NPB’s Yokohama BayStars Sign Jerar Encarnacion
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan confirmed the signings of right-hander Osvaldo Bido and outfielder Jerar Encarnacion on Friday. MLBTR covered the Bido signing in the middle of May. Rumors out of Japan at the same time linked Encarnacion to the club, but neither deal became final until today.
Encarnacion, a client of A & F Sports Agency, opened the season with the Giants. He’s out of minor league options, so San Francisco was initially reluctant to cut him loose. He worked mostly as a bench bat but picked up a handful of starts in the corner outfield or at first base. He started the season slowly, hitting .176 without a home run across 35 plate appearances.
The 28-year-old has played parts of four big league seasons, the last three of which came with San Francisco. He’s a .211/.237/.362 hitter with 10 home runs in just under 300 trips to the plate. The meager on-base percentage hints at his very aggressive plate approach, but Encarnacion has big raw power. He hit 26 homers in Triple-A with the Marlins a few seasons ago and obliterated minor league pitching at a .352/.438/.616 clip in 2024 to earn an MLB look from the Giants.
It’s the kind of profile that tends to play better in NPB or the KBO, where the average pitcher quality is lower than in MLB. Encarnacion will surely do better financially with the BayStars than he would have had he bounced around on minor league contracts after San Francisco designated him for assignment last month.
Pirates To Recall Antwone Kelly For MLB Debut
The Pirates will recall pitching prospect Antwone Kelly for his MLB debut, reports Francys Romero. He’s already on the 40-man roster, as the Bucs needed to select his contract last offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. They’ll need to make an active roster move involving a pitcher tomorrow.
Kelly, not to be confused with the similarly named pitcher who was recently traded from the Dodgers to the Cubs, is one of Pittsburgh’s better minor league arms. An Aruba native, he was an under the radar international signee in 2021. Kelly has added strength and built his velocity in pro ball, posting strong strikeout numbers as he climbed through the minors. He put himself firmly on the prospect radar with 107 1/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball between High-A and Double-A last year.
Baseball America ranks Kelly the #8 prospect in the organization. He’s seventh in the system at MLB Pipeline. Keith Law of The Athletic ranked him 15th in his offseason writeup of the Pittsburgh organization, while Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs had him 19th when rankings Bucs prospects just last week. Despite the slight variation in the ordinal rankings, the scouting reports are generally in alignment.
Kelly is a shorter righty at 5’10” who gets good life on a fastball that is averaging 97.6 mph in Triple-A. His mid-80s changeup is his best secondary pitch and a potential weapon against left-handed hitters. Evaluators’ biggest question is whether he’ll develop a reliable enough breaking ball. Kelly has a mid-80s cutter that most scouts grade as a fringe-average offering. The arsenal has gotten a lot of whiffs at the lower levels but hasn’t missed many bats in Triple-A.
Over his first 54 innings at the top minor league level, Kelly owns a 4.50 earned run average with a modest 20% strikeout rate. His 10.6% swinging strike mark is also a bit below average, while he has walked 10% of batters faced. Kelly has spent most of the season working from the Triple-A rotation but has come out of the bullpen for his last two outings.
Kelly does have some experience against the top hitters in the world. He was the #1 starter for the Netherlands in this year’s World Baseball Classic. That gave him the unenviable task of taking on eventual champion Venezuela to kick off the tournament. Kelly worked three innings of two-run ball, striking out Wilyer Abreu but giving up a home run to Javier Sanoja.
Colin Beazley of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette confirms the Bucs will use Kelly out of the bullpen. They’re surely not closing the door on a long-term rotation future. Pittsburgh took a similar tack last year breaking Bubba Chandler and Braxton Ashcraft in as relievers. They’re also simply in need of reliable bullpen arms, particularly ones from the right side.
Pirates relievers are 20th in MLB with a 4.45 ERA. The past couple weeks have been even uglier, as they’re allowing nearly six earned runs per nine in the last 14 days. They gave up a 10-run inning to blow open a tied game in a loss to the Dodgers on Tuesday. That was less than a week after an utter meltdown in Houston, when they squandered a 9-5 lead in the eighth inning — allowing six runs despite retiring the first two batters.
Dennis Santana was expected to be their most reliable right-hander this season. He’s sitting on a 5.00 ERA across 27 frames. Carmen Mlodzinski got knocked around in his second appearance after being bumped from the rotation. Rookie Wilber Dotel pitched well in his first seven outings before the Dodgers pummeled him in the aforementioned 10-run frame. Yohan Ramírez is a journeyman who should be in low-leverage spots. It’s a clear area of need at the trade deadline, but they’ll take a look at Kelly as they search for solutions in the interim.
Angels Re-Sign Taijuan Walker To Minor League Deal
The Angels announced they’ve re-signed Taijuan Walker to a minor league contract. He’s back on the mound for Triple-A Salt Lake tonight against the D-Backs’ affiliate.
Walker had opted out of a prior non-roster deal with the Halos on Monday. It’s common for players to re-sign on a new minor league contract after doing so. Testing the market gives them a few days to see whether a major league opportunity presents itself. If not, their previous team is usually happy to sign a new minor league deal. The player can try to negotiate more opt-out or upward mobility clauses or, in some cases, a higher salary.
The latter isn’t a factor for Walker, who is making $18MM from the Phillies this year either way. Philadelphia remains on the hook for that money after releasing him in April. The Angels would pay him the prorated $780K major league minimum if he spends any time on their MLB roster, and that would come off Philadelphia’s obligations.
Walker struggled for the majority of his three-plus seasons in Philadelphia. He allowed more than a run per inning across 22 2/3 frames this season, leading the Phillies to move on. The veteran righty spent a month on the free agent market before signing with the Angels in late May. He made a couple tune-up appearances in the Complex League before reporting to Salt Lake. He tossed 4 2/3 innings of two-run ball with three strikeouts and walks apiece against Colorado’s affiliate in his only Triple-A start.
The Angels have an opening for the final rotation spot behind José Soriano, Reid Detmers, Grayson Rodriguez and Walbert Ureña. They lost Jack Kochanowicz to Tommy John surgery earlier this week. Sam Aldegheri is getting the first look in the vacated role, as he’ll start tomorrow’s series opener against Shane McClanahan and the Rays.
Guardians Trade Nolan Jones To White Sox
The Guardians announced they’ve traded non-roster outfielder Nolan Jones and cash considerations to the White Sox. Chicago sends a $250K international bonus pool allotment to Cleveland in return.
Cleveland outrighted Jones off their 40-man roster at the end of Spring Training. He therefore won’t immediately occupy a roster spot for Chicago. The Sox announced that they’ve assigned him to Triple-A Charlotte. Jones has spent the entire season in the International League with Cleveland’s affiliate in Columbus.
The 28-year-old Jones appeared in the Majors each season from 2022-25. He had by far his best season with the Rockies in 2023, hitting .297/.389/.542 with 20 homers in a little over 400 plate appearances. Back problems limited him to half a season a year later. His numbers plummeted, as he hit only .227/.321/.320 with three homers in 79 games.
Colorado moved on after that injury-riddled season. The Rox dealt Jones back to Cleveland, the organization that had drafted him in 2016 and with which he made a brief debut six years later. He spent the entire season on the MLB roster, aside from a season-ending oblique strain in late September, but did not rebound offensively. Jones mustered only a .211/.296/.304 batting line while striking out in 28% of his 403 trips to the plate.
It came as a surprise that the Guardians tendered him an arbitration contract after a second consecutive season of below replacement level production. The sides hammered out a $2MM agreement early in the offseason. Jones had a rough camp and failed to make the team out of Spring Training. He cleared waivers and had an easy call to accept an assignment to Triple-A so as not to forfeit that salary.
Jones is amidst a nice year in the minors. He’s hitting .275/.385/.460 with eight longballs across 226 plate appearances. He’s striking out a little too often (24.3%) but hitting the ball hard and drawing walks at an excellent 14.2% rate. Jones has had that “three true outcomes” approach throughout his career.
The Guardians are paying an undisclosed portion of the roughly $1.15MM he’s owed through the end of the season. The White Sox weren’t going to take on that entire sum for a Triple-A player. Cleveland takes the opportunity to get some amount of salary relief for a player who had clearly been squeezed out of their plans. The Guardians haven’t gotten much from their outfield lately, but Jones was behind the 10 outfield options they have on their 40-man roster.
Chicago isn’t actually sending cash. They’re trading $250K in space from their hard-capped bonus pool for international amateurs, which means the Guardians can spend a little more of their own money to add to their farm system. The White Sox seemingly don’t intend to sign anyone else of note before the close of this period. They also packaged $250K in bonus space alongside Derek Hill in their afternoon trade with the Phillies to add a couple minor leaguers.
Jones gives them some upper minors depth for right field, which has been an issue this season. They’re in better shape now with Braden Montgomery up and Everson Pereira back from the injured list, but they don’t have much depth in the upper minors. Jones would be eligible for arbitration for a few years if the Sox call him up before the end of the season. He’d otherwise become a minor league free agent once the regular season concludes.
Astros To Select Raynel Delgado
The Astros will select infielder Raynel Delgado onto the major league roster for the start of tomorrow’s series in Kansas City, reports Francys Romero. Houston acquired him from the Rays in a minor league trade yesterday. The Astros initially assigned Delgado to Triple-A Sugar Land but have instead decided to jump him straight to the MLB level.
It’s the first big league call for the 26-year-old. A Havana native who moved to Florida as a child, Delgado was a sixth-rounder by Cleveland in 2018. He played in their system until 2024, topping out at Triple-A Columbus. He qualified for minor league free agency after that season when the Guardians elected not to add him to the 40-man roster.
The lefty-hitting Delgado spent 2025 in Triple-A on a minor league deal with Milwaukee. He hit .281/.363/.378 and didn’t get a major league look. Tampa Bay added him on a non-roster invitation early last offseason. Delgado struggled offensively with their top affiliate in Durham, hitting .250/.320/.362 with three home runs in 253 plate appearances.
Delgado has posted league average strikeout and walk rates at the Triple-A level for the past couple seasons. He has middling power but can steal a few bases and move around the infield. Delgado is more of a second/third base type than a true shortstop, but he has more than 500 minor league innings at all three positions.
Houston, which lost Carlos Correa for the season in May, is also down a pair of depth infielders in Nick Allen and Braden Shewmake. They’re operating without a great backup option at shortstop behind Jeremy Peña. Shay Whitcomb made his first MLB start at the position last night against the Angels. Whitcomb has logged almost 2000 career innings at shortstop in the minors but profiles more as a corner bat at the MLB level. That’s also true of Delgado, but he’ll offer a little more balance in a lineup that leans very heavily to the right side.
The Astros have a full 40-man roster. They’ll need to make corresponding active roster and 40-man moves tomorrow. Lance McCullers Jr., Bennett Sousa and LaMonte Wade Jr. all have uncertain return timelines from injury and could be options to move to the 60-day injured list.
Dodgers Place Will Smith On Injured List
June 11th: The Dodgers have now made it official, listing Smith’s ailment as neck inflammation. Robinson has been selected to take his place on the roster.
June 10th: The Dodgers will place Will Smith on the 10-day injured list tomorrow, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register). They’ll select Chuckie Robinson onto the active roster to back up Dalton Rushing. L.A. opened the necessary 40-man roster spot by releasing Tyler Fitzgerald this afternoon.
Smith has been nursing a stiff neck for the past few days. He hasn’t played since Friday. The Dodgers can backdate his IL placement for up to three days, so he’ll be down until at least next Wednesday. Roberts downplayed the level of concern.
It has been a relatively slow start to the season for Smith. He’s hitting .249/.338/.382 with six home runs in 201 plate appearances. His plate discipline and batted ball metrics are mostly in line with those of previous seasons, so the Dodgers surely aren’t worried. Smith remains on the short list of the best catchers in the sport even if the slight dip may keep him from a fourth straight All-Star appearance.
Rushing, who is hitting .275/.352/.532 on the season, would be the #1 catcher on most other teams. He’s more than capable of holding the primary job for what should be a short-term absence. Rushing has started four straight around Monday’s off day. The Dodgers don’t have another day off until next Thursday, so they needed to get a healthy catcher up at some point.
That’ll fall to the 31-year-old Robinson, an organizational depth type. He played one game for the Dodgers last September and has had brief MLB stints with the Reds and White Sox. The Dodgers re-signed him on a minor league deal over the offseason and have kept him at Triple-A Oklahoma City. Robinson missed the first month of the season but has come back with a solid .274/.338/.466 start over 20 games. He’s a career .131/.169/.192 hitter at the big league level.
Rockies Outright Keegan Thompson
The Rockies sent righty Keegan Thompson outright to Triple-A Albuquerque, per the MLB.com transaction log. Colorado designated him for assignment yesterday when they needed a 40-man roster spot for outfield prospect Cole Carrigg. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so they evidently began that on Monday’s off day before formally announcing the DFA.
It’s the second time this year the Rox have gotten Thompson through waivers. He was designated for assignment at the end of Spring Training after failing to break camp. Thompson is out of options and can’t be sent down without going through waivers. The Rox selected him back onto the roster when Victor Vodnik went on the injured list in late May.
Thompson only got into five games over his three weeks on the MLB roster. He worked in mop-up relief and allowed 11 runs through 12 innings. Thompson had a solid enough 11:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he allowed 19 hits and tossed three wild pitches. That was his first MLB work in two seasons. Thompson spent last year in Triple-A in the Cubs’ system.
The 31-year-old will likely return to Albuquerque. He has the right to elect free agency but would forfeit his split contract if he does so. Thompson is making $350K while in the minors and is paid at a prorated $1.3MM rate for any time on the big league roster. He presumably won’t walk away from that to pursue a minor league contract elsewhere. He has worked 32 1/3 innings in a swing role for the Isotopes, pitching to a 3.34 ERA despite a subpar 13.6% strikeout rate.
Astros Sign Trenton Brooks To Minor League Deal
The Astros signed outfielder Trenton Brooks to a minor league contract. Although the team never formally announced the move, Brooks is tonight’s lineup for their Triple-A affiliate in Sugar Land.
It’s another flier on a left-handed hitting outfielder for the Astros. They added LaMonte Wade Jr. on a big league deal last week, but he almost immediately went on the injured list with a hamstring strain. That moved Joey Loperfido back to the big league level. CJ Alexander and Zach Cole are on the Triple-A roster as lefty-hitting outfielders.
Brooks, 30, is back in affiliated ball after beginning this season in Korea. He signed with the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes on a $700K contract. Brooks didn’t perform as the team hoped, batting .217/.286/.259 over 41 games. KBO teams have a roster limit on foreign-born players, so they’re quick to move on from those who struggle. The Heroes waived him in mid-May to sign Keston Hiura.
A former 17th-round pick, Brooks has played 37 games at the major league level. He debuted with the Giants in 2024 and got some run with the Padres last year. Brooks has hit .136 with one home run and 19 strikeouts in 72 trips. As one would imagine, he has a much better track record against minor league arms. Brooks is a lifetime .279/.382/.472 slash line with nearly equal walk and strikeout rates in nearly 2000 career Triple-A plate appearances.
Padres Sign Nick Pratto To Minor League Deal
The Padres signed first baseman Nick Pratto to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A El Paso. The affiliate announced the move this evening.
Pratto had spent the season on a minor league contract with Texas. The Rangers released him just yesterday and he quickly finds a new landing spot. Pratto had spent the first month of the season on the development list, which is a non-injury reserve list for minor league players. That’s typically used when a player is making mechanical adjustments outside of game action.
The 27-year-old Pratto reported to Triple-A Round Rock at the end of April. He appeared in 26 games and hit .237/.287/.473 across 101 plate appearances. Pratto slugged five home runs among 10 extra-base knocks but struck out 33 times while only taking six walks. The swing-and-miss has been an issue throughout his career.
A first-round pick of the Royals in 2017, Pratto hit .216/.295/.364 for Kansas City between 2022-23. He made one appearance as a late-game substitute in 2024 but has otherwise spent the last two and a half years in the minors. The former top prospect has a .226/.327/.430 slash line with a 30% strikeout rate over six Triple-A seasons.
Royals Notes: Isbel, Misner, Lange
The Royals placed center fielder Kyle Isbel on the 10-day injured list before Wednesday’s game against Texas. Kameron Misner was recalled from Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move.
Isbel is dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Manager Matt Quatraro tells Anne Rogers of MLB.com that the team is awaiting results of an MRI before they’ll have a return timeline. Isbel has been playing through foot discomfort but needed to make an early exit from last night’s game.
The 29-year-old has gotten the lion’s share of playing time in center field for a fourth consecutive season. He’s providing his usual combination of solid defense and below-average production at the plate. Isbel is hitting .244/.298/.354 with three home runs over 183 plate appearances. The Kansas City outfield has yet again been an issue, ranking 22nd in OPS with a .239/.329/.355 batting line.
Isbel’s injury should give Misner a chance to make his team debut. A Missouri native who played his college ball at the University of Missouri, Misner hit .203/.260/.325 in 79 games with the Rays between 2024-25. Kansas City acquired him early last offseason in a DFA trade but have kept him on optional assignment all year.
The lefty-hitting Misner has an intriguing tool set. He’s a plus runner with big bat speed and a strong arm, all of which made him a supplemental first-round draft choice back in 2019. The production hasn’t matched up, as the 6’3″ Misner hasn’t made enough contact at the big league level. He has mashed Triple-A pitching this season, batting .276/.373/.547 with 13 home runs and 11 stolen bases. He’s striking out at a 27% clip, though, which remains in line with his prior swing-and-miss rates.
Misner can play anywhere in the outfield, so he could replace Isbel as the left-handed part of a center field platoon. Lane Thomas is in the lineup tonight with Texas sending left-hander MacKenzie Gore to the mound. Thomas is flanked by the usual corner tandem of Isaac Collins and Jac Caglianone.
Elsewhere on the roster, the Royals have made a change at the back of their bullpen. Alex Lange fired a scoreless inning with a couple strikeouts to nail down a 5-3 win in the series opener. It was the righty’s fourth save in as many appearances over the last week. Lange is riding a nine-game scoreless streak and has tossed 16 1/3 innings of three-run ball since the beginning of May.
Quatraro declined to anoint a closer when speaking about the ninth inning last week, framing it as a matchup situation (link via MLB.com’s Mike Petraglia). The usage certainly suggests that Lange is the preferred choice right now.
The Royals have been without Carlos Estévez since Opening Day. Lucas Erceg was the obvious first choice to step into the closing role, but he hasn’t found his footing all year. Erceg has allowed an even 6.00 ERA with a career-low 18.8% strikeout rate while walking more than 14% of opposing hitters. He had given up runs in four consecutive appearances leading up to June 3.
That opened the door for Lange, a Kansas City native who signed with his hometown club for $900K over the winter. The LSU product saved 26 games for the Tigers back in 2023. His career was thrown off track after that, as he struggled early in ’24 and was optioned to Triple-A. Lange suffered a significant lat injury almost immediately after going to the minors and required surgery that cost him 14 months. Detroit released him at the end of last season.
Despite Lange’s recent success, the Royals have had one of the shakier bullpens in the American League. That’d be an obvious area to upgrade if they’re in position to add at the deadline. Kansas City has the third-worst record in the AL and are 11 games under .500, but they’ve won three straight and are only 4.5 back in a still wide open Wild Card race.
Unsurprisingly, the front office is in no rush to determine their deadline trajectory. “There are so many teams that are still in this. If you look at where we are right now, we’re (4.5) games out of a wild-card race,” president of baseball operations J.J Picollo said on Tuesday (link via Pete Grathoff of The Kansas City Star). “Last thing we’re thinking about is the trade deadline right now.” Picollo suggested they’re unlikely to make any real trade decisions before the All-Star Break.