Marlins Release Daniel Johnson
The Marlins released outfielder Daniel Johnson, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been at Triple-A Jacksonville on a minor league deal.
Johnson had only appeared in five minor league games. He started very slowly, striking out seven times with one hit through his first 16 trips to the plate. The lefty hitter had taken 23 plate appearances during big league Spring Training. He batted .222 with one home run.
The 30-year-old Johnson has played parts of four big league seasons. He got into a career-high 31 games last year, dividing that time between the Giants and Orioles. The New Mexico State product is a .196/.243/.322 hitter across 152 MLB plate appearances. Johnson owns a .255/.321/.448 line over parts of seven seasons at the Triple-A level, including this year’s brief look.
Joey Lucchesi Elects Free Agency
Left-hander Joey Lucchesi elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, according to an announcement from the Angels. He was designated for assignment over the weekend.
Lucchesi was pushed off the roster after Sunday’s scheduled starter, Ryan Johnson, was scratched with a viral infection. The Halos tabbed prospect George Klassen for a spot start. They needed active and 40-man roster space to bring him up, leaving Lucchesi as a tough luck roster casualty.
The 32-year-old southpaw had a very brief stint with the club. He signed a major league contract at the end of Spring Training and made three appearances. Lucchesi allowed five of six hitters to reach in his season debut. He followed up with a pair of scoreless outings but walked at least one batter in all of his appearances. He wound up issuing five free passes (four walks and a hit batter) across 2 1/3 innings.
Lucchesi spent last season with the Giants. He opened the year in Triple-A but was called up in the middle of June. He remained on the active roster for the final three and a half months, turning in a 3.76 ERA over 38 1/3 innings. Lucchesi got grounders at a 53% clip but had a modest 18.8% strikeout rate that led the Giants to drop him from the 40-man roster at season’s end. He returned on a minor league contract for Spring Training and was granted his release when the Giants picked up Ryan Borucki late in camp.
Alejandro Kirk To Undergo Thumb Surgery
April 7th: Manager John Schneider tells Keegan Matheson of MLB.com that Kirk had a screw placed in his thumb and is looking at a six-week recovery timeline.
April 6th: Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk will undergo surgery on his broken left thumb, manager John Schneider told reporters (including Rob Longley of The Toronto Sun). Schneider said the return timetable is dependent on whether doctors will need to insert a pin in Kirk’s thumb, which won’t be known until the operation is underway.
In any case, it’ll be more than a minimal 10-day injured list stint. The manager loosely floated a potential 3-4 week or 4-6 week recovery range depending on the procedure. It seems safe to rule Kirk out into May. The two-time All-Star was injured on Friday when he was struck by a foul tip.
A glove hand injury could obviously be problematic for a catcher. The Jays have used George Springer as a full-time designated hitter this year. Even if Kirk’s bat proves ahead of his glove in the recovery process, the Jays probably won’t activate him until he’s ready for regular work behind the plate.
Tyler Heineman and rookie Brandon Valenzuela are handling the catching duties until Kirk returns. Heineman did a nice job in the backup role a year ago, hitting .289/.361/.416 with strong receiving grades over 64 games. He entered tonight’s game with a 4-10 start to the season offensively, but he had a few ill-timed miscues in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s injury.
Heineman had a throwing error to allow the tying run to score with two outs in the tenth inning of an eventual loss to the White Sox on Friday. He had a baserunning gaffe and another throwing error that cost two runs in a 6-3 loss on Saturday. The Jays turned to Valenzuela for his MLB debut in the series finale, usual practice for a Sunday matinee. Heineman is back behind the plate tonight for the start of a World Series rematch against the Dodgers.
A’s Option Luis Morales
April 7th: The A’s officially announced today that they have selected Kuhnel and optioned Morales, while Hoglund was transferred to the 60-day IL. That means Hoglund won’t be eligible for reinstatement until late May.
April 6th: The Athletics optioned rookie righty Luis Morales to Triple-A Las Vegas this evening, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The A’s are off tonight and haven’t officially announced the transaction.
Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reports that reliever Joel Kuhnel will be selected onto the big league roster tomorrow as the corresponding move. That will require a spot on the 40-man roster. That’s at capacity and Gunnar Hoglund (lumbar spine strain) is their only player on the injured list. They’ll either transfer Hoglund to the 60-day IL or designate someone for assignment before their series opener in the Bronx.
Morales broke camp in the starting five. The Cuban-born hurler made a solid first impression last season, working to a 3.14 earned run average through 48 2/3 innings. He has had a brutal time the first two turns through the rotation this year. Morales allowed five runs in both appearances without completing five innings either time. His start against the Astros on Saturday was particularly poor, as he walked six batters and allowed eight hits without recording a strikeout.
The 23-year-old will spend at least a couple weeks in Triple-A in an attempt to get on track. Morales had also struggled to find the strike zone this spring, when he issued 14 walks across 19 frames. He was one of the A’s top pitching prospects throughout his time in the minors. Morales sits in the 96-97 mph range and has a power four-pitch mix that the A’s hope will lead to a future as a mid-rotation starter.
The A’s will need to call up a starter this weekend unless they plan to move J.T. Ginn from long relief back to the rotation. They’ve already announced it’ll be Aaron Civale, Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs for their three-game set against the Yankees. Tonight’s off day means they could theoretically bring Jacob Lopez back on regular rest on Friday for their series opener against the Mets. However, they’d need a fifth starter by Saturday at the latest and are kicking off a run of 16 straight game days.
They’ll probably prefer to give Lopez the extra day and bring up someone else to step into what would’ve been Morales’ turn on Friday. Mason Barnett, Joey Estes and prospect Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang are on the 40-man roster and working out of the rotation in Vegas. Zhuang is scheduled to start tomorrow and probably not under consideration for an MLB call.
Jack Perkins, who started four MLB games late last season, is also on the 40-man and has worked 2-3 inning stints out of the bullpen in the minors. Top prospect Gage Jump is not yet on the roster but opened the season in the Triple-A rotation. He has been inefficient in his first two starts but has managed a combined six innings of three-run ball with eight strikeouts. He threw 74 pitches yesterday and would be on regular rest if the A’s wanted to bring him up on Friday.
They’ll carry a ninth reliever in the interim. Kuhnel, 31, gets back to the big leagues for the first time since 2024. The 6’5″ righty worked 11 2/3 innings of two-run ball with 10 strikeouts as a non-roster invitee this spring. He carried that into the minor leagues, striking out six of 10 batters faced over three hitless innings with Las Vegas.
Kuhnel adds a power arm to Mark Kotsay’s middle relief group. He’s primarily a sinker-slider pitcher whose fastball checks in around 96 mph on average. Kuhnel owns a 5.86 ERA with a middling 19% strikeout rate and stronger 52% grounder percentage over 93 2/3 career innings. He’s out of options and needs to stick on the MLB roster or be designated for assignment.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Anthony Franco
- Hey all, Steve’s on vacation this week so I’m stepping in for the Tuesday chat. Apologies for the time change from the usual afternoon schedule. We’ll get going at the top of the hour
- Good morning, hope you’re all doing well!
- Let’s get rolling
AL Central Casting
- With all the extensions getting done around the league lately, I’d love to see the Twins lock up Luke Keaschall long-term. What do you think it would take? What about for Walker Jenkins?
Anthony Franco
- Both sensible targets. I’d have Jenkins below Colt Emerson based on the higher defensive floor for Emerson as a shortstop but they’re not too dissimilar as prospects. Jenkins should be closer to Emerson’s $95M guarantee than Cooper Pratt’s $50M range
- Some questions about the long-term defensive home for Keaschall but more proof of concept that he can hit MLB pitching than we had with Campbell or Samuel Basallo, even if they were better prospects pre-debut. Would guess somewhere between $60-70M on him?
Jason
- I thought Boston was going to be middle of the pack this year, so I’m not completely surprised by the horrible no good very bad start, but did you think they’d be this bad so early? I know a lot can change but wowzers.
Anthony Franco
- Still think they’ll be fine — no way the starting pitching remains this bad — but obviously the worst first couple weeks for any team and it’s not an easy division to climb back from if they keep spiraling through most of April
AA
- Why do I get the feeling this year’s Braves team isn’t gonna be much different than the last two?
Anthony Franco
- Obviously remain concerned about the rotation depth there but credit to Bryce Elder, whose first two starts have been really good. If he’s able to stick around as a league average starter and they get contributions from Ritchie and Fuentes, they’ll be better than last year
Ham
- Despite a couple big adds, the Orioles offense still looks like last year’s lackluster offense. What’s going on? And when will they learn to hit an offspeed pitch?
Anthony Franco
- Alonso’s better than this obviously but I think they’ve skewed too heavily toward RHH power at the expense of their OBP overall
- Would still take them as a slightly better than average offense moving forward but I worry that some of the redundancy in the offensive profiles will make them pretty streaky
Redsy
- If Sandy Alcantara has another excellent outing would you go all in on trying to trade for him this early if you are one of the big contenders? No way the guy stays in Miami past the deadline this year right?
Anthony Franco
- Darragh wrote a Front Office post on this so he and I were discussing this yesterday. I lean towards them holding and trading him this offseason
- Would be really surprised if he signs an extension — only way I could see it being plausible is if the league gets the MLBPA to break on a cap/floor system that forces Miami to almost double their payroll
- But I don’t think it’s out of the question this Miami team can hang around the Wild Card picture where the final spot might be 83-85 wins and Sandy would still have immense trade value next winter
Reds fan
- What are the reds doing with Marte? He is a building block guy and he hasn’t played against a right hander yet-is he just a platoon bat moving forward? I don’t understand it
Anthony Franco
- Yeah I don’t get that one either. They’re not really platooning him, just kind of alternating between him and Will Benson and I’d much rather have Marte out in right field
Cardsfansince1973
- There have been reports about the Cardinals trying to extend JJ Wetherholt. Any updates? Do you think they will try to extend Masyn Winn as well?
Anthony Franco
- Don’t doubt that they’d love to get both of them done. Wetherholt seems likelier to me just based on the number of early-career extensions we’ve seen the past couple years
decinces
- is the angels decent start (third best record in the al) just small sample size or a hope that the pitching is a little better than advertised and better depth is making the lineup deeper and able to string together some momentum, even with adell and lowe not doing anything offensively so far (though both have been phenomenal in the outfield corners so far)
Anthony Franco
- I just can’t muster any kind of optimism with this roster. Much the same pattern as previous Angels teams where there are handful of impact pieces (Neto, Soriano, Trout if healthy, maybe Detmers) but the depth is going to get exposed over 162
Chris
- Even off to a good start, preseason concerns about Yanks bottom of order and back end of bullpen look legit, dont they?
Anthony Franco
- Lineup will be fine. Caballero’s in over his head as a starting shortstop but you can live with him or Volpe at the bottom of the order. McMahon and Wells should be close to league average bats who provide strong defensive value
- Bullpen bridge to Bednar and Cruz concerns me a little more, but that’s a spot where they can again take a volume approach at the deadline (hopefully with better results than they’ve gotten from Doval and Bird so far)
Connor⚾️
- Expectations for the Rangers this year?⚾️
Anthony Franco
- Right around .500, clearly behind Seattle for me but there with Houston as the second and third best teams in the division in some order
The Ghost of Mickey Lolich
- To the surprise of no one, except Scott Harris, the Tigers offense ‘stinks’. When will we see Max Clark called up
Anthony Franco
- Ha, I still mostly like this offense on paper. Do think we could see Clark by the middle of May, though, especially if Parker Meadows isn’t hitting
SCR
- Wacha , Soriano or Messick rest of 2026 ? ( K’s dont matter ) .
Anthony Franco
- Soriano
Too Early
- Related questions: How does a lockout impact service time, and does the potential for a lockout get factored into some of the extensions we are seeing?
Anthony Franco
- An offseason lockout obviously doesn’t impact service time. If it costs an entire season, that’s something they’d need to sort out within the CBA
- I don’t think it’s having much of an impact on extensions. It probably plays into contract structure a little bit — players would prefer the money as signing bonuses rather than 2027 salary as a hedge — but if the ’27 season gets canceled, they’re not getting paid salaries either way
Slick Ric
- If CJ Abrams keeps hitting like he is, does that make it more likely or less likely that he is in Washington after the trade deadline?
Buster Posey
- Fine: I should have traded for CJ Abrams. Does Eldridge straight-up get it done or would the Nats want more?
Anthony Franco
- Better performance has to drive up the likelihood of a trade. Nats still aren’t close and 2.5 years of Abrams might be the most valuable deadline trade chip
- I don’t think Eldridge is getting it done as a standalone. Sensible headliner but this kind of deal is basically never one-for-one for a top prospect. Teams like to hedge their bets with multi-player packages
Circle Me Bert
- Where is Byron Buxton playing after the trade deadline?
Anthony Franco
- Still think he’s a Twin
Fantasy Advice
- Are we concerned about Nick Kurtz’s start?
Anthony Franco
- Not really. His rookie season was probably a little over his head — don’t think we’re talking about him as the third-best hitter in MLB behind Judge and Ohtani — and there will always be a lot of strikeouts but the power barrage is coming
Greg
- Any tips for securing a job with MLB Trade Rumors?
Anthony Franco
- When opportunities come out, we just put out a job posting on the site, nothing available right now. Best advice I could give is to read closely on a lot of the transactional minutia to have an idea of why teams make moves when they do, 40-man implications, etc.
Phils
- What do you do with T walker when Zach Wheeler comes back? He won’t be in the rotation and they have absolutely no space for him in the bullpen. Is it time to just say goodbye or ask him to go to AAA?
Anthony Franco
- He has no incentive to go to Triple-A. My guess is they’ll try to get Pop through waivers and keep Walker around in long relief as a hedge in case Wheeler doesn’t look right
Ryan
- Why did the Brewers preemptively give Cooper Pratt a 40-man roster spot when he’s not getting called up and wasn’t Rule 5 eligible until after the 2027 season?
Anthony Franco
- It’s required for any player signing a major league contract. Mariners had to do the same with Colt Emerson
Jordan Walker
- Are you buying my breakout?
Anthony Franco
- Cautiously optimistic. Still a lot of swing-and-miss but he’s destroying the ball and getting it in the air more than he usually does. Seems like the bat path is a little more uphill this year, which is encouraging if you can pull that off without a massive drop in contact
- It’s two weeks so I’m not fully on board yet because we’ve seen stretches where Walker gets hot and then falls back, but I’m more intrigued than I was on March 27
Big Fan
- Can you explain the “player to be named later” process? Is there a time limit for the player to be named? Is there a bank of players that the teams agree could be available at a later time?
Anthony Franco
- Pretty much. Teams will agree to a prearranged list of players who the acquiring club can choose from a timeline for them to make that decision
To ATL
- I’ve seen Tim and now you revently respond to questions about the lockout with a bit more pessimism. Is that me, or are you concerned we may actually lose part or all of next season?
Anthony Franco
- Nah I think the offseason will suck but they’ll figure it out late, pretty similar to what happened the last time around
- More pessimistic about 2031 but MLB has so many reasons right now (TV bundle after ’28, expansion, Manfred’s personal desire not to have his legacy be an inability to get a CBA done at the end of his tenure) not to bring it all to a halt this time
I Overslept
- Calm me down about Carter Jensen. There are a lot of young guys on the Royals and it kinda bugs me that they let it slide.
Anthony Franco
- They kind of put him on blast publicly, obviously scratched him from that game. I think it’s fine. Sending him down or something is an overreaction that deals more of a hit to the team than it’s worth
- If it happens again, alright, maybe they do some kind of disciplinary thing like the Nationals did with CJ Abrams a couple years ago. For the first time, I think they handled it fine
The Big Q
- Why is “swing and miss” simply a part of Kurtz’s game, but a detriment to Walker’s breakout?
Anthony Franco
- We’ve seen Kurtz have a monster power season despite a 30% strikeout rate already
- If Kurtz had hit six homers last season, I’d be a lot more worried about the whiffs
zivkov34
- What’s the hold up on the Konnor Griffin extension? Or were we sold yet anotherPR lie y Bob
Anthony Franco
- Probably waiting a few days to make it look better for that silly PPI rule that says he can’t earn them a pick if there’s an extension done before his MLB debut
Marlins
- Do you think Liam hicks will keep hitting like this or do you think he’ll go back to being around a below average to average bat
Anthony Franco
- He’s never had anything close to this kind of power but the plate discipline is good enough that I buy him as a slightly above-average hitter
- I like him more than Agustín Ramírez but don’t think either has the glove to be a long-term starting catcher. Not like they’ve got anything locked down at first base, though
Blue
- How do you like ABS challenges so far?
Anthony Franco
- It’s been fun. Still think it’ll end up being full ABS once the novelty wears off and we get a blown call that costs a playoff game when a team is out of challenges. But I underrated how much fans would love the idea of the ABS overturning calls on the scoreboard
Guest
- If Bohm scuffles will the Phillies call up Aiden Miller to replace Bohm?
Anthony Franco
- He’d need to be really bad into July before I could see that as a possibility, easier to break him in as a bench bat without turning over 3B halfway through a pennant race. Miller’s also on the minor league IL right now and his return timeline isn’t clear
Buster Posey
- Why not blow this whole thing up and finally play the kids? This organization never wants to rebuild so we can be mediocre and win our standard 81 games.
Giants fan
- Would this Giants team be a powerhouse in the SEC?
Rich
- Is there a legitimate chance the Giants are really bad? Like, worse than Colorado bad.
Anthony Franco
- Three of the many Giants questions in here. Not yet moving off my prior that they’ll be in the Wild Card picture all season
Hoyer
- Giolito kinda makes sense if Hortons out awhile right?
Anthony Franco
- Probably but I have no idea what Giolito’s status is at this point. One of the weirder free agent trajectories I can remember
charlie tuna
- A question/comment about the MLB draft and taxes. As we all know, teams that spend big also pay big taxes and teams that don’t spend, don’t pay the lux tax. There are teams that are legitimately trying to win and others that aren’t. Then there are (not many) teams that spend and try to win with limited resources. Teams like this (best example being the Padres) are penalized by having to pay the lux tax anyway. They are also dinged by having their Q.O. players, that sign elsewhere, bring back a lower draft pick than they would normally receive. To me that seems like penalizing teams that use all their resources in an attempt to win. Bass akwards if you ask me and detrimental to the game. Any chance this gets address in the next CBA?
Anthony Franco
- MLBPA would love to flip this around. The league puts this in the CBA because they don’t want teams to spend, it’s a deliberate choice
- I don’t think moving a team’s top pick back 10 spots for passing the third tier is a huge disincentive. The QO stuff is, at least for mid-market players, but it’s designed to be to drive down free agent spending. Union has to give up something else to get MLB to give on this
Taylor
- With Yordan Alvarez finally healthy and the offense leading the AL in batting average through the first week, is this front office in a better position to be buyers at the deadline — or does the bullpen situation (Hader on IL, thin backend depth) make them more likely to address pitching first, even if it costs them a legitimate hitting upgrade?
Anthony Franco
- I’m sure they’d love to buy. Older roster, aggressive ownership (at least for certain players), a GM on the last year of his contract whose team missed the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons
- Still need to find a LH bat, ideally in the outfield. They’re still there with the Angels as the most RHH lineups in MLB
- Rotation depth isn’t great but is in better shape than it probably should be given where they were at the start of the offseason. Back-end bullpen could be the priority but we’ll see how Hader and Sousa recover in the interim few months
Nationals guy
- Are you buying the new analytics the Nationals are giving their hitters? Looks like we could have some guys breaking out (House, Nunez, Lyle) and that’s without Crews who should be coming up fairly soon. This team looks like they can at least hit.
Anthony Franco
- Nuñez is what he is, serviceable utility guy. Still don’t think House is going to make enough contact
- Agree that Lile can rake and should be athletic enough to play the outfield but man, his tentativeness last year was rough
Benge
- I have not been hitting at all lately. Probably time to go down to AAA to reset, or is it too early?
Anthony Franco
- Give him at least until Soto comes back. If he’s still struggling at that point, I’d option him
- Alright that’s all I have time for today. Working on a little tighter schedule this week unfortunately
- I’m on X @affranco10 if you want to throw any other questions at me there. I do a Friday afternoon chat for Front Office subscribers where I can get to a much higher percentage of questions with more time to go in depth on the answers
- Steve will be back next week, so it should be the usual Tuesday afternoon schedule on that one
- Have a good afternoon everyone!
Cardinals Trade Nick Raquet To Orioles
Today: The Orioles have announced the trade and activated Raquet. Brandon Young has been optioned to Triple-A. To make space for Raquet on their 40-man roster, Baltimore transferred Eflin to the 60-day IL. Elbow discomfort forced Eflin to make an early exit during his season debut on March 31, and he is going for a second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister later today. At the very least, he will now miss April and May.
April 6, 9:27 pm: Baltimore is sending minor league outfielder Brayden Smith to St. Louis in return, reports Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The lefty-hitting Smith was the O’s 13th-round pick last year after spending one season at Oklahoma State. He hit .200 with one home run while drawing 12 walks in 16 games at Low-A Delmarva to begin his pro career.
April 6, 9:08 pm: The Orioles are acquiring reliever Nick Raquet from the Cardinals, reports Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News. St. Louis designated the lefty for assignment yesterday. Baltimore will need to create a 40-man roster spot once the trade is final; Heston Kjerstad and Zach Eflin are potential 60-day injured list candidates.
Raquet debuted last September and tossed two scoreless appearances of one inning apiece. That’s the entirety of the 30-year-old lefty’s big league experience to date. Raquet held his spot on the 40-man roster over the offseason but was optioned early in Spring Training. He has worked three innings of one-run ball with a trio of strikeouts for Triple-A Memphis to begin the season.
It has been a long climb to the big leagues for Raquet. The 6’0″ hurler was a third-round pick by the Nationals out of William & Mary in 2017. He never made it beyond A-ball in the Washington system and was released in 2020. Raquet was out of baseball for a few seasons before turning independent and Dominican Winter League work into a new minor league opportunity with St. Louis in 2024.
Raquet spent most of last season in the upper levels of the minor leagues. He combined for a 2.24 ERA with a 28% strikeout rate over 52 1/3 frames, excelling in Double-A before struggling at the top minor league level. He’s a slider specialist whose breaking ball sits in the 82-84 mph range. Raquet’s fastball only lands around 90-91, but he has a full slate of minor league options and can head to Triple-A Norfolk.
Joe Ross Elects Free Agency
Veteran righty Joe Ross elected free agency over the weekend, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Friday.
Ross had a short-lived tenure in the desert. The 32-year-old broke camp in a long relief role after signing a minor league contract in February. He worked a perfect inning in his season debut but was knocked around over the next two appearances. Ross gave up six runs without getting through an inning against the Tigers on March 30. He surrendered three walks and a Mauricio Dubón homer in a blowout loss to Atlanta two days later. The D-Backs swapped him out of their bullpen for Taylor Rashi after the Braves game.
A veteran of parts of nine big league seasons, Ross has had a tough past year-plus. He gave up a 5.12 ERA over 51 innings for the Phillies last year. Philadelphia released him in August, and he closed the season in Triple-A with the Cubs. He’ll be looking at minor league offers now that he’s back on the open market.
Angels Notes: Johnson, Klassen, Trout
The Angels placed rookie starter Ryan Johnson on the 15-day injured list before tonight’s game. Lefty Mitch Farris is up from Triple-A Salt Lake to take his spot on the active roster. Johnson’s placement, which is retroactive to April 3, is due to a virus.
Johnson surprisingly broke camp as the Halos’ fifth starter. That was due both to his strong Spring Training and the injuries to Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah ahead of him on the depth chart. It continued a bizarre career arc for the 2024 supplemental second-round draft choice. Johnson skipped the minors entirely to break camp last year as a reliever. He looked overmatched, was optioned all the way back to High-A in May, then dominated over 12 starts to finish the season.
The Angels jumped the 23-year-old back up as a starter without any upper minors experience. He had a shaky first MLB start, allowing six runs without getting through the fourth inning against the Cubs. Johnson was scheduled for his second appearance yesterday against the Mariners before the illness intervened.
That led to the first MLB opportunity for well-regarded prospect George Klassen. The Angels selected him as a spot starter in Johnson’s place. Klassen walked five batters and only recorded eight outs in his big league debut. The Halos used four relievers (Ryan Zeferjahn, Brent Suter, Sam Bachman and Shaun Anderson) for multiple frames in an eventual 11th-inning win.
Farris gives them a multi-inning relief option for the next couple days. José Soriano has done his part to give the bullpen a much needed breather, firing eight innings of one-run ball tonight against the Braves. Their pitching plans for the next few days are to be determined beyond knowing that it’ll be Yusei Kikuchi and Reid Detmers to start the final two games of their series with Atlanta. They’re off on Thursday before playing on 14 consecutive days. Manager Kurt Suzuki told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register) that they haven’t decided whether Klassen will make another start.
Meanwhile, Mike Trout was out of the lineup tonight after being hit on the left hand during yesterday’s ballgame. He’s listed as day to day, per the MLB.com injury tracker. Bryce Teodosio got the nod in center field tonight against Chris Sale. If Trout needs more time, the Angels could turn to lefty-hitting Josh Lowe there with Atlanta starting righties for the next two games. Teodosio would be the other possibility if they’re focused solely on defense.
José Buttó Undergoes Procedure For Blood Clot
APRIL 4: The Giants announced today that Butto’s recovery timeline is 2-4 months.
APRIL 3: Giants reliever José Buttó has a blood clot in his throwing arm, the team told reporters (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). He’s undergoing a procedure this evening to remove it.
Buttó landed on the 15-day injured list yesterday. The team initially announced that only as arm fatigue. The clot provides a little more clarity, but there’s no return timeline. Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle relays that it appears Buttó had pitched through the issue for a while before the clot was diagnosed earlier today.
Blood clotting can be associated with thoracic outlet syndrome. That was the case for Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, for example. The Giants have not said anything about whether that’s a fear for Buttó. However, skipper Tony Vitello told Slusser there are a few possible procedures that the right-hander might undergo.
San Francisco acquired Buttó from the Mets as one of three players in the Tyler Rogers deal last summer. Blade Tidwell, another part of the Rogers return, was coincidentally recalled to take his place in the bullpen yesterday. Buttó turned in a 4.50 ERA across 20 innings down the stretch. He surrendered five runs on six hits and four walks over two innings to begin the 2026 season.
Braves Pitching Notes: Strider, Pérez, Fuentes
Spencer Strider threw a 20-pitch bullpen session on Friday as he works back from the oblique strain that shelved him to begin the season. Braves manager Walt Weiss tells reporters (including Chad Bishop of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) that the righty will probably need a rehab start before he’s ready to return to the big league club.
There’s a decent chance Strider will need to throw a live batting practice session before he heads out on a minor league assignment. That’s usually the intervening step between a bullpen session and rehab stint. Strider seems to be progressing nicely, though, and he looks to be on track to make his season debut within the next couple weeks.
Strider worked 8 1/3 innings over three appearances during Spring Training. The final of those came on March 11 before he tweaked his left oblique. A healthy Strider would have followed Chris Sale in the season-opening rotation. Grant Holmes and Reynaldo López have stepped into the second and third spots, respectively. They’ve pitched well through the first two turns. López’s fastball velocity has ticked back up into the 94 mph range after sitting at worrisome levels in Spring Training.
The final two spots are still questionable. Bryce Elder had a nice season debut against the A’s earlier this week, working six scoreless innings with five punchouts. He’ll go against Michael Soroka tomorrow in the third game of their four-game set in Arizona. The Braves have yet to announce who’ll oppose Brandon Pfaadt in the series finale.
José Suarez took that spot the first time through the rotation. He didn’t escape the fourth inning, allowing four runs on five hits and four walks in a 5-2 loss to the A’s on Tuesday. Martín Pérez followed with 4 1/3 scoreless frames and three strikeouts in a mop-up role.
Neither pitcher has taken the ball since that appearance, and Mark Bowman of MLB.com writes that it likely sets up for the Braves to flip their roles in this turn. They could temporarily tab Pérez as the fifth starter while using Suarez in a low-leverage relief role. Dylan Lee is the only of their current 13 MLB pitchers who has minor league options. Barring intervening injuries, at least one of Pérez, Suarez or Osvaldo Bido will probably be pushed off the roster once Strider returns.
Didier Fuentes is something of a wild card in those pitching plans. The 20-year-old broke camp in long relief and reeled off four innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts in his only appearance. The Braves optioned him after that outing, a prearranged plan to allow him to build as a more traditional starter in the minors.
Fuentes made his first start of the season with Triple-A Gwinnett this evening. He struck out seven while allowing just two baserunners (one hit and walk apiece) across 3 1/3 innings. Fuentes got up to 72 pitches after a 56-pitch outing in his MLB appearance. He’s probably only one or two starts from being built up as a rotation candidate.
The Braves will need to decide how best to use Fuentes without overworking him. The Colombian-born righty tossed 70 innings last year between the minors and a four-start look in the big leagues. He has yet to reach 80 innings in a professional season.
Atlanta isn’t going to fully unleash him for 150+ innings and surely wants to see continued development in his command and secondary pitches. That said, Fuentes has an excellent fastball and has had a dominant few weeks going back to Spring Training, where he struck out 18 of the 43 batters he faced. After looking overmatched when the Braves hurried him to the majors last summer, he seems much better positioned to carve out an MLB role this year.