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Rays, White Sox Complete Four-Player Trade

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The Rays and White Sox announced a four-player trade sending middle reliever Steven Wilson and swingman Yoendrys Gómez to Tampa Bay for outfielder Everson Pereira and minor league infielder Tanner Murray.

Wilson is the most established of the group. The 31-year-old righty landed in Chicago as part of the Dylan Cease trade during the 2023-24 offseason. Wilson had posted a 3.48 ERA over his first two MLB seasons with the Padres. His numbers tanked during his first year with the Sox, leading them to run him through waivers last winter. Wilson pitched his way back to the big leagues by the middle of April and turned in a quietly solid year.

Over a career-high 55 1/3 innings, Wilson pitched to a 3.42 earned run average. He punched out 21.1% of opposing hitters against a personal-low 9.1% walk rate. Wilson leans heavily on his slider and sits in the 93-94 MPH range with his fastball. He came up just shy of four years of service and is under arbitration control for the next three seasons. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $1.5MM salary. Wilson has a full slate of options, so the Rays could send him between Tampa Bay and Triple-A Durham for the foreseeable future.

Gómez, 26, got a late-season look in the Sox’s rotation. He started nine of 12 appearances overall and turned in a 4.84 ERA through 48 1/3 innings. A former Yankees prospect, Gómez has bounced around the league on waivers. He’s out of options, which spurred the roster shuffling. Gómez sits in the 93-94 MPH range and has a deep arsenal but has never had pristine control. He’ll compete for a rotation or long relief role and will either need to break camp or again be designated for assignment.

The Sox swap Gómez for one of his former teammates coming through the Yankees’ system. Pereira, a righty-hitting outfielder, was once a notable international signee and solid prospect. The 24-year-old native of Venezuela has a career .271/.362/.519 batting line over three Triple-A seasons. Pereira’s solid power-speed combination has been undercut by strikeout concerns, though. He punched out at a 29% clip in the minors this year and struck out 28 more times in 73 big league plate appearances after the Rays acquired him from the Yankees at the deadline for José Caballero.

Pereira is also out of options. He’ll need to crack Chicago’s Opening Day roster or be designated for assignment. The Sox parting with a useful middle reliever for him suggests they’re likely to carry him in the big leagues. Pereira would slot behind Luis Robert Jr., Mike Tauchman and Andrew Benintendi as a fourth outfielder if the Sox keep all three of those players over the winter.

Murray, a 26-year-old non-roster utility player, rounds out the return. A fourth-round pick in 2020, Murray has gone unselected in the Rule 5 draft a few times. He’ll be eligible again this offseason unless the White Sox put him on the 40-man roster. He hit 18 homers but struck out at a 24.1% clip this past season with Tampa Bay’s Triple-A affiliate. He hit a below-average .241/.299/.400 across 572 plate appearances overall. The Sox figure to have him open the year with their top farm team in Charlotte.

Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase first reported that Gómez was being traded to Tampa Bay in a deal sending Pereira to Chicago. James Fegan of Sox Machine had the two-for-two swap. Respective images courtesy of Gary Vasquez and Kim Klement, Imagn Images.

Dodgers Select Ronan Kopp

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The Dodgers selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Ronan Kopp. That’s their only move for Tuesday’s Rule 5 protection deadline. L.A. had two openings on the 40-man roster and didn’t need to make a corresponding move.

Kopp, 23, is a reliever who divided the 2025 season between Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City. He turned in a combined 3.43 earned run average across 57 2/3 innings. Kopp fanned a massive 36% of opposing hitters but walked almost 17% of the opponents he faced. He has a mid-90s fastball and a cutter-slider that he used almost equally in Triple-A.

It’s plus stuff with obvious command woes from the left side. Neither left nor right-handed hitters could do much damage against Kopp, but they each reached base around a .350 clip by waiting out the free passes. While he’ll need to dial in the command, the Dodgers obviously feel he’s talented enough to factor in as bullpen depth in 2026. He joins Alex Vesia, Tanner Scott, Justin Wrobleski, Jack Dreyer and Anthony Banda as lefty relievers on the 40-man roster.

Cubs Select James Triantos, Pedro Ramírez, Riley Martin

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The Cubs announced that they have selected infielders James Triantos and Pedro Ramírez as well as left-hander Riley Martin. Those three are now protected from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 draft. The club’s 40-man roster count is now at 32.

Triantos, a second-rounder out of high school in 2021, has been one of the more promising pure hitters in the system for the past few seasons. His stock is down after a poor season with Triple-A Iowa. Triantos only managed a .259/.315/.370 slash over 480 trips to the plate. He continued to put the ball in play at a high rate but without much authoritative contact. He hit seven homers and posted well below-average exit velocities. Triantos stole 31 bases while bouncing between second base and the outfield, so perhaps he can factor in as a utility piece in 2026.

Ramírez, a 21-year-old infielder out of Venezuela, is now the superior prospect in the eyes of Baseball America. He’s the only member of this trio to crack Chicago’s top 10 prospects on their recent update of the system. He’s a switch-hitting second/third baseman who batted .280/.346/.386 while stealing 28 bags in 563 plate appearances at Double-A Tennessee this year. Ramírez is also light on power but has excellent contact skills. He’ll probably get the bump to Iowa to begin 2026.

Martin is an Illinois native who was a sixth-rounder in 2021 out of Division II Quincy University. The 6’1″ southpaw has spent the past two seasons pitching out of the bullpen in Triple-A. He fired 63 2/3 innings of 2.69 ERA ball with a near-31% strikeout rate over 47 appearances. Martin struggles with walks and dished out free passes at a 13.4% clip. He works with a 94 MPH fastball and uses a mid-80s curveball as his favored secondary pitch.

Twins Acquire Eric Orze From Rays

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The Twins announced they’ve acquired reliever Eric Orze from the Rays for minor league pitcher Jacob Kisting. Minnesota takes a flier on the 28-year-old righty as they overhaul a bullpen that they decimated at the trade deadline.

Tampa Bay acquired Orze from the Mets last winter in the trade that sent center fielder Jose Siri to New York. They used him as an up-and-down middle innings arm. The former fifth-round pick tossed 41 2/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball across 33 appearances. His 22.5% strikeout percentage and 10.7% walk rate weren’t as impressive, but he missed bats on a strong 13.2% of his offerings overall.

Orze has a three-pitch mix led by a mid-80s splitter. He sits in the 93-94 MPH range on his fastball and mixes in a slider as his breaking pitch. The University of New Orleans product has an ERA just under 4.00 in parts of five Triple-A seasons and still has an option year remaining. He won’t reach arbitration for three seasons in all likelihood and should have plenty of opportunity to stake a claim to a significant role in Derek Shelton’s bullpen.

Kisting, a 6’5″ right-hander, was a 14th-round pick out of Bradley University in 2024. He has worked mostly as a reliever in the low minors. The 22-year-old struck out more than a quarter of opposing hitters against a solid 7.7% walk rate, albeit as a college arm against generally younger competition. He won’t be eligible for the Rule 5 draft for two seasons.

A’s Designate JJ Bleday For Assignment

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The Athletics are designating outfielder JJ Bleday for assignment, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. The A’s are adding prospects Braden Nett, Junior Perez and Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang to their 40-man roster to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft.

The A’s are moving on from their Opening Day center fielder of the past two seasons. They acquired Bleday from the Marlins over the 2022-23 offseason in a one-for-one swap sending A.J. Puk to Miami. It was a change-of-scenery deal of former top 10 picks. Both players had brief amounts of success in their new home, but neither quite clicked in the way their acquiring club had hoped. Puk was beset by injuries, while Bleday struggled defensively and was up-and-down at the plate.

Bleday struggled in 2023, batting .195 with 10 home runs over 82 games. He followed up with the best season of his career, popping 20 longballs with a .243/.324/.437 slash while appearing in 159 games. It raised some hope of a late-career breakout, but Bleday’s bat regressed despite the move from Oakland to the much more hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park.

The Vanderbilt product batted .212/.294/.404 in 344 trips to the plate this year. He connected on 14 homers and still walked at a strong 10.5% clip, but his strikeout rate jumped by seven percentage points relative to the prior season. The A’s optioned him twice, but he spent the final two months of the season on the big league roster. He popped six homers and slugged .495 in that stretch, yet he also struck out in more than 30% of his trips to the dish.

Bleday’s overall production has been right around replacement level in two of the past three seasons. The A’s haven’t done him any favors in that regard by pressing him into center field — for which he’s clearly not equipped. He’s a fringe runner who has rated as arguably the game’s worst defensive center fielder over the past couple seasons. Bleday is serviceable but still subpar in the corners despite possessing above-average arm strength.

The 28-year-old surpassed three years of service this season. He’s eligible for arbitration for the first time and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $2.2MM salary. The A’s decided they’d rather move on, potentially turning center field to defensive stalwart Denzel Clarke. They have three days to see if they can drum up any trade interest to flip Bleday for a lottery ticket prospect. He’ll otherwise be non-tendered on Friday and become a free agent.

Nett is the highest profile of the three prospects. The 23-year-old righty came over from the Padres as part of the Mason Miller return. He spent the entire season at Double-A between the two affiliates. Nett started 24 games and combined for 105 2/3 innings of 3.75 ERA ball while striking out nearly a quarter of opponents. He walked 10.3% of batters faced and has struggled to throw strikes consistently throughout his career. Nett has a four-pitch mix that gives him a chance to start, though the command development will determine whether he sticks in the rotation or moves to relief down the line.

Perez, 24, also began his career in the San Diego system. He was traded to the A’s while he was in rookie ball for Jorge Mateo in 2020. A native of the Dominican Republic, he’s a right-handed hitting outfielder who connected on 26 homers between the top two minor league levels. There’s a lot of swing-and-miss to his game, but he has power and takes a lot of walks.

Zhuang is a 25-year-old righty from Taiwan. He signed with the A’s in 2021 and has worked as a minor league starter. He tossed 145 2/3 innings at Double-A Midland, pitching to a 4.08 ERA with solid underlying numbers. Zhuang fanned 24% of opponents while showing excellent control with a sub-6% walk percentage. Baseball America ranked him 25th in the A’s system coming into the year, crediting him with plus command and an above-average changeup but fringy breaking stuff.

Phillies Select Andrew Painter, Two Others

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The Phillies added three prospects to their 40-man roster on Rule 5 protection day: pitchers Andrew Painter and Alex McFarlane and outfielder Gabriel Rincones Jr. Their roster count sits at 33.

Painter, 23 in April, was one of the most obvious calls to be kept out of the Rule 5 draft. The 6’7″ right-hander was arguably the best pitching prospect in MLB a couple seasons ago. Painter’s stock has dropped over the last two and a half seasons because of injuries and an underwhelming performance at Triple-A. The Phillies were never going to let an arm as talented as Painter go in the Rule 5 draft, though.

A first-round pick out of high school in 2021, Painter turned in a 1.56 earned run average over 22 starts during his first full professional season. Painter reached Double-A in his age-19 season. The Phillies were open to him pitching his way to the big leagues by the end of the ’23 campaign, but an elbow injury intervened. Painter eventually required Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2024 minor league campaign (though he returned to get 15 2/3 innings of Arizona Fall League action).

Painter’s first season at the Triple-A level didn’t go well. He was tagged for a 5.40 ERA while walking almost 10% of batters faced. Painter gave up more than 1.5 home runs per nine innings. It wasn’t enough to earn a late-season debut, but he still sits around 97 MPH on his fastball and struck out a solid 23.4% of Triple-A opponents. He’s one of the better pitching prospects in the game and should debut next season. Baseball America ranks him the #2 prospect in the Philly system.

Rincones, 25 in March, is seventh on that list. He’s a left-handed hitting outfielder who turned in a .240/.370/.430 line across 506 Triple-A plate appearances. Rincones is a limited defender with concerns about his ability to hit lefty pitching, but he has big power in a 6’3″ frame and is clearly willing to wait until pitchers come into the zone.

McFarlane, a 24-year-old righty, is a former fourth-round pick out of the University of Miami. He spent much of the season in High-A, where he struggled to a 4.72 ERA through 74 1/3 frames. The minor league numbers aren’t encouraging, but the Phils still clearly like McFarlane as a developmental play and had plenty of roster space with which to work.

Cardinals Select Four Players

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The Cardinals added four prospects to their 40-man roster on Rule 5 protection day: Outfielder Joshua Baez, catcher Leonardo Bernal, and left-handers Cooper Hjerpe and Brycen Mautz. They needed to open one spot, so they designated reliever Jorge Alcala for assignment.

St. Louis signed Bernal as an international free agent in 2021. MLB.com ranks him 4th among the organization’s prospects. Bernal hit .270 with 10 home runs over 96 games at High-A in 2024, earning a bump to Double-A. He scuffled to a 64 wRC+ in a brief sample with Springfield. Bernal was back with the Double-A squad this past season. He put together a league-average performance in terms of wRC+, while chipping in 13 home runs and 13 steals. The 21-year-old has shown decent base-stealing prowess for a catcher, swiping 20 bags over the past two years.

The Cardinals selected Baez in the second round of the 2021 draft. He’s the team’s 11th-ranked prospect on MLB.com. A bloated strikeout rate held Baez back in his first few professional seasons, but he got the contact in check this past season. After three straight years with a strikeout rate above 34%, Baez trimmed it to 20.6% across two levels in 2025. He also showed a new level of power, reaching 20 home runs between High-A and Double-A. Baez had totaled 24 home runs in his previous four professional seasons. He also racked up 54 stolen bases this past year.

Hjerpe is one of the team’s top arms in the minors, but he’s currently on the shelf after undergoing Tommy John surgery back in April. The lefty sits at 13th on MLB.com’s prospect list. Hjerpe was a first-rounder back in 2022. He posted a solid 3.27 ERA between High-A and Double-A in 2024. Hjerpe had a strikeout rate above 35% at both stops.

Mautz was taken in the second round back in 2022. He’s immediately jumped into a workhorse role as a professional, making at least 23 starts in all three of his seasons. Mautz struggled to a 5.18 ERA at High-A in 2024, but bounced back with his best season yet this past year. The lefty posted a 2.98 ERA with a career-best 28.6% strikeout rate across 114 2/3 innings at Double-A in 2025. The 24-year-old is a candidate to make starts at the big-league level at some point next season.

Alcala was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox back in August. He was knocked around in 15 appearances with the Cardinals, recording a 5.02 ERA. The 30-year-old had spent his entire MLB career with the Twins heading into 2025. He was dealt to Boston in June and made 19 appearances for the team before being designated for assignment and landing in St. Louis.

Tigers Designate Six Relievers For Assignment

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The Tigers designated six relief pitchers for assignment: Dugan Darnell, Jack Little, Sean Guenther, Jason Foley, Tanner Rainey and Tyler Mattison. They added five prospects to the roster to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft: Hao-Yu Lee, Thayron Liranzo, Trei Cruz, Eduardo Valencia and Jake Miller. The sixth roster spot is filled by Gleyber Torres, who officially accepted the qualifying offer.

Liranzo, 22, isn’t too far removed from being one of the better catching prospects in the game. The Tigers landed him alongside Trey Sweeney in the 2024 deadline deal that sent Jack Flaherty to Los Angeles. He’d posted a .378 on-base percentage that season but dropped to a .206/.308/.351 slash line in 88 games with Double-A Erie this year. The Tigers weren’t going to jump ship after one bad year, but he may need to repeat Double-A.

Lee, a 22-year-old infielder out of Taiwan, came over from Philadelphia in the 2023 Michael Lorenzen deadline trade. He spent the entire season at Triple-A Toledo, where he hit .243/.342/.406 across 579 trips to the dish. He walked at a strong 11.2% clip while striking out 21% of the time. Lee can’t play shortstop and isn’t going to have a path to second base playing time behind Torres. His best chance of carving out MLB playing time in 2026 comes at third base.

Cruz gets a 40-man spot for the first time going into his age-27 season. The Tigers had left the former third-round pick unprotected in the past two offseasons. The switch-hitting infielder, the son of former big league outfielder José Cruz, earned his way onto the roster with a breakout year in the upper minors. Cruz hit .279/.411/.456 while leading all minor league hitters with 102 walks between the top two levels. The Rice product can play both left side infield positions and has the athleticism to play some center field.

Valencia is a 25-year-old catcher/first baseman who posted a monster .311/.382/.559 slash line between Erie and Toledo. He blasted 24 home runs while keeping his strikeout rate around 20%. The Venezuela native has never been viewed as much of a prospect, but the offensive performance in the high minors was too much to ignore.

Miller, a 24-year-old lefty, ranked 16th in the Detroit system at MLB Pipeline. An eighth-round pick in 2022 out of Valparaiso, he has shown an intriguing three-pitch mix with enough command and deception to project as a starter. Miller was limited to six starts between High-A and Double-A this year by a back injury, but Detroit likes him enough to keep him as a developmental play. He should begin next season in Erie.

Getting all those players onto the roster required cutting most of their depth relievers. Little and Darnell were just claimed off waivers. Detroit knew they’d be likely non-tenders but could try to bring them back on minor league deals. That’s also the case for Mattison, whom they kept out of the Rule 5 draft last winter but who had a middling year in the minors. Guenther has been up and down for the past couple seasons and missed the second half of 2025 recovering from hip surgery.

Rainey is a journeyman righty who cracked Detroit’s big league bullpen in the final week of the season. He’s narrowly shy of six years of service and therefore could have been retained via arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a modest $1.2MM salary, but Rainey is looking at minor league deals as a free agent.

Foley was probably the toughest cut. He’d been a valuable late-innings arm between 2021-24, a run which he capped off by saving 28 games last year. Foley missed all of ’25 recovering from shoulder surgery, and he would have been set to match this year’s $3.15MM salary if they tendered him a contract. They opted not to do so and are likely to cut him loose on Friday, though they have the next few days to see if there’s any trade interest.

Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free-Press first reported the Cruz, Valencia and Miller additions.

Marlins Select Three Players

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The Marlins selected catcher Joe Mack and right-handers Will Kempner and Josh White onto the 40-man roster to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft. Miami designated outfielder Joey Wiemer for assignment in a corresponding move, as they’d previously had two vacancies.

Mack is one of the more obvious names to keep away from the Rule 5 draft. A supplemental first-round pick out of high school in 2021, he has developed into one of the better all-around catching prospects in the majors. The left-handed hitter connected on 21 homers with a .257/.338/.475 slash line in 468 plate appearances between the top two minor league levels.

Most of that production came in Triple-A. Mack is on the doorstep of the majors and he’s a better defensive catcher than either Liam Hicks or Agustin Ramirez. Mack has the best chance of the group to be Miami’s long-term answer behind the plate. It’s not out of the question he breaks camp, and he’ll almost certainly debut at some point next season.

Kempner, 24, was acquired from the Giants for international bonus pool room last offseason. A third-round pick out of Gonzaga in 2022, he’s a pure reliever who turned in a 2.26 ERA across 67 2/3 innings between a trio of levels in his first season in the Miami system. Kempner fanned more than a third of opponents but walked upwards of 14% of batters faced. He sits around 95 MPH and could be an up-and-down reliever next season. The 24-year-old White should also be in that mix after running a monster 40.8% strikeout rate across 67 2/3 frames between the top two levels. The former fifth-round draftee sits in the 93-94 MPH range and leans heavily on a plus mid-80s slider.

Miami claimed Wiemer, a one-time top prospect, off waivers from Kansas City in August. He played in 27 games down the stretch, hitting .236 with a trio of home runs but striking out 23 times in 61 trips to the plate. Wiemer has big physical tools but has been too strikeout prone throughout his career. He’s a .205/.279/.359 hitter in a little under 500 plate appearances. Miami can non-tender him on Friday and try to bring him back on a minor league contract.

Astros Designate Ramon Urias For Assignment

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The Astros announced they’ve designated infielder Ramón Urías for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to pitching prospect Miguel Ullola, who has been selected to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Their roster remains at capacity.

Houston acquired Urías from the Orioles at this past summer’s trade deadline. It initially seemed he’d be the fill-in third baseman after the Isaac Paredes injury. The Astros pulled off the shocking Carlos Correa deal a day later, pushing Urías into more of a second/third base hybrid role. He didn’t perform especially well. He hit .223/.267/.372 with 28 strikeouts in 101 trips to the plate after the trade.

That will end up being his only work in an Astros uniform. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Urías for a $4.4MM salary in his final year of arbitration. Houston wasn’t going to pay that amount coming off the rough finish. They can technically spend the next three days trying to find a trade partner, but it’s likelier they’ll simply non-tender him on Friday. He’d become a free agent at that point.

While his Astros tenure was a disappointment, Urías had been a capable role player for the Orioles for the past few seasons. He won a Gold Glove at third base in 2022, though his defensive grades in every other season have been right around average. Urías was also essentially an average hitter throughout his time in Baltimore. He batted .259/.324/.404 in a little more than 500 games over parts of six seasons with the Orioles. He’s been serviceable against pitchers of either handedness and can play any non-shortstop position on the dirt.

Urías should be able to command a major league contract if he’s non-tendered. It’d surely be a one-year deal but he could find a $3-4MM guarantee to work as a right-handed infielder off the bench. Houston will ideally find a lefty bat to fit that role, as their lineup already skews very heavily to the right side. They’ll need to decide whether to tender righty-hitting utilityman Mauricio Dubón (projected at $5.8MM) or start from scratch with their infield depth.

Ullola appears to be the only prospect whom the Astros were concerned would get taken in next month’s Rule 5 draft. The 23-year-old righty spent the entire ’25 season working out of the Triple-A rotation. He managed a solid 3.88 earned run average across 113 2/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League. Ullola fanned 27% of opponents but walked nearly 16% of batters faced. He has never thrown strikes at a tenable rate in the minors, which presumably points toward a long-term bullpen future. Ullola’s fastball sits around 94 MPH in his work as a starter, so he could be a solid power arm with significant bat-missing upside if the Astros move him to relief.

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