Athletics Designate Joel Kuhnel For Assignment
The Athletics announced that they have recalled right-hander Elvis Alvarado. Fellow righty Joel Kuhnel has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.
Kuhnel, 31, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason. He was added to the big league roster a week into April. The early results were really encouraging, as he posted a 2.14 earned run average through 21 innings. He was probably a bit lucky, as his .254 batting average on balls in play and 84.1% strand rate were both to the fortunate side. Regardless, he quickly earned a leverage role with the A’s, racking up four saves and three holds in that span.
Regression came hard in the past week-plus. Kuhnel has allowed seven earned runs in his past 4 2/3 innings. The biggest blow came at Wrigley last night. Kuhnel was sent into the game in the bottom of the ninth with a 6-3 lead. He faced six batters and allowed five hits. He technically recorded two outs but only because Nico Hoerner got caught stealing. He was replaced by Luis Medina with the score 6-5, though Medina allowed a couple of hits as the Cubs walked it off to win 7-6.
Kuhnel was charged with four earned runs in the process, bumping his ERA for the year to 4.21. That’s not a horrendous figure but, as mentioned, the early results were a bit fortunate and the recent results were really rough. Since he’s out of options, he was bumped into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the A’s could take five days to explore trade interest, but they could also put him on waivers sooner than that.
The book on Kuhnel is that he has big velocity and throws strikes but his primary pitch is his sinker, so he gets more grounders than strikeouts. He has logged 119 1/3 innings for various clubs with a 5.51 ERA. His 17.5% strikeout rate is subpar but his 5.8% walk rate and 51.3% ground ball rate are both strong figures. Since he has a previous career outright, he would have the right to elect free agency if he clears outright waivers again.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
Is It Even Worth It For The Mets To Be Sellers?
The Mets' season spiraled out of control far quicker than anyone could have reasonably anticipated. Even those who thought New York's NL club would miss the 2026 postseason probably weren't forecasting a 27-35 record placing them third from the bottom in the league, trailing a rebuilding Nationals club or a $75MM-payroll Marlins team.
Many Mets fans are -- understandably! -- waving the white flag already and calling for the team to be deadline sellers. The Mets, unsurprisingly, aren't in any rush to part with veteran players. No team is pivoting to sellers in early June. The Mets might very well end up in that bucket come late July/early August, but unless they're 10 or more games back at that point, the expected return doesn't necessarily outweigh the faint playoff chances they might still harbor. That's sure to be an unpopular sentiment among a vocal portion of the fan base, but let's take a look at who and what the Mets could reasonably peddle. The list of appealing trade candidates isn't especially compelling (which is a big reason they're in this mess in the first place).
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Brewers Designate Jake Woodford For Assignment
The Brewers announced that they have recalled left-hander Brian Fitzpatrick and right-hander Craig Yoho from Triple-A Nashville. In corresponding moves, lefty DL Hall has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a left pectoral strain and righty Jake Woodford has been designated for assignment.
More to come.
Rangers Designate Sam Haggerty For Assignment
The Rangers announced that infielder Corey Seager and outfielder Wyatt Langford have each been reinstated from the injured list. Infielder/outfielder Cody Freeman and outfielder Alejandro Osuna were optioned in corresponding active roster moves. Additionally, the Rangers reinstated infielder/outfielder Sam Haggerty from the bereavement/family medical emergency list and designated him for assignment.
Seager hit the IL a little over two weeks ago due to low back inflammation. His absence wasn’t too bad since Ezequiel Durán has stepped in and is having a good season, currently sporting a .287/.340/.454 line. He has played well enough to stay in the regular lineup, probably at second.
Josh Smith had that spot earlier in the year but struggled before hitting the IL with a glute strain. While on the IL, he was set back by meningitis and his timeline is still unclear. Justin Foscue held second for a while and hit well but some shaky defense led the Rangers to go with Nicky Lopez, who is good with the glove but is hitting .226/.250/.323.
Langford hit the IL three weeks into April due to a flexor strain. It was initially hoped that he would only require a minimal stint on the IL but it turned into an absence of over six weeks. He’ll now jump back into the regular outfield group alongside Brandon Nimmo and Evan Carter.
Haggerty signed a minor league deal with the Rangers ahead of the 2025 season. He was added to the roster in May and held that spot for the rest of the season. He hit .253/.328/.370, stole 12 bases and split his time between second base and the outfield. The Rangers were happy enough with that production to tender him a contract for 2026, agreeing to a $1.25MM deal in November.
Unfortunately, his numbers have backed up this year, as he is hitting just .15/.213/.182. He is only walking in 4.3% of his plate appearances and is striking out at a huge 34% clip. The Rangers have decided to move on.
Haggerty has at least five years of big league service time. That means he has the right to reject outright assignments in favor of free agency while keeping his salary commitments in place. The Rangers might skip that formality and release him. Either way, he will likely be on the open market in the coming days. In that scenario, the Rangers would remain on the hook for the money. Another club could then sign him and pay him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what Texas pays.
Though his numbers have been poor this season, he could garner interest based on his track record. He has often been a solid utility guy, like he was for the Rangers just last year. From 2020 to 2023, he slashed .241/.322/.365 for the Mariners while stealing 32 bases and bouncing around the diamond. An Achilles tear wiped out most of his 2024, leading to a non-tender. That allowed the Rangers to scoop him up and benefit from last year’s bounceback.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Select LuJames Groover
The Diamondbacks announced that they have selected the contract of infielder LuJames Groover. Fellow infielder José Fernández has been optioned to Triple-A Reno in a corresponding active roster move. Right-hander Taylor Rashi has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot.
Groover, now 24, was a second-round pick in the 2023 draft. As a hitter, Groover is known for his quality plate discipline, though there are questions about how much impact he can make when he does connect.
In 2024, he missed time due to a broken wrist and only got into 61 games. Last year, he stayed healthy enough to play 123 Double-A contests. He stepped to the plate 547 times. He walked at a 11.5% pace and only struck out 14.4% of the time, both strong figures, but he hit only 12 home runs. On the whole, his .309/.399/.434 line led to a 120 wRC+, but got some help from a .347 batting average on balls in play.
He has been in Triple-A this year, with some similarities in the output. His 14.5% walk rate and 16.8% strikeout rate are good but he has just three home runs in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His .322/.421/.452 line leads to a 116 wRC+ but has gotten a lot of help from a .381 BABIP.
Defensively, Groover has primarily been a corner infielder, with some very limited second base experience. Baseball America currently lists him as the #5 prospect in Arizona’s system. FanGraphs put him at #9 in the offseason.
More to come.
Tarik Skubal To Begin Rehab Assignment, Could Be Reinstated After One Start
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch provided reporters with some updates on injured players today. Most notably, Hinch says that ace Tarik Skubal will make a rehab appearance on Sunday. That will take place with High-A West Michigan instead of Triple-A due to the weather forecast. If all goes well, he could rejoin the big league club after that. Hinch also said that infielder Trey Sweeney underwent season-ending arthroscopic right shoulder surgery. Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group and Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic were among those to pass along the info.
It’s a remarkable turnaround timeline for Skubal, who just underwent surgery to remove a loose body in his elbow a month ago. A procedure like that would normally come with a timeline about three months, if not more.
Skubal was the first MLB player to have surgery performed with a tool called a NanoNeedle, which some are now calling a SkubalScope. Basically, it’s like other arthroscopes but smaller. The reduced size and smaller incision theoretically leads to less pain and swelling, which hopefully leads to a quicker recovery time.
Based on how things have gone for Skubal, the theory appears to be holding true, at least so far. He began throwing less just over a week after going the procedure. Less than three weeks after going under the knife, he threw a three-inning sim game. If the next steps go smoothly, he could be back with the Tigers less than six weeks from the operation.
Though it’s a great development for Skubal, the impacts are potentially broader than that. Cutting the recovery time in half for a common injury could have all kinds of positive ramifications for the pitchers and the sport. Though of course, it still remains to be seen if all will go according to plan in the next few weeks. It’s also unclear if all pitchers will be this lucky. Blake Snell underwent surgery in the middle of May, using the NanoNeedle, to remove multiple loose bodies from his elbow. The Dodgers quickly put him on the 60-day injured list, so that club expects Snell’s timeline to be at least two months.
Time will tell on whether the medical aspect is a game-changer or not. For now, it’s huge for baseball and the 2026 season. The Tigers were 18-17 and tied with the Guardians atop the American League Central when news of Skubal’s surgery was revealed. Since then, they have gone into a bad slump and fallen to 25-38, with the Angels the only A.L. club with a worse record.
Thanks to widespread struggles among A.L. clubs, the playoff race is still wide open. The Tigers are only 5.5 games back of the Athletics and Rangers, who are tied for the last Wild Card spot with records of 30-32. Getting Skubal back into the rotation so quickly will be a big boost to the Tigers as they try to climb back into the mix.
If Detroit can’t gain ground in that race, then Skubal will be the most talked-about player ahead of the trade deadline. There have already been whispers about Skubal trade possibilities for a long time, since he is an impending free agent and doesn’t seem likely to sign an extension. An offseason trade never made much sense from the team’s perspective since they have been in win-now mode for a few years, though their recent skid has made the possibility seem much more realistic.
Combine all those factors and Skubal should be in the spotlight in the coming weeks and months. Him coming back healthy and pitching like his old self will obviously be important. The club’s record will also be closely watched by fans in Detroit and elsewhere.
Given the magnitude of the decision, the front office will presumably try to delay picking a lane as long as possible. If Detroit gets into playoff position or falls further back, the choice will become easier. If they stay a few games out of a playoff spot, that’s a much tougher call. The Tigers know well that a lot can happen in a short amount of time. In 2024, Detroit was 10 games out of a playoff spot in the middle of August but got red hot to make it in. Last year, the Tigers had a 15.5-game lead on the Guardians in July but saw Cleveland storm back to take the division.
In addition to Skubal, the Tigers have Casey Mize, Justin Verlander, Jackson Jobe and Reese Olson on the IL. Olson is done for the season due to shoulder surgery. Jobe had Tommy John surgery a year ago and could perhaps be a factor in a few months. Verlander is dealing with hip inflammation and Mize a groin strain. Verlander made a five-inning rehab start on Tuesday, so he and Skubal could both be back soon. Mize could be a bit behind them, potentially starting a rehab assignment soon.
The Tigers are currently running a four-man rotation consisting of Framber Valdez, Keider Montero, Jack Flaherty and Troy Melton, with Ty Madden and Enmanuel De Jesus in multi-inning relief roles.
If everyone stays healthy while Skubal, Verlander and Mize get back in the mix, it could lead to some tricky decisions about that group. Flaherty has the highest earned run average of the bunch at 5.31. He hasn’t been helped by a .333 batting average on balls in play and 64.1% strand rate, so his 4.40 FIP and 4.18 SIERA are much more encouraging. Given his veteran status and hefty salary, it might be tough to move him to the bullpen. Montero, Melton, Madden and De Jesus all have options and could be sent to the minors, if that’s what the club decides.
Sweeney began the season on the 10-day IL due to a shoulder strain. He was moved to the 60-day IL in the second week of April, suggesting the Tigers didn’t expect him back soon. Presumably, he and the club were exploring non-surgical options but hit a wall with those pursuits and 2026 will go down as an entirely lost season for him. He’ll continue to collect big league pay and service time while on the IL.
The Tigers are without Sweeney and Javier Báez in their middle infield group at the moment. Kevin McGonigle is playing both shortstop and third base, with Zack Short covering short when McGonigle is at the hot corner. Gleyber Torres was also on the IL for a while but recently returned to take over second base. Jace Jung, Hao-Yu Lee, Trei Cruz and Gage Workman are on the 40-man but currently on optional assignment. Torres is a free agent at season’s end, so the second base job is up for grabs in 2027.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas,Imagn Images
Cardinals Activate Lars Nootbaar
June 5th: Nootbaar has been officially reinstated, with Saggese optioned out as the corresponding move.
June 3rd: The Cardinals will activate Lars Nootbaar from the 60-day injured list for Friday’s series opener against the Reds, manager Oli Marmol told reporters (including Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat). St. Louis will need to make an active roster move. They already have an opening on the 40-man roster after returning Rule 5 pick Matt Pushard to the Marlins.
Nootbaar will make his season debut after a two-month plus absence. He underwent surgery to shave down bones on both heels last October. Nootbaar has appeared in 11 minor league rehab games, hitting .233 with a pair of home runs while gradually building up to Triple-A Memphis.
The injuries seemed to impact the 28-year-old outfielder last season. Nootbaar had a career-worst .234/.325/.361 slash over 583 plate appearances. His 13 home runs were similar to the totals he posted in less playing time over the prior three seasons. Nootbaar’s rate production was down from the .246/.351/.426 line he managed from 2022-24.
If he’d been healthy, Nootbaar may well have been traded over the offseason. He’s down to his final two years of arbitration control. The Cards committed to a retool in dealing a lot of shorter-term pieces. That included Brendan Donovan, who is also in his penultimate arbitration season. The Cardinals would’ve been accepting pennies on the dollar to move Nootbaar, so it made sense for them to hold him as a deadline trade chip.
That calculus may have changed with the team’s surprising start. St. Louis has won 32 of their first 60 games, putting them firmly in a muddled Wild Card picture. They’ve been a league average offense and one of the league’s better defensive teams, helping paper over a pitching staff that still doesn’t miss many bats.
While the position player group has been solid, the Cards have had one of the weaker left field situations in the National League. The lefty-hitting Nathan Church has mostly operated in a platoon with one of José Fermín or Thomas Saggese. Church is out with a minor shoulder strain but expected to begin a rehab stint tomorrow. He has a middling .247/.282/.390 batting line across 156 plate appearances. Saggese and Fermín haven’t been any better. Recent call-ups Bryan Torres and Nelson Velázquez have gotten some work over the past week.
Velázquez and Fermín are out of options and would need to be designated for assignment if taken off the MLB roster. The Cardinals probably wouldn’t have selected Velázquez’s contract on Friday if they anticipated dropping him that quickly. Torres and Saggese each have options — as does Church if the Cardinals don’t want to open an MLB spot once he’s back from injury.
Red Sox Option Brayan Bello To Triple-A
June 5th: The Sox have officially selected La Sorsa, optioned Bello and transferred Crochet to the 60-day IL.
June 4th: The Red Sox are optioning right-hander Brayan Bello to Triple-A Worcester, reports Dan Roche of WBZ. Boston will add recently acquired lefty reliever Joe La Sorsa to the active roster for tomorrow’s series opener in The Bronx.
Bello was knocked around again this afternoon, giving up eight runs over five innings to take the loss against the Orioles. He’s now sitting on a 6.34 earned run average over 61 frames on the season. He’s striking hitters out at a career-low 15.6% rate. Bello has a career-worst average exit velocity allowed while giving up a lofty 1.48 home runs per nine innings.
The primary issue is that Bello has had no answers for left-handed batters. They carried a .323/.384/.554 line with nearly as many walks as strikeouts in 147 plate appearances into today’s start. He hasn’t been good against right-handed hitters either, but the numbers against lefties are completely untenable. That was also an issue for Bello early in his career.
Boston has tried to work around that by using a left-handed opener in front of Bello on four occasions. He has pitched very well in those outings, but the opener (Jovani Morán or Tyler Samaniego) has allowed at least one run in each. The Sox have gone 1-3 in those games despite Bello having a combined 0.71 ERA across 25 1/3 innings.
The 27-year-old righty was asked about the stark difference between his performance as a bulk arm versus starts. He was clearly unhappy with the question.
“First of all, just stop talking about bullpen and starting games,” he said in Spanish via the team’s interpreter (link via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic). “I’ve always been a starter, and when I’ve been successful as a starter, no one asks your question (about) whether I have to be in the bullpen or starting games. So, just starting from there, just stop that talk, because I’m just having a bad season. That’s it. It’s not whether I’m a starter or I’m a reliever. It’s just, having a bad season. I know that I can turn it around.”
Marcos Grunfeld of El Emergente, a native Spanish speaker on the Boston beat, directly translated Bello’s comments a little more firmly:
“First of all, just stop talking about this bullpen-starter crap because when I’m pitching well as a starter, nobody talks about it. Now that I’m having a bad season as a starter, everybody wants to talk crap about it. The first thing is that we should stop talking about it and focus on the good things. Yes, I’m having a bad season as a starter, but I believe things are going to get better.”
In any case, the Sox probably would’ve proceeded with the demotion based on Bello’s performance alone. He’s in the third season of a $55MM extension signed in Spring Training 2024. Bello posted a 4.49 ERA that year and had a career season in 2025. He turned in a 3.35 mark across 166 2/3 innings, albeit with a drop in strikeouts that has only heightened this year. Bello is playing on a $6MM salary and guaranteed $44.5MM from 2027-29 (including a buyout on a 2030 club option).
Pitchers must spend at least 15 days on an optional assignment unless they’re recalled to replace an injured player. Boston can carry an extra reliever until his next scheduled start on Tuesday. Rookie southpaw Jake Bennett, who made his first two career starts earlier in the season, seems the likeliest candidate to come up. He owns a 1.60 ERA with plus strikeout and walk marks in Triple-A.
The Red Sox still need to create a 40-man roster spot to select La Sorsa’s contract. Garrett Crochet could move to the 60-day injured list, assuming he won’t be back from his low-grade lat strain within the next three weeks. A transfer would backdate to his initial April 26 placement.
Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript
Anthony Franco
- Good afternoon, hope all is well!
- Looking forward to another of these, let's get going
NL West
- How many playoff teams will the division have? SD looks like they are crashing down to earth and Arizona just lost the only rotation help they could afford this season.
Anthony Franco
- Yeah I'll stick with two even though I don't know that I'd pick either Arizona or San Diego to make it individually. Still think their combined playoff chances are above 50% though
The Knuder
- Are the Padres cooked? And, if so, what are they gonna sell at the deadline?
Anthony Franco
- Obviously went into this more here:
- https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/padres-trade-rumors-deal-from-b...
- I expect Machado and Merrill to bounce back enough that they'll hang around and won't need to sell, but they clearly need multiple bats and at least one starter no matter what happens with Musgrove and Pivetta
- Don't really see the path to doing all that unless they dangle a reliever -- Estrada or Bradgley make the most sense but you could sell me on Morejon -- in more of a baseball trade
Cat_Herder
- Tigers sweep the Rays and haven't lost in June. Is this is a fluke or are they turning a corner with Torres, Carp, etc. back in the lineup?
-
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Aaron Judge Diagnosed With Rib Stress Fracture, Will Be Reevaluated In 4-6 Weeks
June 5: Judge has been officially placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to June 2nd, with Jones recalled as the corresponding move. Jack Curry of the YES Network first reported the Jones move earlier today.
June 4: The Yankees will be without the game’s most feared slugger for a couple months. New York announced that Aaron Judge has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in the first rib on his right side. He’ll go for follow-up imaging in four to six weeks to gauge his healing and rehab process.
New York announced that Judge is expected back at some point before the end of the season. It’ll almost certainly not be until August at the earliest. He’ll be placed on the 10-day injured list before tomorrow’s series opener with the Red Sox and seems likely to wind up on the 60-day IL at some point.
Judge sat out this week’s series against the Guardians. The Yankees announced he was going for testing on a ribcage injury despite feeling the pain mostly in his right shoulder. Fans had some concern when the team sent Judge to a doctor who specializes in treating thoracic outlet syndrome this afternoon. It seems that was to rule out the nerve condition.
Thoracic outlet syndrome would have been the nightmare outcome. A rib fracture seems unlikely to be a career-altering injury. While it’s not a worst case scenario, it’s clearly not good news. It’ll take until around the All-Star Break for the team to even check into the rib’s healing. He’d need to build up baseball activities and live batting practice sessions from there. An absence of this length is also going to require a rehab assignment to get accustomed to game speed.
Judge has felt an increasing amount of discomfort while hitting over the past few weeks. There was no single play this season that caused the injury. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com notes that Judge actually suffered a stress fracture of the same rib and a partially collapsed lung on a diving catch attempt back in 2019. That wasn’t diagnosed until the following March. The pandemic then shut down the sport for a few months, so that injury didn’t cost him any game time.
This injury has clearly weighed on Judge’s performance. He hit .243/.368/.437 with five home runs in May. That’d be a good few weeks for most hitters but was Judge’s lowest OPS in a month since April 2024. He had an OPS north of 1.000 this April, slugging 12 homers through the season’s first five weeks.
The Yankees are also without Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Domínguez. Utility players José Caballero and Max Schuemann have started the last three games in right field. They’ll probably bring Spencer Jones back up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre now that a Judge IL stay is confirmed. Domínguez is taking batting practice and could begin a rehab assignment this week. Stanton told Jon Heyman of The New York Post that he’s hoping to be back from a calf strain in about two weeks.
New York led MLB in scoring in May even without a herculean month from the three-time MVP. Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger are having fantastic seasons. Jazz Chisholm Jr. has picked things up after a bad start. Paul Goldschmidt, back in the everyday lineup thanks to the Stanton and Domínguez injuries, is having a resurgent year. The bottom third of the order has been an issue, especially Austin Wells behind the plate, but this should still be an above-average lineup.
It’s clearly not going to be as potent without Judge as the anchor though. It’s unlikely this will dramatically change their deadline trajectory, as Domínguez should be back before too long to hold an outfield spot until Judge returns. It could certainly impact a tight division race, with New York holding a half-game advantage over Tampa Bay in the AL East.