MLBTR Podcast: Patrick Bailey To Cleveland, The Struggling Astros, And Arizona’s Outfield Changes
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Giants trading Patrick Bailey to the Guardians (1:25)
- The Astros losing Carlos Correa to season-ending ankle surgery (18:40)
- The Diamondbacks calling up Ryan Waldschmidt and trading Alek Thomas to the Dodgers (28:05)
- The Mets calling up A.J. Ewing (38:25)
- The Marlins calling up Robby Snelling (42:55)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Are the Tigers struggling due to injuries and will be fine as guys get healthy? Or should fans be more worried? (49:30)
- Which starting pitchers can the Cubs pursue? (53:25)
- When will the Yankees realize they need to upgrade on David Bednar as the closer? (58:20)
Check out our past episodes!
- Skubal’s Injury, The Marlins’ Catchers, Eldridge Called Up, And Volpe Sent Down – listen here
- The Alex Cora Situation, Lucas Giolito Signs, And The Phillies Fire Rob Thomson – listen here
- Kevin McGonigle, The Padres’ Franchise Valuation, And Edwin Díaz To Miss Time – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of David Dermer, Imagn Images
D-Backs Trade Alek Thomas To Dodgers
The Diamondbacks and Dodgers announced a trade sending center fielder Alek Thomas to L.A. for minor league outfielder Jose Requena. The Dodgers will assume the approximate $1.4MM remaining on Thomas’ $1.9625MM arbitration salary. He’ll reportedly be optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City, while the Dodgers designated fellow outfielder Michael Siani for assignment last night to open a 40-man roster spot.
Arizona designated Thomas for assignment last week when they called up top outfield prospect Ryan Waldschmidt. The Dodgers take a flier on the 26-year-old, a former second-round pick who was one of the better prospects in MLB when he debuted in 2022. He’s a highly-regarded center fielder who had hit at every stop in his minor league career. That hasn’t carried over against MLB pitching, as Thomas has been a well below-average hitter over his four-plus seasons in the big leagues.
Thomas is an extremely aggressive hitter, ranking in the top 15 this season in both overall swing rate and chases off the plate. He has particularly struggled against secondary stuff as a result, and the very low walk rates have consistently tamped down his on-base percentage. Thomas has a career .230/.273/.361 batting line in just shy of 1500 plate appearances. It’s the ninth-lowest OBP among hitters who have tallied at least 1000 trips since the start of the ’22 season.
While he hasn’t developed offensively, Thomas has a strong reputation with the glove. His sprint speed and defensive grades have dipped slightly since he suffered a left hamstring strain early in 2024, but he still rates as an above-average defender and baserunner.
The D-Backs have considered trades of both Thomas and Jake McCarthy for a few seasons. They’re now both gone to division rivals, as they shipped McCarthy to Colorado over the offseason. Waldschmidt and Jorge Barrosa are manning center field between Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
Thomas still has a minor league option remaining, so he’ll begin his time in the L.A. organization in Triple-A. The Dodgers are operating without a true backup center fielder behind Andy Pages, but they can’t option Santiago Espinal or Miguel Rojas. Although fourth outfielder Alex Call is a better fit in a corner spot and has a couple options remaining, he’s hitting well in a limited role as a right-handed platoon player. The Dodgers should also get Kiké Hernández back from the injured list two weeks from now.
The Dodgers spend a couple million dollars to swap in Thomas for Siani as a fifth outfielder. In addition to the salary obligations, they’ll also pay just over $1.5MM in luxury tax commitments. That’s of little concern for the Dodgers, who can retain Thomas via arbitration for at least two more seasons. He needs to spend another 20 days on the MLB roster in 2026 to surpass four years of service time, which would keep him on track for free agency after the ’28 campaign. If he spends at least 20 days in the minors, he’ll be out of options next year.
Siani is also a speed and defense center fielder. He bounced around the league via waivers over the offseason, twice being claimed by the Dodgers. He has been on optional assignment all season, batting .225/.355/.303 without a home run while striking out 30 times in 107 plate appearances in Oklahoma City. He’s also in his final option year and will be traded or placed back on waivers within the next five days.
Requena is a 17-year-old who hasn’t played a professional game. Listed at 6’3″ and close to 230 pounds, he’s a right-handed hitter who signed as an amateur out of Venezuela in January. Ben Badler of Baseball America unsurprisingly wrote at the time that Requena is a corner outfielder whose profile is built on raw power and plus arm strength. He’ll likely make his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League.
MLBTR’s Steve Adams first reported that Thomas was being traded to the Dodgers. Francys Romero confirmed that Requena was the return. Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic reported that the Dodgers were assuming Thomas’ salary, while Jack Harris of The California Post confirmed he’d be optioned to Triple-A. Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.
Diamondbacks Designate Alek Thomas For Assignment, Promote Ryan Waldschmidt
The D-backs are cutting ties with one former top outfield prospect in order to turn the page toward a new one. Arizona announced Friday that Alek Thomas has been designated for assignment, while top prospect Ryan Waldschmidt‘s contract has been selected to the majors. Waldschmidt, currently the game’s No. 41 prospect on Baseball America’s recent top-100 update, figures to get regular work in the outfield moving forward. The Snakes also activated first baseman Tyler Locklear from the injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Reno.
Now 26 years old, Thomas was a second-round pick out of high school back in 2018 and quickly became not only one of the game’s top-ranked outfield prospects but its top-ranked prospects overall. From 2020-22, Thomas was a consensus top prospect on lists at Baseball America, MLB.com and several other outlets. He climbed as high as No. 32 on BA’s rankings in 2022 and all the way up to No. 18 over at MLB.com.
While Thomas didn’t exactly hit the ground running in 2022, he showed decent bat-to-ball skills, good speed and a quality glove in his first taste of big league action. After slashing .322/.397/.539 (125 wRC+) in Triple-A Reno to earn his big league promotion that year, he hit .231/.275/.344 with eight homers in 411 plate appearances during his first taste of the majors.
That was nearly 30% worse than league-average production, per wRC+, but Thomas showed 95th percentile sprint speed and logged positive marks in both Defensive Runs Saved (7) and Outs Above Average (7). It’s easy enough to overlook a shaky offensive showing for a 22-year-old in his MLB debut when the other tools are present, and Thomas had a nice speed-and-defense floor with an 18% strikeout rate that sat well shy of league average.
Unfortunately, Thomas’ bat has yet to come around. He’s now played in parts of four major league seasons. He’s never topped nine homers or an 81 wRC+. He’s a career .230/.273/.361 hitter in 1485 plate appearances and has seen his strikeout rate climb since that rookie showing. Thomas struck out at an alarming 26% clip last season (in a career-high 469 plate appearances) and is at 23% this season while batting .181/.222/.340. He’s out of minor league options, and a D-backs club that ranks 19th in runs scored and 22nd in home runs clearly feels it can no longer wait for an offensive breakout that may simply never manifest.
Waldschmidt, 23, entered the season as a top-tier prospect and has done nothing to change that outlook. The former No. 31 overall draft pick has taken 156 plate appearances in Reno and delivered a .289/.400/.477 batting line with three homers, nine doubles, three triples, six steals, a huge 12.2% walk rate and a 24.4% strikeout rate. He’s a 6′, 205-pound outfielder who bats from the right side and has plus raw power that has yet to fully be displayed in game settings just yet. Last year’s 18 homers are a career-high, but he’s a potential 20- to 30-homer bat with a good idea of the strike zone, above-average speed and experience in all three outfield spots.
Most scouting reports think Waldschmidt will settle in as a corner outfielder, but he’s played primarily center this season and could take over for Thomas in that regard. The primary alternative in center would be Corbin Carroll, but he’s a plus right field defender in his own right, and Arizona may not want to rankle things by flipping two outfielders to positions they haven’t been playing this season.
While some top prospects get the call without a path to a clear everyday role — typically when they’re filling in for an injured player — that’s not the case with Waldschmidt. Thomas’ removal from the 40-man roster and the lack of any clear everyday outfield alternatives gives him an immediate everyday opportunity and a chance to cement himself as a long-term piece in the outfield mix right out of the gate.
Though Waldschmidt is a consensus top-100 prospect, he won’t be eligible to net the Diamondbacks any compensatory draft picks via MLB’s prospect promotion incentives. Too much time has past for him to qualify. Enough time has also elapsed that Waldschmidt cannot organically accrue a full year of major league service. His only path to doing so would be a top-two finish in this season’s NL Rookie of the Year balloting. Given his pedigree and prospect status, there’s a chance for him to do so, but players like Nolan McLean, Sal Stewart and JJ Wetherholt have a large head-start on him.
In all likelihood, Waldschmidt will finish the season shy of one year of big league service. That’d make him controllable for six years beyond the current campaign, all the way through 2032. The timing of his call to the big leagues does set him up nicely to reach Super Two designation, which would make him arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three, so long as he’s not optioned back to the minors. If that’s the case, the first of those four trips through arbitration would come in the 2028-29 offseason.
Turning back to Thomas, the D-backs will have five days to trade him or place him on outright waivers. (They could also release him, but they surely won’t go that route.) Given his speed, defensive chops and former prospect pedigree, Thomas will likely appeal to some outfield-needy clubs who hope to strike big on a change-of-scenery candidate. Teams like the Astros, White Sox, Nationals, Rockies, Royals, Tigers and Cardinals are either rebuilding or facing various outfield injuries that could make Thomas hold some appeal, even as a short-term stopgap.
A contender with a deeper outfield mix but thin bench could also look to add him in a reserve capacity. Thomas is earning a modest $1.926MM this season, so he certainly isn’t going to break the bank. He’s also controllable for two more years beyond the current season, so if another team can get him to even produce slightly below-average offense with some degree of consistency, they could get multiple years of value from the once-touted outfielder.
Diamondbacks Outright Aramis Garcia, Jesus Valdez
The Diamondbacks announced that they have outrighted catcher Aramis Garcia to Triple-A Reno and infielder Jesus Valdez to Double-A Amarillo. Garcia had been designated for assignment last week when Gabriel Moreno was activated from the 10-day injured list. There wasn’t any previous indication that Valdez had been removed from the 40-man roster. Arizona’s count on that 40-man is now down to 38.
Garcia, 33, is a veteran depth catcher who is out of options. He is a competent defender but is has hit just .210/.245/.321 in his career. That has put him in position to bounce on and off the Arizona roster with regularity. He signed a minor league deal with the Snakes ahead of the 2025 season. Last year, he was twice added to the big league roster. In both cases, he was designated for assignment a few days later and sent back to Reno after passing through waivers.
It’s possible the same sequence of events plays out this year. Garcia was called up to the big leagues to cover for Moreno’s injury and then was bumped off when Moreno was reinstated. Garcia has the right to elect free agency but might be comfortable sticking with the Aces and waiting for the next catching injury to pop up.
The Valdez outright might be a more unique situation. The 28-year-old was just added to the club’s roster a little over a week ago. The Diamondbacks and Padres were playing in Mexico City and were allowed a 27th man on the roster. Valdez was added to fill that extra bench spot for the Diamondbacks, getting called up from Double-A Amarillo. He didn’t appear in either of the Mexico City games and was optioned back to the Sod Poodles right after that series.
It appears that the Diamondbacks quietly put him on waivers and no one claimed him. That’s not especially surprising since Valdez hasn’t really been a notable prospect in his career and is a 28-year-old playing in Double-A, though he does have some Triple-A experience. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has a combined .241/.292/.401 line and 76 wRC+ in the minor leagues.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
D-backs Designate Aramis Garcia For Assignment
The Diamondbacks announced this morning that they’ve designated catcher Aramis Garcia for assignment and reinstated fellow backstop Gabriel Moreno from the 10-day injured list. Additionally, the Snakes recalled lefty Brandyn Garcia from Triple-A Reno and optioned lefty Philip Abner in his place.
Aramis Garcia, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Snakes in the offseason. He started the year as Triple-A depth, as Arizona deployed a catching tandem of Moreno and James McCann. The season began with Adrian Del Castillo on the injured list with a calf strain but he was activated after a minimal stint. Injuries to Pavin Smith and Carlos Santana opened up the designated hitter spot and allowed the Diamondbacks to roll with three catchers, with Del Castillo getting a decent amount of DH time.
Moreno suffered an oblique strain in mid-April. Arizona could have continued with McCann and Del Castillo as the catching duo but they decided to add Garcia, keeping them at three backstops and giving them more freedom to keep Del Castillo in the DH mix. That didn’t leave a lot of playing time available for Garcia. He’s been on the roster for over two weeks and only appeared in three games, making three plate appearances. He went one for three with a single and a strikeout.
Del Castillo has options and could have been sent down today, especially since he’s hitting .207/.246/.362 so far this year, but the Diamondbacks have decided to keep him in the mix. He is much better against righties, so perhaps Moreno’s return will allow him to be deployed situationally instead of behind the plate.
Garcia is out of options, so he had to be bumped into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Diamondbacks could take five days to field trade interest, though they could also put him on waivers at any time before that. Garcia is probably not likely to garner too much interest. Given his out-of-options status, another club would have to be willing to plug him directly onto the big league roster.
He’s never been much more than a part-time catcher, as his career high for games in a season is 47. Over multiple seasons, he has appeared in 124 contests with a .210/.245/.321 line in 334 plate appearances. He’s a solid defender and framer but the bat is light and the lack of roster flexibility hurts him.
He has previously been outrighted in his career, which means he would have the right to elect free agency if he is passed through outright waivers again. Twice last year, he briefly joined the Arizona roster and then got bumped off, eventually ending up back in Reno. It seems the most likely scenario is that he clears waivers and then either accepts an assignment with the Aces or elects free agency and then re-signs on a new minor league deal.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Select Jesus Valdez
The Diamondbacks have selected infielder Jesus Valdez to the big league roster, per a team announcement. He’s been optioned to Double-A. Valdez will serve as the club’s 27th man for today’s game against the Padres. If he makes it into the game, it will be his big-league debut.
Arizona and San Diego were permitted to add an extra man for the Mexico City series, but it had to be a position player. After initially declining to make an addition to the roster, the Diamondbacks made the move for the second game of the series. An injury to shortstop Geraldo Perdomo led to the decision, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Perdomo went down with an ankle injury yesterday. The issue isn’t expected to require an IL stint, Piecoro relayed in a separate post.
Valdez was signed by the Dodgers out of the Dominican Republic in 2017. He was dealt to the Pirates the following year for David Freese. The infielder had some offensive success in the lower levels of the minors, but was released by Double-A Altoona after a brief stint in 2021. He latched on with the Diamondbacks on a minor league agreement in 2022.
The 28-year-old Valdez has posted modest numbers in the upper levels of Arizona’s system. He has an identical .706 OPS for his career at Double-A (116 games) and Triple-A (47 games). Valdez has scuffled to a .211/.375/.263 line in seven minor league games this year.
Photo courtesy of Matt Kartozian, Imagn Images
D-Backs Release Shawn Dubin
The Diamondbacks released reliever Shawn Dubin from his minor league deal, according to the MiLB.com transaction log. Arizona also re-signed first baseman Luken Baker on a new minor league contract. Baker had briefly elected free agency after being outrighted on Monday but will return to Triple-A Reno.
Dubin joined the Snakes on a non-roster invite over the offseason. He made five spring appearances and pitched twice for Reno within the first few days of the regular season. Dubin surrendered four runs on five hits and a walk over two innings and was quickly transferred to the development list. That’s generally to afford non-injured minor league players time to make mechanical adjustments outside of game action.
The righty didn’t wind up returning to Reno’s active roster. He’ll now seek an opportunity elsewhere, likely on another minor league contract. Dubin has spent a good chunk of the past two seasons in the big leagues. He pitched a career-high 45 1/3 innings for the Astros in 2024. The former 13th-rounder split last year between Houston and Baltimore, allowing a 5.08 earned run average through 33 2/3 frames. He has a 4.81 ERA with a nearly league average 22.3% strikeout percentage over 88 MLB innings.
Baker is back in the Reno lineup tonight. The righty batter played in nine games for the Aces early in the season, batting .242 with a homer. He was called up when Carlos Santana went down with an injury and held a bench spot for a couple weeks. Arizona designated him for assignment last weekend once Lourdes Gurriel Jr. returned from the injured list.
The Diamondbacks have gotten surprisingly strong production out of Ildemaro Vargas and rookie Jose Fernandez between first base and designated hitter. Arizona first basemen have hit .305/.317/.492 in 60 plate appearances since the Santana injury. Vargas is a light-hitting utilityman, while Fernandez is a mid-tier prospect who’d played one Triple-A game before being pressed into action. They’re probably not going to continue hitting at this rate, but it has been a nice boost from lineup spots that could’ve been zeros after injuries to Santana, Pavin Smith, and Tyler Locklear.
Diamondbacks Outright Luken Baker
The D-Backs sent first baseman Luken Baker outright to Triple-A Reno, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Arizona had designated him for assignment when they welcomed Lourdes Gurriel Jr. back from the injured list on Saturday. This is Baker’s second career outright, meaning he has the right to elect free agency.
Baker was on the major league roster for a little less than two weeks. He was called up on April 7 as a bench bat once the Snakes lost Carlos Santana to an adductor strain. The D-Backs only gave him one start over his 11 days on the active roster. Baker went 1-5 while striking out three times over three games overall.
That marked the fourth straight season with some MLB action for the former second-round draftee. It’s his first MLB work outside of St. Louis. The former Cardinals draftee had spent his career in that organization until he was claimed off waivers by the Dodgers last August. Baker didn’t appear in an MLB game with Los Angeles, who outrighted him off the 40-man roster within a week of claiming him. He joined Arizona on an offseason minor league deal.
The righty hitter owns a .206/.314/.333 batting line across 194 plate appearances at the big league level. Baker mashed a combined 65 home runs in Triple-A between 2023-24. His minor league production backed up last year, as he slashed a league average .223/.335/.441 through 95 games across the two systems.
Baker is out of minor league options, so the D-Backs needed to run him through waivers to take him off the MLB roster. It’d make sense for him to remain in the organization given their lack of established first basemen. Santana is joined by Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear on the injured list. Utilityman Ildemaro Vargas and rookie infielder Jose Fernandez are splitting the first base work.
Diamondbacks Sign Andrew Velazquez To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks have signed infielder Andrew Velazquez to a minor league deal, according to an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate. The 31-year-old is represented by CAA Sports.
Velazquez had been with the Rangers on a non-roster deal since early December. He got into 16 Spring Training games but batted just .111/.194/.185 in 32 plate appearances. The Rangers released him at the end of March, and Velazquez lingered in free agency until this pact with Arizona. He has not appeared in the majors since 2023 with the Angels and has spent the last two years at the Triple-A level with the Braves and Yankees, respectively.
In 368 PA with the Yankees’ top affiliate in 2025, Velazquez batted .242/.304/.345 with a 74 wRC+. That production was par for the course for Velazquez, whose last meaningful sample as an above-average hitter came in 2021 at Triple-A (119 wRC+ in 306 PA). Since that season, he has shown minimal power at every level including the majors, without making contact or getting on base enough to approach even average offense. He has some fringe value due to his speed, though. In 224 minor league games since the start of 2024, Velazquez has stolen 58 bases.
Defensively, Velazquez has mostly played at shortstop in the majors. In 2022, he was valued at 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 3 Outs Above Average in 906 innings there with the Angels. He regressed the following season in a smaller sample, coming in at -5 DRS and -3 OAA in 233 1/3 innings. He’s been roughly average with the glove outside of those two years. Since 2024, he’s also gotten some minor-league work in the outfield, and the Diamondbacks’ announcement lists him as a utilityman, rather than strictly an infielder.
Versatility aside, Velazquez is merely a no-risk depth option for Arizona. The club has Geraldo Perdomo and Ketel Marte lined up at shortstop and second base, respectively. They haven’t hit well to start the year, but Perdomo had a breakout season in 2025 and is in the first year of a new contract extension, so he’s not going anywhere. Neither is Marte, who has a track record as one of the best second basemen in the league. Nolan Arenado is 35 and struggling offensively and defensively at third base, but likewise, his track record gives him plenty of leeway. At best, Velazquez will be called up at some point an emergency defensive option if one of the regulars lands on the injured list.
Photo courtesy of Mike Watters, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Reinstate Lourdes Gurriel Jr., DFA Luken Baker
After suffering a torn right ACL on September 1, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is ready for his return to the majors, as the Diamondbacks officially reinstated the outfielder from the 10-day injured list. To make room for Gurriel on the 26-man and 40-man rosters, first baseman Luken Baker was designated for assignment.
D’Backs manager Torey Lovullo hinted yesterday that Gurriel could be in Arizona’s lineup as soon as this weekend, completing what has been a remarkably quick comeback from such a serious knee surgery. Gurriel was projected to miss 9-10 months given the usual timeframe for ACL tears, yet he made such solid progress in Spring Training and in just two games of a minor league rehab assignment that the D’Backs felt comfortable in bringing him back after a little over seven and a half months.
Depending on how Gurriel’s knee holds up, he might end up getting fairly regular duty in his old left field position pretty soon, without the need for steady DH duty. Pretty much no matter where Gurriel plays, it was easy to project Baker as the odd man out of a roster crunch, as Baker has appeared in only three games (with five plate appearances) since his minor league contract was selected on April 7.
Arizona signed Baker to that minors deal in December, and possibly with an eye towards platooning Baker and Pavin Smith at the position. Carlos Santana was signed later in the season to fill that role, yet the first base situation was thrown into total flux shortly after Opening Day. Smith played in two games before being placed on the IL due to a balky elbow that has now required surgery, and Santana has also been out since April 6 due to an adductor strain.
Baker’s contract was selected in the wake of Santana’s injury, yet Baker didn’t get much opportunity due to the unexpectedly strong play of Jose Fernandez and utilityman Ildemaro Vargas in handling the first base duties. The D’Backs seem content to leave the position (and a share of the DH workload) to that duo, leaving Baker now exposed to the waiver wire.
If Baker clears waivers, he has the right to decline an outright assignment to Triple-A Reno in favor of free agency, since Baker has a previous outright in his career (last August, when Baker was in the Dodgers organization). The first baseman could opt to just move on given how Arizona’s first base picture has remained crowded, or another team might look to claim Baker just as the Dodgers did last August when the Cardinals parted ways with the 29-year-old.
Baker spent his first three MLB seasons in St. Louis, hitting .206/.317/.338 with four home runs over 189 PA. While his power hasn’t translated much against big league pitching and Baker is defensively limited as a first base-only player, he has posted good numbers at Triple-A, and could be viewed as at least a depth option.