim Healey of The Boston Globe writes that Toboni is a strong candidate for that position. If Toboni ultimately gets tapped for the GM role in Boston, that takes him off the table in Washington and could also lead to increased speculation about someone like Romero leaving.
Like Romero, Sharp has been with his club for many years, having been hired by the Royals in 2006. The Kansas City front office is currently headed by general manager J.J. Picollo. Sharp has been connected to a number of vacancies over the years, including the Mets’ GM search back in 2018, the Angels’ GM search in 2020 and the Giants’ GM search last year.
Sharp withdrew himself from the Giants’ GM search about a year ago, per Rosenthal. That was reportedly due to family considerations, though Rosenthal noted at that time that Sharp had an interest in running a front office at some point in the future.
The Nationals have been rebuilding for years now but the lack of progress led to president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo, and manager Dave Martinez, getting fired in July. Assistant GM Mike DeBartolo was given the GM title on an interim basis. He is a candidate to run the front office beyond the 2025 season, though the Nats have also considered a number of external candidates.
In addition to Romero, Toboni and Sharp, Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman, Dodgers senior vice president Josh Byrnes and D-Backs AGM Amiel Sawdaye have been tied to the Nats. Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins was also in the mix but is reportedly no longer in the running.
Per Rosenthal and Ghiroli, the Nats are considering hiring both a president of baseball operations and a general manager. It’s therefore possible they hire two of these aforementioned executives, though there are perhaps others in the mix who haven’t been publicly connected to the club.
The Nats want to have those decisions made by the end of the regular season so that they can then pivot to the managerial search. Miguel Cairo has been in the interim skipper since Martinez was fired. Whether or not Cairo is a candidate to stick around is presumably dependent on who is eventually picked to run the front office and how that person wants to go about the managerial search.
Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images
The Mets announced a large slate of roster moves this morning, most notably placing righty Reed Garrett on the 15-day injured list due to a sprain in his right elbow. New York also selected the contract of righty Wander Suero from Triple-A Syracuse, designated right-hander Dom Hamel for assignment, recalled righties Huascar Brazoban and Chris Devenski from Syracuse and placed lefty Sean Manaea on the paternity list.
There’s no immediate timetable for Garrett’s return, but the 15-day IL placement ends his regular season. Taking a step back, any news of an elbow sprain — which by definition signifies stretching/tearing of a ligament — is an ominous development for a pitcher. That’s especially true in the case of Garrett, who only recently returned from a two-week IL stay due to inflammation in that same elbow. Presumably, manager Carlos Mendoza will have more information prior to this afternoon’s game against the Padres.
Garrett’s loss is a notable one for a Mets relief corps that has struggled amid what increasingly looks like a late-season collapse. They still hold the final NL Wild Card spot, but the Mets have dropped 10 of their past 13 games and only recently snapped a disastrous eight-game losing streak. The Mets are just 16-27 since the trade deadline passed — a .372 winning percentage that effectively matches the season-long mark of the rebuilding White Sox.
Shoddy bullpen work has been a critical factor. Mets relievers have posted a collective 4.76 ERA since Aug. 1 — the sixth-worst mark in the majors. The typically steady Garrett has contributed to those woes, yielding a run per inning over the course of a dozen frames in that time. It stands to reason that those struggles are tied directly to his elbow injury; Garrett was sporting a tidy 2.45 ERA in 47 2/3 frames before being shelled for eight runs in a span of five appearances and heading to the injured list. He was effective for the ’24 Mets as well, logging 57 2/3 innings with a 3.77 ERA and huge 33.6% strikeout rate.
At the very least, Garrett will be sidelined into a potential Wild Card series. His IL placement is retroactive to Sept. 15. In theory, he could return on Sept. 30, which is the first day of MLB’s Wild Card round of postseason play. A minimum stay for an elbow sprain is quite rare, however, and the fact that this is his second elbow-related IL stint in three weeks does little to quell concerns about a long-term absence.
The 32-year-old Garrett crossed two years of big league service time earlier this season and will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter, as a clear Super Two player (2.143 years of service). He’s under club control through the 2029 season.
With Garrett shelved, the Mets will add Suero back to the major league roster. They claimed him off waivers from Atlanta last month, but Suero didn’t actually pitch in a game with the Mets before being designated for assignment and outrighted to Syracuse upon clearing waivers. He’s been tagged for eight runs in just 6 1/3 big league innings this season but was a frequently used bullpen arm for the Nationals from 2018-20, when he pitched 142 2/3 innings of 4.10 ERA ball with solid strikeout and walk rates.
Suero has struggled in limited big league work since that brief peak with Washington, but he’s been exceptional in Triple-A this season. The 34-year-old righty has tossed a pair of scoreless innings with the Mets’ Syracuse affiliate, adding to an impressive stretch with the Braves’ Triple-A club in Gwinnett. Between those two stops, he’s piled up 48 2/3 innings with a sparkling 1.29 ERA, a 32.5% strikeout rate and a 6.6% walk rate. Even with the lack of recent big league success, it’d be hard to say Suero hasn’t earned himself another look in the majors with this year’s Triple-A dominance.
As Suero rejoins the 40-man roster, the 26-year-old Hamel will lose his spot. The Mets selected Hamel with their third-round pick in 2021, and he made his big league debut just last night, tossing a scoreless inning against San Diego. (Granted, Hamel faced six batters and yielded three hits along the way.) The 6’2″ righty has had a rough season in Syracuse, totaling 67 2/3 innings and recording a 5.32 earned run average. Hamel fanned just over one-quarter of his opponents and notched a sharp 7.4% walk rate in Triple-A this season, but he was tagged for 1.60 homers per nine innings pitched and struggled with men on base.
Because the trade deadline has passed, the Mets’ only course of action with Hamel will be to place him on outright waivers or release waivers. The former is far likelier. He hasn’t been outrighted in the past and obviously has well under three years of big league service time, so he won’t have the right to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed. Hamel has a full slate of minor league options, which could appeal to other clubs seeking depth, but he’s a 91-94 mph righty who’s been hit hard in two Triple-A seasons — which should give the Mets a decent chance of slipping him through waivers and keeping him as a depth piece.
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Guardians’ winning streak runs into Skubal:
The Guardians have won six games in a row and 11 of their past 12 to storm back into the conversation for a spot in the postseason. That includes taking the first two games of a three-game set against their division rival in Detroit, but now if they’re going to complete the sweep and extend their winning streak they’ll need to take down the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. Tarik Skubal has arguably been even better in 2025 than he was last year, with a 2.26 ERA and 2.45 FIP in 28 starts with a 32.1% strikeout rate, making him a strong candidate to win the award for a second straight year. Cleveland right-hander Tanner Bibee, who has a 4.44 ERA in 29 starts this year, will be tasked with keeping the Tigers in check.
2. Can the Mariners take advantage of Houston’s day off?
The Astros jumped out to a half-game lead over the Mariners in the AL West last night, but Houston does not play today while the Mariners face the Royals in Kansas City at 1:10pm local time. A win for Seattle would push them into a tie for the AL West, which would have massive implications on their upcoming weekend series against the Astros. While the Mariners would simply need to win the series to wrest control of the West if they win today, a loss to Kansas City today would mean they can only walk out of their set in Houston with a division lead if they sweep the Astros on their home turf. Veteran righty Luis Castillo (3.76 ERA) will be on the mound for Seattle. Kansas City will counter with deadline acquisition Stephen Kolek (3.71 ERA in 17 starts).
3. Pitchers’ duel between rivals:
The Dodgers and Giants clash in L.A. at 7:10pm local time and will send two of the NL’s best hurlers to the mound. Giants righty Logan Webb has a 3.34 ERA and 2.71 FIP this year — his fifth consecutive season with an ERA under 3.50 and a FIP under 3.20. The Dodgers will counter with Yoshinobu Yamamoto. His 162 1/3 innings handily trail Webb’s 188 2/3, but Yamamoto has the more dominant run prevention numbers. The 27-year-old has posted a 2.66 ERA with a 2.96 FIP in 28 starts while striking out an excellent 29.3% of his opponents. The Giants are two games back in the NL Wild Card race, while the Dodgers hold a two-game lead over the Padres in the hunt for the NL West title.
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