Luis García Elects Free Agency
Luis García made nine appearances for the Twins this season, giving up 10 runs in 8 2/3 innings of work. Over the weekend, Minnesota designated the right-hander for assignment. Today, he rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency (per Dan Hayes of The Athletic).
García, 39, has pitched 618 games over the last 14 seasons. Only five active pitchers have thrown more games – and that’s being generous with the word “active.” The righty debuted with the Phillies in 2013 and spent the next six years of his career in Philadelphia. He then pitched for nine different teams from 2019 to ’26: the Angels, Rangers, Cardinals, Padres, Red Sox, Dodgers, Nationals, Mets, and Twins. All told, he owns a 4.20 ERA and a 3.94 SIERA in 598 1/3 innings of work. He is 28-31 with 19 saves, 118 holds, and 553 strikeouts. A groundball pitcher, García has induced 945 grounders in his career, second-most among relievers since his debut; only T.J. McFarland induced more batted balls on the ground.
Even in his best years, García was rarely a high-leverage arm. What he is is an innings eater, and he has continued to be just that into his late thirties. From 2023-25, his age-36 to 38 seasons, he tossed at least 55 innings each year, pitching to a 4.14 ERA and 3.82 SIERA. Unfortunately, the 2026 season hasn’t gone quite as well for him. He’s given up 16 runs (15 earned) in 15 innings for the Mets and Twins, with just six strikeouts and a career-worst 38.3% groundball rate. That explains why the veteran passed through waivers so quickly. Still, considering his track record, it wouldn’t be surprising to see García quickly latch on with a team in need of bullpen depth. Teams like that are never in short supply.
Willson Contreras Is Thriving For The Red Sox
The 2025-26 offseason didn’t have a defining blockbuster like the Kyle Tucker trade in 2024-25 or the Juan Soto deal the winter before. However, what the trade market lacked in top-end quality, it made up for in quantity, with no shortage of big names switching teams. The Cardinals were arguably the top sellers, dealing away Nolan Arenado, Brendan Donovan, Sonny Gray, and Willson Contreras, while the Red Sox were one of the most active buyers, picking up Gray and Contreras, along with Caleb Durbin and Johan Oviedo. It’s still too early to crown any winners of the offseason’s trades, but so far, Contreras is looking like one of the best pickups of the winter. Things aren’t going so well for the Red Sox right now, but adding the slugging first baseman is looking like one thing they definitely did right.
Through 50 games, Contreras is hitting .281 with 11 home runs and 33 RBI. His .899 OPS, .393 wOBA, and 148 wRC+ all put him among the AL’s top 10 qualified hitters. His .397 expected wOBA ranks fifth, trailing only Yordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, and Ben Rice. For what it’s worth, his glove has also looked sharper in his sophomore season at first base. In 2025, he finished with -1 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and a +4 Fielding Run Value (FRV). This year, he has a +3 DRS and a +4 FRV in less than half as many innings. The result of it all is 2.0 Wins Above Replacement, according to both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference. That’s All-Star-caliber production, although fellow first basemen Rice, Nick Kurtz, and Munetaka Murakami will give Contreras tough competition when it comes to making this summer’s AL All-Star squad.
All-Star or not, there is no overstating how important Contreras has been to an otherwise floundering Red Sox offense. He leads the team in home runs, RBI, Win Probability Added, OPS, wRC+, and fWAR. Red Sox Nation held its collective breath earlier this month when Nick Martinez hit Contreras on the hand with a fastball, forcing him out of the game. Luckily, Contreras avoided any sort of serious injury. On the contrary, he’s hit .349 with a 1.061 OPS and a 190 wRC+ in 11 games since. It’s safe to say his hand is feeling just fine.
Contreras has never played more than 138 games in a season or taken more than 563 trips to the plate. That’s partly because he used to be a catcher and partly because he found himself on the injured list 10 times in the first 10 years of his career. This year, he and the Red Sox are hoping he can avoid the IL entirely for the first time in a full season since 2018. If he can, he’s on track to blow past his previous career-highs in almost every counting stat category, including home runs, runs scored, and RBI. Of course, the rate stats are impressive too; his OPS, wRC+, and xwOBA would also be the best of his career. If Conteras keeps going at this pace, he’ll finish with just over 6.0 Wins Above Replacement, according to both the FanGraphs and Baseball Reference models. That would be far and away the highest total of his big league tenure.
Most players never have the privilege to say they were at their best in their mid-thirties. Indeed, in the last decade, only three position players have had a six-win season at age 34 or older, whether by fWAR or bWAR: Paul Goldschmidt in 2022, Brandon Crawford in 2021, and Adrian Beltré in 2016. Meanwhile, Crawford is the only hitter in the 21st century to have his first six-win season at age 34 or older. Contreras is hoping to join him.
Admittedly, it’s dangerous to extrapolate 50 games’ worth of production over a full season. Contreras has played at a six-win pace over his last 50 games, but the 10 seasons and 1,000-plus games he played before this year are probably more representative of his true talent. Besides, the aging curve tells us he’s much more likely to be worse at age 34 than he is to be better than ever. Yet, it’s more fun to be optimistic, and there are some pretty compelling reasons to believe Contreras can keep this up.
For one thing, he isn’t catching anymore. Hopefully, that should help him remain stronger and healthier throughout the rest of the season. The underlying offensive data is also incredibly promising. Over the first nine years of his career, Contreras had a pull-air rate of 13.3% (per Statcast). Then, in 2025, he increased his pull-air rate to nearly 20%. It was the first time in his career that he hit balls in the air to his pull side at a better-than-average rate. This season, his pull-air rate is up again. Just over a quarter of all his balls in play have been pulled in the air.
Here’s why all of that matters. The league-average wOBA on balls in play typically hovers around .360 to .370. When those balls in play are pulled in the air, that wOBA rises to the .730 to .740 range. What’s more, Contreras has always been particularly successful with this type of contact. His .874 career wOBA on pulled balls in the air puts him in the league’s 92nd percentile. The majority of hitters will succeed when they pull the ball in the air consistently, and Contreras can benefit more than most. His excellent numbers so far in 2026 are the proof.
What makes this development even more encouraging for Contreras is that his swing speed is still elite. Generally speaking, bat speed starts to decline precipitously when a player reaches his thirties. Those older hitters sometimes increase their pull rate, which temporarily helps to cover for their declining strength. That’s not what’s going on for Contreras, at least not in any significant way. His average bat speed on non-pulled contact is down a bit, though it’s still well above league average. Meanwhile, his bat speed on pulled contract is slightly higher than it was through May of last year (or the year before). Because he’s pulling more of his contact overall, his average swing speed is right in line with where it’s been the last two years. Out of 218 qualified swingers, only 14 have a higher average swing speed than Contreras. He may be 34, but he’s swinging like a much younger man.
Simply put, there’s no question Contreras has earned his success to date. He may not keep hitting at quite this level over the next four months, but he’s already given himself a strong head start. As long as he stays healthy, there’s a very good chance this ends up as the best season of an already highly successful career.
Images courtesy of Bob DeChiara and Jeff Curry, Imagn Images.
Rockies Place José Quintana On 15-Day IL With Sprained Elbow
The Rockies have placed left-hander José Quintana on the 15-day injured list with a sprained pitching elbow, per a team announcement. They recalled lefty Welinton Herrera from Triple-A Albuqerque in a corresponding move.
Quintana’s IL placement comes on the heels of a short and disastrous start in Arizona on Sunday. In what turned into a 9-1 loss, Quintana yielded six earned runs over 1 1/3 innings. He will now miss at least two weeks, but elbow injuries often lead to much longer absences. The 37-year-old Quintana has been on the IL seven times during his career, including once this season for a hamstring strain, but an elbow problem had never shelved him until this issue cropped up.
Since debuting with the White Sox in 2012, Quintana has put together a terrific resume as a member of nine different clubs. He owns a lifetime 3.79 ERA over 392 appearances and 366 starts, and he earned an All-Star nod with the White Sox back in 2016.
The nomadic Quintana signed with the pitching-needy Rockies on a one-year, $6MM agreement last February, but he has struggled to a 5.27 ERA over nine starts and 41 innings. While his 9.4% walk rate is exactly league average, Quintana ranks second to last in strikeout percentage (11.0) among pitchers who have thrown at least 40 frames. He has also posted a lackluster 34.3% ground-ball rate, which is easily a career low. It would be incorrect to attribute Quintana’s woes to hitter-friendly Coors Field, as his road ERA (6.75) is far worse than the 4.03 mark he has logged at home. In fairness to Quintana, a lot of the damage came at the hands of the Diamondbacks on Sunday.
At 20-34, the Rockies are tied with the Angels for the worst record in the majors. Their 4.98 ERA, the second-highest figure in the league, has been an obvious culprit. They have now seen three starting options – Quintana, Ryan Feltner and Chase Dollander – go down with injuries in the past month. Feltner put up a bloated 6.30 ERA in five starts and 20 innings before right ulnar nerve inflammation shelved him in late April, whereas Dollander has been a legitimate bright spot. While Dollander has worked behind an opener and only made three starts in 10 appearances, the hard-throwing 24-year-old notched a 3.89 ERA in 44 frames before an elbow sprain forced him to the IL on May 15.
Quintana had been penciled in to make his next start Saturday against the Giants. The shorthanded Rockies will now need to find someone to join Tomoyuki Sugano, Michael Lorenzen, Kyle Freeland and Tanner Gordon in their rotation.
Herrera, who is in line for his major league debut, has worked exclusively in relief since the Rockies signed him out of the Dominican Republic in January 2021. To protect themselves from losing Herrera in the Rule 5 Draft last winter, the Rockies added him to their 40-man roster. The 22-year-old has gotten his first taste of Triple-A action this season and registered a 5.16 ERA with high strikeout (31.8), walk (13.1) and ground-ball (50.9) percentages. MLB.com ranks Herrera as the 14th-best prospect in the Rockies’ system, noting he could turn into a “high-leverage reliever” in the bigs if his slider emerges as a strong complement to a fastball capable of reaching 99 mph.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images.
Blue Jays Place Dylan Cease On 15-Day IL, Select Tanner Andrews
5:12pm: The Blue Jays have officially announced Cease’s IL placement. To take his 26-man roster spot, the Jays selected righty Tanner Andrews from Triple-A Buffalo. The Marlins drafted Andrews in the 10th round back in 2018, but he has still not pitched in the majors. Now 30 years old, Andrews has registered a 5.58 ERA in 129 Triple-A innings. He signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays last winter and opened 2026 with 20 innings of 1.35 pitching in Triple-A before his promotion. Andrews has struck out 22 batters and yielded just 11 hits as a Bison, but he has also issued 14 free passes. His selection gives the Jays a full 40-man roster.
3:29pm: The Blue Jays are placing right-hander Dylan Cease on the 15-day injured list, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet was among those to report. Cease is dealing with a mild left hamstring strain, manager John Schneider announced.
This will be the first true IL stint for the durable Cease, who suffered the injury in a 4-1 loss to the Pirates on Sunday. Cease landed on the COVID-19 IL as a member of the White Sox back in 2021, but the team activated him after just two days on the shelf. Also a former Padre, Cease entered this season with five straight years of at least 32 starts on his resume. Whether he reaches the 30 mark for the sixth year in a row depends on how long this injury shelves him. Schneider said he’s “hoping it’s a minimal stay” on the IL (via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet).
Cease was a prized offseason acquisition for the Blue Jays, who added him on a seven-year, $210MM deal – the largest free agent contract in franchise history. Before the injury, the 30-year-old lived up to the billing. Over 11 starts, Cease has given Toronto 62 innings of 3.05 ERA ball with personal-best strikeout and ground-ball rates of 35.7% and 47.1%, respectively. His 10.1% walk rate is right in line with his career mark (10%), and advanced metrics such as xFIP (2.50), FIP (2.57), SIERA (2.73) and xERA (2.95) suggest Cease deserves even better results than he has gotten.
Despite Cease’s brilliance, the reigning American League champion Blue Jays have gotten off to an underwhelming 25-28 start. They already sit 10.5 games behind the AL East-leading Rays, but they are just a half-game out in a jam-packed wild-card race. Injuries have been a big part of the problem for Toronto, particularly in its rotation. Shane Bieber, acquired from the Guardians last season, stuck around on a $16MM player option, but he hasn’t pitched at all as a result of elbow inflammation. Cody Ponce suffered a season-ending knee injury just one start into a three-year, $30MM pact. José Berríos underwent Tommy John surgery last week, and Max Scherzer has been out for a month with right forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation. Eric Lauer stayed healthy for Toronto this year, but after he posted a dismal 6.69 ERA in 36 1/3 innings, the team traded him to the Dodgers earlier this month. That left one fewer depth option for the Blue Jays.
With Cease out for at least a couple of weeks, the sturdy Kevin Gausman will front the Jays’ rotation. Phenom Trey Yesavage missed most of April with a shoulder impingement, but he has been superb over five starts since he came off the 15-day IL. With a 3.86 ERA over nine starts and 44 1/3 innings, Patrick Corbin has given the club bang for its buck on a $1MM pact. Those three are locked into spots, but the rest of Toronto’s rotation is up in the air.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images.
Nationals Acquire Carson Palmquist From Rockies
The Nationals have acquired left-hander Carson Palmquist from the Rockies for cash considerations, both teams announced. The Nats subsequently optioned Palmquist to Triple-A Rochester and shifted right-hander Max Kranick to the 60-day injured list.
Palmquist had been a member of the Rockies organization since the club grabbed him in the third round of the 2022 draft. He consistently ranked among the Rockies’ 30 best prospects at Baseball America since then, topping out at No. 8 in 2025, but was unable to deliver in his lone major league action last season. Over nine appearances (seven starts) and 34 1/3 innings, the soft-tossing Palmquist recorded a brutal 8.91 ERA with similar strikeout and walk percentages of 15.4 and 14.3, respectively. He averaged a little over 90 mph on his fastball and surrendered 10 home runs while generating ground balls just 31.6% of the time.
Palmquist entered this season as BA’s 17th-ranked Rockies prospect, but they designated him for assignment on May 21 after he got off to a rough start with Triple-A Albuquerque. He made 12 appearances (five starts), tossed 25 innings of 7.20 ERA ball and totaled almost as many walks (19) as strikeouts (24) in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Overall, Palmquist pitched to a 5.41 ERA with 9.7 strikeouts and 5.5 walks per nine in 138 Triple-A innings as member of the Rockies.
The 25-year-old Palmquist has two minor league options remaining and will give the Nationals some depth. If he pitches well enough in Rochester, the Nats could eventually call him up to join what has been one of the majors’ least effective pitching staffs. Washington has the majors’ fifth-worst ERA (4.82), but thanks to an unexpectedly good offense, the team is off to a respectable 27-27 start.
Kranick, 28, joined the Nationals on a one-year contract with a club option on May 5. The Nationals immediately placed Kranick on the 15-day IL, as the former Pirate and Met is still recovering from the flexor tendon surgery he underwent last summer. The shift to the 60-day version will keep him from debuting with the Nats until at least early July.
Dodgers Reinstate Kiké Hernández, Designate Santiago Espinal
The Dodgers announced that they have reinstated utilityman Kiké Hernández from the 60-day injured list. To make room for Hernández, the Dodgers designated infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal for assignment.
A couple of weeks after Hernández won his third World Series as a member of the Dodgers, he underwent elbow surgery in mid-November. That put Hernández in a less-than-ideal spot in free agency, but the Dodgers wound up bringing him back on a one-year, $4.5MM deal in February. They retained a revered clubhouse presence and someone who can line up all over the field, though Hernández has seen his offensive impact fall off in recent seasons.
From 2014-21, which he divided between Houston, Miami, LA and Boston, Hernández hit .242/.318/.430 in 2,593 plate appearances. That was 1 percent better than the league average, according to wRC+. From 2022-25, split between Boston and LA, Hernández limped to a .232/.297/.382 line in 2,144 trips to the plate. His 84 wRC+ in that stretch was 16 percent below average. The 34-year-old will aim for a rebound this season after one of his worst offensive seasons in 2025. While playing through his elbow injury for a large portion of the year, Hernández hit .203/.255/.366 (70 wRC+) in 93 games and 256 plate appearances. Defensively, he saw 20-plus games worth of action at first, second, third and in the outfield.
In his season debut Monday against the Rockies, Hernández will fill in at the hot corner for Max Muncy and bat ninth. Muncy has been down since the the Brewers’ Aaron Ashby struck him in the right wrist with a 95.5 mph sinker on Friday. X-rays came back negative, but Muncy will get a third straight off day to recover.
Espinal, who saw big league time with the Blue Jays and Reds from 2020-25, settled for a minors deal with the Dodgers last offseason. They selected Espinal’s contract in late March, setting him up to earn a $2.5MM salary. The light-hitting 31-year-old struggled to a .220/.238/.366 line (67 wRC+) with one home run in 44 plate appearances. Espinal appeared in 26 games and played first, second and third before the Dodgers designated him, though he started in just nine contests.
Espinal is now heading into DFA limbo, which can last up to a week’s time. There is a 48-hour waiver process, meaning the Dodgers could take five days to swing a trade. Finding a taker should be tough when you combine Espinal’s salary with his subpar production. If a trade does not come together, Espinal has enough service time (over five years) to reject an outright assignment and keep the rest of his guaranteed salary.
Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images.
Ty Blach Elects Free Agency
Left-hander Ty Blach has elected free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been outrighted by the Cubs to Triple-A Iowa a few days ago but has instead exercised his right to head to the open market.
A player has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he has a previous career outright or at least three years of big league service time. Blach qualifies on both counts and has exercised that right.
The Cubs signed him to a minor league deal in April. He made five Triple-A appearances, effectively stretched out as a starter. Only three of those five were officially starts but he went at least three innings each time he got the ball. He posted a 5.23 earned run average in that small sample before getting called up last week. He made one appearances for the big league squad, tossing three scoreless innings of relief in a 9-3 loss to the Brewers last Monday.
After that outing, Blach was probably going to be unavailable for a few days. Since the Cubs had Caleb Thielbar coming off the IL and Blach is out of options, the circumstances pushed Blach off the 40-man roster and now to free agency.
The 35-year-old Blach has a 5.39 ERA in his career, in 523 innings logged in 157 games. Part of that is likely due to him spending several years pitching in Coors Field as a member of the Rockies but he has also been a soft-tossing low strikeout guy. His four-seamer and sinker have averaged around 90 miles per hour in his career. He has punched out 12.9% of batters faced, barely half of the league average.
In these situations, it’s fairly common for a player to quickly re-sign with the club he was just with. However, that’s not a guarantee and Blach will have the chance to see what other opportunities may be out there for him.
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Blue Jays Option Davis Schneider
The Blue Jays announced that outfielder Nathan Lukes has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. As a corresponding move, infielder/outfielder Davis Schneider has been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo.
It’s Schneider’s first time getting optioned to the minors in about a year. He got out to a slow start in 2025 and was sent to the minors for about six weeks from mid-April to early June. Once he came back up, he was a key part of the Toronto lineup. He slashed .249/.364/.468 for a 135 wRC+ after that recall. His 25.2% strikeout rate was a bit high but he offset that with a big 15% walk rate.
He continued to be a key part of the club into the postseason, getting 24 plate appearances as part of the club’s World Series run. His 37.5% strikeout rate wasn’t great but he drew walks at a 16.7% clip and hit a home run, leading to a .200/.333/.400 line and 110 wRC+.
Here in 2026, his profile has leaned even further to the extremes. He is drawing walks at a huge 19.1% clip but has also been punched out at a gruesome 34.8% pace. A .205 batting average on balls in play hasn’t helped but his .127/.295/.211 line isn’t pretty regardless of the caveats.
His demotion speaks to his struggles but also the strong showing from Yohendrick Pinango, who had no major league experience prior to this season. Some injuries pushed him up to the big leagues and he has responded with a .313/.352/.418 line in his first 71 career plate appearances. Some of that is due to a .370 BABIP he won’t be able to sustain but the Jays will ride the hot hand for now.
Sticking with Pinango over Schneider gives the Jays a bit less ability to maximize platoon situations. Schneider’s right-handed bat would ideally be complementing lefties like Pinango, Lukes, Jesús Sánchez and Daulton Varsho. Since Schneider can play second base, there have also been situations where the Jays have been able to have righties Schneider and Ernie Clement in the middle infield, protecting lefty-swinging shortstop Andrés Giménez.
With no Schneider, the outfield now has four lefties, with Myles Straw the only righty bat in the mix. Lenyn Sosa now seems to be the righty-swinging second base option, despite having a .189/.187/.284 line since joining the Jays.
For Schneider, the move may impact him from a career perspective. He came into this season with his service time count at two years and 29 days. If he had spent the entire 2026 season in the majors, he would have pushed that to 3.029. Getting to three years would have meant qualifying for arbitration and put him on pace for free agency after 2029. If he stays in the minors for the rest of the season, then he wouldn’t qualify for arbitration and his path to free agency would be pushed by a year, though he could keep those things on the table if he is recalled relatively quickly.
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Guardians Place Erik Sabrowski On IL With Elbow Inflammation
The Guardians announced that left-hander Erik Sabrowski has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to left elbow inflammation. Right-hander Codi Heuer was recalled as the corresponding move.
Sabrowski has beek a key arm out of the Cleveland bullpen with an approach that is wild but effective. He now has 63 innings under his belt, thrown over the three most recent seasons, allowing just 1.43 earned runs per nine. His 15.1% walk rate is very high but he has also punched out a massive 39.8% of batters faced.
The ERA is surely at least a bit misleading. He has a .224 batting average on balls in play and 87.8% strand rate, both of which are fortunate figures. His 2.52 FIP and 2.89 SIERA are probably more accurate representations of his contributions but he would be a big asset even if his ERA regresses to that level. Thus far, he has racked up a save and 29 holds for the Guards, including 17 holds already in 2026.
Elbow issues have been an issue before. He missed the first three months of the 2025 season due to elbow inflammation and that same issue now puts him on the shelf again. It’s unclear if the Guards consider his current status to be serious but it’s always somewhat concerning when a pitcher’s throwing elbow is the focus of an injury.
For now, the Guardians lose one of their key setup arms and their primary lefty reliever. They are now left with Tim Herrin and Logan Allen as their southpaw relievers. Allen has primarily been in the rotation in his career and was starting in Triple-A until being recalled yesterday, so he’s likely slated for a long relief role, meaning Herrin could be the only lefty for key spots late in games. Herrin has a 2.12 ERA this year but not in a sustainable way. His 16.3% strikeout rate and 15% walk rate are both awful numbers. His run prevention is mostly due to an 87% strand rate that won’t last.
The Guards are 32-23, giving them a lead of 4.5 games in the American League Central. They are in a good position to go into the deadline as buyers. Most contenders look for extra relief help at the deadline and that may be a more acute need for the Guards if their lefty contingent continues to feel light over the next few months.
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Jonny DeLuca To Miss Six To Eight Weeks With Hamstring Strain
The Rays placed outfielder Jonny DeLuca on the ten-day injured list with a right hamstring strain yesterday. He’s going to miss far more than ten days, however. Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, DeLuca’s strain is significant enough that he’ll miss about six to eight weeks.
DeLuca, 27, has been in Tampa’s outfield mix all year. His contributions have mostly been as a speed-and-defense guy. His .269/.298/.412 batting line isn’t bad, translating to a 98 wRC+ that puts him just below league average. However, he only has two home runs and a tiny 4% walk rate. His offense has been swelled by a fortunate .330 batting average on balls in play.
Though he may not be a thumper in the box on the whole, he has been a useful player in other ways. He has been better with the platoon advantage, as the righty swinger has a .315/.500/.815 line and 126 wRC+ against southpaws. He is one of the fastest guys in the league, with Statcast ranking his sprint speed in the 95th percentile of qualified big leaguers. He has stolen six bases and been credited with three Defensive Runs Saved and three Outs Above Average on the year.
The Rays will now have to proceed without DeLuca’s contributions into July. So far, the club has used only five outfielders this year, coming into today’s action. Beyond DeLuca, they have had Cedric Mullins, Chandler Simpson, Jake Fraley and Ryan Vilade in the mix. Last week, it was reported that Fraley would require a hernia procedure and would also have a return timeline of about six to eight weeks.
It will be interesting to track how the group performs over the next little while, as the timelines for DeLuca and Fraley will keep them out until fairly close to the August 3rd deadline. Simpson is an ever more extreme version of DeLuca, with huge speed and strong defense but subpar offense. Mullins has a good track record but is having a bad season, while Vilade is in the opposite position. Mullins is hitting just .192/.255/.285 on the year, though with an unlucky .218 BABIP. Vilade has a strong .308/.382/.477 line on the year but with a fortunate .346 BABIP. Víctor Mesa Jr., who has a career batting line of .188/.297/.344, was recalled to join the club when DeLuca hit the IL yesterday.
The Rays are currently the best team in the majors with a 34-16 record. They have racked up those wins despite a pretty lackluster outfield. There are some good defenders and the outfielders have more stolen bases than any other outfield group in the majors, but the Rays have received a collective .254/.302/.357 line from the outfield this year. That leads to an 85 wRC+ which is better than just five other clubs.
Given their strong record, the Rays will almost certainly be in position to buy at the deadline. The outfield could be a clear area to upgrade, given the numbers so far. As the club will be talking deals with other teams in July, Fraley and DeLuca should be getting healthy. If the Rays do make external additions, Fraley, Mullins and Vilade can’t be optioned to the minors but DeLuca, Mesa and Simpson can.
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