Orioles Notes: Mountcastle, Mayo
Orioles first baseman/designated hitter Ryan Mountcastle was lifted from the eighth inning of today’s Grapefruit League contest after being plunked on the right hand, but the team has already announced that initial x-rays came back negative. Mountcastle will presumably be considered day-to-day for the time being.
A fracture or any sort of notable injury would only have piled on to what’s been an injury-marred camp for the Orioles this spring in Sarasota. Baltimore has already lost Jordan Westburg (partial UCL tear), Jackson Holliday (hamate fracture) and Andrew Kittredge (shoulder inflammation).
The offseason signing of Pete Alonso pushed Mountcastle out of an everyday role in Baltimore, but he’s still in the mix for DH reps and occasional time at first base. Injuries to Westburg and Holliday have thrust Coby Mayo (third base) and trade acquisition Blaze Alexander (second base) into likely starting jobs. Those injuries create more opportunity for both Mountcastle and catcher/first baseman Samuel Basallo at the DH spot.
Of course, that assumes Mountcastle breaks camp with the club at all. He didn’t seem like a lock to be tendered a contract coming off an injury-ruined season in 2025, but the O’s passed on their chance to cut him loose. After tendering him a contract, they agreed to a one-year deal worth $6.72MM — a contract that includes a 2027 club option that gave the O’s control over what would’ve been Mountcastle’s first free agent season.
The O’s shopped Mountcastle throughout the offseason and have continued to discuss him during spring trade scenarios. The injuries elsewhere on the roster perhaps make a Mountcastle trade a bit less likely, but an injury of his own would have all but eliminated the possibility. With today’s clean bill of health, it seems like an eventual move could at least plausibly be on the table. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco took a look at some logical landing spots for Mountcastle just last week.
The early spate of injuries has already prompted the Orioles to pump the brakes on a potential trade of the aforementioned Mayo. He’s seen his name kicked around the rumor circuit for the better part of 18 months, but Mayo now appears poised to open the season at the hot corner. Kyle Goon of the Baltimore Banner takes a look at the wild ride Mayo has been on over the past year, being asked to change positions multiple times and slowly feeling as though his standing in the organization was slipping.
Mayo played shortstop prior to being drafted, was quickly moved to third base, and was told following the 2025 season that he should prepare strictly as a first baseman — the position he played down the stretch with regularity last year. He then watched the Orioles sign Alonso to a five-year contract, retain Mountcastle in arbitration and effectively ensure that Basallo would be on the roster moving forward by signing him to an eight-year extension.
“I think you just have to remember that there’s a plan out there for you, no matter if it was with the Orioles or with another team,” Mayo said of the tumultuous run he’s had over the past year-plus. “I’m gonna always do what I can to help myself out and get better. There’s nothing to gain out of sulking and being upset about moves a team has made. Going into the spring, who knew that we were gonna have two guys go down in a weeklong span? Like, we had no idea.”
New O’s skipper Craig Albernaz tells Goon that he’s “more than comfortable” opening the year with Mayo as his primary third baseman. In all likelihood, that’ll be the plan. Mayo has made three errors back at the hot corner but has hit well enough to overshadow those concerns for the time being. He was out of the lineup today, but Mayo is 13-for-26 with three doubles, a homer and only one strikeout in 28 spring plate appearances. He also hasn’t taken a walk, leading to an oddball line with his OBP checking in south of his batting average: .500/.464/.731. (Mayo has two sacrifice flies on the spring, hence the OBP discrepancy.)
Kyle Teel Out Four To Six Weeks With Hamstring Strain
White Sox catcher Kyle Teel has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain and could be out anywhere between four and six weeks, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. He’ll open the season on the 10-day injured list.
Teel, 24, suffered the injury last night when legging out a double in Italy’s upset win over the United States in the World Baseball Classic. He ran hard out of the box and pulled up limping shortly after rounding the first base bag (video link). Teel was visibly frustrated when standing on second base, clearly aware that he’d an injury of some note. He left the field with the training staff, albeit under his own power.
It’s a sour note on which to end Teel’s WBC run and on which to begin his 2026 season. The 2023 first-rounder headlined the prospect package the White Sox received when trading Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox last offseason and quickly broke out as what looks like Chicago’s catcher of the future. Teel played in 78 games last year, tallied 297 plate appearances and batted .273/.375/.411 with eight homers, 11 doubles and a huge 12.5% walk rate. His defense could use some improvement, but the lefty-swinging Teel looks the part of a big league catcher with strong offense for the position.
With Teel sidelined, the South Siders will open the season with Edgar Quero and Korey Lee as their catching tandem. Quero, like Teel, is a trade acquisition and former top prospect, coming to the Sox by way of the 2023 Lucas Giolito/Reynaldo Lopez trade with the Angels. The Cuban-born Quero is a switch-hitter who logged a respectable .268/.333/.356 slash (95 wRC+) in 403 plate appearances last year, though his glovework drew particularly poor grades; he caught only 15.8% of attempted thieves on the basepaths and graded as one of the worst pitch framers in the game.
Teel’s injury means Quero will open the season in a starting role and look to improve on both his power output and his defensive acumen behind the plate. Lee is another former first-round pick whom the Astros added in a trade (Kendall Graveman, 2023). He profiles strictly as a backup at this point, having slashed .195/.237/.325 with 14 homers in 504 plate appearances with the Sox — but only a 5.2% walk rate and a gaudy 29.6% strikeout rate. Lee has nabbed nearly one-quarter of runners who’ve attempted to steal against him since being traded to Chicago, but he’s drawn below-average grades for his framing and his efforts to block balls in the dirt.
The injury to Teel allows the White Sox to kick the can down the road a bit when it comes to a decision on their catching corps. Teel and Quero seem like the clear long-term candidates at the position, while the 27-year-old Lee (28 in July) is out of minor league options. He’ll now have at least a bit of runway to make a case that he deserves to stay on the roster once Teel is healthy, but Lee’s hold on a roster spot alongside a healthy Teel and Quero looks tenuous at best. Drew Romo, a former top prospect with the Rockies, is also in camp as non-roster depth if the Sox incur further injuries among their catching group.
Yankees’ Brock Selvidge Undergoes UCL Surgery
Yankees prospect Brock Selvidge underwent an internal brace procedure on his left elbow and will miss the 2026 season as a result, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com reports.
Selected by the Yankees with their third-round pick back in 2021, the now-23-year-old Selvidge isn’t on the team’s 40-man roster and went unclaimed in December’s Rule 5 Draft. He was still a candidate to make his big league debut at some point in 2026, having gone through a second stint at Double-A in 2025, where he logged a 4.68 ERA, an 18.9% strikeout rate and a 12.2% walk rate. He tossed two scoreless spring innings with a 4-to-1 K/BB ratio.
Baseball America ranked Selvidge 12th among Yankees farmhands heading into the 2026 season, labeling him a potential fourth or fifth starter who sports a five-pitch arsenal that includes an average or better four-seamer, cutter and sweeper.
Injuries aren’t necessarily new for Selvidge. He was named to the 2024 roster for the Futures Game, held annually during the MLB All-Star break, but had to pull out of the event due to a pinched nerve in his left biceps. He’d worked to a 3.25 ERA with a 24.6% strikeout rate in his first dozen starts that year but was rocked for 17 runs over his final 21 innings (7.29 ERA) before landing on the injured list in early July. He wound up requiring surgery in Sept. 2024 and was out until late May last season while recovering.
The 2026 season will be Selvidge’s third straight year in which an arm injury has limited his workload. By the time he’s cleared to throw off a mound in 2027, he’ll be facing a three-year period where he’s thrown 167 2/3 innings despite regularly working as a starting pitcher.
Selvidge isn’t on the major league roster, so he won’t land on the 60-day IL and accrue big league service or pay. He wasn’t likely to be an early-season option anyhow, but he’s now out of the running for a look later this summer
The Yankees already have Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt opening the season on the injured list. Veterans Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn give the Yankees a pair of swing options behind Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Ryan Weathers, Luis Gil and Will Warren, and out-of-options DFA pickup Osvaldo Bido gives them a third candidate for such a role. Young righties Elmer Rodriguez and Carlos Lagrange are among the top pitching prospects in the sport and could debut in 2026 as well.
Marlins’ Adam Mazur Undergoes UCL Surgery
12:05pm: Mazur underwent a UCL reconstruction (Tommy John surgery) and had an internal brace installed, reports De Nicola. The estimated timetable for his return from that hybrid procedure is 13 to 14 months.
9:00am: Marlins righty Adam Mazur will undergo elbow surgery today and miss the entire 2026 season as a result, MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola reports. Mazur wasn’t locked into Miami’s rotation but was among the top depth options in the event of an injury to one of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Chris Paddack or likely fourth and fifth starters Max Meyer and Braxton Garrett. It’s not yet clear which type of procedure he’ll require. Mazur recently reported elbow discomfort to the team and was quickly sent for an evaluation with renowned surgeon Keith Meister.
Mazur, 24, came to the Marlins alongside infielder Graham Pauley, top pitching prospect Robby Snelling and minor league infielder Jay Beshears in the 2024 trade that sent lefty Tanner Scott and righty Bryan Hoeing to the Padres. He’s a 2022 second-rounder who posted big numbers up through the Double-A level but has run into some trouble at both the Triple-A level (5.03 ERA, 168 1/3 innings) and in more limited major league work (6.22 ERA, 63 2/3 innings).
In 2025, Mazur split the season between Triple-A Jacksonville and Miami, tossing 107 1/3 innings with a 4.36 ERA at the former and 30 innings with a 4.80 ERA with the latter. He turned in solid strikeout and walk rates in Jacksonville but was far too homer-prone to keep his ERA down. Homers were less of an issue in his six big league starts, but he recorded a bottom-of-the-barrel 13.7% strikeout rate in his 30 MLB frames.
Having traded Edward Cabrera to the Cubs and Ryan Weathers to the Yankees, the Marlins entered camp with Alcantara, Pérez and free agent signee Paddack locked into rotation spots. Meyer and Garrett have both pitched only four official spring innings, but they’re both former top-10 picks and top prospects who have experienced success in the majors previously.
Garrett notched a 3.63 ERA in 247 2/3 innings from 2022-23 before a 2024 UCL surgery wiped out his entire 2025 season. Meyer has a 5.29 ERA in 25 career starts but has had big starts to his season in both 2024 and 2025. Miami optioned him in 2024 despite that big start, keeping him down for months and leaving Meyer six days shy of the service time he’d have needed to be a free agent following the 2028 season instead of the 2029 season. In 2025, a hip injury surfaced and eventually required season-ending surgery.
Depth options on the 40-man roster include swingman Janson Junk (4.17 ERA, 110 innings in 2025), Ryan Gusto (acquired from the Astros in last summer’s Jesús Sánchez trade), Bradley Blalock (acquired from the Rockies in January) and 2020 second-rounder Dax Fulton (healthy again after multiple injuries, including a June 2023 internal brace procedure). The aforementioned Snelling and fellow left-hander Thomas White are the two most notable rotation arms in waiting; both rank among baseball’s top 100 prospects, but neither has needed to be added to the 40-man roster just yet. That’ll very likely change in ’26, as both are considered nearly MLB-ready. White is the more touted of the two but has a bit less experience in the upper minors, given his status as a 2024 draftee compared to Snelling, a 2023 draftee.
Since Mazur is on the 40-man roster, has big league experience and was in major league camp at the time of injury, he’ll be placed on the major league injured list. If and when Miami needs an additional 40-man roster spot, he’ll be placed on the 60-day IL. Mazur will accrue a full year of service time and retain the lone minor league option year he has remaining. Miami will be able to control him via arbitration through at least the 2031 season.
Poll: Who Will Be The Braves’ Fifth Starter?
The Atlanta rotation has had a rough go of it this spring. Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep both hit the injured list before Spring Training games even began, and now they’ve been followed by the loss of lefty Joey Wentz to a season-ending ACL tear. The timelines for Waldrep and Schwellenbach aren’t yet clear, but they figure to miss significant time following surgeries to remove loose bodies from their elbows. (Schwellenbach is already on the 60-day IL.) That leaves the Braves with a lot of uncertainty in the rotation. Grant Holmes and Reynaldo Lopez are coming off injury-marred 2025 seasons, but they’ll be relied on for mid-rotation innings behind Chris Sale and Spencer Strider.
There’s still one rotation spot open. Wentz was in position to make a play for that spot and had a decent spring showing: two runs, three hits, four walks, one hit batter, six punchouts in 5 2/3 innings (3.18 ERA). His injury opens the competition up to a larger group.
The on-paper favorite is likely to be right-hander Bryce Elder, who made 28 starts for the Braves last year. Elder is still just 27 years old and was an All-Star back in 2023 thanks to a big first half, but in his past 52 starts he’s posted a 5.63 ERA with a below-average 18.4% strikeout rate against an 8.3% walk rate. Metrics like SIERA (4.56) and FIP (4.76) have been a bit better kinder, but Elder is approaching 300 innings with an ERA north of 5.50 over the past two and a half calendar years.
Elder’s status as the presumptive favorite is more about incumbency, being on the 40-man roster and being out of minor league options. He hasn’t made a strong case this spring, turning in a lackluster 6.48 ERA in three starts. That leaves the door wide open for someone else to grab the job.
Left-hander José Suarez is also out of minor league options and on the 40-man roster. He has an uneven big league track record but pitched well between 61 2/3 minor league innings and 19 1/3 major league frames for Atlanta last winter. He’s allowed four runs in 6 2/3 spring innings. Suarez gave the Angels 207 1/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball in 2021-22 before being tagged for a 6.91 ERA in 86 innings across a pair of injury-marred seasons in 2023-24.
The most prominent non-roster veteran in camp is southpaw Martín Pérez. The lefty has allowed only one run in five spring innings and is coming off a season where he posted decent numbers (3.54 ERA, 4.24 FIP) in 56 innings for the White Sox. Flexor and shoulder injuries shortened his 2025 season, and the days of Pérez’s blip of All-Star-caliber work with the Rangers (2.89 ERA, 3.9 fWAR in 2022) are likely behind him. Still, he has the potential to be an effective back-end starter.
Those aren’t the only options for the role. Veteran Carlos Carrasco is in camp, but after posting a 9.88 ERA in three starts for Atlanta last season and allowing nine runs on 11 hits in 6 1/3 spring innings this year, he seems unlikely to be the top choice. Didier Fuentes made his MLB debut last year and has tossed four scoreless innings this spring, but he won’t celebrate his 21st birthday until June and might be better served with more time in the minors. Top pitching prospect JR Ritchie enjoyed a strong season at Triple-A last year and has looked good so far this spring (3.38 ERA in eight innings). He’s not yet on the 40-man roster.
Another possibility that can’t be entirely ruled out is an external addition. Lucas Giolito remains available and seems like an obvious fit — despite an apparent lack of interest on Atlanta’s part thus far. Other veterans like Tyler Anderson and Patrick Corbin remain unsigned, too. Any of those pitchers could be added to the mix with the intent of them eventually taking over the fifth starter job, but the team would likely need to trade for a player that’s already been pitching for another club in order to add someone who will immediately be ready to join the rotation at the start of the season. A free agent like Giolito would surely need to get work in at extended Spring Training at this point.
How do MLBTR readers think the Braves will round out their rotation? Will they give the job to Elder and hope for better results than last year? Will they go with a young prospect like Fuentes or Ritchie, or perhaps a veteran like Pérez or Carrasco? Perhaps they’ll eschew all those options for an external addition? Vote now in the poll below:
Who will be the Braves' fifth starter this year?
MLBTR Podcast: Jesús Luzardo’s Extension, Atlanta’s Depth, And Zack Littell
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…
- The Phillies and Jesús Luzardo signing an extension (1:55)
- Johan Rojas reportedly testing positive for a PED and how that impacts the Phillies (16:55)
- The Braves losing Jurickson Profar to yet another PED suspension and Joey Wentz to a season-ending injury (22:15)
- The Nationals signing Zack Littell (36:25)
- The Pirates trading Kyle Nicolas to the Reds for Tyler Callihan (43:40)
- The Rangers signing Andrew McCutchen to a minor league deal (48:45)
- The Astros dealing with a Jeremy Peña injury and how that impacts the ongoing Isaac Paredes trade rumors (53:30)
Check out our past episodes!
- Max Scherzer, The Red Sox’ Lineup, Spring Extension Candidates, And More! – listen here
- Twins And Orioles’ Injuries, The Guardians And Angels’ Quiet Offseasons, And Chris Sale’s Extension – listen here
- The Tigers’ Rotation, A Brewers-Red Sox Trade, And Late Free-Agent Signings – 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 Kyle Ross, Imagn Images
Josh Hader To Begin Season On Injured List
Star Astros closer Josh Hader will begin the 2026 season on the 15-day injured list, manager Joe Espada announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle). He’s been slowed by a biceps issue this spring after missing the final seven weeks of the 2025 season due to a capsule strain in his shoulder. Hader has progressed to throwing and pitched an encouraging bullpen session yesterday, Kawahara adds, but the team simply won’t have enough time to get him built up before the season begins. Righty Bryan Abreu will very likely be in line to close games for Houston while Hader is shelved.
Hader’s Opening Day status has been an ongoing question throughout camp. Both the left-hander himself and team officials have repeatedly expressed optimism about the manner in which he’s progressing through rehab while simultaneously declining to commit to an Opening Day timetable.
While it’s an obvious blow to the Astros’ early-season fortunes, it’s still relatively good news. There’s no indication that last year’s shoulder injury has carried over into the 2026 season, nor does it seem the biceps injury is particularly nefarious. The Astros’ track record when it comes to framing player injuries is worth keeping in mind, but to this point it seems there’s hope for Hader to be back in Espada’s bullpen relatively early in the season.
Abreu, 29 in April, is among the stronger fallback options any team has for its closer in all of baseball. The 6’1″, 230-pound flamethrower owns a masterful 2.30 earned run average across his past four seasons in Houston. He’s punched out at least 31.7% of his opponents in each of those four seasons and 34.3% overall. Abreu’s 10.4% walk rate could stand to improve, but he’s proven so adept at missing bats that the slightly elevated walk rate hasn’t been a real issue for him. Abreu sat 97.3 mph on his four-seamer last season, and his 16.6% swinging-strike rate since 2022 ranks sixth among the 280 big league pitchers who’ve tossed at least 200 innings in that time (trailing only Hader, Andrés Muñoz, Dylan Lee, Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley).
As for Hader, an exact target date for his return remains up in the air. His 2025 season was shaping up to be one of his best. Prior to his injury, that lanky southpaw tossed 52 2/3 innings with a 2.05 ERA, a 36.9% strikeout rate, a 7.8% walk rate (second-lowest in his career) and 28 saves in 29 opportunities. He’s entering the third season of a five-year, $95MM contract signed prior to the 2024 campaign.
The Opener: World Baseball Classic, Teel, Carroll
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. World Baseball Classic continues:
After Team Italy’s shocking 8-6 victory over Team USA last night, the World Baseball Classic enters its final day of Pool Play with plenty at stake. At 3pm local time in San Juan, Canada and Cuba will face off to decide who will join Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals. That game will be followed up at 6pm local time in Houston, when Italy and Mexico will face off to determine not only their own fates, but also the fate of Team USA. The United States can be eliminated if Mexico beats Italy while scoring four runs or fewer, as all three teams would finish with 3-1 records and move on to a runs-based tiebreaker. The final game of the evening will occur at 8pm local time in Miami, where the Dominican Republic and Venezuela will face off for seeding purposes after both clubs already clinched their quarterfinal appearance.
Outside of the excitement of the games themselves, this year’s WBC has already brought considerable intrigue and drama off the field. Team USA manager Mark DeRosa conducted an interview pregame where he seemingly did not realize that his club had not already clinched a spot in the quarterfinals, and Chad Jennings of The Athletic notes that MLB.com appears to have taken down the footage of DeRosa’s mistaken comments after Team USA’s loss. Meanwhile, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale was among those to discuss possible discontent in the Mariners’ clubhouse after star catcher Cal Raleigh declined to shake hands with Mariners teammate and WBC opponent Randy Arozarena during the game between the U.S. and Mexico yesterday.
2. Teel exits due to hamstring issue:
In other WBC news, a damper was put on Italy’s victory when catcher Kyle Teel was pulled from the game due to tightness in his right hamstring. As noted by Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com, Teel figures to be replaced on Italy’s roster by bullpen catcher Andres Annunziata. Annunziata is a 20-year-old who plays in Italy’s Serie A league. Perhaps more pertinent than Teel’s WBC status is whether or not he’ll be hampered headed into the regular season for the White Sox. He’ll surely get imaging done on his ailing hamstring to determine the severity of the issue, and the White Sox will be able to formulate a plan for Teel from there. Fortunately for them, Edgar Quero and Korey Lee are available as a capable catching tandem even if Teel misses the start of the season.
3. Carroll returning to the lineup:
Corbin Carroll has missed the bulk of Spring Training so far due to a hamate fracture that ultimately required surgery, but Alex Weiner of the Arizona Republic relayed yesterday that the Diamondbacks’ star outfielder will be back in the lineup today as a DH. With a little over two weeks left to go before Opening Day, Carroll should have just enough time to ramp up before the season begins and avoid starting the year on the injured list. His return to the field begins at 1:10pm local time in Arizona, when Ryne Nelson will be taking the mound opposite Luis Morales and the Athletics.
Hunter Greene To Have Bone Chips Removed From Elbow, Likely Out Until July
Reds ace Hunter Greene will undergo surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow today, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The team is hoping to have him back at some point in July. He’ll be placed on the 60-day injured list whenever Cincinnati needs to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
The Reds revealed late last week that they’d sent Greene for multiple waves of imaging and hoped to have further news early this week. Greene himself said at the time that he’s navigated bone spurs for some time but had recently received a clean MRI on his ulnar collateral ligament. Doctors hadn’t recommended surgery for the bone chips until this point. He experienced some pain late last season, and doctors recommended an injection at the time. That allowed Greene to have a normal offseason, but he experienced renewed discomfort upon ramping up in camp and will now head under the knife.
Greene is far from the only pitcher in MLB to pitch through some known bone spurs or loose bodies in his elbow. Most professional pitchers have some degree of wear and tear in their elbow and/or shoulder, be it bone chips or mild damage to a ligament, flexor tendon, rotator cuff, labrum, etc. Reds fans will surely feel frustration that the discomfort dates back to last season but is being addressed in 2026. Surgery is a last-resort option, however, and hadn’t been recommended until this latest wave of discomfort set in.
Losing Greene is a gut-punch for a Reds rotation that had looked like one of the game’s strongest, on paper. He was in line to start Opening Day and be followed by Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, Brady Singer and one of Chase Burns or Rhett Lowder, both former top-10 picks in the draft and highly touted top prospects. Greene’s injury now opens the door for both Burns and Lowder to make the staff — particularly after Chase Petty was optioned yesterday — although left-hander Brandon Williamson remains in camp and could be an option as he returns from a 2025 season lost to injury.
A former No. 2 overall draft pick, Greene has been one of the game’s best pitchers on a rate basis over the past two seasons. However, he’s also missed considerable time due to a pair of groin strains in 2025 and some elbow discomfort in 2024. He’s started 45 games across dating back to ’24 and worked to a 2.76 ERA with a 29.2% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 33.5% ground-ball rate. Last year’s 15.4% swinging-strike rate was fourth-best in MLB (min. 100 innings pitched), trailing only Tarik Skubal, Dylan Cease and Logan Gilbert.
Greene is entering the fourth season of a six-year, $53MM extension. The 26-year-old is being paid $8MM this season before making $15MM and $16MM in 2027-28. The Reds hold a $21MM club option (with a $2MM buyout) over his 2029 season. With Greene on the shelf to begin the year, Abbott has been named the Reds’ Opening Day starter. President of baseball operations Nick Krall said last week at the time Greene was being sent for an MRI that he didn’t envision turning to free agency even in the event that Greene would be sidelined for a significant period of time.
Latest On Padres’ Rotation
The Padres entered camp with Nick Pivetta, Michael King and Joe Musgrove penciled into the top three rotation spots. They felt reasonably confident that Randy Vásquez would claim the fourth starter role. They took a volume approach to the fifth starter job, signing a handful of veterans to cheap free agent deals.
Musgrove is working back from a 2024 Tommy John surgery that wiped out all of last season. King was limited to 15 starts last year by a nerve issue in his shoulder and a knee injury. While King is pitching without any restrictions this spring, the Padres are playing things more cautiously with Musgrove. The righty last pitched in a game on March 4, when he threw 60 pitches in an exhibition game against the British World Baseball Classic team.
Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Musgrove has thrown one bullpen session within the past week. The Padres are understandably bringing him along slowly and haven’t announced when he’ll make his next game appearance. Both Acee and AJ Cassavell of MLB.com suggest he may not be fully built up by Opening Day.
A brief season-opening injured list stint wouldn’t necessarily represent a setback. The Padres will need to keep an eye on Musgrove’s workload over the course of the season. They have two off days within the first eight days of the regular season, meaning they could theoretically get by with a four-man rotation if Musgrove had a minimal IL stint. The likelier outcome is that they’d turn to one of their depth starters to fill out a five-man starting staff.
That could open an opportunity for Walker Buehler, who is in camp as a non-roster invite. If there’s only one rotation spot available, that’s likelier to go to Germán Márquez. Márquez signed a big league contract and is guaranteed $1.75MM. He’s going to make the team, and the Padres don’t have a ton of roster flexibility in the bullpen to carry him as a long reliever.
Buehler can opt out at the end of Spring Training if the Padres don’t add him to the roster. Buehler has made two starts this spring. He has allowed four runs in 6 2/3 innings with a solid 6:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Márquez has recorded five punchouts without a walk while allowing three runs across five frames. Marco Gonzales, in camp on a minor league deal, has given up five runs despite recording eight strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. JP Sears is on the 40-man roster but has had a rough spring and has a minor league option remaining, so he’s probably ticketed for Triple-A El Paso regardless of Musgrove’s status.