The Yankees announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-handed reliever Geoff Hartlieb for assignment. His spot on the 40-man and 26-man rosters will go to pitching prospect Cam Schlittler, whose previously reported promotion is now official. Schlittler’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and he’ll make his major league debut when he starts today’s game against the Mariners.
More to come.
The Royals announced Wednesday that they’ve signed left-hander Dallas Keuchel to a minor league contract. ESPN’s Jeff Passan notes that Keuchel held a workout for clubs last week, which the Royals attended. He’ll earn a prorated $2MM salary for any time spent on the major league roster.
Keuchel, 37, has pitched in parts of 13 big league seasons and was one of the top lefties in the sport at his peak. The 2015 American League Cy Young Award winner with the Astros, Keuchel starred for Houston from 2014-18 when he pitched a combined 950 1/3 innings with a 3.28 ERA, a 20.2% strikeout rate, a 6.5% walk rate and a mammoth 60% ground-ball rate. He had a solid partial season with Atlanta in 2019 and signed a three-year pact with the ChiSox spanning the 2020-22 seasons. The first year of that contract played out wonderfully, but Keuchel was ineffective in 2021 and pitched poorly enough in 2022 to be released before the contract had concluded.
Since his career began trending downward with the South Siders, Keuchel has slipped into journeyman status. He’s pitched for the White Sox, Rangers, D-backs, Twins and Brewers in the past three years and also had a stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Keuchel started four games for the 2024 Brewers and yielded a 5.40 ERA with 11 strikeouts against eight walks in 16 2/3 innings pitched. He also made 13 solid starts for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma last year.
Kansas City entered the 2025 season with a strong quintet in the rotation. Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic, Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen is a deeper one through five than most clubs can boast, and there were quality depth options like righty Alec Marsh and prospect Noah Cameron. Ragans is now sidelined with a strained rotator cuff that’ll keep him out until at least Aug. 7. Marsh has been on the IL all season due to a shoulder impingement that is taking longer than anticipated to mend.
That’s left the Royals with scant depth beyond the currently healthy group of Lugo, Bubic, Cameron, Wacha and Lorenzen. Cameron has been a godsend on the whole but has looked far more mortal in his past six starts (4.26 ERA in 31 2/3 innings) than he did in his historic first five starts (0.85 ERA in that same sample size of 31 2/3 innings). His performance has been direly needed, especially with several of the organization’s other top young arms either struggling (e.g. Luinder Avila, Ben Kudrna, Steven Zobac) or falling to injury (e.g. Tyson Guerrero).
Keuchel is the second veteran lefty whom the Royals have signed to a minor league pact to serve as depth. He’ll join Rich Hill on an Omaha pitching staff that also includes several journeymen with big league experience: Thomas Hatch, Justin Dunn and John Gant among them.
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Glasnow returns:
After a strong first season in Los Angeles last year, right-hander Tyler Glasnow hasn’t been able to give the Dodgers much due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder that’s limited him to just five starts in 2025. That’ll change today, as Glasnow is slated to be activated for this afternoon’s game against the Brewers, scheduled for 1:10pm local time in Milwaukee. Glasnow posted a rather pedestrian 4.50 ERA in his five outings before going on the shelf and has struggled to an 8.31 ERA in his three rehab outings at Triple-A, but he remains one of the game’s most overpowering pitchers when healthy. Glasnow’s opponent will be veteran southpaw Jose Quintana, who has a 3.44 ERA through 12 starts this year.
2. Schlittler to make MLB debut:
The Yankees recently lost right-hander Clarke Schmidt to what is likely to wind up being season-ending Tommy John surgery. Schmidt’s 3.32 ERA in 14 starts won’t be easy to replace, but the Yankees are calling on Cam Schlittler to try and fill the void. The 24-year-old righty has looked quite good at Double- and Triple-A this year, and it was enough for the Yankees to have him start against the Mariners in his big league debut at 7:05pm local time in New York. His opponent will be fellow rookie Logan Evans, who has put together an excellent 2.96 ERA across eight starts with Seattle while filling in for various injured pitchers throughout the season. Schlitter’s addition to the Yankees’ roster still hasn’t been announced, so corresponding moves to create room on the 40-man and active rosters will be necessary.
3. Red Sox to activate Yoshida:
It’s been an unusual year for Masataka Yoshida, who underwent shoulder surgery during the offseason and has been sidelined ever since—even though he was healthy enough to hit. Yoshida hadn’t been able to play the field to this point in the season, and with Rafael Devers at DH on regular basis that meant the Red Sox had no room for him until he was ready to play the outfield. All of that changed once Devers was traded to the Giants last month. Roman Anthony had been serving as the club’s DH since the trade, but Yoshida has been on a rehab assignment and is expected to be activated for a home game against the visiting Rockies, scheduled for 7:10pm local time. Boston’s opponent today will be right-hander Antonio Senzatela, who has a 6.57 ERA in 86 1/3 innings of work this year. A corresponding move will be needed to activate Yoshida. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo reports that outfielder Nate Eaton has been sent to Triple-A already, though that move hasn’t been formally announced.
Led by All-Star starters Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Cubs are in a great position to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020. Their position player mix could use some tweaks, but the team's priority will be its battered rotation.
Jed Hoyer has had the top chair in the Cubs' baseball operations department since Theo Epstein stepped down in November 2020. Hoyer was the number two man in Epstein's front office before that, after he'd led the Padres' front office for two years. He's played a large part for "buy mode" contenders across many trade deadlines and has been unafraid to move prospects and good young players. Hoyer sent a strong "all-in" message in December by trading last year's first rounder Cam Smith along with three years of Isaac Paredes and five of Hayden Wesneski for one year of Kyle Tucker.
Hoyer is in the last year of a five-year contract with the Cubs, so it's a bit odd to have him making long-term decisions for the franchise with his own future in doubt. Back when Epstein stepped down, he said, "The organization faces many decisions this winter that carry long-term consequences; those types of decisions are best made by someone who will be here for a long period rather than for just one more year." Perhaps an extension for Hoyer is forthcoming. For now, I'm sure, his focus is on shoring up the first-place Cubs for a deep playoff run.
Record: 54-36 (94.6% playoff probability)
Buy Mode
Potential needs: Two starting pitchers, starting third baseman, lefty-mashing first baseman, general relief help
With Jameson Taillon on the IL into August due to a calf strain, the Cubs' rotation is down to two reliable established Major Leaguers: Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd. Expected ace Justin Steele is out for the season due to Tommy John surgery.
Taillon still figures to be part of the playoff picture for the Cubs. Colin Rea and Cade Horton are in the rotation at present, and Ben Brown made 14 starts before being optioned in late June. Veteran Chris Flexen made 30 starts last year. Jordan Wicks got the call four days ago but may be used in a long relief role. Javier Assad, who started 29 games last year, has been dealing with an oblique injury all season. It's not clear what the Cubs will get from him in 2025.
There are enough rotation options on hand to get through the regular season, but the goal is to win the World Series. Boyd, the Cubs' All-Star lefty, is 34 years old and hasn't shouldered a full workload since 2019. This team needs to add two starting pitchers, including at least one who can start a playoff game.
The Rockies dropped to 21-71 with today’s loss in Boston, putting them on a 37-win pace for the season. That’d have them four wins shy of last year’s White Sox, the worst team in modern history. The Rockies are obviously going to be deadline sellers, but the extent of that sale is complicated by the organization’s track record of holding onto players that any other team would have traded.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes that the Rox intend to be more willing to listen on veteran players than they have been at prior deadlines. He suggests they’ll seriously entertain interest in the likes of third baseman Ryan McMahon, reliever Jake Bird, and starter Germán Márquez. That broadly aligns with a report from Jon Heyman of The New York Post last week. Heyman reported that the Rockies are open to offers on McMahon, specifically, after they pulled him off the trade market early in 2024.
However, that increased willingness to deal veterans doesn’t mean the Rockies are completely open for business. Rosenthal writes that the team remains unlikely to trade young players whom they view as core pieces. He lists shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, center fielder Brenton Doyle, and rookie righty Chase Dollander in that group. Rosenthal more surprisingly adds relievers Seth Halvorsen and Zach Agnos, plus starter Ryan Feltner, as players who may fall in the latter category.
McMahon, Márquez and Bird are Colorado’s three most obvious trade chips. They all featured prominently on MLBTR’s initial list of the top 40 trade candidates last week. McMahon is a plus defensive third baseman with power and strikeout concerns. He had an abysmal April, raked in May, and has cooled back off since the beginning of June. He’s hitting just .210/.310/.373 on the season and has been a well below-average hitter (.207/.305/.350) over the past calendar year.
There’ll nevertheless be interest in McMahon, particularly given the scarcity of infield talent that may be available. The Yankees need to acquire a third baseman and have reportedly already checked in. The Cubs and Tigers are speculative possibilities. McMahon is playing on a $12MM salary in his age-30 season and will make $16MM annually between 2026-27.
Márquez is an impending free agent who is making $10MM. He was an above-average starter earlier in his career but hasn’t been as sharp since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. He’s sitting on a 5.84 ERA with a subpar 15.3% strikeout rate over 18 starts. The 30-year-old righty is coming off his best month of the season, though, working to a 2.97 mark while striking out 21% of opponents in June. His fastball still sits around 95 MPH, so teams could view him as an upside play outside of Coors Field. He’s unlikely to be a qualifying offer candidate, so there’s little reason not to trade him.
Bird, 29, had quietly been one of the league’s best relievers until he was blown up by the Red Sox on Tuesday. That outing jumped his season ERA by nearly a full run, up from 2.79 to 3.70. Bird has fanned more than 27% of opposing hitters and has generally done well to keep runs off the board. He looked to be a fairly nondescript middle reliever entering the season. He’s under club control for three seasons beyond this one, but this is a breakout year for a reliever approaching his 30th birthday. The Rockies would be wise to cash him in this summer while his trade value is at its peak.
The Rockies have a few other veteran players, though they’d have little to no trade value. They’ll presumably hope to find a lottery ticket prospect for the likes of Thairo Estrada, Austin Gomber and Tyler Kinley. It’s not surprising they’re reluctant to move Tovar or Doyle, both of whom are struggling through down years but looked like potential cornerstones a season ago. Dollander has been hit hard in his debut campaign and was recently optioned back to Triple-A, but he’s a recent top 10 pick and the organization’s best hope of developing a front-line starter.
Feltner is a back-of-the-rotation starter who has missed most of this season rehabbing a back issue. He just returned from the injured list last week and has been limited to six starts. The Rox could get a notable return for Halvorsen, a fireballer who has gotten a look in the ninth inning. He’s only 25 and controllable for five more seasons. A team in Colorado’s position should arguably be willing to trade any reliever, but there’s more of a case for holding Haloversen than there would be with Bird. It’s tougher to see the logic in including Agnos as a potential building block. He’s a rookie reliever with a 5.19 ERA and 15 strikeouts in his first 26 career innings. Agnos, a former 10th-round pick, has good but not elite velocity and has never been a highly-regarded prospect despite excellent minor league numbers.
Left-hander Kolby Allard elected free agency after being waived by the Guardians, per the MLB.com transaction tracker. Cleveland had designated the former Atlanta first-round pick for assignment last week.
Allard spent a couple months on Cleveland’s big league roster. He signed an offseason minor league contract and was selected onto the MLB club in late April. The 27-year-old southpaw managed an impressive 2.55 earned run average in 35 1/3 innings as a low-leverage reliever. Allard’s 90.5 MPH average fastball speed made him one of the softest throwers in the league, however. His 10.5% strikeout rate ranks last among pitchers who have logged at least 30 frames, and he’s sixth from the bottom in swinging strikes.
The lack of whiffs had seemingly begun to catch up with Allard in recent weeks. He allowed at least one earned run in four of his last five appearances, with opponents batting .395 in that time. Neither the Guardians nor any other club believed in the sustainability of Allard’s season-long earned run average. He’s out of minor league options, so any claiming team would have needed to keep him on the big league roster.
Allard has appeared in parts of eight MLB seasons, posting a 5.59 ERA in a little more than 300 innings. He has been a starter for most of his minor league career but has had a tough time sticking in a big league rotation, more frequently working from the bullpen.
The Rangers re-signed Billy McKinney to a minor league contract, reports Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News. The lefty-hitting outfielder had elected free agency yesterday after going unclaimed on outright waivers.
McKinney was very briefly on the MLB roster. Texas selected his contract last Tuesday when Evan Carter was on bereavement leave. He played twice during Carter’s three days away before being designated for assignment once the younger outfielder returned. McKinney was ripping the ball before his promotion. He hit .295/.433/.487 with 17 walks and 22 strikeouts through 97 plate appearances with Triple-A Round Rock. It’s a marked improvement over his .184/.285/.307 showing with the Mets’ top affiliate earlier in the year.
A former first-round pick and top prospect, McKinney has appeared in parts of eight MLB seasons. Texas is his eighth club, as he has only appeared in more than 50 games for one franchise (the Blue Jays). He’s a career .208/.283/.384 hitter in 951 big league plate appearances. McKinney has logged over 1500 trips to the dish in Triple-A, where he owns a .268/.358/.487 slash line.
The White Sox sent infielder Vinny Capra outright to Triple-A Charlotte, the affiliate announced. Capra had never been outrighted and does not have three years of service, so he didn’t have the ability to decline the assignment. He was designated for assignment over the weekend when the Sox promoted former first-round pick Colson Montgomery.
Capra landed with the Sox on a mid-May waiver claim from Milwaukee. The out-of-options infielder spent nearly two months on Will Venable’s bench. He hit .190 with a .205 on-base percentage in 23 games. Capra was the hitter who went down looking for Clayton Kershaw’s 3000th career strikeout last Wednesday. He went 0-3 in that contest and did not make another appearance before being DFA.
A former 20th-round draft choice, Capra had made 24 appearances with the Brewers earlier in the season. This year’s 105 plate appearances are easily a career high, but the righty hitter has stumbled to a .125/.157/.177 line with just one home run (which came in his first at-bat of the season). Capra had played in the majors each season from 2022-24 but combined for 20 appearances over that stretch. The Richmond product owns a productive .271/.366/.384 batting line in nearly 1000 career Triple-A plate appearances.
Capra will look to build off that in Charlotte and earn another MLB call. The Sox have a rookie middle infield tandem of Montgomery and Chase Meidroth. Light-hitting Josh Rojas, who is the primary third baseman, owns a .180/.253/.227 slash in 52 games. The Sox would surely like to trade him in the next month, but his performance probably puts him on the roster bubble instead. There’s a clear path for Capra to play his way back to the majors. He’d reach minor league free agency at the beginning of the offseason if he doesn’t get another look on Chicago’s roster before then.
The White Sox have signed right-hander Kyle Tyler to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to the Arizona Complex League for now but will presumably head to Triple-A after a few ramp-up outings.
Tyler, 28, elected free agency a week ago after being outrighted by the Orioles. He never actually pitched for that club at the big league level. The O’s claimed him off waivers from the Phillies and kept him on optional assignment. He never pitched for the Phils either, as the Phils claimed him from the Marlins and kept him in the minors as well. He has spent a lot of the past month in DFA limbo, having been cut by both the Phils and O’s in recent weeks. He has only pitched twice in that span, which is presumably why he’s heading to the complex, to build back up.
The Marlins gave him his most extended big league look, as he logged 31 2/3 innings for them last year. Prior to that, he had brief showings with the Angels and Padres. Put together, he has 48 big league innings with a 4.31 earned run average. His 15.9% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate are both subpar figures, though he has a strong 48.3% ground ball rate.
His minor league work is naturally greater in both quality and quantity. From 2021 to 2024, he logged 330 1/3 innings on the farm, mostly as a starter. He had a 4.74 ERA in that time with a 23.7% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate. This year, his results haven’t been quite as impressive. His 4.18 ERA is fine but his 15.4% strikeout rate is a big drop.
The White Sox don’t have much long-term certainty in their rotation. Aaron Civale and Adrian Houser are the most experienced arms but both are impending free agents who are likely to be traded this month. Shane Smith, Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon have the other three spots and no one in that trio has even 200 innings of big league work. Jesse Scholtens could be coming off the injured list soon but he only has 85 major league innings on his track record. Owen White is on the 40-man but he has a 5.13 ERA in the minors this year.
The Sox have some non-roster options in Triple-A. They have signed Mike Clevinger and Noah Syndergaard to minor league deals. Yoendrys Gómez and Bryse Wilson were passed through outright waivers earlier this year. But on the whole, there’s not a ton in Tyler’s way if he shows something positive in the coming months. Potential trades and injuries could widen the path even more. He is in his final option season but has less than a year of major league service time.
Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images
July 8th: The Nationals have now officially announced the signing of Garcia. Right-hander Eduardo Salazar has been optioned to Triple-A Rochester as the corresponding active roster move. Righty Trevor Williams has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Williams was just placed on the 15-day IL a few days ago due to an elbow sprain. It appears the Nats don’t expect him to return before September. Washington also recalled catcher Drew Millas and placed catcher Keibert Ruiz on the seven-day concussion-related IL.
July 6th: The Nationals have signed right-hander Luis Garcia to a Major League contract, the Washington Post’s Andrew Golden reports. The deal will become official when the 38-year-old Garcia passes a physical.
It didn’t take long for Garcia to find a new landing spot, as the Dodgers only just released the veteran reliever on Friday. Garcia signed a minor league deal with Los Angeles last winter and broke camp with the team, but his struggled during his time on the big league roster. Garcia posted a 5.27 ERA and 12.7% walk rate over 27 1/3 innings, and spent about a month on the injured list recovering from an adductor strain.
There have been plenty of ups and downs for Garcia over his 13 MLB seasons, which isn’t surprising for a grounder specialist who relies a lot of batted-ball luck. His most sustained stretch of success came fairly recently, as Garcia posted a 3.62 ERA, 23.4% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate across 154 relief innings for the Cardinals and Padres from 2021-23. Those results led to a one-year, $4.25MM free agent deal with the Angels during the 2023-24 offseason, and Garcia continued to pitch decently well before his production dipped after a deadline trade to the Red Sox.
Washington has one of the league’s worst bullpens, so there’s not much risk for the Nats in taking a flier to see if Garcia can bounce back from his rough showing in L.A. If he really pitches well between now and the July 31 trade deadline, the Nationals could even look to quickly flip Garcia elsewhere for a low-level minor leaguer.
Once Garcia gets into a game with his new club, he will have pitched with eight different teams at the big league level over the course of his long career. This is actually the second Dodgers-to-Nationals trip Garcia has taken — after beginning his career as an international prospect in Los Angeles’ farm system, the Dodgers dealt Garcia to the Nats way back in August 2009. Garcia didn’t see any big league action during his year-plus in the Washington organization, and didn’t end up making his MLB debut until he was a 26-year-old pitching with the Phillies in 2013. (By coincidence, Garcia pitched against the Nats in his first Major League game.)
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