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Cubs Sending Justin Steele For Second Opinion On Elbow Tendinitis

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The Cubs are sending Justin Steele for a second opinion on his elbow, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Alden González of ESPN and Maddie Lee of The Chicago Sun-Times). The southpaw landed on the 15-day injured list on Wednesday with elbow tendinitis, a surprising move that came two days after Steele fired seven shutout innings against Texas.

Steele told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers on Wednesday that he expected it to be a minimal 15-day stint. The Cubs sent him for an MRI on Thursday. Counsell did not specify the results of that imaging. To this point, there’s no indication it’s any more serious than the initial tendinitis diagnosis. It’s nevertheless of some concern any time a pitcher goes for multiple evaluations on an elbow problem.

Elbow tendinitis also sent Steele to the injured list for a couple weeks last September. Counsell indicated the recurring nature of the injury contributed to the decision to go for multiple opinions. “We want to make sure we know why it has happened again so Justin’s got all the information and then we can go from there,” the manager said.

Monday’s start was easily Steele’s best of the season. He’d allowed at least three runs in each of his first three appearances. Steele punched out eight against three hits and two walks against the Rangers. However, his fastball averaged a season-low 90.2 MPH in that start after sitting in the 91-92 range during his first three appearances. It clearly didn’t sap his effectiveness, but it was seemingly a sign that he wasn’t operating at full strength.

Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Ben Brown are operating as Chicago’s rotation. They haven’t named a probable starter for what would have been Steele’s spot agains the Dodgers on Sunday. A scheduled off day yesterday could allow them to turn back to Brown on standard rest and delay the need for a fifth starter into next week’s series in San Diego.

Brewers Recall Jose Quintana For Team Debut

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The Brewers announced that they’ve recalled Jose Quintana from their complex league affiliate. He’ll get the ball tonight opposite Eduardo Rodriguez in Arizona. Milwaukee optioned Elvis Peguero to Triple-A Nashville in a corresponding move.

Quintana will be making his season and team debut. The veteran lefty lingered in free agency into Spring Training. He signed a $4.25MM free agent deal in early March. Quintana managed five innings over two appearances before camp came to a close. He allowed two runs with two strikeouts and a walk. He stayed back at the complex for the first couple weeks of the regular season to continue building into game shape.

The 36-year-old southpaw is coming off a strong season with the Mets. Quintana worked to a 3.75 ERA despite a subpar 18.8% strikeout rate across 170 1/3 regular season innings. He fired six scoreless innings against Milwaukee in the decisive Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. Quintana followed up with another five scoreless frames against the Phillies in the Division Series before the Dodgers tagged him for five runs over 3 1/3 frames in his lone NLCS start.

Milwaukee opened the season with Brandon Woodruff, Tobias Myers, Aaron Ashby and DL Hall on the injured list. They’ve lost Aaron Civale and Nestor Cortes to the IL since Opening Day. That contributed to their early-season trade to land Quinn Priester from the Red Sox. The young righty went five innings of one-run ball against Colorado in his team debut yesterday. Priester and Quintana join swingman Tyler Alexander and rookie Chad Patrick as part of a patchwork rotation behind staff ace Freddy Peralta.

Twins Place Pablo Lopez On Injured List

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April 11: The Twins announced that Lopez has been placed on the 15-day IL. Festa has been recalled from Triple-A St. Paul in his place and will get the start in tonight’s game.

April 9: The Twins plan to place Pablo López on the 15-day injured list, manager Rocco Baldelli tells reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star-Tribune and Dan Hayes of The Athletic). Minnesota’s Opening Day starter was diagnosed with a Grade One strain of his right hamstring.

A Grade One strain is the least severe. Baldelli indicated the Twins are hopeful that López will be back after a minimal IL stay. He suffered the injury during last night’s appearance in Kansas City. López needed to depart after 4 2/3 innings and 78 pitches. He went for an MRI today which revealed the mild strain. It halts a very strong start to the season. López has allowed six runs (three earned) with 14 strikeouts and two walks over 16 2/3 frames.

This will be the first injured list stint for López since the Twins acquired him from Miami in the swap for Luis Arraez during the 2022-23 offseason. He’s made all 32 starts in each of the past three seasons, in fact. López combined for 379 1/3 innings of 3.87 ERA ball over his first two years in the Twin Cities. He ranked eight in MLB in innings and tied for sixth in starts during that stretch.

The Twins blanked K.C. tonight behind an excellent start from Joe Ryan. They nevertheless have a 4-8 record. Their rotation entered play Wednesday with an MLB-worst 6.26 earned run average. López and Ryan have been excellent, but each of Simeon Woods Richardson, Chris Paddack and Bailey Ober have been hit hard through two starts.

Minnesota hasn’t had the luxury of many early-season off days. Tomorrow will be the halfway point of a stretch of 12 straight game days between April 5-16. Ober will pitch in the series finale with Kansas City. Paddack and Woods Richardson would line up for the first two starts of their weekend set in Detroit. They’ll need someone to step into López’s spot on Sunday.

Zebby Matthews and David Festa are each highly-regarded young pitchers who made their big league debuts last season. Neither player had much success as rookies, but they’re more talented than the sixth and seventh starters for a lot of teams. Matthews, who would be on regular rest for Sunday, has been excellent through his first two turns in Triple-A. He has punched out 13 against one walk while firing 10 innings of two-run ball. Festa has an 8:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio while giving up five earned runs in 8 1/3 frames. If the Twins want to keep both youngsters in the minors, they could reselect swingman Randy Dobnak after running him through outright waivers last week.

Red Sox Release Matt Moore

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The Red Sox released veteran lefty Matt Moore from his minor league contract, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Moore had been assigned to Triple-A Worcester but has been on the minor league injured list since Opening Day. Christopher Smith of MassLive wrote in late March that the former All-Star was dealing with arm soreness.

Moore was healthy enough to make four appearances during Spring Training. He allowed only one unearned run over four innings in camp, though he struck out two of 16 batters faced. Moore bypassed an opportunity to opt out of his contract at the end of camp and agreed to report to Worcester. The injury prevented him from taking the mound with the WooSox.

The 35-year-old Moore held a spot in the Angels’ bullpen for the entire 2024 season. He struggled to a 5.03 ERA through 48 1/3 innings. Moore’s 19.5% strikeout rate was down eight percentage points relative to the previous year. He walked 12.4% of batters faced while giving up more than two home runs per nine innings. Moore’s fastball velocity — which had sat in the 94 MPH range between 2022-23 — was down a tick to 93 MPH last year. A forearm strain cost him the final month of the season.

Moore managed much better numbers during the 2022-23 stretch. He fanned over 27% of opposing hitters in both seasons while combining for a 2.20 ERA in 126 2/3 innings. It’s not clear when he’s expected to return to the mound, but he should be able to find another minor league deal once he’s healthy.

Spencer Turnbull Throws For Teams

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Free agent righty Spencer Turnbull has thrown for teams and continues to seek a big league opportunity, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Turnbull, who placed #50 on MLBTR’s Top 50 free agents list last offseason, surprisingly remains unsigned into the second week of the regular season.

The 32-year-old is coming off a solid, albeit injury-shortened, season with Philadelphia. The Phillies signed him to a $2MM free agent deal in February 2024. Turnbull took six turns through the rotation before kicking into multi-inning relief. He made 10 appearances out of the bullpen and one final start. Turnbull put up a 2.65 ERA with a quality 26.1% strikeout rate and a 47.5% ground-ball percentage through 54 1/3 innings.

All that work came within the season’s first three months. A lat strain sent him to the injured list in late June. While he made one rehab appearance late in September, he was not able to get back to the majors before the end of the season. It clearly wasn’t how Turnbull hoped to finish his walk year, though it seemed his early-season numbers would make him an interesting target for teams seeking affordable rotation help.

Turnbull has generally been a productive pitcher on a rate basis but hasn’t stayed healthy consistently. He tossed 148 1/3 innings across 30 starts for the Tigers back in 2019. He hasn’t reached 60 MLB frames in a season since then. Turnbull took 11 turns through the rotation during the shortened 2020 season, but his elbow blew out early in ’21. He required Tommy John surgery that July and missed the entire 2022 campaign.

He only made seven major league starts during his final season in Detroit. He struggled to a 7.26 ERA and missed time with neck soreness and a toenail avulsion. The relationship between Turnbull and the organization seemingly soured amidst those injuries and the team’s attempt to option him to the minors. They non-tendered him at year’s end, leading to his brief but effective stint with the Phils.

Last offseason’s market clearly didn’t materialize to Turnbull’s liking. Even if he’s able to secure a major league contract, he’d probably need to agree to an optional assignment so he can build up over multiple minor league appearances.

Cubs Acquire Tom Cosgrove From Padres

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The Padres announced that they’ve dealt reliever Tom Cosgrove to the Cubs for cash considerations. Chicago designated righty Caleb Kilian for assignment to create a 40-man roster spot. San Diego had designated Cosgrove for assignment over the weekend.

Cosgrove, 28, was drafted by the Padres in 2017. San Diego added him to the 40-man roster during the 2022-23 offseason, a testament to the bat-missing ability he’d shown in the minors. Cosgrove made his major league debut the following April and managed strong numbers as a rookie. He turned in a 1.75 earned run average through 51 1/3 innings. His strikeout and walk profile was pedestrian, but he very rarely allowed hard contact and pitched well against lefty and righty batters alike.

The pendulum swung dramatically in the other direction last year. Cosgrove gave up 19 runs in 14 2/3 MLB innings spanning 18 appearances. Opponents’ average exit velocity jumped by three ticks while his strikeout rate dropped from 21.5% to 19.7%. Cosgrove spent most of the season in Triple-A, where he posted a 4.85 ERA with an above-average 26.8% strikeout percentage in 32 appearances.

Cosgrove did not break camp after a rough Spring Training, in which he gave up seven runs through 5 1/3 frames. He has gotten out to a slow start in Triple-A as well, allowing three runs with four walks and two strikeouts in four appearances. The Cubs immediately optioned him. He’ll begin his Chicago tenure with their top affiliate in Iowa. This is his final minor league option year.

Kilian is in his last option season as well. The Texas Tech product was a decent prospect in the San Francisco farm system whom the Cubs acquired in the Kris Bryant deadline deal in 2021. Chicago also acquired outfield prospect Alexander Canario, whom they DFA and traded away a couple months ago. It’s possible they’ll lose Kilian via trade or waivers within the next week.

The 27-year-old righty never established himself on Chicago’s staff. He has made five starts and three relief appearances going back to 2022. Kilian owns a 9.22 ERA in 27 1/3 innings thus far. He has issued 20 walks while recording only 21 strikeouts. Kilian has better numbers over four seasons at the Triple-A level. He carries a 4.37 ERA with a slightly below-average 21.8% strikeout rate across 274 innings at the top minor league level. Most of that has come as a starter. Kilian has only started one Triple-A game so far this season. He was tagged for six runs on a trio of homers in 2 1/3 innings.

Dodgers Notes: Knack, Snell, Gonsolin, Freeman

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The Dodgers recalled Landon Knack to start Wednesday’s series finale against the Nationals. The 27-year-old righty was hit hard, surrendering five runs on four hits and four walks. L.A. nevertheless managed a 6-5 win to avoid a sweep. Manager Dave Roberts said postgame that Knack will stick in the rotation for at least one more turn, as he’ll start at some point in next week’s series against the Rockies (relayed by Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic).

Knack bounced between the big league roster and Triple-A Oklahoma City throughout last season. He managed a 3.65 ERA across 69 innings as a rookie. Knack fanned 24.1% of opponents against a tidy 6.3% walk rate, but he allowed home runs at an elevated rate of 1.83 per nine innings. He’d made a two-inning relief appearance during the opening Tokyo Series. This was his first start of 2025.

The rotation spot opened when Blake Snell landed on the injured list over the weekend with shoulder inflammation. Testing has not revealed any structural damage. Roberts said on Tuesday that the two-time Cy Young winner will resume throwing at the beginning of next week (via Jack Harris of The Los Angeles Times). The injury did not require any kind of injection. The Dodgers haven’t provided a return timetable, but it appears to be a relatively minor concern — at least as far as shoulder injuries go.

Knack probably won’t hold a rotation spot for the entirety of Snell’s IL stint. Tony Gonsolin was battling for the final rotation spot until he tweaked his back lifting weights late in Spring Training. He opened the season on the IL as a result, but he has gotten through two rehab appearances without issue. Gonsolin tossed 46 pitches over 3 1/3 dominant innings in a start for OKC tonight. He allowed only one hit and walk apiece while recording seven strikeouts. He’ll make at least one more Triple-A start but should be activated within the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, Freddie Freeman will evidently be able to return from his injured list stay without a rehab stint. Roberts said this afternoon that he anticipates the Dodgers will reinstate the star first baseman before Friday’s series opener against the Cubs (via Sonja Chen of MLB.com). It’ll be a minimal 10-day IL stay after Freeman suffered a right ankle sprain. Enrique Hernández has played first in his absence. The utilityman has a bizarre .103/.163/.410 batting line over 43 plate appearances. Hernández only has four hits all season and they’ve all been home runs.

White Sox Planning To Select Omar Narvaez

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The White Sox intend to call up veteran catcher Omar Narváez, reports James Fegan of Sox Machine. Korey Lee left today’s game against the Guardians in the sixth inning when he rolled his left ankle running back to first base on a pickoff.

There’s not much clarity on Lee’s injury. The Sox have only announced it as ankle soreness and indicated he’ll go for testing. It looked ugly enough that an injured list stint seems inevitable. Even a day-to-day injury for a catcher usually necessitates a roster move, since teams tend to only carry two catchers on the active roster. Lee has split the position with Matt Thaiss in the season’s first two weeks.

Thaiss has started seven of the 11 games. He only has four hits but has worked seven walks over 27 plate appearances. Lee has five hits and a couple walks in 17 trips to the dish. A former first-round pick of the Astros, Lee appeared in a career-high 125 games last season. He hit .210/.244/.347 with 12 homers while striking out in 31% of his 394 plate appearances.

Narváez was in camp on a minor league contract. The Sox released him at the end of Spring Training but re-signed him on a fresh minor league deal at the beginning of April. With highly-regarded prospects Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero splitting the catching duties in Triple-A, the Sox assigned Narváez to Double-A Birmingham. He’s far more experienced than most players at that level. Narváez has gone 2-7 with a double and a walk in two games.

Today’s loss dropped the White Sox to 2-9. They’re clearly in for another long season. Teel and Quero should each receive their first MLB call at some point this year. (Quero has gotten out to a blistering start at Triple-A Charlotte.) The Sox are taking their respective progressions deliberately and evidently don’t feel they’re ready for MLB action. They’ll instead go with the 33-year-old Narváez to split the catching duties with Thaiss in the short term.

Narváez was an All-Star with the Brewers back in 2021. His production has tanked in the three years since then, as he’s a .200/.276/.286 hitter in 511 plate appearances going back to the start of the ’22 season. Narváez is not on the 40-man roster. The Sox have an opening after outrighting Travis Jankowski, so they’ll only need to make an active roster move (presumably an IL stint for Lee) to select his contract.

Latest On Astros’ Rotation Plans

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The Astros lost Spencer Arrighetti to the injured list this week, as the righty suffered a broken thumb on a fluke injury when he was struck by a ball during batting practice. Manager Joe Espada said this afternoon that Arrighetti will avoid surgery but will remain in a cast for at least two weeks (relayed by Chandler Rome of The Athletic). He’ll be sent for imaging at that point.

Arrighetti is clearly going to be shelved beyond the 15-day minimum. The Astros need to add someone to the rotation behind Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Hayden Wesneski and Ronel Blanco. It seems that rookie right-hander Ryan Gusto is going to get the first opportunity. The Astros list Gusto as the probable starter for their game against the Angels on Saturday.

Assuming plans don’t change within the next two days, Gusto will be making his first big league start. He was lined up to start the final game of the regular season in 2024. Houston had already clinched a playoff spot and called up Gusto to rest their playoff starters. That game was canceled because of rain, which delayed the 26-year-old’s big league debut by six months.

Gusto pitched well enough in Spring Training to break camp, albeit in a relief role. He has tossed eight innings over four appearances, allowing only one run with nine strikeouts and two walks. Gusto worked 2-3 innings in each of his first three outings. He tossed one inning and 15 pitches in yesterday’s extra-inning win in Seattle. He’ll get three days rest before his first start. Gusto started 26 of 29 appearances in Triple-A last season. He worked to a solid 3.70 earned run average with a 22.6% strikeout rate through 148 1/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League.

Houston has off days in each of the next three Thursdays. That allows them to operate without a fifth starter following Gusto’s appearance on Saturday until their series against the Blue Jays between April 21-23. Lance McCullers Jr. figures to return before Arrighetti does. He has made a pair of minor league rehab starts, tossing 50 pitches in an outing for Double-A Corpus Christi on Saturday. McCullers has not pitched in an MLB game since the 2022 World Series because of multiple arm injuries, so the Astros will surely proceed with caution as they build the righty back.

Braves Acquire Rafael Montero From Astros

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April 9: Houston is covering $7.7MM of Montero’s remaining salary, Charles Odum of the Associated Press reports. That’s on top of the $804K they’ve already paid him this year. In total, the Astros are paying about $8.5MM of Montero’s $11.5MM salary, leaving Atlanta on the hook for just a hair under $3MM. Montero joined the team today, per a club announcement, with Thompson optioned to open an active roster spot.

April 8: The Astros announced a trade sending reliever Rafael Montero and an undisclosed amount of cash to the Braves for a player to be named later. Houston recalled lefty reliever Bennett Sousa to take the vacated bullpen spot. Atlanta has not announced any corresponding moves. They had an opening on their 40-man roster after waiving Chadwick Tromp and do not need to make an active roster transaction until Montero reports to the team.

Montero, 34, is in the final season of a three-year free agent deal. He’s playing on an $11.5MM salary. The Astros are surely paying down the majority of that contract, though specifics on the cash have not been reported. Owner Jim Crane struck early in the 2022-23 offseason to re-sign Montero on a $34.5MM investment. That was in between the dismissal of former general manager James Click and the hiring of current GM Dana Brown. It did not work out.

The veteran right-hander was rocked for a 5.08 earned run average over 67 1/3 innings in the first season. He posted a 4.70 ERA while walking nearly as many hitters as he struck out last year. The Astros designated him for assignment around the trade deadline. That seemed like it would officially end his tenure in the organization. Montero had more than enough service time to elect free agency while collecting the rest of his contract.

Montero instead accepted an assignment to Triple-A after clearing waivers. He tossed 16 1/3 frames of four-run ball there to finish the season. Houston didn’t call him up last season but brought him back to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee. Montero allowed six runs (five earned) with 10 strikeouts and seven walks across 8 2/3 innings to earn his way back onto the MLB roster. He has made three regular season appearances, working four frames of two-run ball with five punchouts.

The 11-year big league veteran sits in the 95-96 MPH range with his four-seam fastball. He tweaked his pitch mix this year, according to Statcast. Montero added a mid-80s splitter while scrapping his low-90s changeup. That’s now his top offspeed pitch against lefty hitters. It’s too early to glean much from the results, but opponents have whiffed on five of 12 swings against it.

Atlanta evaluators were intrigued enough by Montero’s form to plug him into the middle innings. Daysbel Hernández and long man Zach Thompson each have options remaining. Lefty José Suarez is out of options but has a pedestrian 5:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio through his first four appearances. Montero figures to displace someone from that group — most likely Thompson — once he joins the team.

It’s purely a salary dump for Houston. They were never going to be able to shed the majority of Montero’s contract. Getting out from under even a small portion of the deal should give them more flexibility for deadline acquisitions. They’re within a few million dollars of the $241MM luxury tax threshold, which they seem disinclined to surpass. Whatever portion of Montero’s salary that the Braves assume will come off the Astros’ tax bill.

Image courtesy of Erik Williams, Imagn Images.

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