Angels Designate Matthew Lugo For Assignment, Select Nick Madrigal
The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of infielder Nick Madrigal. He’ll take the active roster spot of first baseman Nolan Schanuel, who has been placed on the ten-day injured list with left ankle inflammation, retroactive to May 24th. To open a 40-man spot, outfielder Matthew Lugo has been designated for assignment.
Schanuel has been dealing with the ankle issue for a few days and hasn’t been in the lineup since Saturday. Since he’s been out for a while, the Halos were able to backdate his IL placement by the three-day maximum. It’s unclear how much time his ankle will take to heal but he will be eligible for activation in a week.
He has been having a down year in an odd way, with his walks drying up. His ability to get on-base has been his best asset, with a walk rate of 11.3% coming into this year. That is now down to just 6.3% in the current season, barely half of his previous pace. He swung at 26.2% of pitches outside the zone from 2023 to 2025 but that number is up to 28.6% this year. He made contact on those outside-the-zone swings 76.4% of the time in previous seasons but just 65.2% this year.
The result of that reduced plate discipline is a .262/.313/.387 line and 96 wRC+ on the year, a drop from his .259/.353/.371 line and 107 wRC+ in previous campaigns. Perhaps the ankle injury will give him a chance to reset and get back on track once he’s healthy.
Though Schanuel isn’t having his best season, it’s still a blow to an Angels club that is already in a tough spot. They are 21-34, tied with the Tigers for the worst record in the American League. Schanuel’s 96 wRC+ may be subpar but is still fifth on the team among guys with at least 20 plate appearances.
They will probably now have to cover first base with guys like Vaughn Grissom and Oswald Peraza. Grissom has a .233/.308/.379 line and 92 wRC+ on the year. Peraza is faring much better but is currently the second baseman. Moving him to first would probably mean more time at second base for Adam Frazier, who has a .236/.313/.375 line and 94 wRC+.
As the Halos juggle those guys around, Madrigal will give them a glove-first backup option. He has over 1,300 innings at second base and almost 700 at third with strong grades at both spots. He has stolen 17 bases in 23 tries.
Offensively, he has a contact-based approach with very little power and few walks but very few strikeouts. In 940 trips to the plate, his 4.6% walk rate and 9% strikeout rate are both much lower than average and he has just four home runs. That has led to a .274/.323/.344 line and 88 wRC+.
Despite the lack of punch from the batter’s box, the speed and defense had been enough to get him opportunities. Unfortunately, his 2025 season was wiped out by shoulder surgery. He had to settle for a minor league deal with the Angels coming into 2026. He has a .275/.353/.366 line for Triple-A Salt Lake this year. In the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, that translates to a wRC+ of 80.
Adding Madrigal will cost Lugo his roster spot. A second-round pick of the Red Sox, Lugo was one of four players the Halos acquired from the Sox in the 2024 Luis García trade. He was given a 40-man roster spot in November of that year to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to maintain the improved offense he showed that year. Between those two clubs, he slashed .287/.376/.578 on the farm in 2024, leading to a huge 156 wRC+. Since the start of 2025, he has a minor league line of .261/.339/.430, leading to a 91 wRC+. He has stepped to the plate 70 times in the majors and produced a .232/.243/.464 line and 89 wRC+.
In addition to the struggles at the plate, his defensive home has been a question. The Sox tried him out at shortstop and third base but moved him to the outfield in 2023. He’s considered a passable but not especially strong fielder in a corner spot.
Lugo now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Angels could take as long as five days to explore trade interest. He is still optionable, which could appeal to clubs in need of outfield depth. If he were to clear waivers, he would stick with the Halos as non-roster depth. Since he doesn’t have a previous career outright and is shy of three years of service time, he wouldn’t have the right to elect free agency.
Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images
Cubs, Aaron Bummer Agree To Minor League Deal
The Cubs and left-hander Aaron Bummer have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The O’Connell Sports Management client will presumably report to Triple-A Iowa at some point in the coming days.
Bummer, 32, was just released by Atlanta last week. He was having an awful season, posting an earned run average of 7.63 over 15 1/3 innings. His 46.2% ground ball rate was decent but his 16.9% strikeout rate and 13% walk rate were both awful figures. Even more alarming is that he’s already been tagged for six home runs. His final appearance with the team saw him give up six runs on three hits and five walks in one inning against Miami.
Rough as this season has been, Bummer was a quality left-handed bullpen piece for Atlanta in 2024-25. He posted a sub-4.00 ERA in both years with plus ground-ball rates. Bummer had a strong 28% strikeout rate two seasons ago, but that fell to a pedestrian 21.7% mark last year. It proved an alarming precursor to his first couple months of 2026.
Bummer is a sinkerballer who was in the mid-90s for the majority of his career. His average velocity fell to 91 mph last season and is at a career-low 90.2 mph mark this year. He missed the final five weeks of the ’25 season to shoulder inflammation. Bummer hasn’t gone on the injured list this year, but the 32-year-old’s stuff clearly isn’t as sharp as it was not that long ago.
Atlanta is paying Bummer a $9.5MM salary for the 2026 season. They’re on the hook for that money aside from the prorated $780K league minimum for any time he spends on the MLB roster with another club. The Cubs have Caleb Thielbar, Hoby Milner and Ryan Rolison as southpaws in Craig Counsell’s bullpen. Luke Little, Luis Peralta and swingman Doug Nikhazy are on optional assignment. Bummer will join them in Iowa as he looks for his 2024-25 form.
Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images
MLBPA Releases Details Of Collective Bargaining Proposal
The formal process of the next collective bargaining agreement has begun. It was reported two weeks ago that the talks had kicked off with informal introductions. Today, the MLBPA made its first official proposal and released details to the media. Jeff Passan of ESPN, Evan Drellich of The Athletic and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times were among those to relay the details. As expected, the union’s proposals involve improved outcomes for players. The proposal also has a heavy focus on the revenue-sharing system, as the players are hoping to improve the economic imbalances of the game without the implementation of a salary cap. The league will counter with their proposal tomorrow.
Many of the details involve the adjusting of measures already in place, in a pro-player direction. For instance, the union proposes raising the minimum salary to $1.5MM, almost double this year’s $780K minimum. It would continue to go up to $1.65MM, $1.825MM, $2MM and $2.2MM in subsequent seasons. They also propose expanding the $50MM pre-arbitration bonus pool to $180MM. The Super Two designation that currently goes to 22% of players between two and three years of service would jump to a 44% cutoff. The minimum tender in arbitration would be $3MM. The service time needed for free agency, which is currently six years, would drop to five years for players at least 30 years old. However, teams could keep such players for a sixth year by offering them a contract with a salary that averages out the 125 highest-paid players in the league, which is the same calculus for the current qualifying offer. (Passan relayed those details in a subsequent post.)
Those measures would all directly benefit players financially. They also propose measures that would help players indirectly, by improving the abilities for club to spend. The threshold of the competitive balance tax would jump from $244MM to $300MM, then $315MM, $330MM, $345MM and $360MM in subsequent seasons. Non-monetary penalties, such as the impact on draft picks, would be eliminated. The qualifying offer would be eliminated, along with the penalties for clubs who sign free agents, though the bonuses for lower revenue clubs who lose free agents would be increased. The draft lottery would be expanded to further disincentivize tanking. The rules to address service time manipulation would be expanded.
There would be a “competitive integrity tax” for any team that does not spend $150MM. This would be an inverse to the competitive balance tax, which is already in place. Currently, baseball effectively has a soft cap in the form of that tax. Some teams blow past it but face penalties, both in the form of the payments and the impact of picks being pushed later in the draft. There’s not really a soft floor, as teams who receive revenue-sharing payments don’t really have conditions attached.
The Athletics did lose their revenue-sharing status for a while and they seemed to spend a bit more on players recently because they didn’t want to go down that road again, but no other club has been similarly motivated. The A’s reportedly had to get their CBT number up to $105MM to avoid a grievance but several other clubs have carried CBT numbers well below that without any consequences.
As mentioned, many elements of the proposal involve significant changes to the revenue-sharing system. Under this proposal, teams would actually send out less stadium revenue but there would be a notable increase in terms of the sharing of broadcast revenue. Lower revenue clubs would receive at least $240MM annually but with conditions. Teams who do not spend the revenue-sharing money would be subject to penalties. Teams that do spend that money would receive bonuses if they make the playoffs or have a winning record.
These revenue-sharing details are significant because they are presumably a counter to a salary cap. The league is expected to push for a cap, something they have wanted for decades and have pushed for in the past. Some fans like the idea of a cap because of the economic imbalances in the game. The clubs with greater revenue and higher payrolls have had a lot of success in recent years, with the Dodgers being an oft-cited example. The teams have pushed farther apart recently in terms of broadcast revenue. The clubs in large markets are generally doing fine while many of the smaller clubs have seen their broadcast deals collapse. The league has stepped in and is now handling broadcasts for almost half the league. That setup can reach more viewers via streaming but generally leads to less revenue.
With these revenue-sharing elements, the players appear to be trying to address competitive balance in a way that does not involve a cap. They directly address the broadcast revenue imbalance and would broadly be giving the smaller clubs a greater ability to spend. They also put conditions on the money, so that lower-revenue clubs can’t just pocket what they get from other teams, which is a concern in the current setup.
As mentioned, MLB will make their opening proposal tomorrow, but they have already gone public to oppose what the players have proposed. MLB spokesperson Glen Caplin released a statement, with Drellich among those to relay it, effectively saying that MLB’s position is that this proposal makes competitive balance worse and not better.
It’s worth pointing out that the players won’t get everything they are asking for. The way that collective bargaining works, both sides are going to stake out a bold position at the start. Over the coming months, as the bargaining process plays out, the sides will back down in some areas. The question is how long it will take to find an overall agreement that both parties consider acceptable.
The last round of CBA talks didn’t result in any lost games but went to the brink. MLB locked out the players when the previous CBA expired on December 1st of 2021. That lockout lasted until March 10th. The opening of the 2022 campaign was delayed but a full 162-game season was played. It is expected that this round could be just as contentious, if not moreso. The current CBA again expires on December 1st at 11:59pm Eastern.
For those looking for positive signs, there are some to be found. In Drellich’s column, he points out that things are ahead of schedule, relative to last time. In 2021, the players also made their first proposal in May but the owners didn’t make theirs until August. When the owners make their proposal tomorrow, that will be three months earlier than 2021.
Photo courtesy of Evan Petzold, Imagn Images
Rangers Designate Andrew McCutchen For Assignment
The Rangers announced the signing of utility infielder Nicky Lopez to a major league contract. The CAA client is active for tonight’s game against the Astros and draws right into the lineup as the second baseman against Mike Burrows. Texas designated Andrew McCutchen in a corresponding move.
McCutchen signed a minor league deal midway through Spring Training. He’d seemingly hoped to return to the Pirates for what would’ve been the fourth season of his late-career second act in the Steel City. The Bucs didn’t appear to reciprocate that interest, and the writing was officially on the wall when Pittsburgh signed Marcell Ozuna to a $12MM free agent deal.
Cutch had a big Spring Training to nail down a roster spot, locking in a $1.25MM salary in the process. He was in the starting lineup on Opening Day as the designated hitter against Philly southpaw Cristopher Sánchez. Texas used McCutchen mostly in a short side platoon capacity, splitting his time between DH and the corner outfield. He hasn’t hit in a fairly small sample, batting .192 with one home run over 83 trips to the plate.
It’s the fourth straight year in which McCutchen’s numbers have declined. The five-time All-Star had been close to a league average bat over 551 plate appearances with the Bucs last season. McCutchen still has an elite understanding of the strike zone, but he’s whiffing at a career-high rate this year without hitting for any kind of power.
Texas has five days to trade McCutchen or place him on waivers. He’d be able to decline a minor league assignment while retaining his salary, so the likeliest outcome is that he’ll be released this week. He’d then be available to other teams for the prorated league minimum salary, assuming he wants to continue playing.
Lopez was designated for assignment by the Cubs last week. He cleared outright waivers and elected free agency just yesterday. It didn’t take long for his camp to find him another MLB deal. Lopez’s club debut tonight will be his sixth team at the big league level. He spent his first few seasons with the Royals and has bounced around since the end of the 2022 season.
A light-hitting infielder, Lopez has a .245/.309/.310 slash line in nearly 2400 career plate appearances. He was on the Cubs’ MLB roster for a month but didn’t start a game, only making four appearances off the bench. Lopez has graded as a plus defender at second and third base over his career. Public metrics are more split on his shortstop work, but the 31-year-old can play the position if necessary.
Texas has used a middle infield pairing of Ezequiel Duran and Justin Foscue over the past few weeks. They’ve been without second baseman Josh Smith since the beginning of May and lost Corey Seager a couple weeks ago. Foscue has hit pretty well but isn’t viewed as a particularly strong defender. He had a pivotal throwing error on Sunday night that allowed the Angels to complete a sweep with a walk-off win.
Foscue is out of the lineup tonight but could split DH time with Joc Pederson if the Rangers want Lopez in there as a defensive upgrade. Seager and Smith each seem at least a couple weeks away, but the out-of-options Lopez could be pushed off the roster once either or both of those players return.
Twins Move Brooks Lee To Third Base
The Twins’ experiment with Brooks Lee at shortstop has apparently run its course. The former No. 8 overall pick has been playing third base since Royce Lewis‘ demotion to Triple-A St. Paul, and manager Derek Shelton told the Twins beat this week that Lee’s defensive home moving forward will be the hot corner (link via Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune).
It’s not a terribly surprising development, but it’s one that has plenty of ramifications for the organization as a whole. Lee was a shortstop in college at Cal Poly, but scouting reports questioned whether he’d be able to stick there even back at the time of the draft. He logged 803 innings at short in 2024-25 and didn’t grade especially well there. For much of that time, he was focusing on multiple positions because the Twins also had Carlos Correa signed long-term. Last July’s trade sending Correa back to Houston freed up a potential long-term opportunity at shortstop.
Lee, 25, entered the year with a legitimate opportunity to seize the position. It hasn’t happened. He’s delivered a solid .259/.315/.416 batting line (105 wRC+) in 201 trips to the plate, but he’s been dinged with negative grades from Defensive Runs Saved (-8) and Outs Above Average (-1). The switch-hitter’s bat has come to life after a slow start — .292/.344/.460 in his past 123 plate appearances — and he’ll try to keep that momentum going at a different position. It’s probably more anecdotal than anything else, but Lee has tallied multiple hits in three of five games since moving to third base.
Lee’s move to third base creates some short-term opportunity for one of the organization’s best prospects and also raises some long-term questions about Lewis’ role within the organization.
Kaelen Culpepper, Minnesota’s first-round pick in 2024, is currently a consensus top-100 prospect. He had a slow start to his season in Triple-A but has heated up with a .266/.392/.557 slash this month — all while walking nearly as often (14.4%) as he’s struck out (16.5%). He’s already swatted 11 homers in only 46 games/218 plate appearances, and he’s 11-for-11 in stolen base attempts. That comes on the back of a 20-homer, 25-steal showing in 113 games between High-A and Double-A last year.
The 23-year-old Culpepper could get a look before long, and Lee’s move over to third base opens Culpepper’s natural position at the big league level. However, if Lee and Culpepper are the left-side infield of the future at Target Field, it doesn’t leave much room for Lewis unless he can either slide across the diamond to first base or take on more of a designated hitter role. Lewis has limited experience at second base, but the Twins still hope that Luke Keaschall can claim that as his long-term home. Another former top prospect, Keaschall hit the ground running in 2025 before a broken forearm cost him more than three months. He then ended the season back on the IL due to a thumb injury.
Whether it was the cold weather, lingering effects from those 2025 injuries, some small-sample noise or a combination of the three, Keaschall got out to a dismal start in 2026 and at one point looked like he could be at risk of being optioned. He’s righted the ship with a .271/.388/.353 slash over the past month (103 plate appearances). He hasn’t exactly cemented his status as the long-term second baseman, but the still-23-year-old Keaschall has now played in 100 major league games and turned in a solid .268/.349/.374 batting line despite navigating a pair of arm/hand injuries. He’s trending in the right direction.
First base and designated hitter are a bit more unsettled in the long term. The Twins signed Josh Bell to a one-year, $7MM deal to split time between those spots this past offseason. Utilityman Kody Clemens has seen plenty of time at first base this season. Offseason pickup Victor Caratini — signed through 2027 — has seen a handful of games there as well. None of the Twins’ best prospects are first basemen. Former first-round pick Aaron Sabato was perhaps viewed as a long-term option there or at designated hitter when he was selected 27th overall back in 2020, but he’s about to turn 27 and hasn’t made his debut yet. He’s hitting .298/.358/.661 in Triple-A, granted, but he’s doing so with a strikeout rate just under 30%.
Perhaps if Lewis can continue his early production since being demoted to Triple-A, the right side of the diamond and/or designated hitter will be a more serious consideration. He’s played in five games since being optioned and already has four home runs. Including a pair of rehab games in St. Paul earlier this season, Lewis is slashing .296/.367/.963 with six homers in only 30 Triple-A plate appearances.
There’s little doubting Lewis’ inherent physical talent, but he’ll need to curb this year’s alarming spike in chases and whiffs — while avoiding further entries to his lengthy list of injuries — to rebuild his stock within the organization. Given all this surrounding context, it’s also plenty fair to wonder whether he might eventually emerge as a change-of-scenery candidate ahead of this summer’s trade deadline.
Rays Select Jon Heasley
The Rays announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Jon Heasley. Fellow righty Trevor Martin has been optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, infielder Gavin Lux has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Heasley, 29, appeared in four big league seasons from 2021 to 2024. With the Royals and Orioles, he tossed 139 innings in a swing role, allowing 5.89 earned runs per nine. His 8.9% walk rate was around average but he only struck out 14.4% of batters faced. He averaged around 93 miles per hour with his four-seamer while also throwing a sinker, curveball, changeup and a slider/sweeper.
He started the season with the Royals on a minor league deal. He was released at the end of camp and then signed a minor league deal with the Rays in April. Since then, he has been working as a swingman for Triple-A Durham. He has made seven appearances, only four of which were technically starts, but he went between three and 5 2/3 innings in each. In total, he has logged 27 2/3 innings on the year with a 3.90 ERA. His 15.7% strikeout rate is low but he has only walked 5.2% of opponents and induced grounders on 46.6% of balls in play.
Griffin Jax was hit by a comebacker in yesterday’s game and was removed after two innings, forcing the bullpen to absorb the rest. Martin logged three frames, throwing 52 pitches in the process. He was likely going to be unavailable for a few days, so he’s been swapped out for a fresh arm.
Steven Matz is starting tonight. He just returned from an IL stint due to elbow inflammation, without going on a rehab assignment. He tossed four innings in his first game back, which was a week ago. If Matz doesn’t have length today and the Rays want to spare their other relievers, perhaps Heasley can be called upon for some bulky work. The club is off tomorrow, so they should have a chance to reset. If they want to bump Heasley off the roster in the future, he is out of options.
As for Lux, his transfer was a formality. He had been on the 10-day IL since the start of the season due to various ailments. It was initially for a right shoulder impingement but then he later tweaked his left ankle and suffered a left shoulder shoulder injury. He was pulled off his rehab assignment a couple of weeks ago. His 60-day count is retroactive to the start of the season, so he will be eligible for reinstatement whenever he’s game ready, though it’s unclear when that will be.
Photo courtesy of Tommy Gilligan, Imagn Images
MLB Mailbag: Skubal, Nationals, Rays, Tibbs
This week's mailbag gets into the Tigers' decision points on Tarik Skubal, whether the Nationals can be taken seriously, how the Rays could upgrade, the current trade value of James Tibbs III, and more.
Chuck asks:
With the Tigers collapsing in the absence of Tarik Skubal, even with his return relatively imminent, the national media are salivating at the prospect of his escape from Detroit toward the bright lights (and easier access) of, I guess, the media centers of Los Angeles or New York. Assuming the Tigers don't recover to even .500 by late July, my questions are: (1) Is trading Skubal the only reasonable option the Tigers would have? (2) Is there a real scenario in which it would be better to retain Skubal and let him walk, accepting the sandwich pick instead? (3) If a trade is certain, are there actually any teams likely to give up true top-of-system value in return for two-plus months of Skubal, and which teams would those be? For the final question, please focus on your estimation of the best those teams would likely offer, rather than an estimation of what PBO Scott Harris would accept.
After a 10-6 loss Tuesday evening at the hands of the equally lousy Angels, the Tigers stand at 21-34 wth 34% of their season in the books. The Tigers still play in an AL Central where only the Guardians are projected to finish above .500, and in a league where the third Wild Card team is two games under. There seems to be a decent chance that in the AL this year, a .500 finish could net a playoff spot.
The Tigers have won only three of their last 20 games, yet still hold a 16.5% playoff chance. 68 days remain until the trade deadline, during which time the Tigers will play 58 games. The Tigers could reasonably let another third of their season play out before making a decision on Skubal, even if they need to lay some groundwork in July.
Skubal's last start was April 29th, and today marks the fifth start he's missed. In the immediate aftermath of the injury, I wrote in this mailbag that I found it unlikely we'd see Skubal before the August 3rd trade deadline. Then we learned about the NanoNeedle, a new smaller scope used to remove the loose body in Skubal's elbow. This was the first time this tool was used on an MLB player. Skubal threw a simulated game less than three weeks out from surgery, and there's talk of him returning in June. Remarkably, it seems like Skubal could make, say, nine or so big league starts before the deadline barring any setbacks. To answer Chuck's questions:
No, trading Skubal is not the only reasonable option the Tigers have. The 2024 Tigers didn't look like a playoff team on May 27th either (20.1% chance) and they did indeed have a postseason run. Simply holding onto Skubal for one last playoff push is perfectly reasonable if the team's chances hover in the 1-in-5 range or better. I'm sure Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris will take heat for holding onto Skubal if the Tigers do miss the playoffs, but I'd have no problem with it.
I don't think there's a scenario where the compensatory draft pick the Tigers would receive is more valuable than the players they'd get from trading for Skubal, in a vacuum. The Tigers are a revenue sharing recipient that will not pay the competitive balance tax this year, and Skubal will almost certainly get more than $50MM in guaranteed money in free agency. That puts the draft pick after the first round next year. I haven't reverse-engineered the 2027 draft too closely yet, but we can safely put that pick in the #29-33 range.
You know I love mini-studies. So I spot-checked the #30 pick for the 20-year period of 2001-2020, adding a few compensatory picks the following year for #30s who didn't sign (like the Dodgers failing to sign J.T. Ginn and drafting Michael Busch 31st in 2019).
I didn't want to get bogged down in control windows, and cutting this off at 2001 does exclude some very good #30s: Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, as well as David Wells, Jerry Reuss, Travis Fryman, and Brian Jordan. Still, it'd be reasonable to say that the chances the #30 pick amounts to nothing in the Majors might be around two-thirds. Although I will note that if you count Busch, the last few years have provided a relative bounty at this spot, as it also gave us Cole Ragans, Anthony Volpe, and Jordan Westburg.
The Tigers' trade return for Skubal, assuming he returns healthy in June, would come with more certainty and value than a draft pick around #30 would. A multi-player trade package would also diversify Detroit's risk.
What makes this so hard for Harris is that he does not face a simple "#30-ish draft pick vs best possible trade package" choice. That's because the #30-ish draft pick scenario means keeping Skubal for the 2026 season, which adds a big boost to the Tigers' playoff odds. Let's say 25% playoff odds can be boosted to 40% with Skubal. How does that and the draft pick compare to the trade deadline package? This equation becomes much easier for Harris if the Tigers' playoff odds plummet toward 10% by late July.
So, a trade is not certain. A trade is realistic, though, so the Tigers need to be prepared for sell, hold, and possibly even buy scenarios. Would a team give up "top-of-system value" to rent 6-WAR type ace starting pitcher for two months of the regular season plus the playoffs? We can search for precedents, though Skubal's surgery was literally unprecedented, so it won't be perfect.
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Blue Jays Acquire Connor Seabold
The Blue Jays announced that they have acquired right-hander Connor Seabold from the Tigers. Detroit, who designated Seabold for assignment a few days ago, gets minor league lefty Juanmi Vasquez in return. Seabold is out of options and will need a spot on the active roster once he joins the team. The Jays opened a 40-man spot by moving José Berríos to the 60-day injured list. Berrios required Tommy John surgery and will miss the remainder of the season.
Seabold, 30, began the season with the Jays on a minor league deal. He came into the year with a career track record of being a swingman, without much success to his name, sporting a 7.79 earned run average in 119 innings.
Back in March, Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet profiled Seabold, noting that the Jays had planned on using Seabold as a multi-inning depth option until he showed some increased velocity at the start of camp. He had averaged around 92 miles per hour in his big league career but was suddenly hitting 96 and averaging 94.1 mph this year. He also changed up his breaking pitches with some encouraging developments.
The Jays kept him mostly in a single-inning relief role in spring. He tossed 6 2/3 innings over six Grapefruit League appearances. Allowing five earned runs gave him an unsightly 6.75 ERA but he struck out 13 of the 33 batters he faced, a huge 39.4% clip.
Despite the extra velocity and strikeouts, the Jays couldn’t find a roster spot for him. Seabold triggered an opt-out in his deal and then quickly landed with the Tigers. He gave them 15 2/3 innings over 11 appearances with a 3.45 ERA. His fastball averaged 93.5 mph, a slight drop from spring training but an increase over his previous big league work. Though the ERA was decent, he only struck out 20.3% of batters faced. He got bumped off the roster when Troy Melton came off the 60-day IL.
For the Jays, they didn’t have a spot for Seabold in March but there’s a lot more breathing room on the roster now. Since the season started, they have lost Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, Lazaro Estrada, Max Scherzer, Joe Mantiply and Tommy Nance to the injured list.
It’s unclear whether the Jays plan to use Seabold as a multi-inning option or as more of a traditional reliever. They could use help in both areas. Thanks to the rotation injuries, they currently only have three true starters in Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage and Patrick Corbin. They’ve been doing a bullpen game every five days with Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles taking on bulk innings. With Cease recently hitting the IL, there’s another hole to fill.
Seabold could perhaps get stretched out but the relief corps also needs help. Thanks to those bullpen games, and the injuries to Nance and Mantiply, the current group has been heavily used. Someone will have to be bumped off when Seabold is added. Chase Lee and Adam Macko have options and could be candidates. Yariel Rodríguez and Austin Voth aren’t optionable but could end up designated for assignment.
More moves are probably coming for the Toronto pitching staff. They have Shane Bieber rehabbing, so he could be in the mix in the next few weeks. Maybe Cease or Scherzer can get healthy in the near future. Perhaps they will call up someone like Chad Dallas for a spot start or two. For now, Seabold will hopefully be useful in bridging the gap.
To get Seabold, the Jays are giving up a bit of long-term depth, though Vasquez isn’t really a top prospect. He’s 22 years old and hasn’t climbed higher than the High-A level. He can get strikeouts but control is an issue. He has 33 High-A innings under his belt between last year and this year with a 6.00 ERA, 32.7% strikeout rate but a 15% walk rate. The Tigers will hope he harnesses his stuff a bit better going forward and they have some time to help him out. He won’t be Rule 5 eligible until after the 2027 season.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Royals Designate Bailey Falter For Assignment
The Royals have designated struggling left-hander Bailey Falter for assignment, per a team announcement. He’s out of minor league options, so simply sending him to Triple-A Omaha without a DFA wasn’t possible. Righty Mason Black was recalled from Omaha in a corresponding move.
Falter, 29, has appeared in five games (two of them starts) for the Royals this season. He’s allowed runs in all five, including multiple runs in four of the five. Those struggles culminated last night in a seven-run drubbing at the hands of the Yankees in a start that saw Falter fail to escape the third inning.
Kansas City acquired Falter from the Pirates last July in a trade sending reliever Evan Sisk and minor league first baseman Callan Moss back to Pittsburgh. Falter didn’t fare well in a dozen post-trade innings last season and clearly hasn’t turned a corner in 2026. His time with the Royals could well wrap up with a gruesome 12.46 ERA in 21 2/3 innings.
Despite the fact that Falter allowed 15 runs in a dozen innings following last year’s trade, the Royals opted to tender him a contract. That resulted in a $3.6MM deal for the current season, which all but guarantees that Falter will pass through waivers unclaimed and accept an outright assignment to Omaha. Rejecting the assignment would mean forfeiting the remainder of that money. If he’s not added back to the roster at any point this season, Falter would have the right to become a free agent at season’s end (as is true of all outrighted players with three-plus years of service who are not added back to the 40-man before the offseason).
Although Falter’s time with the Royals has been nightmarish, the lanky southpaw has had some decent stretches in the majors. He posted a 3.86 ERA in 84 innings for the 2022 Phillies and notched a 4.44 ERA in 54 games (52 starts) between the two Pennsylvania clubs (and, briefly, Kansas City) from 2024-25. From 2022-25, Falter pitched 467 2/3 major league frames and turned in a 4.50 earned run average with a 17.3% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. That’s certainly not high-end performance, but it’s serviceable.
The Royals will have five days to trade Falter, place him on outright waivers or release him. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so the DFA can take up to a full week for resolution. It’d be a surprise if another club picked up the rest of that salary, so he’ll probably land in Omaha and try to get back on track with the Storm Chasers. The Royals have Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic and Alec Marsh all on the injured list at present, so there’s certainly opportunity in the rotation if Falter can right the ship in the upper minors.
Blue Jays Select Austin Voth
The Blue Jays announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Austin Voth from Triple-A Buffalo. To make room on the 26-man and 40-man rosters, Toronto optioned right-hander Tanner Andrews to Buffalo and transferred catcher Alejandro Kirk from the 10-day to the 60-day IL. Kirk has already been out for nearly 60 days since undergoing thumb surgery in early April, so that move is largely a formality. The move to the 60-day doesn’t restart his IL clock, so he’ll still be eligible for activation once he reaches 60 total days on the shelf.
Voth, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Jays in March and has already been summoned to the majors once this season. He allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings during his only appearance with the Jays this season and was then passed through waivers. Voth briefly elected free agency but wound up re-signing on a new minor league contract.
It’s been a fine season for the journeyman Voth in Buffalo. He’s taken the ball eight times (all starts) and logged a 2.90 ERA, a 17.4% strikeout rate, a 6.8% walk rate and a 39.4% ground-ball rate in 31 innings. He was building up a bit early on but has gone five innings multiple times now, including two of his past three starts. That’ll make him an option for a swingman role in the bullpen, a bulk reliever following an opener or a more conventional starter at any point.
Toronto’s rotation has been decimated by injury in 2026, so adding some length to the staff is sensible. The Jays lost José Berríos to Tommy John surgery last week and put Dylan Cease on the 15-day IL over the weekend due to a hamstring strain. Max Scherzer has been out for a month due to tendinitis in his right forearm and inflammation in his ankle. Shane Bieber has yet to pitch this season due to elbow inflammation. Cody Ponce tore his ACL in his first start back on a big league mound after signing a three-year, $30MM deal following a dominant run in the KBO. He’s not likely to pitch again this season. Bowden Francis underwent Tommy John surgery in February.
It could be another short stay on the roster for Voth, but that mounting pile of injuries creates more opportunity for him to stick around than was the cast the last time he was called to the big leagues in early April. He can’t be optioned to the minors, so if the Jays want to free up his roster spot, they’ll need to opt for the DFA route once again.
As for Kirk, he’s still on the mend from a broken left thumb. He underwent surgery and had a screw placed in the thumb to help stabilize the injury back on April 6. He’s not expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment until next week anyhow, per The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon. He’ll be eligible for reinstatement a week from today, on June 3.