Guardians To Select Travis Bazzana
The Guardians are reportedly promoting 2024 first overall pick Travis Bazzana. He should debut tomorrow and take over as the everyday second baseman. They’ll open an active roster spot by optioning Juan Brito. Cleveland still has an opening on the 40-man roster after waiving Kolby Allard a couple weeks ago, so no other move is necessary.
Cleveland’s middle infield has been in flux since Gabriel Arias went down with a left hamstring strain three weeks ago. That moved Brayan Rocchio from second base to shortstop. The Guardians promoted Brito after the Arias injury, but the 24-year-old second baseman struggled after collecting five hits in his first three games. Brito had just four hits in 39 at-bats over his next 12 contests. He also committed four errors across 123 1/3 innings.
That opened the door for Bazzana’s first major league look. The Australian-born infielder is out to a strong .287/.422/.511 start over 24 games with Triple-A Columbus. He has taken walks at a huge 17.9% clip against a league average 21.4% strikeout rate. Bazzana only has two home runs, but he has already tallied 11 doubles and a pair of triples. He’s also 8-10 in stolen base attempts.
Bazzana’s advanced hit tool and extremely patient approach have been his calling cards dating back to his college days at Oregon State. He was expected to be one of the quickest players from his draft to the majors. Instead, Chase Burns, Nick Kurtz, Cam Smith, JJ Wetherholt, Jac Caglianone, Christian Moore, Trey Yesavage, Carson Benge and even Konnor Griffin (a high school draftee) were all 2024 first-rounders who got to the big leagues before he did.
That’s at least partially due to health. A pair of oblique injuries limited Bazzana to 77 games between the top two minor league levels last season (plus seven rehab contests at the Arizona complex). It was understandable the Guardians wanted him to open the season in Triple-A. They probably should have swapped him in for Brito earlier than they have this April, however.
It’s a moot point now, as Bazzana joins Chase DeLauter as touted rookies in Stephen Vogt’s lineup. He has been a full-time second baseman in the minor leagues and could see time at the keystone and designated hitter. That’d allow them to use hot-hitting utility player Daniel Schneemann more frequently in left field against right-handed pitching. George Valera has started slowly since returning from a season-opening calf strain, while the switch-hitting Angel Martínez has better career numbers against lefties.
Bazzana comfortably meets the criteria to qualify for the Prospect Promotion Incentive. He entered the season among the top 25 minor league talents at each of MLB Pipeline, Baseball America and ESPN. He was a little lower on preseason rankings from FanGraphs and Keith Law of The Athletic but still easily a consensus Top 100 prospect.
It’s beyond the point at which Bazzana can accrue a full service year through time spent on the MLB roster. He would earn a full year of service time if he places within the top two in AL Rookie of the Year voting. It’ll be a challenge to compete with Kevin McGonigle, Munetaka Murakami, Carter Jensen and teammates DeLauter and Parker Messick among what could be an excellent AL rookie class. The Guardians would not be eligible for an extra draft choice if Bazzana wins Rookie of the Year because they waited beyond the second week of April to call him up.
If Bazzana sticks on the MLB roster, he’d be a lock to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player after 2028. The Guardians will hope he hits the ground running and solidifies his hold on the second base job. If not, future optional assignments to the minor leagues could change his service trajectory. Arias’ initial 4-8 week recovery timeline left open a potential May return. He should be a utility player but could reclaim the shortstop job and push Rocchio back to second if Bazzana struggles in his first look at big league pitching.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Bazzana promotion. Zack Meisel of The Athletic reported the Brito demotion. Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.
Red Sox Add Interim Coaches To Staff
8:10pm: The Boston Globe’s Tim Healey writes that John Soteropoulos, who had been on Cora’s staff as assistant hitting coach, will technically be a lead hitting coach. It’ll nevertheless be mostly a collaborative group that includes Simonetty and Hetzler. Tracy indicated they’re also planning to promote Low-A hitting coach Nelson Paulino to work with the MLB group. The 53-year-old Paulino has coached minor league hitters in the Boston system for nearly three decades.
1:10pm: The Red Sox announced that they have added three new coaches to their staff today. José David Flores is now the interim bench coach. Pablo Cabrera is the interim first base coach/outfield instructor. Jack Simonetty has been hired as an interim hitting assistant. Chris Cotillo of MassLive first reported the news on Flores and Simonetty while Alex Speier of The Boston Globe was first on Cabrera.
The moves are in response to the stunning Red Wedding-style massacre that occurred in Baltimore this weekend. The Sox fired manager Alex Cora as well as his hitting coach Peter Fatse, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, third base/outfield coach Kyle Hudson, and major league hitting strategist Joe Cronin. Also, run prevention coach Jason Varitek is being reassigned to a different role within the organization.
Some of those positions were quickly filled, at least on an interim basis. Chad Tracy was called up from the minors to take over as interim manager. Chad Epperson became interim third base coach. Collin Hetzler was added to the hitting staff. That still left the overall coaching group far lighter than before, but today’s additions effectively get the staff back to previous levels.
Flores, 55, has a decent amount of previous MLB coaching experience. He was infield coordinator for the Cubs from 2012 to 2017. He was the first base coach for the Phillies in 2018, then served as third base coach in Baltimore for the next two seasons. The Sox hired him to work as bench coach for Triple-A Worcester, a job he held from 2022 to 2024. He was promoted to the big league staff as first base coach going into last season.
The other two hirees are far less experienced and are joining a big league staff for the first time. Cabrera, 28, was hired by the Red Sox in 2023 to work as a coach for Double-A Portland. He then worked as defensive coach in the club’s Fort Myers complex, before getting promoted to infield/outfield defensive coordinator for this season.
Simonetty, 26, was hired as a video and technology associate for Worcester in 2023. His title was player development associate in 2024. Last year, he served as assistant hitting coach for Single-A Salem. He began this year as hitting coach for the Florida Complex League Red Sox.
The Sox will now play the majority of the 2026 season with a big chunk of the staff being hired mid-season for interim roles. Whether any of them can stick around depends on what happens in the coming months and who is in charge in 2027.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
The Marlins Should Make A Change Behind The Plate
Agustín Ramírez was the worst defensive catcher in the majors last year. The Marlins haven’t yet given up on him but perhaps they should. They have one of the top catching prospects knocking on the door and there’s an open path for them to surge into contention this year.
31 different catchers caught at least 600 innings in 2025. J.T. Realmuto led the way with 1151 1/3, almost double the 605 2/3 caught by Ramírez. Despite catching notably fewer innings than most of the catchers in this sample, Ramírez led the pack with ten errors. He allowed 19 passed balls, which was more than twice as much as the next person on that list, as no one else allowed more than nine. He was also behind the plate for 36 wild pitches, which are technically the fault of pitchers, but a good catcher can occasionally save his teammates from those. Four of those 31 catchers allowed a few more wild pitches but all in larger sample sizes. In short, if Ramírez was catching, the ball was at the backstop a lot.
Those traditional stats aligned with more advanced ones. Ramírez was credited with minus-14 Defensive Runs Saved. Only Salvador Perez, at minus-15, was worse than him in that column. The Fielding Run Value stat at FanGraphs had him last at minus-12. Statcast credited him with minus-13 catching runs, ahead of only Edgar Quero. Baseball Prospectus was less down on him overall, having him merely as one of the 13 worst catchers, but they were the one outlet that didn’t like his framing work.
Presumably, the Marlins have been willing to tolerate this in the hopes that there’s a path to improvement. Ramírez has been a very strong hitter in the minors and could be an asset if his defense got to more passable levels. He put up a combined line of .268/.357/.473 at various rungs of the minors from 2023 to 2025, leading to a 128 wRC+. His 11.5% walk rate and 18.4% strikeout rate were both strong figures and he hit 46 home runs in 1,120 plate appearances.
But his bat hasn’t quite clicked in the majors yet, perhaps due to him focusing so much on trying to improve his defense. Ramírez did hit 21 home runs last year but with a low batting average and poor walk rate, leading to a lopsided line of .231/.287/.413. That resulted in a 91 wRC+, indicating he was nine percent below league average. That’s not bad for a catcher since backstops tend to be about ten points below par, but it’s not great when considering his glovework.
Going into 2026, there was an argument for moving Ramírez to a role as a first baseman and designated hitter. Moving to first would require some work but Ramírez did play the position some in the minors. Though Ron Washington will tell you moving to first is not easy, catching is considered the most rigorous position on the field and playing anywhere else would afford Ramírez more ability to focus on his hitting.
All of that is especially true when considering the presence of Joe Mack, who is one of the top catching prospects in the league. He is considered to be a very strong defender behind the plate. He reached the Triple-A level in 2025, getting into 99 games. His offense is considered more questionable than his defense but he slashed .250/.320/.459 for a 107 wRC+ with the Jumbo Shrimp last year. He was added to the 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
The Fish could have gone with Mack and bumped Ramírez to first base, a position that was fairly open. They didn’t go that way. They have continued to stick with Liam Hicks and Ramírez as their catching duo, splitting the time almost equally. Ramírez has been behind the plate for 122 innings, compared to 123 for Hicks. Hicks is doing fine, pairing adequate defense with a .314/.354/.523 line in the early going this year, though he’s not great with the running game.
Ramírez, on the other hand, hasn’t shown many signs of improvement. His 122 innings caught this year are about a fifth of last year’s 605 2/3. He already has four errors, almost half the ten he had last year. That’s tied with Quero for the league lead. He has allowed three passed balls, a better pace than last year but not by much. Francisco Alvarez is the only guy with more, at four. Ramírez has been behind the plate for nine wild pitches already, a worse pace than last year. Only Logan O’Hoppe and Drew Millas have allowed more. FanGraphs and Statcast have soured on his framing a bit, though in a very small sample.
The Ramírez/Hicks pairing impacts their pitchers in other ways as well, as neither is great as controlling the running game. The Fish allowed 191 stolen bases last year, easily the most in the majors. The Astros were a distant second on that list with 157. Miami only caught 24 attempted steals on the year. Technically, that was higher than the 23 that the Royals nabbed, but that was because K.C.’s catchers were run on far less, only allowing 47 steals. So far in 2026, the Marlins have allowed 37 steals, again the most in the majors. They’ve only caught three.
Catchers can sometimes provide value in other ways which are difficult to measure, such as working with a pitching staff. Even there, it’s hard to give the Ramírez and Hicks much credit. Starting last year, the Marlins began calling pitches from the dugout. Ramírez and Hicks might still be doing something in terms of communication and providing confidence but it’s fair to say they’re impacting intangibles less than catchers on other teams.
The offense from Ramírez also continues to lag, as he is currently sporting a .235/.303/.367 line and 84 wRC+ this year. It’s a small sample but he’s now up to 694 career plate appearances with a .231/.290/.406 line and 90 wRC+.
Mack, meanwhile, continues to do well in Jacksonville. In his first 83 plate appearances for the Jumbo Shrimp this year, he has three home runs and a huge 19.3% walk rate. Even with a subpar .267 batting average on balls in play, he has a .224/.373/.388 line and 115 wRC+ this year.
Perhaps there are service time considerations at play. Mack is a consensus top 100 prospect in the league. The Fish could have put him on the Opening Day roster and made him eligible to earn the club a bonus draft pick as part of the prospect promotion incentive. They opted not to do that. At this point, they probably are thinking about the flip side of the PPI. Eligible players who are not promoted in the first few weeks of the season can be awarded a full year of service retroactively if they finish in the top two of rookie of the year voting.
If that were to happen, it would be the worst of both worlds for the Marlins, in a sense. They would not get a bonus pick and their window of club control over Mack would be a standard six, as opposed to being juiced to six-plus. From the team’s perspective, you’d ideally not be in that middle spot.
But the downside of keeping Mack down is that the major league club is likely worse off. With prospects, there are no guarantees of immediate success, so it can’t just be assumed that Mack will boost the big league squad. But since a big part of his appeal is his defense, he should be a lock to at least be an upgrade over Ramírez in that regard. On offense, perhaps he would struggle with the promotion, but it’s not as though Ramírez is crushing the ball so far this year.
The Marlins have received a combined .192/.248/.279 line from the DH spot this year, resulting in a 47 wRC+ which places them ahead of just the Pirates and Rockies. Putting Ramírez in there, and having him focus less on catching, could theoretically be good for the lineup.
And turning back to the PPI situation, there’s also some space opening up. Sal Stewart has nine home runs, a .291/.385/.602 line and 1.2 wins above replacement, in the eyes of FanGraphs. JJ Wetherholt is at 1.1 fWAR and Moises Ballesteros at 0.9. On the pitching side, Nolan McLean is at 1.3 fWAR and Rhett Lowder 1.0. It’s theoretically possible for Mack to come up and have a monster finish while some of those other guys struggle, but getting into the top two of voting is going to be tough when those guys already have a decent head-start.
On top of all that, there’s a window for the Marlins to have a special season. On paper, they came into the year as the fourth-best team in the division, in the eyes of most evaluators. But the Phillies and Mets are both out to awful starts. It’s still early, and the Marlins are only four games clear of those two clubs. But since the Mets and Phillies are 9-19 right now, there’s a real chance they can’t climb back into contention and end up selling at the deadline. In that situation, the Marlins would still have to battle the other N.L. clubs for a wild card spot, since it feels like Atlanta will run away with the division, but Miami’s chances feel a bit better than a few weeks ago even if they’re only 13-15.
Even putting aside the early-season standings, which could change in a hurry, this feels like a move the Marlins should make. All signs point to Mack being the long-term answer behind the plate. Ramírez, meanwhile, would seemingly be better served as a bat-first player. Perhaps the Marlins are hoping that another club will take a chance on Ramírez as a catching project, which would allow them to use him in a deadline deal, but it’s hard to envision that when progress isn’t really being made.
Photo courtesy of Mady Mertens, Isaiah J. Downing, Jim Rassol, Imagn Images
Tanner Murray Suffers Shoulder Fracture
White Sox manager Will Venable announced (as reported by Scott Merkin of MLB.com) that Tanner Murray suffered a dislocation (h/t James Fegan of Sox Machine) and shoulder fracture that will require surgery, with an expected 4-6 month recovery timetable. Murray injured himself laying out for a CJ Abrams flyball in the top of the tenth inning of yesterday’s 2-1 Nationals win. The White Sox have placed Murray on the 10-day IL
The 26-year old Murray made his MLB debut this season with the White Sox after a half-decade working up the ranks in Tampa Bay’s organization. Drafted in the fourth round out of UC Davis in 2020, Murray looked quite good at Single-A Charleston in 2021 before struggling somewhat at High-A Bowling Green the following year.
His 2023, spread across three levels, was successful, but Murray’s performance at the upper levels of the minors left something to be desired. He had arguably his strongest showing in 2024: a .290/.328/.424 line in 470 plate appearances at Double-A Montgomery, good for a park and league adjusted 121 wRC+ (100 is average), but a below-average 2025 at Triple-A Durham (.241/.299/.400 in 572 PAs for an 81 wRC+) curtailed his ascent to the majors.
Last offseason, Murray became one-half of the White Sox return (alongside Everson Pereira) for righties Yoendrys Gómez and Steven Wilson. This time, Murray’s Triple-A showcase with Charlotte (in an admittedly small 30 PAs) was stupendous: a .304/.467/.609 line, good for a 177 wRC+. That was enough to convince Chicago to give the 26-year-old rookie his first taste of MLB action.
In terms of tools, Murray profiles more as a jack-of-all trades. He likely lacks the offensive upside to be an everyday starter. He hit only .214/.281/.321 (58 wRC+) in his first 33 MLB PAs, but his defensive versatility offers flexibility at the end of the bench. Roughly half of his appearances have come in left field for the White Sox, but he has also been able to effectively cover third base and short (his primary defensive homes in the minors) at the big league level in a small sample.
Can Chase Dollander Defeat Coors Field?
Rockies right-hander Chase Dollander fired seven scoreless innings to earn a win against the Mets on Sunday. The outing lowered his April ERA to a pristine 1.29. He’s piled up 34 strikeouts over 28 innings this month. Sunday’s outing was the first traditional start of the season for Dollander. He’d pitched exclusively out of the bullpen to begin the year, typically as a bulk reliever following an opener.
Dollander’s win over the Mets came at Citi Field. It was his fifth appearance on the road this season, compared to just two games at Coors Field. The young righty has been able to tame the hitter-friendly venue so far. Dollander allowed a run over 4 1/3 innings at home against the Phillies in his second outing of the season. He limited the Padres to a run across six innings early last week, piling up nine strikeouts. Colorado scored one run total in Dollander’s two home games, saddling him with the loss both times.
The Rockies took Dollander with the ninth overall pick in the 2023 draft. MLB Pipeline ranked him as the No. 2 prospect in the system in 2024, behind only infielder Adael Amador. Dollander struck out minor leaguers at a healthy 33.9% clip that season. The hard-throwing righty debuted with the Rockies last year. The results were brutal in basically every regard. Dollander struggled to miss bats, failed to find the strike zone consistently, and was frequently barreled. His 6.52 ERA was backed by an xFIP and SIERA near 5.00.
Dollander has taken a step forward in multiple areas in his second attempt as a big leaguer. He’s added a tick to his fastball, which was already extremely hard for a starter. Dollander’s four-seamer is sitting at 99 mph this year, ranking fourth among all pitchers. He’s more than doubled his sinker usage, contributing to a well-above-averge 51.9% groundball rate. Despite the increase in sinkers, Dollander has a strong 13.4% swinging-strike rate.
Keeping the ball on the ground while getting ample whiffs is a great recipe for success. Dollander’s 55.7% hard-hit rate stands out as a red flag, but it’s not turning into damage due to the type of batted balls he’s permitting. Only 8.9% of the contact against Dollander has been pulled in the air. Hard-hit balls on the ground and to the opposite way are generally going to lead to better outcomes for a pitcher than pulled air contact.
Colorado brought in Paul DePodesta to run baseball operations this offseason. He’s tasked with reviving a club that hasn’t won 70 games since 2021. The organization is currently in a seven-year playoff drought. DePodesta’s tenure is off to a solid start. The Rockies are just three games under .500 after sweeping the Mets over the weekend. The acquisitions of TJ Rumfield (trade) and Troy Johnston (waiver claim) have been additive, as has the signing of Tomoyuki Sugano. The Johnston addition came shortly before the DePodesta hire was announced, but it’s still part of what looks to have been a productive winter. DePodesta didn’t draft Dollander, of course, but his regime will be in charge of the righty’s development. The decision to initially use Dollander behind an opener, whether it came from manager Warren Schaeffer or the front office, proved fruitful.
Coors Field remains the most difficult place to pitch in the league. Per Statcast, it has a 112 overall Park Factor over the past three seasons, which ranks first by a significant margin. Chase Field is second on the list at 105. Colorado’s stadium ranks first in park effect for runs, OBP, hits, singles, and doubles, which makes sense given the spacious dimensions. The thin air in Denver also limits the effectiveness of breaking balls, forcing pitchers to reconsider their arsenals.
The Rockies have had the occasional pitcher break through with a productive season, despite the difficult home environment. Kyle Freeland finished eighth in ERA with a 2.85 mark in 2018. Jon Gray had a pair of sub-4.00 ERA seasons in the late 2010s. Jorge De La Rosa and Jhoulys Chacin formed a formidable duo in 2013, each posting sub-3.50 ERAs over 30+ starts. ERA is far from the only relevant pitching stat, but it’s a reliable marker for a successful season in a venue that boosts run production like no other.
Ubaldo Jimenez stands out as one of the only starters to have extended success in Colorado. He’s the name that gets whispered whenever a Rockies pitcher brushes up against relevance. The righty entered the rotation on a full-time basis in 2008. He racked up 16.8 WAR (per Baseball Reference) over the next three seasons. The walks were a bit high, but Jimenez limited damage with the help of a diverse arsenal. The 2010 campaign was his masterpiece. Jimenez posted 221 2/3 frames of a 2.88 ERA with nearly a strikeout per inning. He earned an All-Star selection and finished third in NL Cy Young voting. Jimenez had better numbers on the road, but not by much. He held opponents to a .661 OPS and a .294 wOBA in 101 2/3 innings at Coors Field.
Jimenez was the rare pitcher to perform worse after leaving Colorado. He had one good year after getting traded to Cleveland, but didn’t find much success beyond his Rockies tenure. Jimenez did provide what would seem to be a viable blueprint for surviving at Coors Field: above-average velocity, a diverse arsenal, and a pitch mix that isn’t overly reliant on breaking balls. Dollander checks those boxes. He uses a changeup instead of a splitter, but the rest of the repertoire lines up with peak Jimenez. It’s around 60% four-seamer/sinker, 12% changeup, and then a smattering of breaking balls (slider/curveball/sweeper). Dollander has also improved his walk rate to 6.9%. Even in Jimenez’s stellar 2010, he issued free passes at a double-digit clip.
Dollander is just 28 appearances into his big-league career. It’s a seven-game sample of positive results. There’s plenty of season left for him to succumb to the Colorado conditions, which aren’t limited to home games. Rockies players also have to adjust to leaving the Denver altitude for road trips. But the formula is there for Dollander to conquer Coors Field.
Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images
Mets Claim Eric Wagaman
The Mets announced that they have claimed infielder Eric Wagaman off waivers from the Twins and optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse. Minnesota had designated him for assignment last week. The Mets had a 40-man vacancy and don’t need to make a corresponding move. The Mets also announced that they have signed outfielder Austin Slater and designated outfielder Tommy Pham for assignment, moves that were reported yesterday.
Wagaman, to his credit, didn’t have a whole lot left to prove in the upper levels of the minors at one time. Drafted by the Yankees in 2017 out of Orange Coast CC, Wagaman had a slow and steady climb up the affiliate ranks, but he started to show some big league promise between 2022-2024. His worst “full season” line was a .258/.346/.468 line, good for a league-and-park-adjusted 123 wRC+ (100 is average) in 266 plate appearances spread between High-A Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset in 2022. His work was even better the following year with Somerset: a .320/.355/.500 showing for a 146 wRC+ in 136 PAs. Perhaps due to his then-age (25), defensive limitations, or limited offensive upside, the Yankees passed on adding Wagaman to their 40-man roster to protect him during the Rule 5 Draft.
The Angels, however, saw enough to warrant a potential return to Orange County for the Mission Viejo native, adding him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. While his numbers at Triple-A Salt Lake were less promising, the Angels granted him a cup of coffee in September 2024. His big league results, in 74 PAs, were uninspiring: a .250/.270/.403 line for a 87 wRC+ with little defensive or baserunning upside. Wagaman’s strong plate discipline also backslid, and without average power at a bat-first position, the Angels found little incentive to keep rostering him and elected to non-tender Wagaman, sending him to free agency.
The Marlins pounced with a major-league contract for 2025. In 514 PAs, Wagaman was able to somewhat rediscover his plate discipline at the major league level, but the power and contact quality further waned. Ultimately, his .250/.296/.378 line and 85 wRC+ didn’t look much different than his 2024 sample, but a below-average bat at an offense-first position was untenable. Miami cut bait with Wagaman following the 2025 campaign. The Twins were next in line for Wagaman’s services after an offseason swap, but after a poor showing (48 wRC+ with a 33.8 strikeout rate) in 74 PAs at Triple-A St. Paul, he was designated for assignment.
For now, Wagaman will look to regain his footing at Triple-A Syracuse while he awaits his next chance at the bigs. The Mets would certainly take any offensive boost they can at this point: they’ve scored the fewest runs in all of MLB. While Wagaman profiles best defensively as a first baseman, he’s shown some versatility covering the outfield corners and third base. Left field and third base are spoken for by Juan Soto and Bo Bichette, respectively, but Wagaman could be insurance for offseason signing Jorge Polanco (currently on the shelf with a wrist contusion) alongside Mark Vientos or in the right field mix with Tyrone Taylor, utilityman Brett Baty, and the newly acquired Slater.
There’s upside here for the Mets if the bat can come around: Wagaman’s controllable until 2031 and, perhaps more importantly, has all three option-years remaining. For a major league club that is currently starved for offense and seems open to shaking up the roster at the periphery among a league worst start, Wagaman represents a low-risk move that could potentially pay dividends.
Cardinals Claim Luis Peralta
The Cardinals have claimed left-hander Luis Peralta off waivers from the Rockies, according to announcements from both clubs. Colorado designated him for assignment last week. The Cards had an open 40-man spot and have optioned Peralta to Triple-A Memphis, so no corresponding moves are necessary.
Peralta, 25, is the younger brother of Freddy Peralta. The younger sibling was a starter earlier in his career but got moved to a relief role when he was a minor leaguer with the Pirates. He showed tremendous promise in that role in 2024, the year he was traded to the Rockies in a one-for-one swap for Jalen Beeks.
Between the two clubs, he tossed 47 2/3 minor league innings that year, allowing only 0.94 earned runs per nine. He did give out walks at a high rate of 11.2% but his 40.1% strikeout rate was massive and his 48.8% ground ball rate above average as well. He also got to make his big league debut and put up a 0.73 ERA in 12 1/3 innings.
Things have been going downhill since then, however. He had a 9.47 ERA in the majors last year and a 9.09 ERA at the Triple-A level. For Albuquerque, his 28% strikeout rate was still pretty good but his 15.4% walk rate way too high. In the majors, things were even worse, as his ghastly 17.8% walk rate was higher than his 15.8% strikeout rate. He began 2026 back at Triple-A but but allowed 14 earned runs in 7 1/3 innings while walking 13 opponents.
His velocity is down a bit as well. His four-seamer averaged 95 miles per hour in 2024 but dropped about half a tick last year and is now down to 93.5 miles per hour so far in 2026. His curveball and changeup have had similar drops.
The Rockies eventually gave up. Perhaps that’s because the new front office is less enamored of Peralta but it’s hard to fault them when looking at Peralta’s recent numbers. For the Cards, despite a 14-13 record at the moment, they have long planned for 2026 to be an evaluation year. They are less focused on immediate contention and more worried about long-term development.
They’ve had an open roster spot since Jared Shuster was designated for assignment two weeks ago. They are using that today to grab Peralta. Obviously, Peralta’s stock is down at the moment, but the Cards will see if there’s a path to getting him back to that 2024 form. Peralta can be optioned for the remainder of this year and one additional season as well. If things click, he has less than a year of service time, meaning he could be affordably controlled for years into the future.
Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images
Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript
Steve Adams
- Good afternoon! We'll get going at 2:30 CT, but feel free to begin sending in questions ahead of time!
- Greetings! Let's get going
MartiansArrival?
- Waiting to outmaneuver others in my league. When will the transaction to bring The Martian up happen?
Steve Adams
- A bit late now! The Yankees made it official 45 minutes ago, or thereabouts. As I noted this morning though, it could be a quick turnaround. He's a candidate to be optioned later this week when Volpe comes off the IL, especially since the Yankees haven't announced an IL placement for Stanton, which at least suggests they might ride it out in hopes of avoiding an IL stint for him entirely
Beano
- closer question - is A Santazela a potential closer in Denver? E Miller in SF? G Varland in DC? All of these guys are on our waiver wire and I wonder if they might be sneaky good grabs.
Steve Adams
- I did not have "Antonio Senzatela bullpen breakout" on my 2026 bingo card, and yet 18 innings into the season, I'm cautiously buying it. The Colorado bullpen is a mess, and he's probably the best guy they have right now, so yeah I can see him taking over the ninth. He already has two saves.I'm bigger on Keaton Winn in San Francisco than I am Miller, whose command is still pretty wobbly.Varland's durability has been nonexistent in recent years, so while I'm intrigued by the showing thus far, I don't have faith that he'll hold up.
Bradke Hrbek
- Time for Sim W-R to move to the bullpen? He's pretty decent the first time through the lineup, but it's awfully shaky after that...
Steve Adams
- He hasn't even been that great the first trip through the order this year, but yeah, I think that move has to be made eventually. He had a nice finish last season -- 3.00 ERA over his final 14 starts -- but needed a .203 BABIP to get there.His velocity has kind of oscillated throughout his career as a starter. I'd be a little curious to just see him letting loose for an inning or two at a time.Twins haven't had the rotation health to make that move, but if Abel comes back in short order, I could see them going Ryan-Bradley-Ober-Abel-Prielipp, with Rojas the next guy up (or maybe piggybacking with Prielipp).
They've given SWR plenty of chances in the rotation over the years, and it still seems hard to count on him as more than a pretty mercurial fifth starter.
Snoozy
- Tatis. Tell me it's April and this too shall pass.
Steve Adams
- It's April, and this too shall pass. :)I do genuinely think he's fine. Contact rate in the zone is actually up. Bat speed's good. He's hitting too many grounders, so maybe there's something off in his swing mechanics; maybe he's chasing below the zone too much (his case rate is up a bit, although not egregiously so)I'd be more concerned if there were some giant drop in bat speed or if he were chasing at a crazy high level or seeing major contact losses (especially in the strike zone). None of that's happening.
Red Sox
- True or False - Last year in Milwaukee will be the best year of Durbin's career. Follow up. true or false - we got WORKED in that deal.
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Blue Jays Place Max Scherzer On Injured List
The Blue Jays announced Monday that right-hander Max Scherzer has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to tendinitis in his right forearm and inflammation in his left ankle. A timetable for his return to the roster has not yet been provided. Right-hander Chase Lee is up from Triple-A Buffalo to take Scherzer’s spot on the roster.
Scherzer signed a one-year, $3MM deal with the Jays during spring training. At the time the deal was reported, early indications were that Toronto would build the 41-year-old up slowly after an injury-plagued 2025 campaign. Injuries elsewhere on the staff perhaps accelerated that trajectory. José Berríos was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his elbow. Trey Yesavage opened the season on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement. Cody Ponce tore his ACL. Shane Bieber has yet to pitch due to elbow inflammation. He’s on the 60-day IL.
Things went well in Scherzer’s season debut. He tossed six innings, held the Rockies to a run on four hits and a walk, and sat 93.4 mph with his four-seamer — right in line with last year’s 93.6 mph average. It’s been mostly downhill from there. Scherzer does have one other quality start among his five appearances this year — two runs in six innings against the D-backs on April 18 — but he fanned only one batter in that outing. Overall, since that encouraging start to the season, he’s pitched a total of 12 innings and been rocked for 19 runs in 12 2/3 innings. His average fastball has clocked in under 93 mph in three of those four appearances (sitting 92.8 mph overall in that span).
At one point during spring training, there were ongoing questions about how the Jays would find innings for their growing stock of starting pitchers. Toronto had eight starter-caliber arms — Yesavage, Bieber, Ponce, Scherzer, Berríos, Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease and Eric Lauer — but that supply has thinned to the point where GM Ross Atkins signed Patrick Corbin to bring another arm into the fold. Yesavage and Berríos appear set to return soon, but the days of a rotation “surplus” in Toronto feel like a distant memory.
Scherzer’s trip to the IL comes as he’s just one strikeout shy of 3500 in his career. He’s also only 18 1/3 innings from reaching 3000 innings in his career. He’d be just the 139th pitcher to ever reach 3000 innings, and he currently sits 11th all-time in strikeouts. If he can get back to the mound and pitch any meaningful number of innings with reasonable efficacy, he could climb as high as ninth all time before long. Scherzer currently trails Walter Johnson by 10 strikeouts for tenth on the all-time list, and he’s only 45 behind Gaylord Perry for No. 9 all-time.
Toronto is expected to reinstate Yesavage from the injured list tomorrow, and Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reported yesterday that Berríos is slated to throw around 75 pitches in a rehab start that same day.
Yankees Notes: Stanton, Volpe, DeJong
Giancarlo Stanton has been absent from the Yankees’ lineup since an early exit due to discomfort in his right calf Friday night. The team hasn’t announced a formal move regarding the slugging designated hitter but is expected to make a call on a potential IL stint one way or another prior to tonight’s game, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post. With outfielder Jasson Dominguez reportedly on his way to join the big league club, it seems likely that Stanton will require at least a brief trip to the injured list.
Stanton, 36, is out to a .256/.302/.442 start with three homers through his first 96 trips to the plate. It’s not his typical level of production, but Stanton’s 30.2% strikeout rate — while still way higher than the 22.2% league average — is down from last year’s 34.2% mark. His batted-ball numbers remain excellent; he’s averaging 94.1 mph off the bat with a strong 44.3% hard-hit rate and a huge 18% barrel rate, per Statcast.
If Stanton heads to the injured list, the Yankees can use the vacant DH spot to get Dominguez some at-bats and perhaps get partial days off for the outfield trio of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham. That quartet can rotate through the three outfield spots and the designated hitter slot.
The Yankees optioned righty Luis Gil over the weekend, so there’s no need to make a corresponding 26-man roster move to get Dominguez up to the majors. However, swapping Dominguez out for Gil would leave the Yankees with 14 position players to 12 pitchers. A second move to subtract a position player from the roster in favor of a pitcher (e.g. placing Stanton on the IL and recalling Gil or another arm from Triple-A) would make sense.
There could be other roster machinations in the works, too. Shortstop Anthony Volpe, who’s spent the first month of the season on the injured list while finishing off rehab from shoulder surgery, is expected to return this week, per Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. Romero suggests that Volpe will play a couple more games with the Yankees’ Double-A team this week and be activated Wednesday or Thursday.
Volpe, who’ll be 25 tomorrow, struggled through the worst season of his career in 2025. The former top prospect slashed just .212/.272/.391 in 153 games and 596 plate appearances. He connected on 19 home runs and swiped 18 bags, but Volpe saw diminished contact levels within the strike zone and had his worst career performance against fastballs. The dip in production was a mystery for much of the season, but manager Aaron Boone revealed in September that Volpe had a “small” tear of the labrum in his left shoulder and had been battling shoulder pain since May. He underwent surgery to repair the tear in October.
Through his first eight rehab games, Volpe has turned in a .308/.333/.423 batting line. It’s only 23 plate appearances, but it’s an encouraging small-sample stretch for the young shortstop. His return will push the Yankees to make some decisions on the roster.
Jose Caballero has filled in plenty capably at shortstop in Volpe’s absence. He’s batting .271/.314/.417 with three homers and a hefty 11 steals through his first 27 games. Caballero isn’t going anywhere, both due to that production and the fact that he’s controllable through the 2029 season. Volpe could push him to a utility role, but he’s not going to lose his roster spot. Bench infielder Amed Rosario has had a nice start and is hitting both righties and lefties well; he’s safe, too.
The simplest path would be to send Dominguez back to Scranton when Volpe returns. If the Yankees want to give Dominguez a bigger look after he hit .326/.415/.478 with a 12.3% walk rate and just a 15.1% strikeout rate in 106 Triple-A plate appearances, there are alternatives to consider. Paul Goldschmidt was brought back to platoon with Ben Rice at first base but hasn’t hit lefties in a small sample this year. Outfielder Randal Grichuk has had similar struggles. Both players have tallied only 33 plate appearances and have track records of note, however.
If the Yankees don’t want to go with an early boot for either veteran, they could option catcher J.C. Escarra to Triple-A and use Rice and and Austin Wells as their two catchers. Rice hasn’t gotten behind the plate at all this season but caught 229 innings last year and has plenty of minor league experience. It’s always possible that another injury will pop up between now and Volpe’s planned activation window and make the answer more straightforward.
One other infielder to keep in mind is veteran Paul DeJong. He’s currently in Triple-A on a minor league contract but can opt out of his deal at the end of the month. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that DeJong has already informed the Yankees that he’ll be taking the opt-out opportunity if he’s not added to the roster.
DeJong, still only 32 years old, has belted six homers in his first 78 plate appearances with the Yankees’ Scranton affiliate in 2026. The longtime Cardinals shortstop is batting .213/.359/.541 with a huge 17.9% walk rate against a manageable 21.8% strikeout rate in that time. Like Volpe, Caballero and Rosario, DeJong is a right-handed hitting infielder. He’s a more capable option at shortstop than Rosario but typically a lighter hitter.
The presence of three other righty-swinging infielders on the roster doesn’t bode well for DeJong’s chances, but it’s possible there’ll be some shuffling to accommodate him. If not, DeJong can take a longstanding track record of strong defense and a hot minor league start to the open market and see if an infield-needy team has a spot for him — or at least a less-crowded path to breaking through than the one he currently faces in the Bronx.