Angels Notes: Pomeranz, Johnson, Peraza, Grissom
The Angels placed left-hander Drew Pomeranz on the 15-day injured list today due to left elbow inflammation. Right-hander Ryan Johnson was reinstated from the IL in a corresponding move.
The Halos haven’t provided many details about the injury to Pomeranz, but it’s notable in light of his history. Ongoing issues with his throwing arm, including multiple surgeries, lead to Pomeranz not pitching in the majors from 2022 to 2024. He had a bounceback season in 2025, posting a 2.17 earned run average over 49 2/3 innings with the Cubs.
That prompted the Halos to sign Pomeranz to a one-year, $4MM deal for the 2026 season. That gambit hasn’t worked out so far, as the 37-year-old has a 7.20 ERA through 15 innings. His 16.7% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate are both significantly worse than last year, when he struck out 28.1% of opponents and only walked 7.4%.
For now, Johnson will apparently take his spot in the bullpen. The Halos have handled Johnson very strangely thus far in his career. He was drafted in the summer of 2024, 74th overall, but didn’t pitch in the minors that year. He then cracked the club’s big league roster to open the 2025 season, despite not having any professional experience. He pitched poorly out of the bullpen for a few weeks before being optioned all the way down to High-A. He finished the year pitching well at that level as a starter.
Here in 2026, he made the big league rotation out of camp but then hit the IL due to a virus after just one start. He recently began a rehab assignment, tossing 3 1/3 innings on May 3rd, followed by five innings on May 8th.
It appears that Johnson is now available out of the big league bullpen. “I see him as a guy that can do both,” manager Kurt Suzuki said to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. “I think if we need him as a starter, we can keep him as a starter. If we need him in the bullpen, he can do that. I think the luxury of having RJ is he can do everything.”
From the outside, it appears to be a bizarrely unconventional approach, something that has cropped up with other pitchers to lesser degrees. Alek Manoah began the season on the IL due to a finger issue. He made one official rehab appearances of 4 1/3 innings at the beginning of May. He was quickly added to the big league roster. His first appearance for the Halos was a single-inning relief outing. The next time out, he tossed five innings of long relief. Grayson Rodriguez, who began the season on the IL due to shoulder inflammation, has made two rehab appearances recently. The first was five innings and the second 4 2/3. He may be quickly reinstated at the big league level for his next appearance.
Those all feel like fairly hasty rehab assignments and activations. If a club were breaking convention and had a strong reputation for being on the cutting edge of analytics, that would be intriguing. The Angels have the opposite reputation, so it feels like they’re just winging things. Considering Manoah and Rodriguez both have extensive injury histories, that doesn’t seem like a prudent approach. The Halos haven’t been good for a while and currently have the worst record in baseball at 16-28, so perhaps they are trying to do anything they can to stop the bleeding.
Yusei Kikuchi is currently on the injured list and will be shut down for a few more weeks. José Soriano is firmly entrenched at the front of the rotation. Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz and Walbert Ureña should have spots behind Soriano for now. Perhaps some combination of Manoah, Rodriguez and Johnson will cover the final spot.
Turning to the position player group, a separate column from Fletcher notes that Vaughn Grissom has been getting some work in left field, with Oswald Peraza to soon join him. Both infielders are hitting well while outfielder Josh Lowe has been struggling. Lowe has a .160/.211/.283 line on the season so far. Some of that is due to a .188 batting average on balls in play but his 5.2% walk rate and 29.6% strikeout rate are also below league average and his own career stats.
Grissom is currently sporting a .264/.353/.431 line while Peraza has a .279/.344/.477 slash. The Angels have Zach Neto at shortstop most days, with Yoán Moncada at third and Nolan Schanuel at first. That leaves Grissom and Peraza battling for playing time at second base, in addition to occasionally spelling the other infielders. Neither player has any professional outfield experience, apart from some brief winter ball action for Grissom. If one or both of them can take to left field, it could provide Suzuki some extra flexibility in setting his ideal lineup.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
Can The Rays Keep This Up?
The regular season has crossed the 25% mark and there's an unexpected team at the top of the American League. The 28-13 Rays have the AL's best record and second-best mark in MLB behind the Braves. The Rays have a history of outperforming expectations, but some of the magic had seemed to wear off with sub-.500 finishes in each of the last two seasons.
Tampa Bay had a slightly busier free agent period than they typically do. They added Nick Martinez and Steven Matz, the latter on a two-year contract. They brought in Cedric Mullins on a reclamation deal. At the same time, they were closer to the "seller" end of their two biggest trades of the winter. They dealt Shane Baz to the Orioles for four prospects and a draft pick. They sent Brandon Lowe, Mason Montgomery and Jake Mangum to the Pirates for two more prospects. Gavin Lux was their most established trade pickup of the offseason, and he has been a complete non-factor due to various injures.
So how have the Rays gotten out to one of the best starts in franchise history? Are they resurrecting a small ball offensive approach in the modern game, and what should be the deadline focus for a team that'll enter the summer more clearly looking to add MLB talent than they have over the past couple seasons?
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Marlins Place Robby Snelling On IL With UCL Sprain
The Marlins announced that left-hander Robby Snelling has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Right-hander Pete Fairbanks has been reinstated from the IL in a corresponding move. Snelling had been scheduled to start Thursday’s game. Lefty Braxton Garrett will be recalled to start for the Fish on Thursday.
It’s brutal timing for Snelling and the Marlins. The lefty is one of the top pitching prospects in the league. He started the season in the minors but the club recently decided to shake up their rotation. Just over a week ago, Chris Paddack was designated for assignment. Snelling then came up to take Paddack’s rotation spot. Snelling made his major league debut on Friday, allowing three earned runs over five innings.
Prior to today, there wasn’t any indication that anything was wrong. Manager Clayton McCullough spoke with reporters, including Marlins broadcaster Kyle Sielaff, and said Snelling experienced some discomfort after throwing a between-starts bullpen session. The skipper confirmed that Garrett, who was scratched from his minor league start, would be called up to take the mound in the majors on Thursday.
McCullough didn’t have any more information about Snelling’s status, apart from the fact that the southpaw would be undergoing more testing. UCL sprains are often precursors to major surgeries, such as Tommy John. That’s not always the case, as some pitchers are able to return without surgery, though even those cases involve months of rehab.
It’s obviously very poor timing. Both Snelling and the Marlins hoped his promotion would be the start of a blossoming major league career. Instead, he’s facing a significant injury and potentially a lengthy absence, though time will tell on the specifics. For Snelling personally, the one silver lining is that this injury occurred after his promotion. That means he’ll collect major league pay and service time while he’s on the IL. That would not have been the case if he were injured while still in the minors.
If Snelling does end up requiring surgery, it could be a bitter development for the club. A lengthy surgery rehab could wipe out most of his 2026 and part of his 2027 as well, which would be a decent chunk of the club’s window of control over the lefty. That could also potentially impact the club’s trade plans this summer or in the coming offseason. The club’s knack for developing pitchers has allowed them to continually trade starters for bats and then replace the arms internally. Subtracting Snelling from their rotation depth chart could make that less likely.
For the short term, they will turn to Garrett. It’s unclear if this will be a spot start or if Garrett will stick around, as Marlins could also turn to another prospect in Thomas White. At least for tomorrow, it will be Garrett.
Garrett already has some major league experience under his belt, though it’s been a while. His best season was 2023, when he tossed 159 2/3 innings with a 3.66 earned run average, 23.7% strikeout rate, 4.4% walk rate and 49.1% ground ball rate. Shoulder and forearm injuries limited him to just seven starts in 2024, then UCL surgery wiped out his 2025 campaign entirely.
He has been healthy here in 2026 but the Marlins have been cautious with him. They optioned Garrett to Triple-A Jacksonville at the end of spring training, opting to start the season with Janson Junk in the final rotation spot behind Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Max Meyer and Paddack.
The Fish have given Garrett a lighter workload, giving him at least six days of rest between each start. He has pitched well with the kid gloves on, tossing 31 1/3 innings over his six outings this year with a 2.30 ERA. His 12.3% walk rate is high but some rust isn’t too surprising after almost two whole missed seasons. He has struck out 26.2% of batters faced while inducing grounders on 53% of balls in play.
The Marlins are one game into a stretch of playing 16 days in a row. If the plan is to keep Garrett in the majors, he’ll need to pitch on a more traditional five-man rotation, unless they try to get creative. They could go for a six-man rotation, deploy some bullpen games or have some other guys make spot starts.
If this isn’t just a one-and-done for Garrett, it will be notable for him from a career perspective. He came into 2026 with his service time count at three years and 168 days, which is just four days shy of the four-year mark. If he had spent all of 2026 on optional assignment, his path to free agency would have been delayed, but even a very brief stint in the majors will keep him on track for free agency after 2028.
As mentioned, it’s possible the Marlins consider involving White in some way. Snelling perhaps got the call first because he’s a bit older and has more Triple-A experience, and because White had been slowed by an oblique strain in spring training, but prospect evaluators rank White ahead of Snelling in terms of his potential future impact. White has recovered from that oblique issue and has been in the Triple-A rotation of late. It’s unclear if he’ll be called up in the immediate future but Snelling’s injury surely increases the odds of him getting the call at some point this year.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
MLB Mailbag: Hader, Aroldis, Mariners, Rays
This week's mailbag looks at the trade value of Josh Hader and Aroldis Chapman plus other relief targets, Cal Raleigh's struggles and possible Mariners trade options, the Rays' shortstop situation, and much more.
Adam asks:
The Astros are really bad and their season was already in the trash can prior to Correa's injury. He's out for the year and they would be wise to sell everyone who isn't Alvarez. Josh Hader (who is also currently hurt) would have around $46 million and 2.5 years left on his deal if dealt around the deadline. He also has a no trade clause and again, is injured as of right now. Edwin Diaz is the same age as Hader and just signed for 3/67 this offseason and they are very comparable. In theory, if Hader was a free agent this past winter, he likely could have gotten more money than what he had signed for so he has positive value, in theory. If he is open to waving his NTC, what would he fetch at the deadline?
Jeff asks:
I know early season trades are rare, but do you think the Red Sox would be willing to trade Chapman sooner than later? He's having a great start to the season and not a whole lot of games to save in Boston. What do you think the Red Sox would want back?
Mike asks:
Who will be the best closers traded at the deadline?
I decided to lump all my reliever trade questions together.
Hader, 32, made the All-Star team last year but his season ended in mid-August due to a left shoulder capsule strain. As of late November he was expecting a normal spring training, but then biceps inflammation popped up in February. He's on the 60-day IL and is eligible to return to the Astros on May 24th. The lefty has made three scoreless relief appearances so far. We have Statcast data for two of them, and he threw his sinker in the 94-95 mile per hour range. That's not far below the 95.5 he averaged in his excellent '25 season.
At the deadline, Hader will be owed a bit less than $45MM through 2028. And yes, he has a full no-trade clause. So he'll have to be compensated to waive it unless he really just wants out of Houston. Hader is a Maryland native, so it's possible he'd enjoy an East Coast team.
Hader should have more than two months to prove his health pitching for the Astros prior to the August 3rd trade deadline. As a $19MM a year reliever coming off an injury, Hader's trade value may be limited. Throw in his full NTC, and his market will shrink further. He still has elite reliever potential and could be a huge asset in the postseason, but certain contenders may be unable to get involved due to his salary and veto power.
For example, Hader would be a great fit on the Royals or Reds, but those teams would likely balk at his contract even if he'd approve a trade. A big market team would be a cleaner fit. Which big market teams have at least a 40% shot at the playoffs right now? That list includes the Yankees, Braves, Phillies, Cubs, and Dodgers. The Yankees and Cubs stand out, with the former possibly holding the East Coast edge.
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Max Fried Departs Game With Elbow Soreness
3:20pm: Fried spoke with reporters, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, after the game. He said he thinks it’ll be a short-term issue and that he is hoping to make his next start.
2:00pm: The Yankees removed starter Max Fried from today’s game after just three innings. It was later announced that he was lifted due to left elbow posterior soreness. He will undergo imaging tomorrow. Chris Kirschner of The Athletic was among those to relay the news.
At this point, it’s too early to know if this is simply a precautionary move or if this will ultimately prove to be a serious issue. Fried does have some elbow issues on his track record, as most pitchers do these days. He had Tommy John surgery way back in 2014, when he was a minor leaguer. In 2023, a forearm strain caused him to miss about three months of the season. In 2024, he had a much briefer IL stint related to his arm, as forearm neuritis put him on the shelf for about two weeks.
It was after that 2024 season that he became a free agent and signed with the Yankees on a huge eight-year, $218MM deal, the largest guarantee ever given to a left-handed pitcher. The deal has been working out great so far. In 2025, the Yankees lost Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery but Fried stepped up as the ace. The southpaw made 32 starts last year with a 2.86 earned run average. He finished fourth in Cy Young voting behind Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet and Hunter Brown.
Here in 2026, the Yanks are still waiting for Cole to return. They also began the campaign without Carlos Rodón, who underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow last fall. The Yanks have started the year strong with a 27-16 record. Coming into today, their 3.07 rotation ERA was just a hair behind Atlanta’s 3.06 for best in the majors. Fried has certainly done his part, with a 2.91 ERA coming into today’s game.
The rotation has done so well that the Yankees seemed to be trending towards some tough decisions. Rodón came off the IL a few days ago. Making room for Rodón was fairly easy since Luis Gil had struggled enough to get optioned down to Triple-A. But Cole is also trending towards a return. Between Fried, Rodón, Cam Schlittler, Ryan Weathers and Will Warren, the Yanks had a full rotation.
Rodón hasn’t really had a chance to put up any numbers yet this year but has a strong track record. The other four have all been throwing the ball well, with no one in the group having an ERA above 3.42. Weathers, Warren and Schlittler have options but it would be tough to tell one of them to head down to the farm when they’re pitching so well. Going to the bullpen would arguably be more palatable but still a bit awkward. If Fried ends up needing some time on the IL, the decision would become quite easy, as Cole could just step into Fried’s spot.
That probably wouldn’t happen right away. Cole made his most recent rehab appearance on May 10th and got to five innings pitched but the Yankees have said they expect him to make one or two more rehab appearances after that. Perhaps Fried hitting the IL would make them expedite the process but they probably don’t want to rush anything with a pitcher as important as Cole.
If Fried needs an IL stint and if Cole stays on his rehab for a bit longer, the Yanks will have to figure out a short-term rotation plan. They are off tomorrow but then play 13 days in a row after that. Recalling Gil won’t be an option because he was just shut down in the minors with some shoulder inflammation and won’t throw for three weeks. Elmer Rodríguez and Brendan Beck are on the 40-man and could be recalled. Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough have starting experience and each pitched multiple innings of relief after Fried departed today, so they could perhaps be part of some kind of patchwork solution.
For the Yanks, the greater concern will be the long term. In an ideal world, they would probably have Cole, Fried, Rodón and Schlittler lined up as an excellent rotation for a playoff series. Hopefully, Fried’s issue proves minor and he can come back in time to make that a reality. Any alternative outcome would be a blow to the club’s season.
Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images
Francisco Alvarez To Undergo Surgery For Meniscus Tear
3:07pm: Alvarez will indeed undergo surgery, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to the Mets beat (link via ESPN’s Jorge Castillo). There won’t be a formal timetable until the procedure is performed. Mendoza is hopeful Alvarez will return in six to eight weeks, but they’ll have more info after his operation.
2:08pm: The Mets announced Wednesday that catcher Francisco Alvarez has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a torn meniscus in his right knee. Fellow catcher Hayden Senger has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse in a corresponding move. He’ll split time behind the dish with Luis Torrens while Alvarez is out.
Alvarez exited yesterday’s game due to knee discomfort and underwent an MRI today, which revealed the tear. The Mets’ announcement indicated only that a “timeline for return to play will be provided when possible.” Given the nature of the injury, Alvarez will be sidelined a good bit longer than 10 days. Meniscus tears almost always require surgery, though the timetable for return depends on the extent of the tearing.
It’s yet another blow for the Mets in a season where virtually nothing has gone their way. New York’s 16-25 record is the fourth-worst mark in Major League Baseball. Alvarez joins Jorge Polanco, Francisco Lindor, Luis Robert Jr., Ronny Mauricio, Jared Young, Kodai Senga and A.J. Minter on the injured list. Lindor, Polanco, Alvarez and Robert were all expected to be key pieces in a reshaped Mets lineup that has looked downright anemic this season — in no small part due to that litany of injuries.
The 24-year-old Alvarez had gotten out to a nice start in what’s already his fifth season with some time logged at the MLB level. He’s hitting .241/.317/.393 — about 5% better than league average, by measure of wRC+ (and about 14% better than the average catcher). During a swing in the sixth inning of yesterday’s game, however, Alvarez grimaced and walked out of the batter’s box, repeatedly flexing his knee (video link). After meeting with a trainer, he departed in the middle of the at-bat.
Once one of the top prospects in baseball, Alvarez has shown flashes of potential to break out as one of the game’s top backstops. He belted 25 homers back in 2023 but did so with a sub-.300 OBP and only a .209 average. In 2025, he slashed .256/.339/.447 but was limited to just 277 plate appearances because of injury. Health has been a frequent issue for the talented young catcher. Beyond this new meniscus tear, he’s also suffered ligament tears in both thumbs and a broken hamate in his his left hand.
Losing Alvarez means turning catching duties over to a pair of light hitters who are better served as backups. The 30-year-old Torrens is a strong defender but just a .226/.287/.351 hitter in his career. He’s batting .208/.255/.292 this season. The Mets somewhat surprisingly inked him to a two-year, $11.5MM extension last month. Senger has only 78 big league plate appearances but has mustered just a .181/.221/.194 slash in that time. His minor league work doesn’t inspire much more confidence. In parts of four Triple-A seasons, he’s a .231/.289/.339 hitter with a 26.9% strikeout rate.
Reds Designate P.J. Higgins For Assignment
The Reds have designated catcher P.J. Higgins for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to veteran righty Chris Paddack, whose previously reported agreement with Cincinnati has now been officially announced. Right-hander Rhett Lowder has been placed on the 15-day injured list to open an active roster spot. Manager Terry Francona said a couple days ago that Lowder would be IL-bound due to shoulder troubles. The team’s formal designation at this time is a vague “right shoulder pain.”
The 33-year-old Higgins appeared in six games with the Reds and took 12 plate appearances, going 2-for-10 with a pair of singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly in that time. He’s now played sparingly in parts of three big league seasons. In a total of 89 games and 266 plate appearances, the former 12th-rounder out of Old Dominion is a .209/.289/.342 hitter with six home runs, a 9.4% walk rate and a 26.3% strikeout rate.
Higgins obviously hasn’t hit much in his limited major league experience, but he’s been a solid hitter in parts of seven Triple-A seasons: .274/.349/.414. He’s thwarted a strong 29% of stolen base attempts against him in the minors. Baseball Prospectus credits him as a plus framer with slightly above-average blocking skills at the Triple-A level. The Reds will have five days to trade Higgins or place him on outright waivers. That’d be a 48-hour process. His DFA window will last a maximum of one week. Higgins has been outrighted in the past, so if he passes through waivers, he’d be able to elect free agency.
As for Lowder, while the IL placement was known to be coming, the formal announcement provides little in the way of clarity. Presumably, Francona will provide more information when he meets with the Reds beat later today. Lowder, the seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft, missed the 2025 season due to a flexor strain. He pitched well through his first six starts (3.18 ERA) but has been blown up for 11 runs over 4 1/3 innings in his past two outings.
Reds Sign Chris Paddack
1:29pm: The Reds announced that they have signed Paddack to a big league deal and that he will start Saturday’s game. Lowder’s IL placement was the corresponding active roster move. Catcher P.J. Higgins was designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot. You can read more about Higgins here.
11:57am: The Reds and veteran righty Chris Paddack are in agreement on a contract, reports Charlie Goldsmith of FOX 19. The Boras Corporation client was released by the Marlins earlier this week after being designated for assignment.
Paddack, 30, signed a one-year, $4MM contract with Miami over the winter but had a short leash after an ugly start to his season. He made just seven appearances (six starts) and was tagged for a 7.63 ERA in 30 2/3 frames. Paddack struggled to work deep into games, completing five frames only once. He struck out a below-average 18.5% of his opponents but notched a characteristically sharp 6.8% walk rate.
Paddack was once a well-regarded prospect who had an outstanding rookie campaign in 2019. He pitched 140 2/3 innings of 3.33 ERA ball for the 2019 Padres — a performance that would make him a Rookie of the Year finalist, if not winner, in just about any other season. He was up against Pete Alonso‘s 53 homers, Michael Soroka‘s 174 2/3 innings of 2.68 ERA ball, and the debut campaigns of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Bryan Reynolds, however, so he wasn’t even on the Rookie of the Year radar despite that stellar debut.
That debut now feels like a distant memory, as Paddack has been set back by injuries at multiple points and has never recaptured his 2019 form. Paddack missed time with a UCL sprain in 2021 and underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022. His 2024 season was shortened by a forearm strain. All in all, he’s pitched 471 2/3 innings since that rookie showing and logged a 5.23 ERA. Paddack has good command but hasn’t missed many bats since his rookie season and is far too homer-prone (a daunting trait for any pitcher calling Great American Ball Park his home).
Cincinnati’s rotation is quite banged up at the moment, however. Hunter Greene underwent elbow surgery back in March and is out until midseason. Brandon Williamson was recently placed on the 60-day injured list due to shoulder troubles. Rhett Lowder was just placed on the 15-day IL yesterday due to a shoulder issue of his own. There’s no indication yet that Brady Singer will require an IL stint, but the right-hander took a comebacker off his right foot in yesterday’s game. He stayed in the contest but struggled thereafter, allowing three runs over the next inning-plus before being lifted in the fourth.
The Reds’ in-house depth options have been struggling down in Triple-A. Chase Petty, Jose Franco and Julian Aguiar have all been hit hard, to varying levels. Paddack will add another option for the back of the rotation and do so in affordable fashion. Cincinnati will only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. The Marlins are on the hook for the remainder of this year’s $4MM salary.
Cubs, Liam Hendriks Agree To Minor League Deal
The Cubs and right-hander Liam Hendriks are in agreement on a minor league contract, reports Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. The ALIGND Sports client was in camp with the Twins during spring training but was granted his release when informed he wouldn’t make the roster. He’s been a free agent since.
Hendriks, 37, had decent spring results with Minnesota, allowing three runs in seven innings. However, he walked as many batters as he he struck out (five), and a fastball that once averaged 97-98 mph was sitting at a diminished 93.9 mph — a mark that would be his lowest since moving to the bullpen more than a decade ago.
The Aussie-born hurler, of course, enjoyed a notable run as one of Major League Baseball’s most dominant relievers. From 2019-22, Hendriks pitched 239 innings with a 2.26 ERA, a mammoth 38.8% strikeout rate and a tiny 5.1% walk rate between the A’s and White Sox. He’d go on to miss time following a frightening diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Hendriks thankfully overcame that cancer diagnosis following chemotherapy treatment, but he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow not long after and wound up requiring Tommy John surgery. He inked a two-year deal with the Red Sox (2024-25), planning to rehab the first year and join their bullpen the second. It didn’t go as well as hoped. Hendriks pitched 13 2/3 innings with a 6.59 ERA last season.
Whether a 37-year-old Hendriks has anything left in the tank is an open question, but there’s no real risk for the Cubs in taking a look to see if he can engineer yet another comeback. Chicago has already lost righty Porter Hodge for the season (UCL surgery) and also has relievers Hunter Harvey, Riley Martin and Caleb Thielbar on the injured list. Hendriks might need some time to ramp back up in the lower levels of the Cubs’ system, but he’ll eventually head to Triple-A Iowa and look to pitch his way back into another major league opportunity.
Lucas Giolito Likely To Make Padres Debut This Weekend
A Padres team that’s been piecing together its rotation over the course of the season thus far is on the verge of getting some much-needed starting pitching help. Lucas Giolito is expected to make his team debut this weekend, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The 31-year-old Giolito went unsigned all winter and eventually inked a one-year deal with the Friars last month. It contains just a $3MM base salary but an additional $5MM worth of incentives. Giolito has made four minor league starts as he ramps up after missing spring training. The results have been a bit shaky overall, though some early rust is to be expected. He’s tossed 17 innings with a 4.76 ERA, 19.5% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. Giolito’s most recent start was his best; he went six innings and allowed one run on three hits and no walks against the Athletics’ Double-A affiliate.
While Giolito’s debut is a welcome boost to the San Diego staff, it’ll also force the Padres into a decision. The Friars’ pitching staff lacks flexibility in the way of optionable arms. None of the five starters currently on the roster can be optioned. Moving a starter to the ‘pen isn’t all that easy, either. The only San Diego relievers with minor league options are Mason Miller (spoiler: he’s not going anywhere), Jeremiah Estrada and Bradgley Rodriguez. Estrada missed some time with an elbow injury but has a 3.97 ERA in 11 1/3 innings since being activated. He’s also been one of the team’s top relievers dating back to 2024. Rodriguez has a sparkling 1.74 ERA in 20 2/3 frames.
The likeliest scenario would see righty Matt Waldron bumped from the roster. The 29-year-old knuckleballer opened the season on the injured list and has been hit hard since his return. In five appearances (three starts) he’s pitched 21 1/3 innings and been tagged for 22 runs (9.28 ERA) on 32 hits and seven walks. He’s set down 18 of his 103 opponents (17.5%) on strikes. Waldron has a better track record, having pitched 188 innings with a below-average but far more palatable 4.79 ERA in 2023-24.
Manager Craig Stammen called it “early” to talk about a potential DFA of Waldron when asked by Acee. Waldron himself seemed to acknowledge the writing on the wall, however, telling the Union-Tribune: “Safe to say my ERA and my numbers aren’t too attractive right now. And I have no options, so I mean, yeah, that’s where I’ll leave it. I’m smart enough (to know).”
The Padres would surely prefer to preserve as much depth as possible, and Waldron looked to be getting on track in his two starts prior to last night’s six-run, 2 2/3-inning clunker. Between his April 29 and May 5 starts, he pitched 10 innings and held the Cubs and Giants to a combined four runs on eight hits and a walk with eight punchouts.
That said, the Padres aren’t going to jettison Griffin Canning after two starts. Walker Buehler‘s 5.20 ERA isn’t pretty, but his rate stats are solid enough to give him a more appealing 3.64 FIP and 4.05 SIERA. Michael King and breakout righty Randy Vásquez are clearly locked into spots. Relievers Yuki Matsui, Wandy Peralta and Ron Marinaccio can’t be optioned but have all pitched well. It’s always possible an injury arises that kicks the decision down the road a bit, but as things stand, Waldron looks like the odd man out.