Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Where Do The Twins Go From Here?

By | at

The Twins embarked on the biggest deadline sell-off. It was obvious that they'd trade rentals Willi Castro, Harrison Bader, Chris Paddack and Danny Coulombe. There was enough smoke to believe they'd move one of their top two controllable relievers, Jhoan Duran or Griffin Jax. Given the injury history with Brock Stewart, he seemed a good bet to go as well.

Their week was nevertheless staggering. Minnesota traded both Duran and Jax. They dumped more than $70MM of Carlos Correa's contract for no return. The player they received, Matt Mikulski, was once a notable draft prospect but is a 26-year-old reliever in High-A who'd signed a minor league deal with Houston two months ago. They even went as far as to trade Louis Varland, a Twin Cities native who would've been their best remaining reliever. Varland is controllable for five additional seasons and won't qualify for arbitration until the 2026-27 offseason. Aside from the few hundred thousand dollars they saved by attaching Ty France in that deal, that didn't even cut costs. Minnesota evidently decided that the volatility associated with any relief pitcher was enough to put Varland on the table as well.

Given how aggressively the Twins ripped down the roster, it was almost surprising they didn't go further in the end. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported shortly before the 5:00 pm Central deadline that the Red Sox were making another run at Joe Ryan. It doesn't seem they came close to getting a deal done when Boston balked at trading an MLB outfielder. Still, one imagines the Sox and many others will be eager to reopen those talks once the offseason begins.

The Twins will play out the string with a bullpen comprising journeymen and waiver pickups. To the extent there's any intrigue left this season, it's in getting looks at young players like Luke Keaschall, Alan Roden (acquired from Toronto in the Varland deal) and Zebby Matthews. They acquired 24-year-old righty Taj Bradley in a one-for-one swap for Jax and added 23-year-old righty Mick Abel as part of their return for Duran. Both are starting their organizational tenure in Triple-A but could get a look later in the season.

While the next couple months won't be particularly interesting, the Twins are facing a massive offseason. What could be in store?

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS
  • Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
  • Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
  • Remove ads and support our writers.
  • Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker

Pirates Outright Genesis Cabrera

By | at

Pirates reliever Génesis Cabrera was outrighted to Triple-A, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Pittsburgh designated the southpaw for assignment on Monday when they welcomed Johan Oviedo back from the injured list. Cabrera has the right to refuse the assignment in favor of free agency.

The Pirates were Cabrera’s third team of the season. He had brief stints with the Mets and Cubs earlier in the year. He pitched nine times for the Bucs after signing a major league contract at the end of June. He gave up six runs in 11 innings, striking out seven while issuing one walk. Cabrera is now up to 28 frames with a 5.79 earned run average. He has recorded a below-average 18.8% strikeout rate.

Cabrera throws hard, averaging nearly 96 MPH from the left side. Teams continue to give him opportunities in the middle innings as a result. The 28-year-old hasn’t translated that into enough strikeouts over the past two seasons. He has also been increasingly prone to the home run ball, leading to an ERA above 4.00 in three of the past four years.

Padres To Activate Michael King On Saturday

By | at

Michael King will make his return from the injured list on Saturday, the Padres informed reporters (including Dennis Lin of The Athletic). San Diego will activate him from the 60-day IL to go opposite Lucas Giolito in the second game of their weekend series against Boston. The Friars already have an opening on the 40-man roster, so unless they make another move tomorrow, they’ll only need to make an active roster move involving a pitcher.

King’s return was expected when the Padres optioned JP Sears on Tuesday. That allowed San Diego to play with a nine-man bullpen for a few days. They’ll drop back to eight when King rejoins Dylan Cease, Nick Pivetta, Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes in the rotation. The righty reached 61 pitches across 3 1/3 innings in his only Triple-A rehab start. It’s likely manager Mike Shildt will keep him around 75 pitches in his first MLB appearance in almost three months.

The injury began innocuously enough. King was scratched from a scheduled start on May 24 after telling the coaching staff that he felt he slept uncomfortably on his shoulder. He went on the 15-day IL a day later with what the team called inflammation. They later announced that he was battling an issue with his thoracic nerve that was sapping the strength in his shoulder. It ended up costing him two and a half months, though the team stressed that there weren’t any structural concerns.

King’s fastball averaged 92.7 MPH during his Triple-A start. That’s a tick below his MLB season average. That’s probably to be expected after an extended layoff. If King gets back to his pre-injury form, he’ll arguably be San Diego’s best starter. The 30-year-old had turned in a 2.59 earned run average through his first 10 starts. He struck out 28.4% of opposing hitters against a 7.6% walk rate. It was an even better performance than last year’s excellent first season in San Diego: 173 2/3 innings of 2.93 ERA ball with a 27.7% strikeout percentage.

The Padres welcome King back at a time when they occupy the second Wild Card spot in the National League. They’re one game above the Mets and 4.5 clear of the Reds, the top team that is not in playoff position. San Diego trails the Dodgers by just two games in the NL West.

King’s performance down the stretch will also have a significant impact on the upcoming free agent market. He’ll decline his end of a $15MM mutual option, reject a qualifying offer, and hit free agency for the first time. There’s an argument that he’s the second-best starter in the class behind Framber Valdez. That’s dependent on him showing no ill effects from the injury down the stretch and into the postseason.

Dodgers Likely To Select Justin Dean

By | at

The Dodgers are likely to promote outfielder Justin Dean before tomorrow’s series opener with the Blue Jays, reports Dodger Daily. According to the MLB.com transaction tracker, L.A. optioned Esteury Ruiz to Triple-A Oklahoma City this evening. That’ll open the necessary active roster spot, but they’ll also need to make a 40-man move to select Dean’s contract.

It’d be the first major league call for the 28-year-old Dean. A product of Division II Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, Dean was a 17th-round pick by the Braves in 2018. He doesn’t have huge power in a 5’8″ frame, but he’s a plus runner who can play a good center field. Dean spent seven seasons in the Atlanta system without getting an MLB look. He qualified for minor league free agency last winter and signed a non-roster contract with the Dodgers.

Dean has spent the entire season at Triple-A Oklahoma City. He’s hitting .274/.370/.426 with six homers while stealing 25 bases in 32 attempts. The righty batter has taken walks at a strong 12% rate while striking out 23% of the time. He’s chasing fewer pitches outside the strike zone and making a lot more contact than he did last season in the Atlanta system. Dean has logged over 500 innings in center field and added 136 frames in right.

Ruiz had been the last position player on the roster as a speedster off the bench. Dean should provide a superior defensive option in a fifth outfielder role.

Braves Notes: Jimenez, Holmes, Sale

By | at

Joe Jiménez has been out all season after undergoing left knee surgery last November. The Braves reliever is now nine months removed from a procedure that came with an 8-12 month timeline. Jiménez had been throwing but was shut back down after experiencing soreness in his knee, manager Brian Snitker said yesterday (relayed by Barrett Sallee of 680 The Fan).

It now seems there’s a good chance Jiménez won’t pitch at all this season. This is a lost year for Atlanta. There’s little incentive to push Jiménez through discomfort. The 30-year-old righty would surely love to get back on the mound so he can go into the offseason with some normalcy, but the Braves aren’t going to take any chances.

Jiménez had the best year of his career in 2024. He threw a personal-high 68 2/3 innings with a 2.62 ERA. He recorded a career-best 27 holds while striking out nearly 30% of batters faced. It was an excellent start to his three-year, $26MM free agent deal. The injury unfortunately robbed him of most (potentially all) of year two. He’s signed for $9MM next season.

Atlanta is likely to see Raisel Iglesias depart in free agency. They’ll exercise their $7MM club option to retain Pierce Johnson, barring a late-season injury. Aaron Bummer and Dylan Lee will also be back. The rest of the relief group is in question. Daysbel Hernández has a 2.25 ERA but has walked almost 20% of opponents. Atlanta acquired Tyler Kinley from Colorado last week. That suggests they’ll at least consider bringing him back on a $5MM team option, but he hasn’t managed particularly good numbers since 2022. The Braves will likely need two or three external bullpen pickups on top of a healthy return from Jiménez.

While the Braves haven’t officially ruled Jiménez out for the season, starter Grant Holmes is definitely done for the year. Atlanta almost immediately placed him on the 60-day injured list when he went down with an elbow injury before the trade deadline. The Braves later diagnosed the issue as a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament. That has the potential to be a precursor to surgery, but Holmes told reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) that he’ll attempt to rehab without going under the knife.

“If I can avoid the knife as long as possible, that’s the route I want to take,” the 29-year-old righty said. “I haven’t had any surgeries yet, thankfully, and I’m trying to keep it that way.” Holmes added that he’ll be on a no-throw program for at least six weeks and expressed his hope that he could resume throwing simulated games in November. He pointed out that undergoing Tommy John or internal brace surgery now would almost certainly cost him the entire 2026 season regardless. Holmes therefore felt he didn’t have much to lose in trying a non-surgical approach and evaluating how his elbow feels in a few months. If it doesn’t progress as hoped, he could undergo surgery early in the offseason and still set a goal of coming back at the start of the ’27 campaign.

Before the injury, Holmes was a bright spot in Atlanta’s nightmare season. He turned in a 3.99 ERA while striking out a quarter of opponents across 22 appearances. Holmes had impressed last season as a rookie but worked more often in long relief. He showed this season that he can be a capable mid-rotation starter as long as he’s healthy. Holmes is one of five Atlanta starters dealing with a long-term injury. They already lost AJ Smith-Shawver to Tommy John surgery, and it’d be a surprise if Spencer Schwellenbach returns from a broken elbow this year. Reynaldo López has been out almost all year after undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery.

Chris Sale, out since mid-June with a ribcage fracture, is the only one of that quintet who seems very likely to make it back this season. Sale is set to throw a live batting practice session on Thursday (via the MLB.com injury tracker). He’s not far off a minor league rehab assignment and could return from the 60-day IL before the end of the month. That’d allow the reigning NL Cy Young winner to make five or six starts to close the season. It won’t mean anything in the standings, but it’d give the Braves some confidence entering an offseason in which they’ll face questions about everyone in the rotation aside from Spencer Strider. Atlanta will retain Sale on an $18MM club option for what’ll be his age-37 season.

Angels, Cavan Biggio Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Angels are in agreement with infielder Cavan Biggio on a minor league deal, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake. Biggio was released by the Royals last week.

Biggio broke camp with K.C. after signing an offseason minor league contract. He appeared in 37 games, hitting .174/.296/.246 with one home run in 83 trips to the plate. He had hit far better in Triple-A, slashing .285/.375/.464 over 41 contests. Biggio’s lack of production against big league pitching pushed him off the roster last week, as the Royals needed to open a 40-man spot to activate Hunter Harvey from the injured list.

The lefty-hitting Biggio has been a well below-average hitter in consecutive seasons. He combined for a .197/.314/.303 line across 225 plate appearances with three teams a year ago. Biggio continues to take a lot of walks, as he has throughout his career. His power production has plummeted since his first two seasons with the Blue Jays. Biggio’s extremely patient approach also comes with strikeouts, as he also takes a lot of pitches within the strike zone.

Biggio has more experience at second base than any other position. He only logged 10 1/3 innings there for Kansas City. The Royals used him most frequently in the corner outfield and at first base with occasional second and third base work. The Angels have Nolan Schanuel, Christian Moore and Luis Rengifo at the non-shortstop infield positions. They acquired Oswald Peraza as a defensive option off the bench, while Niko Kavadas is on the MLB roster as a lefty-swinging first baseman.

Marlins Outright Jack Winkler

By | at

Marlins infielder Jack Winkler went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. The 26-year-old neither has the service time nor the previous career outright to decline the assignment. He’ll remain with the team after being designated for assignment on Monday when the Fish claimed outfielder Joey Wiemer off waivers.

Winkler made a brief MLB debut earlier in the season. Acquired from the A’s in the minor league phase of last winter’s Rule 5 draft, he cracked the 40-man roster at the end of May. He spent around six weeks in the big leagues over two stints. Winkler didn’t get a ton of playing time as the final player on Clayton McCullough’s bench. He only started four of his 11 appearances and collected two hits and a stolen base in 12 at-bats.

A University of San Francisco product, Winkler has played parts of five minor league seasons. He’s in his first year at Triple-A and batting .241/.304/.379 over 194 plate appearances. Winkler has never hit much but provides versatility as a depth infielder. He’ll remain with Jacksonville in hopes of getting back onto the big league roster.

Nationals Recall Cade Cavalli

By | at

August 6: The Nats made it official today, announcing that they’ve recalled Cavalli and optioned Lara.

August 5: The Nationals are recalling Cade Cavalli from Triple-A Rochester to start tomorrow’s game against the A’s, interim manager Miguel Cairo told reporters (relayed by Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). While the team has not officially announced the move, they did option Andry Lara to open the necessary active roster spot.

Cavalli, a 2020 first-round pick who was once one of the top pitching prospects in the sport, will step on a major league mound for the first time in almost three years. The Nats called him up in August 2022. Cavalli gave up seven runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Reds during his MLB debut. (For perspective on how long it has been, Mike Minor started that game for Cincinnati, while Steve Cishek and Jake McGee came out of the Washington bullpen.) Cavalli came out of that start with shoulder discomfort that ended his season. His elbow blew out the following spring, and he underwent Tommy John surgery.

The road back wasn’t smooth. Cavalli obviously missed the entire ’23 campaign. He made a few attempts to rehab the following season but encountered setbacks and spent that whole year on the injured list as well. Cavalli remained on the IL to open this year and wasn’t officially activated until May 11. The Nats optioned him to Rochester, where they’d be able to more effectively limit his innings after two and a half lost seasons.

Cavalli has made 15 Triple-A starts. He’s averaging 4 1/3 innings per appearance and has only twice completed six frames. Cavalli dominated minor league competition early on but has hit a rough patch. He’s allowed four or more runs in five of his past six starts. That leaves him with an unimpressive 6.09 earned run average on the season. Cavalli’s 25% strikeout rate and near-55% ground-ball percentage are more encouraging. His velocity has also returned to pre-injury levels. He’s averaging nearly 96 MPH on his four-seam fastball and sinker while sitting around 84 with his power curveball.

Now 26, Cavalli was once viewed as a potential mid-rotation starter. He still has that kind of raw stuff, but his command has always been a work in progress. He lost nearly three seasons of development time and faces questions about what kind of workload he’s capable of handling. There’s a chance his long-term future is in the bullpen, but the Nats remain in a rebuild and have little reason to give up on him as a starter right now.

This was Cavalli’s first option season. He has accrued more than two years of service time. The only silver lining from his perspective is that the initial injury occurred after he’d been called up, so he picked up MLB service and was paid a major league salary until he was officially activated from the IL in mid-May. He won’t reach the three-year threshold this season because of the time spent on optional assignment. The Nats control him for another four years.

Padres Option JP Sears

By | at

The Padres announced they’ve optioned JP Sears to Triple-A El Paso. They recalled reliever Sean Reynolds and will go with a nine-man bullpen in the short term. Sears will spend at least 15 days in the minors unless he’s brought up to replace a player going on the injured list.

San Diego acquired Sears alongside Mason Miller in last week’s massive deadline deal. The 29-year-old southpaw made his team debut last night. He allowed five runs in as many innings on 10 hits and a walk against the Diamondbacks. Sears took the loss in a 6-2 defeat. He’d carried a 4.95 earned run average over 22 starts with the A’s. Yesterday pushed his ERA to 5.12 across 116 innings. It’s a bottom 10 mark among pitchers to log at least 100 frames. Sears had the highest home run rate among that group, offsetting his nearly league average 20.3% strikeout rate and solid 6% walk percentage.

This is the first time in two and a half years that Sears heads to the minors. He broke camp with the A’s in 2023 and has been in the majors since then. Sears has also avoided the injured list for that entire time. As a result, he’s tied for fifth in MLB with 87 starts since the beginning of the ’23 season. The durability is the big selling point, as his production (4.62 ERA/4.56 SIERA) over that stretch is that of a fifth or sixth starter.

The demotion shouldn’t have any impact on Sears’ service trajectory. He has already surpassed the three-year mark and will qualify for arbitration next winter. He’s under team control for three seasons beyond this one. While he’ll probably be back up at some point this year, it may require an injury elsewhere in the rotation.

San Diego optioned Randy Vásquez over the weekend. They currently have a four-man rotation of Dylan Cease, Nick Pivetta, Yu Darvish and deadline acquisition Nestor Cortes. Darvish and Cortes will get the ball for the next two outings. San Diego is off Thursday and could turn back to Pivetta and Cease on extra rest for their first two games of the weekend series against the Red Sox.

That’d point to the series finale on August 10 as Michael King’s return date. King threw 61 pitches in what is expected to be his final rehab start on Sunday (via the MLB.com injury tracker). He’d be on six days rest for his first MLB appearance since he went on the injured list in late May with a nerve problem in his throwing shoulder.

Reds, Charlie Barnes Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Reds are in agreement with left-hander Charlie Barnes on a minor league contract, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. Barnes has spent the past few seasons with the Lotte Giants in Korea. He was released in May after suffering a shoulder injury that came with a two-month recovery timetable (link via Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News).

Barnes has a bit of big league experience. He made nine appearances with the Twins in 2021, allowing a 5.92 ERA across 38 innings. Minnesota waived him at the end of that season, and Barnes embarked on his new career path in Korea. He spent parts of four seasons with Lotte. The Clemson product was effective for the first three years, surpassing 150 innings with an ERA of 3.62 or better in each.

The 29-year-old had a tougher go this season. Opponents tagged Barnes for 5.32 earned runs per nine across eight starts before Lotte shut him down with the injury. He will presumably report to Triple-A Louisville to serve as rotation or long relief depth and try to earn a late-season look with the big league club.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top