Twins Playing Royce Lewis At First Base, Second Base In Minors
The Twins optioned infielder Royce Lewis to Triple-A a couple of weeks ago. Since then, he has hit eight home runs and slashed .367/.446/.939. He has also started expanding his defensive versatility. He played first base yesterday and was at second base the day before.
Late last month, it was fair to wonder if Lewis’s time with the Twins was coming to an end. He has shown huge talent at times but has struggled to stay healthy. Last year, he got into a career-high 106 games but hit just .237/.283/.388. Here in 2026, he put up a .163/.261/.279 line while striking out 31.1% of the time.
When the Twins decided to send him down to the minors, they moved shortstop Brooks Lee to cover third base, which had been Lewis’s primary position. Shortstop prospect Kaelen Culpepper is killing it in Triple-A, so it looked like the left side of the infield was set for the long term. Lewis has already qualified for arbitration, making $2.85MM this season. Given his struggles and the roster picture, it looked like he was trending towards a non-tender.
But as mentioned, his bat has immediately picked up since being sent down to Saint Paul. In addition to the home runs, he has only struck out at a 19.6% pace since the demotion. It’s obviously easier to put up good numbers against Triple-A pitching but the Twins are well aware that Lewis can hit in the majors. In 2022 and 2023, Lewis was limited by injuries to just 280 plate appearances but put up a monster .307/.364/.549 line in those.
Defensively, Lewis has mostly been at the hot corner. The Twins toyed with moving him to second base in 2024 but he logged just eight innings at the position at that time. He didn’t play the position again until this week’s game with the Saints. Yesterday was his first professional game as a first baseman.
If he can handle the new spots competently, and his resurgence at the plate holds, then he has a path back to the big leagues. Luke Keaschall is getting most of the playing time at the keystone and is controlled for many years to come but he is hitting just .245/.321/.316 so far this year. He had a dreadful March/April, got hot in May, but has cooled off again in June. Obviously, the current month is a very small sample, so Keaschall’s season-long performance is still trending up after a cool start. But he does have options if the Twins ever decide he needs a reset.
First base is far more open. Most of this year’s time at that spot has gone to Kody Clemens, Josh Bell and Victor Caratini. Ever since Ryan Jeffers suffered a hamate fracture in mid-May, Caratini has been the primary catcher. Bell is hitting just .227/.289/.345 on the year, so there’s an argument for reducing his playing time. He is also an impending free agent, so he’s not a part of the long-term picture.
Clemens is having a good year at the plate but can be moved elsewhere. The Twins have been using him in all three outfield spots this year. Matt Wallner getting optioned to the minors opened some time in the corners, though Trevor Larnach and Austin Martin are doing well in those spots. Clemens’ ability to cover center field, and Bell spending more time at first, has opened the designated hitter spot for Byron Buxton. A hip issue caused Buxton to miss some time recently but the Twins obviously want his bat in the lineup, so having that flexibility is huge for them.
Add it all up and the future for Lewis in Minnesota looks a bit more possible. Presumably, the Twins would like him to play a few more games at first base and get comfortable there, but there is a path for him to return and carve out a role in the big leagues again. If they don’t want to wait on that process, perhaps he could retake the third base job and push Lee back to short. Culpepper hasn’t been called up yet and the Twins have a Tristan Gray, Ryan Kreidler, Orlando Arcia rotation covering short for now. Regardless of the position, if Lewis comes up and performs well over the next few months, he can be retained via arbitration for the 2027 and 2028 seasons.
Photo courtesy of Jesse Johnson, Imagn Images
Elias Díaz Elects Free Agency
Veteran catcher Elias Díaz rejected an outright assignment from the Royals in favor of free agency, as reflected on the transaction log at MiLB.com. Players with more than three years of service (or a prior outright in their career) can reject outrights and instead elect free agency. Díaz has more than nine years of major league service.
The 35-year-old Díaz appeared in 10 games with the Royals and popped a pair of home runs in just 23 trips to the plate. He hit .227/.261/.591 overall in that tiny sample before being designated for assignment. It was a nice burst of power, but Díaz swung at nearly 58% of the pitches he saw and his numbers from recent seasons don’t support the idea of him continuing to show that kind of home run power. From 2022-25, he picked up 1541 plate appearances between the Rockies and Padres but turned in a tepid .246/.298/.380 slash (77 wRC+).
It’s a modest track record at the plate, but Díaz has above-average power relative to other catchers and has turned in greatly improved defensive grades in recent seasons. He’s always been adept at controlling the running game, evidenced by a career 27% caught-stealing rate, and he continued to show off that arm in his short time with Kansas City when he nabbed two of five potential thieves on the bases. Díaz graded as a poor framer for the first several seasons of his career but has been above-average in that regard by virtually every publicly available metric dating back to 2024. Statcast credits him as roughly average when it comes to blocking pitches in the dirt.
Díaz has never walked much and isn’t likely to hit for a high average. Be that as it may, teams with notable catching injuries (e.g. Braves, Mariners, White Sox, Mets, Twins) could feasibly take a low-cost look at plugging him into a backup role while waiting on their injured starters to mend — or they could simply add him on a minor league deal as insurance against further injuries to their already-depleted catching corps.
Aaron Judge Diagnosed With Rib Stress Fracture, Will Be Reevaluated In 4-6 Weeks
June 5: Jones will indeed be recalled from Triple-A when Judge is formally placed on the 10-day IL, as first reported by Jack Curry of the YES Network.
June 4: The Yankees will be without the game’s most feared slugger for a couple months. New York announced that Aaron Judge has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in the first rib on his right side. He’ll go for follow-up imaging in four to six weeks to gauge his healing and rehab process.
New York announced that Judge is expected back at some point before the end of the season. It’ll almost certainly not be until August at the earliest. He’ll be placed on the 10-day injured list before tomorrow’s series opener with the Red Sox and seems likely to wind up on the 60-day IL at some point.
Judge sat out this week’s series against the Guardians. The Yankees announced he was going for testing on a ribcage injury despite feeling the pain mostly in his right shoulder. Fans had some concern when the team sent Judge to a doctor who specializes in treating thoracic outlet syndrome this afternoon. It seems that was to rule out the nerve condition.
Thoracic outlet syndrome would have been the nightmare outcome. A rib fracture seems unlikely to be a career-altering injury. While it’s not a worst case scenario, it’s clearly not good news. It’ll take until around the All-Star Break for the team to even check into the rib’s healing. He’d need to build up baseball activities and live batting practice sessions from there. An absence of this length is also going to require a rehab assignment to get accustomed to game speed.
Judge has felt an increasing amount of discomfort while hitting over the past few weeks. There was no single play this season that caused the injury. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com notes that Judge actually suffered a stress fracture of the same rib and a partially collapsed lung on a diving catch attempt back in 2019. That wasn’t diagnosed until the following March. The pandemic then shut down the sport for a few months, so that injury didn’t cost him any game time.
This injury has clearly weighed on Judge’s performance. He hit .243/.368/.437 with five home runs in May. That’d be a good few weeks for most hitters but was Judge’s lowest OPS in a month since April 2024. He had an OPS north of 1.000 this April, slugging 12 homers through the season’s first five weeks.
The Yankees are also without Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Domínguez. Utility players José Caballero and Max Schuemann have started the last three games in right field. They’ll probably bring Spencer Jones back up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre now that a Judge IL stay is confirmed. Domínguez is taking batting practice and could begin a rehab assignment this week. Stanton told Jon Heyman of The New York Post that he’s hoping to be back from a calf strain in about two weeks.
New York led MLB in scoring in May even without a herculean month from the three-time MVP. Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger are having fantastic seasons. Jazz Chisholm Jr. has picked things up after a bad start. Paul Goldschmidt, back in the everyday lineup thanks to the Stanton and Domínguez injuries, is having a resurgent year. The bottom third of the order has been an issue, especially Austin Wells behind the plate, but this should still be an above-average lineup.
It’s clearly not going to be as potent without Judge as the anchor though. It’s unlikely this will dramatically change their deadline trajectory, as Domínguez should be back before too long to hold an outfield spot until Judge returns. It could certainly impact a tight division race, with New York holding a half-game advantage over Tampa Bay in the AL East.
The Opener: Cubs, Rangers, Nootbaar
Diamondbacks first baseman Ildemaro Vargas and Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy are both fine after slamming into each other on a close play at first base last night (video via Talkin’ Baseball on X). Vargas is dealing with some bruises, and Muncy went through concussion protocol, but the infielders are expected to return to the lineup this weekend.
1. Cubs’ wild comeback
The Cubs were in danger of getting swept at home by the Athletics on Thursday. Chicago cut into a 6-1 deficit with an Ian Happ two-run homer in the seventh inning, but went into the final frame down three runs. Joel Kuhnel entered for the A’s and quickly got into trouble. The righty permitted five hits and recorded just two outs, one of which came via caught stealing. Luis Medina relieved Kuhnel with two runners on and the A’s clinging to a one-run lead. Dansby Swanson knocked in the game-tying tally, and Pete Crow-Armstrong followed with a walk-off single. PCA also homered earlier in the game, redeeming himself after losing a Shea Langeliers fly ball in the twilight, leading to an inside-the-park home run.
2. Seager, Langford expected back
The Rangers are getting reinforcements on Friday. Shortstop Corey Seager and outfielder Wyatt Langford are expected to return for a series against the Guardians, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Seager has missed a couple of weeks with back inflammation. Langford has been sidelined since late April with a forearm strain. Outfielder Alejandro Osuna and utilityman Cody Freeman are heading back to the minors to clear spots for Seager and Langford, relays Grant. Texas has recovered since getting swept by the Angels and dropping three of four against the Astros (including a no-hitter). The club has won five of six games heading into a weekend matchup against Cleveland.
3. Nootbaar returning Friday
The Cardinals are also getting an important bat back into the lineup. Outfielder Lars Nootbaar is expected to make his season debut on Friday against the Reds, relays Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Nootbaar is returning from offseason surgery on both heels. Injuries have limited him in multiple seasons, but the outfielder played a career-high 135 games in 2025. Nootbaar should provide a boost to a lineup that ranks 29th in scoring since the beginning of May. “He takes his walks, he controls the strike zone, he puts it in play, so that will be helpful,” manager Oli Marmol said.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
The Padres’ Problems Are Mounting
The past couple weeks have not been kind to the Padres. They now have a season-high five-game losing streak after being swept in today's matinee series finale in Philadelphia. It's their third four-plus game skid of the season and second in as many weeks, as they've dropped nine of ten.
Six of those have come at the hands of the Phillies, who have turned their season around after a brutal April and managerial change. Philadelphia obviously deserves credit for that, but San Diego's recent results have magnified the issues that existed even when they were winning games. They won 18 of 25 games in April despite an underperforming lineup and one of the weakest on-paper rotations in the National League. The roster deficiencies have begun to catch up.
San Diego's early-season success means they're still in playoff position. They're 32-29 and right in the thick of the Wild Card race. Two-thirds of the National League is above .500, so a team's placement in the standings can move quickly.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote about the Padres' struggles this morning, observing that president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has never shied away from big swings at the deadline. Unless they go into a freefall over the next two months, they'll likely be tied to a number of big names on the trade market. The needs are stacking up.
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A’s Move Jack Perkins Into Rotation
Jack Perkins will make his first start of the season for the A’s on Friday. The second-year righty will go opposite Peter Lambert to kick off a weekend series with the Astros.
Manager Mark Kotsay told Martín Gallegos of MLB.com this week that Perkins will be part of the rotation. The A’s have lost Aaron Civale and Luis Severino to injury within the past 10 days. They optioned struggling left-hander Jacob Lopez to Triple-A on Tuesday. That has overhauled three-fifths of the rotation they’d used for most of the season.
Top prospect Gage Jump was called up when Civale went down. He had a shaky debut against the Mariners but fired seven innings of one-run ball to beat the Cubs in his second career start. They brought up another rookie, Kade Morris, this week. He’ll make his MLB debut on Saturday against Tatsuya Imai in the second game of the Houston series. Morris doesn’t have Jump’s upside but is viewed as a potential back-end starter.
Jeffrey Springs is the only member of the season-opening starting five currently in the rotation. Luis Morales opened as the fifth starter but pitched poorly and was optioned in early April. He’s now working short relief in Triple-A and still struggling.
J.T. Ginn moved from the bullpen to take Morales’ rotation spot and has had a quietly strong year. He carries a 2.74 ERA with a 23% strikeout rate over 65 2/3 frames. Ginn pitched six innings of one-run ball against the Cubs tonight, but a bullpen meltdown spoiled the strong start. The A’s gave up four in the bottom of the ninth and got walked off.
They’ll hope that Perkins can make a similarly successful transition from relief. The 26-year-old has started four of his 29 big league appearances. The A’s brought him up last June as a multi-inning reliever. They moved him to the rotation in August until a shoulder strain ended his season. Perkins opened this season at Triple-A Las Vegas. The A’s recalled him in early April.
Perkins owns a 5.46 ERA across 28 innings on the season. He’s striking out 26.4% of opponents behind an excellent 14.3% swinging strike mark. Perkins has also halved his walk rate, but he has hit six batters. He issued a lot of free passes at every stop throughout his minor league career. This year’s 5.6% walk percentage is probably a blip, but Perkins has quality stuff. He’s sitting in the 96 mph range with his fastball while getting lots of chases and whiffs with his breaking ball and changeup.
The next few weeks will essentially be audition time for all three of Jump, Perkins and Morris. The non-Lopez depth starters at Triple-A (i.e. Morales, Joey Estes and Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang) have not performed well. Mason Barnett is in long relief but would probably be the next one up for a rotation look if Perkins or Morris falter. Braden Nett, acquired in the Mason Miller trade, just came off the Triple-A injured list. Last year’s first-round pick Jamie Arnold is at Double-A and has been inconsistent.
Pitching, starting and relief, would be the apparent priorities for the A’s if they’re in position to add at the deadline. They sit 2.5 back of the Mariners in the AL West after today’s tough loss. They’re in possession of the final Wild Card spot despite being two games under .500 at 30-32.
Rangers Re-Sign Josh Sborz To Minor League Deal
The Rangers are re-signing reliever Josh Sborz to a minor league contract, reports Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. He’d been granted his release earlier in the week.
Sborz pitched parts of four MLB seasons with Texas between 2021-24. While he had a mostly nondescript 4.86 earned run average across 150 regular season innings, he carved out a place in team history in October ’23. Sborz worked 12 frames of one-run ball over 10 appearances during the Rangers title run. He was one of Bruce Bochy’s top setup arms and fired 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the save in the World Series clinching Game 5 at Chase Field.
Shoulder problems have mostly hampered him since that triumphant moment. Sborz was limited to 16 2/3 innings in 2024. He missed all of last season working back from a debridement procedure, as he encountered a setback during a brief minor league rehab attempt. Texas opted not to tender him an arbitration contract but was able to retain him via minor league deal.
The 32-year-old has been healthy this year but hasn’t pitched well enough to earn a roster spot. Sborz allowed 13 runs across 14 1/3 innings at Triple-A Round Rock. He fanned 17 of 65 opponents (26.1%) but issued nine walks and gave up six home runs. He spent a month working on his mechanics outside of game action before being reassigned to Double-A a couple weeks ago. Texas bumped him back to Round Rock on May 27. He allowed hits to five of 10 batters faced in two innings before briefly testing the market.
It’s not uncommon for players to re-sign on a minor league deal after triggering an opt-out. They get a couple days to gauge whether there are better paths to an MLB opportunity elsewhere. The new deal could have a slightly higher minor league salary and include new upward mobility/opt-out chances that weren’t in the previous agreement.
Red Sox To Option Brayan Bello To Triple-A
The Red Sox are optioning right-hander Brayan Bello to Triple-A Worcester, reports Dan Roche of WBZ. Boston will add recently acquired lefty reliever Joe La Sorsa to the active roster for tomorrow’s series opener in The Bronx.
Bello was knocked around again this afternoon, giving up eight runs over five innings to take the loss against the Orioles. He’s now sitting on a 6.34 earned run average over 61 frames on the season. He’s striking hitters out at a career-low 15.6% rate. Bello has a career-worst average exit velocity allowed while giving up a lofty 1.48 home runs per nine innings.
The primary issue is that Bello has had no answers for left-handed batters. They carried a .323/.384/.554 line with nearly as many walks as strikeouts in 147 plate appearances into today’s start. He hasn’t been good against right-handed hitters either, but the numbers against lefties are completely untenable. That was also an issue for Bello early in his career.
Boston has tried to work around that by using a left-handed opener in front of Bello on four occasions. He has pitched very well in those outings, but the opener (Jovani Morán or Tyler Samaniego) has allowed at least one run in each. The Sox have gone 1-3 in those games despite Bello having a combined 0.71 ERA across 25 1/3 innings.
The 27-year-old righty was asked about the stark difference between his performance as a bulk arm versus starts. He was clearly unhappy with the question.
“First of all, just stop talking about bullpen and starting games,” he said in Spanish via the team’s interpreter (link via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic). “I’ve always been a starter, and when I’ve been successful as a starter, no one asks your question (about) whether I have to be in the bullpen or starting games. So, just starting from there, just stop that talk, because I’m just having a bad season. That’s it. It’s not whether I’m a starter or I’m a reliever. It’s just, having a bad season. I know that I can turn it around.”
Marcos Grunfeld of El Emergente, a native Spanish speaker on the Boston beat, directly translated Bello’s comments a little more firmly:
“First of all, just stop talking about this bullpen-starter crap because when I’m pitching well as a starter, nobody talks about it. Now that I’m having a bad season as a starter, everybody wants to talk crap about it. The first thing is that we should stop talking about it and focus on the good things. Yes, I’m having a bad season as a starter, but I believe things are going to get better.”
In any case, the Sox probably would’ve proceeded with the demotion based on Bello’s performance alone. He’s in the third season of a $55MM extension signed in Spring Training 2024. Bello posted a 4.49 ERA that year and had a career season in 2025. He turned in a 3.35 mark across 166 2/3 innings, albeit with a drop in strikeouts that has only heightened this year. Bello is playing on a $6MM salary and guaranteed $44.5MM from 2027-29 (including a buyout on a 2030 club option).
Pitchers must spend at least 15 days on an optional assignment unless they’re recalled to replace an injured player. Boston can carry an extra reliever until his next scheduled start on Tuesday. Rookie southpaw Jake Bennett, who made his first two career starts earlier in the season, seems the likeliest candidate to come up. He owns a 1.60 ERA with plus strikeout and walk marks in Triple-A.
The Red Sox still need to create a 40-man roster spot to select La Sorsa’s contract. Garrett Crochet could move to the 60-day injured list, assuming he won’t be back from his low-grade lat strain within the next three weeks. A transfer would backdate to his initial April 26 placement.
Twins Sign Austin Voth To Minor League Deal
The Twins signed right-hander Austin Voth to a minor league contract. The move was announced by their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul, as he’ll start tonight’s game for the Saints.
Voth elected free agency on Tuesday after being outrighted by the Blue Jays. The 33-year-old had two very brief stops on Toronto’s big league roster. He made two long relief appearances, giving up six runs in as many innings. Voth surrendered eight hits, walked five batters, and threw three wild pitches while recording one strikeout.
The big league work wasn’t impressive, but Voth pitched well out of the Triple-A rotation. He made eight starts there and turned in a 2.90 earned run average, albeit while averaging less than four innings per appearance. Voth had a below-average 17% strikeout rate compared to a tidy 6.8% walk percentage. He doesn’t have big stuff but has mixed five pitches and been around the strike zone.
Minnesota pulled the plug on Simeon Woods Richardson with last week’s DFA. They traded him to Toronto for cash yesterday. Bailey Ober recently went down with a mild flexor strain that’ll shut him down completely for 10-14 days. He’ll be on the injured list for most or all of June. Kendry Rojas also recently suffered a triceps strain and Mick Abel has been out since the middle of April.
They’re currently operating with a four-man rotation of Joe Ryan, Taj Bradley, Zebby Matthews and Connor Prielipp. Rookie Mike Paredes is with the big league club in long relief but could draw into the rotation. John Klein is the only depth starter on optional assignment. Voth is the only other starter on the Triple-A team with MLB experience and will probably get a look as a long man at some point this summer.
Red Sox Acquire Joe La Sorsa
6:41pm: Boston announced the trade but has yet to reveal the corresponding move.
5:20pm: The Pirates are going to trade left-hander Joe La Sorsa to the Red Sox, reports Ari Alexander of 7News Boston. The Bucs will get cash in return, per Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. It was reported a few days ago that the southpaw was triggering an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal. Alexander says that La Sorsa will be with the Sox in New York tomorrow as they kick off a series against the Yankees. Boston will need to open a 40-man roster spot for La Sorsa.
La Sorsa, 28, will be appearing in his fourth straight major league season once he gets into a game with the Sox. From 2023 to 2025, he pitched for the Rays, Nationals and Reds, posting a 5.21 earned run average in 57 innings.
He signed a minor league deal with the Pirates in the offseason and has been pitching for Triple-A Indianapolis. He has thrown 26 innings with a 3.46 ERA. His 21.2% strikeout rate is around average while his 5.8% walk rate and 47.9% ground ball rate a few ticks better than par.
The lefty triggered an upward mobility clause in his deal at the end of spring training. The way such clauses work is that the player must be offered to the 29 others teams in the league. If any of them want to give the player a roster spot, the signing team has to either trade him or give him a roster spot themselves. If they all pass, he will stay with the signing team. La Sorsa stayed with the Bucs in late March, suggesting all clubs passed on him at that time. In this case, the Sox have signed up.
Boston has three lefties in the bullpen, though Aroldis Chapman is the closer. That leaves Jovani Morán and Danny Coulombe as the lefty options for situations before the ninth inning. Coulombe spent about three weeks on the injured list due to cervical spasms and has a 6.55 ERA around that IL stint. Morán has a much better 3.19 ERA but has gotten some help from a fortunate .197 batting average on balls in play and 85.2% strand rate. La Sorsa will give the Sox another option in the southpaw relief corps.
The Sox don’t have a lot of flexibility in their current bullpen mix. Of their eight relief arms, only Justin Slaten and Greg Weissert are optionable, but those are two of their two setup arms. La Sorsa himself is optionable but, as mentioned, he is expected to be with the big league club in the Bronx tomorrow. Perhaps Coulombe will be designated for assignment, as that would open up a spot on both the active and 40-man rosters for La Sorsa. Other options for that kind of move would be Tyron Guerrero and Ryan Watson, who both have ERAs north of 5.00 at the moment.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Shea, Imagn Images