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Jose Azocar Elects Free Agency

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Outfielder José Azocar elected free agency after being outrighted by the Braves, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Atlanta designated him for assignment on Monday when Stuart Fairchild returned from the injured list.

Azocar spent a few weeks as the last player off Brian Snitker’s bench. He only played twice, entering as a late-game substitute both times. It’s a similar role that the 29-year-old played for the Mets early in the season. Azocar is a plus runner who can handle all three outfield positions. It’s a light bat, though, and his playing time has dropped in each of the past four seasons. He’s also out of options, so teams cannot send him to Triple-A without running him through waivers — at which point he can refuse the assignment in favor of free agency.

Over parts of four seasons, Azocar is a career .244/.290/.319 hitter over 418 plate appearances. He’s hit a pair of homers while stealing 19 bases in 28 attempts. Most of his playing time came with the Padres between 2022-24. He landed with the Mets on a late-season waiver claim last year but has now cleared waivers on three occasions this season. He’s likely looking at minor league offers, where he owns a career .286/.322/.434 Triple-A batting line.

A’s Notes: Ginn, Gelof, Fisher

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The A’s activated J.T. Ginn from the injured list on Tuesday, but the 26-year-old righty is not immediately returning to the rotation. Manager Mark Kotsay said before Tuesday’s game that Ginn would be available out of the bullpen (via Jessica Kleinschmidt). He’s already made his first relief appearance, firing three scoreless innings behind Mitch Spence last night.

Ginn had started his first four appearances of the season. He posted a 5.60 ERA across 17 innings while missing time to both elbow inflammation and a quad strain. The former second-round pick started six of his eight MLB outings last year as a rookie, allowing 4.24 earned runs per nine through 34 frames. The A’s evidently prefer him in multi-inning relief in the short term rather than bumping someone — likely Spence or Jacob Lopez — out of the starting five.

Zack Gelof is also nearing a return, as he began a rehab stint at Triple-A Las Vegas tonight. He took three plate appearances as a designated hitter in his first game action in over six weeks. Gelof has missed the entire season. He fractured his wrist on a Spring Training hit-by-pitch and required hamate surgery. That knocked him out for a month. He began a rehab assignment in early May but quickly suffered a rib injury that cost him another month and a half. He’ll need a while to get up to MLB readiness but should make his season debut within the next couple weeks. Position players can spend up to 20 days on a rehab assignment.

Luis Urías has stepped in as the regular second baseman in Gelof’s absence. He’s having a decent year, hitting .249/.338/.407 with seven homers through 207 plate appearances. Urías is playing on a cheap one-year deal and is an impending free agent. The 30-45 A’s will presumably try to drum up trade interest before next month’s deadline.

In an A’s-adjacent development, Sportico’s Kurt Badenhousen reports that owner John Fisher is pursuing a sale of his Major League Soccer franchise, the San Jose Earthquakes. Fisher has owned the MLS franchise for nearly two decades. According to Sportico, he intends to sell the majority stake of the soccer organization and has contracted an investment bank to facilitate the sale. Sportico valued the team around $600M in January.

That sale comes in the first year of what is expected to be a three-year process for the construction of the A’s new stadium in Las Vegas. The A’s secured upwards of $350MM in public funding towards an estimated $1.75 billion cost estimate. Fisher has reportedly sought to raise at least half a billion dollars in private funding through selling minority shares of the Athletics. It’s unclear whether and to what extent his desire to sell the Earthquakes is related to the A’s stadium plan. Last week, Mick Akers of The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the A’s have scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony for their new facility on June 23 — though that’s largely an aesthetic measure after construction crews began preliminary work at the site in April.

Brewers Trade Wes Clarke To Astros

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The Brewers traded minor league first baseman Wes Clarke to the Astros, reports Francys Romero. He was not on the Brewers’ 40-man roster and will not occupy a roster spot with Houston. It’s not clear what Milwaukee received in exchange, though most trades of this nature are typically for cash considerations.

Clarke, 25, was a 10th-round draftee in 2021. A college catcher at South Carolina, he has moved off the position to full-time first base/designated hitter work this year. Clarke showed big power in college and hit 26 home runs in Double-A two seasons ago. He ranked among Milwaukee’s top 20 prospects at Baseball America going into the ’24 campaign as a result. His stock has dropped since then, as his already high strikeout rates reached untenable levels since he was promoted to Triple-A Nashville.

The righty-hitting Clarke posted a .243/.340/.458 mark with 18 homers in 87 contests last year. That’s a solid enough slash line, but he struck out in more than 35% of his plate appearances. Clarke has slightly improved the strikeout rate this year (30.2%) but has dropped to a .216/.352/.358 slash with six longballs in 182 trips to the dish. His exit velocities aren’t much different from last season, so perhaps the Astros feel he’s been a bit unlucky on batted balls. Clarke has plus power and an extremely patient approach, but the swing-and-miss and limited defensive value make for a difficult profile.

Marlins To Recall Adam Mazur

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The Marlins will recall righty Adam Mazur to start tomorrow evening’s game against Philadelphia, manager Clayton McCullough told reporters (including Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase). He’ll go against Ranger Suárez in his team debut. SportsGrid’s Craig Mish first reported that Mazur was likely to get the call. He’s already on the 40-man roster, so the Fish only need to make an active roster move involving a pitcher.

It’s not a big league debut for the 24-year-old Mazur. He took the ball eight times for the Padres last summer. The former second-round pick struggled in his first look at MLB hitters, giving up a 7.49 ERA through 33 2/3 innings. He’d only had five Triple-A starts at the time, as San Diego was pressed into calling him up by injuries to their more established starters. The Padres optioned him back to Triple-A just before the trade deadline.

Three days later, Mazur was on the move. The Marlins acquired him as part of the return for Tanner Scott and Bryan Hoeing last July. Mazur has been on optional assignment to Triple-A Jacksonville for the better part of a calendar year. He struggled over eight starts there last year but has posted better numbers this season. Mazur owns a 3.62 ERA with a 22.2% strikeout percentage and tidy 6.5% walk rate. He has allowed home runs at an elevated rate, but it’s a generally solid performance to earn him his first call to loanDepot Park.

Miami has been operating with a four-man rotation of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Cal Quantrill and Edward Cabrera. They lost Max Meyer and Ryan Weathers to injury and have been utilizing bullpen games to handle the fifth starter role. McCullough didn’t specify whether Mazur will get more than one start for this recall, but it stands to reason that he’ll get a real rotation opportunity at some point this year. Alcantara, Quantrill and potentially Cabrera could all be in trade discussions this summer. Quantrill also left tonight’s start early with a leg issue, though McCullough said postgame that it was just a cramp (via Isaac Azout of Fish on First).

Angels Re-Sign Shaun Anderson To Minor League Contract

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The Angels brought back righty Shaun Anderson on another minor league contract, as reflected on the MiLB.com transaction log. The tracker also indicates that the Halos released Buck Farmer and Andrew Vasquez from their minor league deals. Anderson will head to Triple-A Salt Lake.

Anderson has signed three separate minor league deals with the Halos this year. They’ve called him up twice but needed to designate him for assignment to take him off the active roster, as he’s out of options. Anderson elected free agency both times and has returned to the organization on new minor league pacts.

Around the transactions, the 30-year-old Anderson has made six big league relief appearances. He has surrendered nine runs on 16 hits (including a trio of homers) in 10 2/3 innings. He’s been pitching out of the rotation in Salt Lake, allowing 5.74 earned runs per nine through 42 1/3 innings. Anderson has an ERA just under 4.00 in seven Triple-A campaigns but has allowed a 6.20 ERA through 162 2/3 MLB frames.

Farmer and Vasquez each signed with the Angels last month. Farmer allowed 12 earned runs in as many innings for the Bees. Vasquez allowed nine earned across 13 frames with 10 strikeouts and five walks. Neither pitcher has logged any MLB action this year.

Devers Trade Fallout: Breslow, Deadline Plans, Clubhouse

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The baseball world remains focused on last night’s stunning blockbuster that sent Rafael Devers to San Francisco. There’ll surely be more from the Giants once Devers reports to the team tomorrow, but there’s already been plenty of note out of Boston.

The trade was obviously driven by the deterioration of the relationship between Devers and the Red Sox. That stemmed from the three-time All-Star’s frustration with being moved off third base when the Sox signed Alex Bregman. Devers initially indicated he was unwilling to change positions before begrudgingly agreeing to serve as the designated hitter. He was more adamant in refusing to even take pregame reps at first base after the Sox lost Triston Casas to a season-ending knee injury. He went public with his displeasure with chief baseball officer Craig Breslow after the team approached him about considering it.

Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe posted last night that the team felt that Devers’ franchise-record $313.5MM contract came “with responsibilities to do what is right for the team” which the infielder had not met. More specifically, Sean McAdam of MassLive writes that the Sox feared that Devers’ frustrations with the position changes would send a poor message to their younger players — especially their talented rookie trio of Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell.

Breslow alluded to the clubhouse culture in a Zoom call with reporters this evening (YouTube link to 38-minute conversation). “It’s the willingness to step up and sacrifice at times of need and essentially do whatever is necessary to help the team win,” the former MLB reliever said when speaking generally about successful teams of which he’d been a part. “I think that’s the identity, this relentless pursuit of winning, that we’re looking for.” He declined to directly answer a follow-up question from ESPN’s Jeff Passan as to which areas Devers was not meeting those standards.

CEO Sam Kennedy and Breslow repeated multiple times on the call that the team and Devers could no longer “find alignment.” Breslow indicated that Devers did not formally request a trade, though he added that “there were times during the course of conversations with Raffy’s camp where they had indicated that perhaps a fresh start would be best for both sides.”

This was evidently under consideration for a while. Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey told the San Francisco beat last night that they’d been in conversations with the Sox about Devers for a few weeks (relayed by Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). While Breslow did not provide any specifics on the talks, McAdam reported this morning that the Braves, Blue Jays and Padres had also inquired about Devers’ availability.

Ultimately, those teams weren’t willing to top the Giants’ offer. San Francisco assumed the remaining eight and a half seasons and more than $250MM remaining on Devers’ contract. They sent back starter Kyle Harrison, two prospects (including last year’s first rounder James Tibbs III), and righty Jordan Hicks. There’s some element of salary offset with Hicks’ inclusion, as he’s under contract for $12.5MM annually through 2027. San Francisco signed Hicks with an eye towards stretching him out as a starter, but he failed to hold a rotation role in either of his first two seasons. They’d moved him back to the bullpen before he landed on the injured list with toe inflammation early this month.

Breslow described Hicks as “a dominant late-inning reliever,” suggesting they don’t intend to build him back out for another rotation attempt. Harrison was optioned to Triple-A Worcester but figures to get a rotation look later in the season. It seems clear the Red Sox accepted a significant downgrade in the short term, though Breslow tried to make the case that “there is a real chance that at the end of the season, we’re looking back and we’ve won more games than we otherwise would have.”

While that seems unlikely, Hicks and Harrison are potential short-term contributors. “We needed to create a more functional roster and give certain guys more playing time, be able to rotate through the DH spot and potentially match up there,” Breslow said. “This is a roster that certainly has some needs — starting pitching, bullpen help — and we think that we addressed some of those in the return. Additionally, I do think that it gives us some resources as we head toward the deadline.”

RosterResource now calculates the Sox’s luxury tax number right around the $241MM base threshold. Cot’s Baseball Contracts has them slightly below the line at roughly $238MM. Any tax payment would be minimal since they didn’t pay the CBT last season (and therefore aren’t subject to repeat payor penalties). The decision whether to exceed the threshold could have an impact on next year’s payroll and compensation if they sign any free agents who decline a qualifying offer.

Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported this morning that the Red Sox continue to view themselves as deadline buyers. Breslow didn’t commit to a direction six weeks in advance of July 31, but he stated that this trade ” is in no way signifying a waving of the white flag on 2025. We are as committed as we were six months ago to putting a winning team on the field, to competing for the division and making a deep postseason run.”

The Sox entered tonight’s series opener in Seattle with a 37-36 record that has them half a game back in the Wild Card race. They’d been riding high, winning five straight and coming off a sweep of the Yankees. While the trade had seemingly been coming together for weeks, making the deal after arguably the Sox’s best series of the season (culminating in a game in which Devers homered off Max Fried) was certainly jarring.

Tim Healey of The Boston Globe was among those to chronicle the reactions from Sox players before tonight’s game. “Probably just as shocked as everyone else. That’s the best way to describe it, didn’t really see it coming,” Trevor Story told reporters. “The timing of it comes at a weird time. We thought we were playing really good.” Jarren Duran and Garrett Crochet also acknowledged being taken aback, with Crochet calling it “a shock for sure, after the run we just had this past week.”

Nevertheless, the prevailing sentiment was that the team is confident about the players who remain on the roster. Crochet and Walker Buehler each stated that the front office did not owe the clubhouse an explanation. “From the outside perspective, that would seem like a logical thing,” Buehler said. “But this is part of the business. We have no reason to get an explanation. They made a decision. Our job remains the same.”

Giants Outright Osleivis Basabe

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The Giants sent infielder Osleivis Basabe outright to Triple-A Sacramento, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. He was designated for assignment last week when they selected catcher Logan Porter onto the big league roster after losing Patrick Bailey to injury.

Basabe hasn’t played an MLB game with San Francisco. They acquired him from the Rays in an offseason DFA trade and had kept him on optional assignment all year. He hasn’t hit despite the generally favorable Pacific Coast League parks. Basabe owns a .242/.287/.352 slash with four homers in 198 plate appearances. He has put the ball in play at a solid rate but hasn’t walked much or hit for any kind of power. It’s his second straight poor showing at the top minor league level. He hit .248/.293/.336 in 66 games for Tampa Bay’s affiliate last year.

This is the first career outright for Basabe, so he doesn’t have the ability to elect free agency. He’ll remain with the River Cats and try to play his way back into the MLB conversation. He’s still just 24 and was a highly-regarded prospect not long ago, though clearing waivers demonstrates how far his stock has fallen since his bat has stalled. Basabe would qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season if San Francisco doesn’t add him back to the 40-man roster before then.

Ron Taylor Passes Away

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Former MLB reliever and physician Ron Taylor has passed away, according to an announcement from the Mets. He was 87.

A Toronto native, Taylor began his career in the Cleveland organization in 1956. He reached the big leagues six years later and had a memorable debut at Fenway Park. Tabbed as the starting pitcher — one of just 17 starts he’d make in his career — Taylor began with 11 scoreless innings. Boston’s Bill Monbouquette matched him zero for zero, though, working through 12 scoreless frames. Taylor’s remarkable first outing came to a disappointing end, as he surrendered a walk-off grand slam to Carroll Hardy in the twelfth.

That was one of eight appearances that Taylor would make in his rookie season. After the year, Cleveland swapped him to the Cardinals for first baseman Fred Whitfield. Taylor had a strong first year in St. Louis, turning in a 2.84 ERA across 133 1/3 innings in a long relief role. He’d add another 4 2/3 scoreless frames against the Yankees in the World Series. Almost all of those came in Game 4, when he fired four scoreless without allowing a hit to save a 4-3 victory. That evened the series at two games apiece, and the Cards would go on to win in seven behind Bob Gibson.

Taylor struggled over the next couple seasons, leading St. Louis to deal him to the Astros midway through the ’65 campaign. He didn’t pitch particularly well during his year and a half in Houston. The Astros sold his contract to the Mets going into 1967. Taylor turned things around in Queens, working to a sub-3.00 ERA in each of his first three seasons.

He tossed 76 innings of 2.72 ERA ball with 13 saves for the ’69 Miracle Mets team that won 100 games and knocked off the Braves and Orioles en route to the first championship in franchise history. Taylor made four appearances in the postseason, striking out seven across 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He recorded one save apiece in the NLCS and World Series, getting Brooks Robinson to ground out with two runners on in a 2-1 ballgame to lock down Game 2 of the Fall Classic.

Taylor pitched a few more seasons in New York and finished his playing days with a very brief stint for the Padres in 1972. He remained in the game after the end of his playing career, but he didn’t follow the coaching or scouting paths of most former players. Taylor went to medical school immediately after retiring and was later hired as the team physician for the Blue Jays, a role he’d hold for a few decades. He added two more World Series rings in that capacity when Toronto went back-to-back in the early 1990s.

During a playing career that spanned parts of 11 seasons, Taylor posted a 3.93 ERA in exactly 800 regular season innings. He recorded 464 strikeouts and collected 74 saves. His postseason résumé was brief but impactful, as he didn’t allow a run in 10 1/3 frames while getting the save in three of his six playoff appearances. He played a key role in winning a pair of championships and was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. MLBTR sends our condolences to Taylor’s family, friends, loved ones and former teammates and colleagues throughout the game.

Padres Select Bryce Johnson

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The Padres announced they’ve selected outfielder Bryce Johnson onto the big league roster. Catcher Luis Campusano has been optioned to Triple-A El Paso as the corresponding active roster move. Right-hander Yu Darvish has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot.

Johnson gives the Friars some extra outfield depth after they lost Jackson Merrill to the concussion-related injured list over the weekend. Campusano hadn’t been playing much as a third catcher behind Elias Díaz and Martín Maldonado, so it made more sense to add another outfielder to the bench. Tyler Wade and Brandon Lockridge are likely to split the center field reps, but Johnson adds a switch-hitting bat to Mike Shildt’s outfield mix.

It’ll be the second Padres stint for the 29-year-old Johnson. He appeared in 47 games and tallied a career-high 73 plate appearances with the Friars a year ago. Johnson was non-tendered at season’s end and landed with the Pirates on a minor league deal. The Padres brought him back in April in a minor league swap for depth catcher Brett Sullivan. (Today has been less kind to Sullivan, who was designated for assignment by Pittsburgh this afternoon.) Johnson has spent the bulk of the season in El Paso, where he’s hitting .303/.407/.458 with three homers and 10 steals. He’s out of minor league options, though, so they’d need to run him back through waivers to take him off the active roster.

Darvish’s IL transfer is just a formality. It backdates to Opening Day, so it doesn’t affect his eligibility for reinstatement. It’s still not clear when he’ll be ready to return. According to the MLB.com injury tracker, he made it through a simulated game on Saturday.

Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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Anthony Franco

  • Hey everyone, hope you had a good weekend! I'm not feeling great today so I'm going to keep this one around an hour. Let's get rolling

Duffy Scliff

  • You’re gonna get a million Devers questions, but tell me this, have you ever seen a trade like this? Where a contending team trades a player early into a massive contract? This is not Mookie, or Sale, or Nomar. This is not like A Rod or Stanton being traded in a salary dump. This is 100% unprecedented. This relationship must have been so far beyond repair and we didn’t see it. This is one of the most shocking trades in baseball history.

Devers

  • Why would SF do this deal? They don't have 3B open for him and with Eldridge coming up soon, Devers is going to be a very expensive DH only bat. The upside exists, but that's gambling a lot on a guy adjusting to the NL West gaunlet and changing his clubhouse negativity for a team surprisingly in the midst of a tough playoff race.

Anthony Franco

  • A quick control Ctrl-F shows there are 18 mentions of Devers in the queue. Not going to publish all of them for obvious reasons
  • Broadly speaking, I like it more for SF though I get where both sides are coming from. If Boston felt the relationship was truly beyond repair, I have a hard time seeing them getting more than this. Giants took the whole deal (minus the Hicks contract, which is a negative value asset but a short-term commitment) and Harrison and Tibbs are arguably on par with Top 100 type prospects
  • Harrison obviously is no longer a prospect but I think he'd be valued equivalently to a back of the top 100 guy if he hadn't exhausted his rookie eligibility
  • There's definitely risk for the Giants in creating a long-term logjam at the corner infield with Chapman signed forever and Eldridge knocking on the door. But we've also seen the top of the market for elite hitters spike in the couple years since the Devers contract was signed -- Vlad Jr. might be a worse player and just got $500M -- and they're in a division where there's always going to be huge pressure to pursue top-end talent

Dear Evan Carter

  • do you see the Mets transitioning well given canning is starting to show his true colors and senga being out awhile? i am concerned about what we could expect from montas/manaea given the time off.

John

  • Would it make sense for the Mets to trade one of their depth starters to try to get a higher leverage reliever or use some of the younger prospects in a bullpen role later in the season? I get a feeling the bullpen market will be light given how scarce quality arms are, especially lefties

Anthony Franco

  • Yeah I think they're going to be fine. The rotation is going to regress a little bit but the offense was heating up (at least going into the TB series) and they were starting to produce more with RISP
  • I imagine they'll just deal prospects to a non-contender for lefty bullpen help but I wouldn't be wedded to keeping Blackburn if they had another win-now team that wanted to swap MLB assets

Bat first

  • Yankees' designating Pablo Reyes for assignment in favor of keeping Ben Rice in the lineup is a bit surprising. With Rice/Escarra on the bench, that leaves Peraza/Grisham (or whichever outfielder is sitting that day) as the only pieces on the bench that can play a position other than 1B or C. Wouldn't it have been better to give Rice or Escarra everyday reps down in AAA, rather than let your 100 wRc+ players rust on the bench if you simply don't have everyday spots for them?

Anthony Franco

  • They like Escarra more than Rice defensively as the backup C and I'd much rather have Rice on my team than two of Reyes and Peraza
  • Tough to count on Stanton playing every day and there's not much harm in mixing in a few more rest days for Goldy. Between that and maybe an occasional start at catcher, I think they can find 3-4 starts a week to keep Rice in a groove

Robert from SC

  • I saw that Braves fans were disappointed today when Nacho Alvarez was optioned. I don't understand why. He's not going to save this team from the disappointing season they're having. Is Nacho the long term answer at SS?

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