Nationals Option Brady House
The Nationals announced they’ve optioned third baseman Brady House to Triple-A Rochester. That creates an active roster opening, which they’ll reportedly fill tomorrow by recalling former #2 overall pick Dylan Crews.
It’s a surprise demotion, as House has started 38 of Washington’s 48 games this year. He was in the lineup for tonight’s extra-inning loss to the Mets and still hitting third in Blake Butera’s lineup. Despite continuing to hit him in the middle of the order, the Nats now decide to send House down for his first work against Triple-A pitching since he made his MLB debut last June.
House, the #11 overall pick in the 2022 draft, limped to a .234/.252/.322 line over 73 games as a rookie. This year’s numbers are better but still middling. House carries a .227/.282/.399 mark across 177 trips to the plate. He’s drawing walks at a modest 7.3% clip against a 28% strikeout rate. He’s in the bottom 15 among hitters (minimum 150 plate appearances) in contact rate.
The plate discipline remains a work in progress, but House’s seven home runs tied him with Daylen Lile for third on the team behind James Wood and CJ Abrams. He’d connected on three of those homers this month, albeit with a .224 average and .264 on-base percentage entering tonight’s game. House has graded poorly defensively, tying Junior Caminero for the lead among third basemen with eight errors. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have him bottom five at the position.
Washington’s infield defense probably won’t improve much with a combination of Jorbit Vivas and José Tena covering third base. Curtis Mead has hit well off the bench and could get a look there too, though the Nationals seemingly prefer him as a first baseman. That’ll open some at-bats at designated hitter for Wood and Lile, as Crews will surely be in the lineup on an everyday basis. Jacob Young is the team’s best defensive outfielder; he’s day-to-day after taking a fastball to the ribs this evening, though Butera said postgame that x-rays were negative (via Mark Zuckerman of Nats Journal).
House entered this season with 105 days of MLB service. He needs to be on the big league roster for 67 days this year to cross the one-year threshold before the end of the season. He’s a little less than two weeks short of that right now, but there’s ample time for him to play his way back onto the active roster during the summer.
Jake Fraley To Undergo Sports Hernia Procedure
Rays outfielder Jake Fraley will undergo sports hernia surgery tomorrow, reports Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. He’ll be out for six to eight weeks.
Fraley landed on the 10-day injured list on Saturday. The surgery timetable may lead to a transfer to the 60-day IL at some point. Fraley has had at least one injured list stint in every season of his MLB career. He had three absences last year between Cincinnati and Atlanta, capping him at 76 games. Between the injuries and his limited usage against left-handed pitching, Fraley has yet to reach 400 plate appearances in a season.
It has been a slow start for the 30-year-old outfielder. Fraley has hit .232/.300/.390 with two home runs in 90 trips to the dish. It’s nevertheless suboptimal for the Rays to lose him, as their bench skews very heavily to the right side. Topkin notes that the Rays’ two lefty-hitting outfielders who are on optional assignment, Jacob Melton and Victor Mesa Jr., are themselves on the minor league injured list.
Middle infielder Carson Williams came up as the corresponding move for Fraley’s IL placement. Manager Kevin Cash tells Topkin that’s driven partially by Ben Williamson, who hasn’t played since Friday while dealing with back tightness. Cash didn’t rule out an injured list stint. Teams can backdate an IL placement by up to three days, so the Rays may view Tuesday as the cutoff for deciding whether to put him on the shelf for at least another week.
Athletics Outright Michael Stefanic
The Athletics sent infielder Michael Stefanic outright to Triple-A Las Vegas, per the MLB.com transaction tracker. They’d designated him for assignment on Saturday when they acquired Alika Williams from Pittsburgh to replace Stefanic as a utility infielder.
Stefanic had a brief stint on the big league roster. The A’s had called him up on Tuesday when they lost Jacob Wilson to the injured list. Stefanic played twice, once starting at second base and entering the other game as a pinch-hitter. He went 2-5 with a run scored. It marks five consecutive years with some MLB action for the 30-year-old infielder. He’s a lifetime .231/.315/.269 hitter at the major league level.
The righty-hitting Stefanic has been a fantastic Triple-A performer throughout his career. He owns a .326/.422/.447 batting line in more than 2000 plate appearances. Stefanic has elite strike zone judgment and pure contact skills, but he doesn’t hit for much power. He’s also more of a second/third baseman than a true shortstop, which limits his value off the bench for MLB clubs. That’s evidenced by the A’s going with Williams as a more valuable defender behind their middle infield pairing of Jeff McNeil and fill-in shortstop Darell Hernaiz.
Stefanic has been outrighted a handful of times throughout his career. That gives him the right to elect free agency, though it seems likelier he’ll accept the assignment back to Las Vegas and hang around as non-roster infield depth.
Kyle Teel Shut Down With LCL Sprain
It will be quite some time before Kyle Teel makes his season debut. The White Sox second-year catcher sprained the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) in his right knee, relays Brooke Fletcher of Chicago Sports Network. He’ll be down for 3-6 weeks before he’s able to start a new rehab assignment.
Teel suffered the injury on Saturday in a rehab game with Triple-A Charlotte. Manager Will Venable told reporters (including James Fegan of Sox Machine) that the lefty batter got hurt when his cleat got stuck during a swing. He was working his way back after sustaining a Grade 2 strain of his right hamstring while playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic.
It’s a frustrating setback for a surprisingly competitive Sox team. Chicago enters their series in Seattle with a 24-22 record that has them in a Wild Card spot and only a game behind Cleveland in the AL Central. A playoff berth still seems like a long shot given the Sox’s rebuilding pitching staff, but they’re a more live threat than most would’ve anticipated at the beginning of the season.
The offense has been a big part of that. Chicago is tenth in scoring and ranks in the top half of the league in both on-base percentage and slugging. Only the Yankees have hit more home runs than the Sox’s 66 longballs. Teel would likely have slotted into the top half of the lineup after a .273/.375/.411 showing over his first 78 MLB games.
Chicago has instead rolled with a Drew Romo/Edgar Quero pairing behind the plate. Romo, who entered the season with essentially no MLB track record, has connected on four homers in 13 games since being called up to supplant Reese McGuire as the backup catcher. Quero has had a very tough year, yesterday’s walk-off homer against the Cubs notwithstanding.
The Sox could transfer Teel to the 60-day injured list if they need to open a spot on the 40-man roster at some point. That’ll backdate to Opening Day and would be a formality, as he’s unlikely to be ready for MLB action until late June at the earliest. Quero and Romo are the only healthy catchers on the 40-man.
Nationals To Recall Dylan Crews
The Nationals are likely to recall Dylan Crews from Triple-A Rochester tomorrow, reports Mark Zuckerman of Nats Journal. He’ll meet the big league club in D.C. for the second game of their ongoing series against the Mets.
Zuckerman writes that the call-up was independent of what happened in tonight’s game. Washington center fielder Jacob Young was hit in the midsection by a 93 mph fastball from Mets starter Christian Scott. He was replaced by Joey Wiemer. It’s too soon for the Nats to know whether Young will miss any time, but that could end up being a coincidental corresponding move for the pre-planned Crews promotion.
Crews will get his first MLB look of the 2026 season. Washington optioned the former #2 overall pick and top prospect at the end of Spring Training. Crews had a dismal camp, striking out 11 times in 34 plate appearances while collecting three hits (all singles). That followed a .208/.280/.352 showing in his first full MLB season in 2025.
Washington’s front office felt Crews needed a reset against Triple-A pitching. He had a middling start to the season, batting .247/.346/.404 in April. Crews has gone on a tear since the calendar flipped to May, hitting .291/.339/.527 with seven doubles and a couple home runs in 14 games. He has still fanned in a quarter of his plate appearances, but the recent form was enough to convince the club he’s ready for another shot against MLB arms.
The Nationals can justify Crews’ demotion based on the slow start to his MLB career and his unimpressive spring. That said, they’re surely also aware of the service time ramifications. Crews entered this season with one year and 35 days of MLB service. He needed to spend 137 days on the big league roster to cross the two-year mark in 2026. There are only 132 days remaining in the regular season, meaning Crews will fall narrowly short of that mark even if he’s in the Majors for good.
That’ll push his path to free agency back to the 2031-32 offseason at the earliest, barring an overhaul of the service time structure in the collective bargaining agreement. Crews would be on track for early arbitration as a Super Two player after the 2027 season if he sticks in the big leagues, though he still has a full slate of options and could plausibly be sent back down if he continues to struggle against MLB pitching.
Crews spent most of last season as Washington’s right fielder. He has divided his time between all three outfield spots in Triple-A. Young is one of the sport’s premier defensive outfielders but doesn’t provide much at the plate. James Wood and Daylen Lile aren’t coming out of the lineup. They could rotate through a designated hitter spot divided mostly between Jorbit Vivas and José Tena if the Nationals prefer Crews in a corner.
If Young requires an injured list stint, it’d be simple enough to plug Crews into the everyday center field role. They’d otherwise need to drop someone from the active roster if Young is day-to-day. Wiemer still has an option remaining and hasn’t hit since his out-of-nowhere tear in the first week of the season. The slumping Vivas would seem the other candidate if Washington needs an active roster spot, but he is out of options.
Dodgers Sign Jonathan Hernández
The Dodgers announced the signing of reliever Jonathan Hernández to a major league deal. Chayce McDermott was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City in a corresponding move. L.A. transferred Ben Casparius to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Hernández spent the first six weeks of the season with the Phillies on a minor league contract. He was granted his release yesterday after triggering an opt-out provision. Philly opted not to give him an MLB look, but he’ll get his first major league opportunity since 2024 with the two-time defending champions.
The 29-year-old Hernández has spent the majority of his career with the Rangers. He pitched his way into a late-inning role in Texas in 2020 but underwent Tommy John surgery the following April. The hard-throwing righty pitched well upon his return in the second half of ’22. He ran into trouble over the next couple seasons, combining for a 5.40 ERA over 62 appearances between 2023-24.
Texas waived Hernández late in the ’24 season. He had a brief stint with the Mariners and spent last season in the Rays’ system on a minor league contract. An injury kept him out until September and limited him to 12 Triple-A appearances. The sinkerballer has been healthy this year, working 15 innings of eight-run ball with Philly’s top affiliate. He has recorded 22 strikeouts against five walks while getting ground-balls at a lofty 57% clip.
Hernández has a standard sinker-slider combination, sitting in the 96 mph range with the heater. He’ll be available in middle relief as the Dodgers enter the 12th day of a two-week stretch without an off day. Hernández hasn’t pitched in five days and should be at full strength. He’s out of minor league options, so it could be a brief stint on the roster if L.A. needs to swap him out for another fresh arm later in the week.
Casparius has been out since April 13 with shoulder inflammation. The transfer officially rules him out of MLB action until June 12. Casparius has yet to begin a rehab assignment so he might not be ready by then either way. According to the MLB.com injury tracker, he was throwing at the club’s Arizona complex earlier this month.
Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic first reported the Hernández signing.
Dodgers Acquire Eric Lauer
May 18: Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports that the Jays are sending around $2.5MM in cash to cover the bulk of Lauer’s salary. The Dodgers are picking up around $600K, though that’s only a marginal amount above the roughly $550K that a minimum salary player would have made the rest of the year. Davidi adds that the Jays will not receive a player to be named later, so it’ll be Lauer and cash for a nominal cash consideration.
May 17: The Blue Jays announced they’ve traded left-hander Eric Lauer and cash to the Dodgers for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Los Angeles transferred reliever Brusdar Graterol from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Toronto designated Lauer for assignment earlier in the week. They’re paying down some portion of the approximate $3.1MM remaining on Lauer’s $4.4MM arbitration salary, though the precise amount hasn’t been reported. The Dodgers will pay a 110% tax on whatever amount of Lauer’s salary they’re assuming.
Lauer posted solid numbers as a starter and swingman with the Padres and Brewers from 2018-22, but his career was at a crossroads after a rough 2023 campaign. The left-hander didn’t pitch in the big leagues at all in 2024, as he spent his time in the minors with the Astros and Pirates and also had a stint in the KBO League with the Kia Tigers. Toronto inked Lauer to a minor league contract in the 2024-25 offseason, and he ended up being one of the unsung heroes of the Jays’ run to the American League crown.
Initially called up as a long reliever and bulk pitcher, Lauer was moved into a full-fledged starting role by June before being shifted back into bullpen work in September and throughout the postseason. Lauer posted a 3.18 ERA, 23.9% strikeout rate, and 6.1% walk rate across 104 2/3 regular-season innings and then delivered a 3.12 ERA in 8 2/3 playoff frames.
Despite these solid numbers, the Jays still viewed Lauer as a swingman or depth option heading into 2026, as Toronto addressed the rotation by signing Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce, and then reuniting with Max Scherzer. However, fate intervened again with a swath of injuries that quickly thinned the Blue Jays’ pitching depth, leaving Lauer again in a starting job.
This time, Lauer came back to earth. He posted a 6.69 ERA over 36 1/3 innings and eight outings this season, and his 16K% and 9.9BB% also went in the wrong direction from 2025. Lauer wasn’t entirely healthy himself as he battled through a bad case of the flu, but there also seemed to be some discord between the left-hander and the team over his usage. Lauer went public with his displeasure over first his lack of starting opportunities, and then the Jays’ decision to use an opener for some of Lauer’s outings.
Ironically, Lauer now finds himself on a team known for non-traditional pitcher deployment, so it wouldn’t be a shock if the Dodgers again use an opener if Lauer is lined up to face a team with several tough right-handed batters atop a lineup. That assumes Lauer will start at all, though that is probably the likeliest scenario given the team’s rotation needs.
Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell are both on the injured list, leaving Los Angeles with two holes in its preferred six-man rotation model. Roki Sasaki‘s starting job is also less than stable given the right-hander’s shaky start to the 2026 campaign, though Sasaki might retain his rotation role just by dint of a lack of other options. Lauer could be inserted alongside Sasaski, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Justin Wrobleski, and Emmet Sheehan. Down on the farm, River Ryan might be approaching readiness for a return to the majors as well, so the Dodgers again find themselves in the odd position of both technically having a rotation surplus, yet also a shortage of arms.
Katie Woo of The Athletic first reported the Dodgers were acquiring Lauer.
Rangers Place Corey Seager On Injured List
The Rangers announced that shortstop Corey Seager has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 15th, due to lower back inflammation. Infielder/outfielder Michael Helman has been recalled as the corresponding move. Prior to the official announcement, president of baseball operations Chris Young revealed the Seager news on 105.3 The Fan, per Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News and Kennedi Landry of MLB.com noted that Helman was with the club in Colorado.
It’s been a rough campaign for Seager so far. He currently has a batting line of .179/.286/.353. His defensive metrics are also notably worse than last year. He last played on Wednesday, with the back issue keeping him sidelined since then. It was reported yesterday that he had undergone an MRI and would be visiting a specialist. It appears the Rangers decided that he could use a bit more time off. Due to the backdating, he could be back in a week, though it’s unclear if that’s a realistic expectation.
Ideally, some time off can get Seager healthy and then back on track. He has dealt with plenty of injuries throughout his career, as he has topped 123 games played in a season only once since 2019. However, he has usually been incredibly productive when on the field, with a .285/.359/.504 line in his career.
In the meantime, the Rangers will have to proceed without their season-opening middle infield tandem. They began the campaign with Seager as the regular shortstop and Josh Smith the primary second baseman. Smith landed on the IL earlier this month due to a glute strain. He won’t be returning soon. Since hitting the IL, he has dealt with some wrist soreness and then was hospitalized with viral meningitis. He’ll be in the hospital for another week or so before resuming baseball activities.
Since Seager has been out of action, Texas has had Ezequiel Durán at short and Justin Foscue at second. Duran is hitting .270/.336/.443 but Foscue’s line is way down at .182/.182/.318. Foscue’s work is in a tiny sample, as he was only just recalled when Smith hit the IL. The Rangers will need Foscue to pick up the pace or he could lose playing time to Helman, Sam Haggerty or someone not currently on the roster.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images
Mariners Recall Robinson Ortiz, Select Brennen Davis
The Mariners announced several roster moves today. Infielder Patrick Wisdom has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and left-hander Robinson Ortiz has been recalled from Triple-A. The lefty will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. To open spots for those two, Seattle optioned right-hander Domingo González and infielder Leo Rivas. Additionally, the Mariners selected outfielder Brennen Davis to the 40-man roster and optioned him to Triple-A. The 40-man had a vacancy but is now full with Davis taking the open spot.
Ortiz, 26, was just acquired from the Dodgers in an offseason trade. As a minor leaguer, he has missed significant time due to injuries. When healthy, he has been able to get batters out but has also flashed control issues.
That has been the case in his first season with the M’s so far. He has thrown 16 Triple-A innings, allowing 1.69 earned runs per nine. He has struck out 26.1% of the batters he has faced and induced grounders on half the balls in play he has allowed but has also given out walks at a massive 17.4% clip. If it weren’t for a .211 batting average on balls in play and no fly balls clearing the fence, he surely would have suffered far worse results.
He has mostly been a fastball-slider guy this year, throwing those two pitches almost 90% of the time. His cutter has made up the rest of his offerings. The four-seamer is averaging 94.4 miles per hour this year with the slider at 83.9 mph.
It’s possible the the Mariners wanted to get a fresh arm onto the roster. They have been utilizing a six-man rotation lately, leaving them with only seven relievers. González has been heavily used recently, with four appearances in the past six days, including the two most recent contests. If González was going to be unavailable for a day or two, that would drop the Mariners to only six available relievers. Instead, they have swapped in Ortiz, who will make his major league debut as soon as soon as he gets the call.
As for Davis, it was reported that he had an assignment clause in his minor league deal last week. If triggered, he would have to be offered up to the other 29 clubs in the league. If any one of them were willing to give him a 40-man spot, the Mariners would have to either trade him or give him a 40-man spot themselves.
It didn’t seem like the M’s wanted to let him get away. “I don’t see a scenario where we don’t keep him in our organization,” general manager Justin Hollander said. “He’s a right-handed bat with power and there aren’t a ton of them available.” Based on this move, it appears that Davis triggered his clause and had at least one club out there willing to roster him. The Mariners then used their open roster spot to prevent him from getting away, though Davis is being kept in the minors for now.
A former top prospect with the Cubs, injuries wiped out a huge chunk of his 2022 to 2025 seasons. He had to settle for a minor league deal with the Mariners coming into 2026. He has been crushing it in Triple-A so far this year, putting up a massive .281/.394/.548 line. Between that performance and his former prospect pedigree, the M’s have deemed him worthy of a roster spot.
In the big leagues, Seattle is sticking with the existing outfield mix, which consists of Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, Luke Raley, Dominic Canzone, Rob Refsnyder and Connor Joe. Davis can perhaps get called up if an injury arises but will keep getting reps in the minors for now.
Davis has one option remaining. Once he spends 20 days on optional assignment, that will make this his final option season. If he still has a roster spot going into next year, it’s possible there’s a greater path to playing time as Arozarena and Refsnyder are impending free agents and Joe is a potential non-tender candidate. It’s also possible that Davis gets squeezed off the roster at some point and ends up finding a better path to a big league opportunity via a trade or the waiver wire.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Astros Activate Jeremy Peña, Designate Cody Bolton
The Astros made a few moves going into tonight’s series opener in Minnesota. Jeremy Peña is back from the injured list, while the Astros officially placed Jose Altuve on the 10-day IL with a Grade 2 left oblique strain. Houston also recalled righty Jason Alexander from Triple-A Sugar Land and designated right-hander Cody Bolton for assignment.
Peña returns after a near five-week absence due to a Grade 1 strain of his right hamstring. He jumps right back atop the lineup tonight against Minnesota rookie southpaw Kendry Rojas. Peña had collected hits in eight of his first 10 games before the injury, albeit without much power. He batted .256 and is still looking for his first home run of the season.
Carlos Correa initially replaced Peña as Joe Espada’s primary shortstop. Correa’s season-ending ankle surgery has left Houston with a combination of Braden Shewmake and Nick Allen over the past two weeks. Shewmake has dramatically outhit Allen to seize the majority of the playing time. He’ll now slide to second base in Altuve’s stead, though he’ll be hard-pressed to continue hitting as well as he has. Shewmake is a career .241/.305/.384 hitter at the Triple-A level, so the Astros will mostly be counting on him to hold the fort defensively.
Alexander is up for the third time this season to provide a fresh arm in long relief. He hasn’t pitched in Triple-A since last Tuesday. Houston is pitching Tatsuya Imai tonight, leaving them without much certainty about the workload they’ll get from their starter. Imai has only gone beyond four innings once in his first four MLB starts. He gave up six runs on five hits and three walks over four frames last Tuesday against Seattle, his first big league appearance after a month-long IL stay.
Bolton pitched three innings of mop-up work in yesterday’s blowout loss at the hands of the Rangers. He wouldn’t have been available for at least a day or two. He’s out of options, so the Astros needed to DFA him to swap him off the big league roster. Bolton has logged 20 innings since Houston called him up in late March. He has a 5.40 ERA with a league average 23.2% strikeout rate but a near-15% walk percentage. Bolton has struggled to get opponents to expand the strike zone, leading to a lot of free passes.
The Astros have five days to trade the 27-year-old swingman or place him on waivers. An acquiring team would need to plug him directly onto the big league staff. Bolton has never been outrighted in his career, so he would not have the ability to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.