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Brewers Pause Quinn Priester’s Rehab Assignment
The Brewers are once again pausing the rehab assignment of Quinn Priester, reports Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Priester struggled on Monday in a start in the Arizona Complex League, walking five hitters in 2 2/3 innings while surrendering three earned runs. He also uncorked three wild pitches. Rosiak clarifies that Priester was “without physical complaint,” so the pause isn’t the result of a new injury.
It’s nonetheless another unfortunate note in Priester’s season, which he’s spent on the injured list for neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. Priester struggled when he first attempted to rehab at Triple-A and was pulled from that assignment early last month. He resumed pitching on May 16th, but control continues to be an issue. Priester has walked 16 batters in 11 innings across his last five appearances. The last two of those were in the Complex League, where Priester was re-assigned on May 30th.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy reflected on Priester’s rehab after the Monday outing. “It doesn’t bode well to be ready to pitch in the major leagues,” said Murphy. “I think he’s still a ways away, but I think it’s trending in the right direction in that he felt really good, didn’t feel any pain at all.” Murphy added that the team hasn’t considered surgery for Priester and will instead give him more time to recover the feeling in his fingers.
At this point, the timeline for Priester’s return to the Majors is unclear. The Brewers will understandably proceed with caution given the stops and starts in Priester’s rehab. He still needs to get the walks under control, not to mention build up to a full starter’s workload. Per Rosiak, Priester was set to throw five innings and 70-75 pitches in his next appearance after Monday. He maxed out at 3 1/3 innings on June 2nd and is yet to go twice through the batting order in his rehab appearances. At this rate, Priester likely won’t be back until the second half of the season.
Milwaukee’s rotation has fared well overall despite Priester’s absence. The group’s 3.50 ERA is fifth-best in the Majors, and their 27.2% strikeout rate is tops among all clubs (Phillies starters are second at 24.3%). Much of the credit, especially for the strikeouts, goes to Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison atop the rotation. The back half of the rotation hasn’t fared as well. Brandon Sproat has a 5.70 ERA in 13 appearances (11 starts), while Robert Gasser made one strong start on June 3rd and three mixed to bad ones otherwise. Shane Drohan has allowed five earned runs in 10 1/3 innings across two starts since converting from the bullpen.
Brandon Woodruff and Logan Henderson were both solid before going on the injured list earlier in the season. Woodruff is expected back this month and Henderson in early July, per the team’s injury report at MLB.com. Priester had a 3.32 ERA in 157 1/3 innings last year and can lengthen the rotation once he’s fully healthy. The Brewers have ridden their strong top of the rotation and above-average offense to a 41-25 record thus far, four games ahead of the Cardinals in the NL Central.
Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu, Imagn Images
Guardians To Recall Daniel Espino For MLB Debut
The Guardians are expected to recall right-hander Daniel Espino for his MLB debut, reports Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Espino is already on the 40-man roster, so only a 26-man move will be needed.
It’s been a long journey to the big leagues for Espino. The 25-year-old has missed almost all of the past three seasons due to injuries. After not pitching at all in 2023 and 2024, Espino made it back on the mound for one Triple-A appearance last year.
Espino was among the top prospects in Cleveland’s organization after getting selected in the first round of the 2019 draft. MLB Pipeline ranked him at No. 5 in the system heading into the 2020 campaign. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs had Espino at seventh that year. The righty, along with Triston McKenzie and James Karinchak, was among the most promising arms in the organization at the time.
With the 2020 minor league season scrapped, Espino didn’t get a full year of pro ball until 2021. He was excellent in 20 starts split between Single-A and High-A. Espino recorded a massive 40.5% strikeout rate with a sub-4.00 ERA across 91 2/3 frames. He made the jump to Double-A and continued to punch out minor leaguers at a ridiculous clip. Espino posted a 51.5% strikeout rate in four starts with Akron.
The injury issues began for Espino in 2022. His campaign was cut short by knee and shoulder concerns. Despite tossing just 18 1/3 innings, Espino entered the 2023 season as the consensus top prospect in the Guardians’ system. He was heralded as one of the best young arms yet to debut in the majors. As he ramped up for the 2023 season, Espino felt renewed shoulder discomfort. The injury ultimately required surgery. Additional procedures on his right arm would cost Espino all of 2024 and most of 2025.
Espino has moved to a bullpen role this season. He’s made 22 appearances at Triple-A, all but one of which have come as a reliever. Espino has posted 18 2/3 innings of a 5.30 ERA with Columbus. He’s maintained strong strikeout numbers, whiffing Triple-A opponents at a 33.3% clip.
The Guardians opened the year with Rule 5 pick Peyton Pallette in a long-relief role. He’s since been returned to the White Sox. Espino hasn’t had an appearance longer than an inning with the Clippers, so he’s unlikely to fill that role. Cleveland’s high-leverage group is rock solid with Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and Shawn Armstrong handling the later innings. Espino has the strikeout skills to join the mix, but he’ll likely begin in lower-leverage spots.
Photo courtesy of Samantha Madar of the Columbus Dispatch via Imagn Images
Free Agent Power Rankings: The Next Five
MLBTR published our updated iteration of the Free Agent Power Rankings on Monday. That includes full breakdowns of our top 10 in the class. Darragh McDonald and Steve Adams also devoted much of this week's podcast to breaking down the process and debates about the back half of that list.
It's certainly the weakest class in recent memory. That's most acute at the top behind Tarik Skubal and Freddy Peralta. There might not be a third nine-figure player in the class. While that makes it a less exciting group overall, it also leaves the middle tiers more muddled. Some players in the 11-20 range right now could jump into the top five. Others who were arguably near the top of the class a couple months ago (e.g. Bo Bichette, Trevor Rogers) have dropped even more quickly.
As we did after our first version in April, we'll run through the next five players who weren't far off the list. They're ordered here alphabetically, but it also works out that the first name is the player who was our consensus #11.
Kevin Gausman, SP, Blue Jays
Gausman will land among the top 10 in the class in terms of average annual value. There's an argument that he's the second-best player for 2027 alone behind Skubal. His numbers over the past three-plus seasons are at least quite comparable to Peralta's. The only hangup is age.
The two-time All-Star will play all of next season at 36. Max Scherzer is the only free agent starter 36 or older to sign for three years since 2017; Scherzer's $130MM deal with the Mets started at age 37. Nathan Eovaldi was entering his age-35 season when he re-signed with Texas for three years and $75MM. Merrill Kelly signed for two years and $40MM last offseason at 37.
Gausman hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. He carries a 3.60 ERA across 80 innings. He's averaging just under six innings per start and has managed a quality start in half of his outings. He has above-average strikeout and whiff rates while very rarely issuing free passes. He's no longer a Cy Young candidate like Scherzer and Justin Verlander were in their late 30s, but he's probably a tier above Kelly and Chris Bassitt.
The veteran righty should be in the $25-30MM range on an annual basis, which would put him in the Eovaldi bucket. If he gets to three years, he'll very likely wind up with one of the 10 largest contracts in the class. That'd be tough to accomplish on a two-year deal, even in a thin group. Gausman is ineligible for a qualifying offer after receiving one from the Giants in 2020, so he won't be attached to draft compensation.
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D-Backs Expected To Activate Jordan Lawlar
The Diamondbacks will activate Jordan Lawlar from the 60-day injured list for Friday’s series opener in Cincinnati, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports and 98.7 FM. The Snakes will need to make corresponding active and 40-man roster moves tomorrow.
Lawlar returns from a two and a half month absence. He broke his right wrist when he was by a pitch from then-Atlanta righty Osvaldo Bido on April 3. Arizona almost immediately moved him to the 60-day IL. It was particularly brutal timing, as the injury occurred both on the same night that Lawlar hit his first MLB home run and when the D-Backs were already down 12-1.
The injury also interrupted Lawlar’s transition to the outfield. He’d made five starts in left field and one in center, his first regular season outfield work. The D-Backs have used him exclusively in the outfield during a brief minor league rehab assignment, confirming they’ll stick with that arrangement for the former top shortstop prospect.
Lawlar has still only managed 128 career plate appearances at the big league level. He spent most of the 2024 season on the minor league injured list after undergoing right thumb surgery. Last year, it was a Grade 1 hamstring strain in Triple-A that cost him almost two months between June and August.
Arizona’s outfield has been carried almost entirely by an MVP-caliber start from Corbin Carroll. Left and center field, question marks coming into the season, haven’t been good. They moved on from Alek Thomas last month, turning center field over to rookie Ryan Waldschmidt. The former supplemental first-rounder has hit .267 over his first 31 MLB games, but he has struck out 38 times in 114 plate appearances. Waldschmidt has fallen into a .214/.250/.286 slump with a team-high 17 punchouts over the last two weeks.
Tommy Troy, another rookie, has gotten the recent run in left field. Troy has shown solid plate discipline but without much impact, hitting .240/.345/.340 across his first 58 plate appearances. The D-Backs could get Lourdes Gurriel Jr. back from a hamstring strain within the next few weeks. He also struggled after making a quicker than expected return from ACL surgery. They just added Max Kepler for the MLB minimum, and his performance-enhancing drug suspension will be lifted in a couple weeks. Kepler isn’t eligible for postseason play, so even if he hits well, the D-Backs will need other outfielders to step up.
Assuming they expect James McCann back within the next month, Arizona doesn’t have any clear candidates for a move to the 60-day injured list. Out of options fourth outfielder Jorge Barrosa has hit .172/.241/.313 this season. If they want to keep him on the bench, they could designate someone else for assignment and option any of Waldschmidt, Troy or Adrian Del Castillo to Triple-A.
NPB’s Yokohama BayStars Sign Jerar Encarnacion
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan confirmed the signings of right-hander Osvaldo Bido and outfielder Jerar Encarnacion on Friday. MLBTR covered the Bido signing in the middle of May. Rumors out of Japan at the same time linked Encarnacion to the club, but neither deal became final until today.
Encarnacion, a client of A & F Sports Agency, opened the season with the Giants. He’s out of minor league options, so San Francisco was initially reluctant to cut him loose. He worked mostly as a bench bat but picked up a handful of starts in the corner outfield or at first base. He started the season slowly, hitting .176 without a home run across 35 plate appearances.
The 28-year-old has played parts of four big league seasons, the last three of which came with San Francisco. He’s a .211/.237/.362 hitter with 10 home runs in just under 300 trips to the plate. The meager on-base percentage hints at his very aggressive plate approach, but Encarnacion has big raw power. He hit 26 homers in Triple-A with the Marlins a few seasons ago and obliterated minor league pitching at a .352/.438/.616 clip in 2024 to earn an MLB look from the Giants.
It’s the kind of profile that tends to play better in NPB or the KBO, where the average pitcher quality is lower than in MLB. Encarnacion will surely do better financially with the BayStars than he would have had he bounced around on minor league contracts after San Francisco designated him for assignment last month.
Pirates To Recall Antwone Kelly For MLB Debut
The Pirates will recall pitching prospect Antwone Kelly for his MLB debut, reports Francys Romero. He’s already on the 40-man roster, as the Bucs needed to select his contract last offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. They’ll need to make an active roster move involving a pitcher tomorrow.
Kelly, not to be confused with the similarly named pitcher who was recently traded from the Dodgers to the Cubs, is one of Pittsburgh’s better minor league arms. An Aruba native, he was an under the radar international signee in 2021. Kelly has added strength and built his velocity in pro ball, posting strong strikeout numbers as he climbed through the minors. He put himself firmly on the prospect radar with 107 1/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball between High-A and Double-A last year.
Baseball America ranks Kelly the #8 prospect in the organization. He’s seventh in the system at MLB Pipeline. Keith Law of The Athletic ranked him 15th in his offseason writeup of the Pittsburgh organization, while Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs had him 19th when rankings Bucs prospects just last week. Despite the slight variation in the ordinal rankings, the scouting reports are generally in alignment.
Kelly is a shorter righty at 5’10” who gets good life on a fastball that is averaging 97.6 mph in Triple-A. His mid-80s changeup is his best secondary pitch and a potential weapon against left-handed hitters. Evaluators’ biggest question is whether he’ll develop a reliable enough breaking ball. Kelly has a mid-80s cutter that most scouts grade as a fringe-average offering. The arsenal has gotten a lot of whiffs at the lower levels but hasn’t missed many bats in Triple-A.
Over his first 54 innings at the top minor league level, Kelly owns a 4.50 earned run average with a modest 20% strikeout rate. His 10.6% swinging strike mark is also a bit below average, while he has walked 10% of batters faced. Kelly has spent most of the season working from the Triple-A rotation but has come out of the bullpen for his last two outings.
Kelly does have some experience against the top hitters in the world. He was the #1 starter for the Netherlands in this year’s World Baseball Classic. That gave him the unenviable task of taking on eventual champion Venezuela to kick off the tournament. Kelly worked three innings of two-run ball, striking out Wilyer Abreu but giving up a home run to Javier Sanoja.
Colin Beazley of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette confirms the Bucs will use Kelly out of the bullpen. They’re surely not closing the door on a long-term rotation future. Pittsburgh took a similar tack last year breaking Bubba Chandler and Braxton Ashcraft in as relievers. They’re also simply in need of reliable bullpen arms, particularly ones from the right side.
Pirates relievers are 20th in MLB with a 4.45 ERA. The past couple weeks have been even uglier, as they’re allowing nearly six earned runs per nine in the last 14 days. They gave up a 10-run inning to blow open a tied game in a loss to the Dodgers on Tuesday. That was less than a week after an utter meltdown in Houston, when they squandered a 9-5 lead in the eighth inning — allowing six runs despite retiring the first two batters.
Dennis Santana was expected to be their most reliable right-hander this season. He’s sitting on a 5.00 ERA across 27 frames. Carmen Mlodzinski got knocked around in his second appearance after being bumped from the rotation. Rookie Wilber Dotel pitched well in his first seven outings before the Dodgers pummeled him in the aforementioned 10-run frame. Yohan Ramírez is a journeyman who should be in low-leverage spots. It’s a clear area of need at the trade deadline, but they’ll take a look at Kelly as they search for solutions in the interim.
Tommy Pham To Opt Out Of Orioles Deal
Veteran outfielder Tommy Pham will exercise an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Orioles tomorrow, reports Josh Tolentino of The Baltimore Sun. He’ll return to free agency if the Orioles don’t add him to the MLB roster.
Pham signed with the O’s midway through May. He took a few days to build up before reporting to Triple-A Norfolk. Pham struggled in 14 games for the Tides, batting .196/.281/.375 with 20 strikeouts in 64 plate appearances. He picked things up from a power perspective recently, connecting on three homers in his final eight games.
The 38-year-old Pham had a brief big league stint with the Mets earlier in the year. He went 0-13 with a walk and seven strikeouts while starting four of nine appearances. Pham spent the entire ’25 season in the Majors with the Pirates. He took 449 trips to the dish and had a slightly below-average .245/.330/.370 slash line. He connected on 10 homers, 17 doubles and one triple with a solid strikeout and walk profile.
Baltimore has a starting outfield of Taylor Ward, Colton Cowser and Leody Taveras. The latter was signed as a fourth or fifth outfielder but has put together a decent season, batting .258/.345/.365 in 209 plate appearances. He has handily outplayed Tyler O’Neill, who has hit .155 with one home run since returning from a concussion in mid-April. O’Neill has started to lose playing time as a result, dropping into a part-time corner outfield/designated hitter role.
The O’s have been without Dylan Beavers for the past month due to a low-grade right oblique strain. He’d likely push Taveras back into a fourth outfield role once he’s healthy. The O’s could make room on the bench for Pham by optioning Jeremiah Jackson, but they could see that as a redundant fit with O’Neill already on the roster. If they grant him his release, he’ll search for another team looking for right-handed outfield depth.
Angels Re-Sign Taijuan Walker To Minor League Deal
The Angels announced they’ve re-signed Taijuan Walker to a minor league contract. He’s back on the mound for Triple-A Salt Lake tonight against the D-Backs’ affiliate.
Walker had opted out of a prior non-roster deal with the Halos on Monday. It’s common for players to re-sign on a new minor league contract after doing so. Testing the market gives them a few days to see whether a major league opportunity presents itself. If not, their previous team is usually happy to sign a new minor league deal. The player can try to negotiate more opt-out or upward mobility clauses or, in some cases, a higher salary.
The latter isn’t a factor for Walker, who is making $18MM from the Phillies this year either way. Philadelphia remains on the hook for that money after releasing him in April. The Angels would pay him the prorated $780K major league minimum if he spends any time on their MLB roster, and that would come off Philadelphia’s obligations.
Walker struggled for the majority of his three-plus seasons in Philadelphia. He allowed more than a run per inning across 22 2/3 frames this season, leading the Phillies to move on. The veteran righty spent a month on the free agent market before signing with the Angels in late May. He made a couple tune-up appearances in the Complex League before reporting to Salt Lake. He tossed 4 2/3 innings of two-run ball with three strikeouts and walks apiece against Colorado’s affiliate in his only Triple-A start.
The Angels have an opening for the final rotation spot behind José Soriano, Reid Detmers, Grayson Rodriguez and Walbert Ureña. They lost Jack Kochanowicz to Tommy John surgery earlier this week. Sam Aldegheri is getting the first look in the vacated role, as he’ll start tomorrow’s series opener against Shane McClanahan and the Rays.
Guardians Trade Nolan Jones To White Sox
The Guardians announced they’ve traded non-roster outfielder Nolan Jones and cash considerations to the White Sox. Chicago sends a $250K international bonus pool allotment to Cleveland in return.
Cleveland outrighted Jones off their 40-man roster at the end of Spring Training. He therefore won’t immediately occupy a roster spot for Chicago. The Sox announced that they’ve assigned him to Triple-A Charlotte. Jones has spent the entire season in the International League with Cleveland’s affiliate in Columbus.
The 28-year-old Jones appeared in the Majors each season from 2022-25. He had by far his best season with the Rockies in 2023, hitting .297/.389/.542 with 20 homers in a little over 400 plate appearances. Back problems limited him to half a season a year later. His numbers plummeted, as he hit only .227/.321/.320 with three homers in 79 games.
Colorado moved on after that injury-riddled season. The Rox dealt Jones back to Cleveland, the organization that had drafted him in 2016 and with which he made a brief debut six years later. He spent the entire season on the MLB roster, aside from a season-ending oblique strain in late September, but did not rebound offensively. Jones mustered only a .211/.296/.304 batting line while striking out in 28% of his 403 trips to the plate.
It came as a surprise that the Guardians tendered him an arbitration contract after a second consecutive season of below replacement level production. The sides hammered out a $2MM agreement early in the offseason. Jones had a rough camp and failed to make the team out of Spring Training. He cleared waivers and had an easy call to accept an assignment to Triple-A so as not to forfeit that salary.
Jones is amidst a nice year in the minors. He’s hitting .275/.385/.460 with eight longballs across 226 plate appearances. He’s striking out a little too often (24.3%) but hitting the ball hard and drawing walks at an excellent 14.2% rate. Jones has had that “three true outcomes” approach throughout his career.
The Guardians are paying an undisclosed portion of the roughly $1.15MM he’s owed through the end of the season. The White Sox weren’t going to take on that entire sum for a Triple-A player. Cleveland takes the opportunity to get some amount of salary relief for a player who had clearly been squeezed out of their plans. The Guardians haven’t gotten much from their outfield lately, but Jones was behind the 10 outfield options they have on their 40-man roster.
Chicago isn’t actually sending cash. They’re trading $250K in space from their hard-capped bonus pool for international amateurs, which means the Guardians can spend a little more of their own money to add to their farm system. The White Sox seemingly don’t intend to sign anyone else of note before the close of this period. They also packaged $250K in bonus space alongside Derek Hill in their afternoon trade with the Phillies to add a couple minor leaguers.
Jones gives them some upper minors depth for right field, which has been an issue this season. They’re in better shape now with Braden Montgomery up and Everson Pereira back from the injured list, but they don’t have much depth in the upper minors. Jones would be eligible for arbitration for a few years if the Sox call him up before the end of the season. He’d otherwise become a minor league free agent once the regular season concludes.