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Ketel Marte Likely Headed To IL With Left Hamstring Strain

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The Diamondbacks announced that Ketel Marte sustained a left hamstring strain in this evening’s win over the Nationals. The star second baseman pulled up lame as he ran out a first-inning double. He left the game immediately and was replaced by pinch-runner Garrett Hampson.

Manager Torey Lovullo suggested postgame that Marte was likely headed to the 10-day injured list (h/t to Megan Plain of Fox 10 Phoenix). The team will presumably have a better idea of how long he’ll be out as he goes through testing over the next couple days. Any absence is a significant blow on the heels of Marte’s first top-three MVP finish.

The two-time All-Star drilled 36 home runs with a .292/.372/.560 slash en route to a Silver Slugger award last season. Marte had been out to a strong start this year. Today’s double pushed him to 9-26 on the young season. He has drawn six walks while only striking out four times. The injury comes two days after Marte signed an extension that added four years and $64MM while deferring a decent chunk of salary to give the team more payroll flexibility in the short term.

Hampson is the only backup infielder on the active roster. He’s a light-hitting utility player who posted a .230/.275/.300 line over 113 games for the Royals last season. Blaze Alexander has been down since February because of an oblique strain. Grae Kessinger and Tim Tawa are on the 40-man roster if the D-Backs want to promote a backup infielder while drawing Hampson into the lineup at second base.

The higher-upside play would be to promote top prospect Jordan Lawlar, who hasn’t appeared in the majors since a late-season call in 2023. Lawlar missed most of last season to injury. There wasn’t a path to everyday playing time behind Marte, Geraldo Perdomo and Eugenio Suárez, so the D-Backs optioned him back to Triple-A Reno to begin the season. He’s hitting .273 without a home run through his first six games. Primarily a shortstop, Lawlar made his third start of the season at second base in Reno’s game tonight. He has also made one start at third base and three at shortstop.

Reds Approached Matt McLain About Extension Before Opening Day

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The Reds floated a preliminary extension framework to Matt McLain before Opening Day, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer.  Talks didn’t get far, as the 25-year-old infielder told Wittenmyer that the numbers “just didn’t line up” with what his camp was seeking.

McLain missed all of last season recovering from shoulder surgery. The former first-round pick tore the labrum and damaged cartilage in his left (non-throwing) shoulder during Spring Training 2024. He was targeting an August return but suffered a stress reaction in his ribcage a week before he would have begun a minor league rehab stint. Cincinnati decided it wasn’t worth pushing him to get back in September, as it had become clear they weren’t going to make the playoffs.

It was an unfortunate follow-up after McLain’s strong rookie season. The righty-hitting infielder finished fifth in NL Rookie of the Year balloting back in 2023. He hit .290/.357/.507 with 16 homers and 14 steals across 403 plate appearances. He’s a potential All-Star second baseman if healthy. Last year’s injury could have made it difficult to align on an extension, though. It adds some risk to the long-term profile, but McLain presumably would not want to feel like he’s negotiating at a low point in his value. He told Wittenmyer there are no conversations ongoing while pointing out that he didn’t play last season.

There’s plenty of time for the teams to reengage down the line. McLain has yet to reach two years of service time. He should qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player next offseason. He’ll go through the arbitration process four times and is not slated to hit free agency until the 2029-30 offseason. McLain is on track to get to free agency in advance of his age-30 season. He has connected on three homers in the early going this season, though he has also punched out in 11 of his 30 trips to the plate.

The Reds did get one extension done this spring, retaining backup catcher Jose Trevino on a two-year deal with $11MM in new money. General manager Brad Meador tells Wittenmyer the team has had “very preliminary and early” extension conversations with a number of players. It doesn’t seem anything has gotten close. Extensions are most common during Spring Training, but a lot of those discussions have carried beyond Opening Day around the league. Brandon Pfaadt, Garrett Crochet, Jackson Merrill, Kristian Campbell and Ketel Marte have all signed extensions within the past eight days.

Rangers Place Jack Leiter On Injured List, Recall Patrick Corbin

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The Rangers placed Jack Leiter on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 3, because of a blister on the middle finger on his throwing hand. Texas recalled veteran southpaw Patrick Corbin from Triple-A Round Rock in a corresponding move.

Leiter landed a season-opening rotation spot, at least in part because of Spring Training injuries to Jon Gray and Cody Bradford. His first two starts have been excellent. Leiter has reeled off 10 innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts. He has allowed only six hits and one walk. The former #2 overall pick has gotten whiffs on 14.5% of his pitches while averaging almost 98 MPH on his fastball. He had cruised through five scoreless innings with six punchouts against Cincinnati on Wednesday before the blister forced him out of the game.

While it’s unlikely to be a long-term absence, Leiter’s early-season run will be paused for at least two weeks. Texas has off days on April 10 and 14, so they may only need to deploy a fifth starter once before Leiter’s return. Tyler Mahle, Jacob deGrom and Kumar Rocker will take the ball for this weekend’s series against Tampa Bay. Corbin and Nathan Eovaldi will get the first two games of next week’s series at Wrigley Field in some order.

It’ll be the team debut for the 35-year-old Corbin. The veteran southpaw signed a one-year, $1.1MM free agent deal in mid-March. Between the late signing and the birth of his child just before Opening Day, Corbin did not get any Spring Training game action. He agreed to be optioned to Round Rock to build up. Leiter’s injury pushed him to the big leagues before he could make any Triple-A appearances. Corbin will presumably be on a low pitch limit for his first start of the season.

The two-time All-Star has eaten plenty of innings at the back of Washington’s rotation over the past few years. He posted a 5.62 ERA across 174 2/3 innings last season. Corbin has allowed an ERA above 5.00 in four consecutive seasons but topped 30 starts and 150 frames in each.

Yankees, Cooper Hummel Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Yankees reached agreement with corner outfielder/first baseman/catcher Cooper Hummel on a minor league deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. He had elected free agency yesterday after being outrighted off Houston’s 40-man roster. The Gaeta Sports Management client would be paid at an $820K rate for time spent in the big leagues, Passan adds. He’ll start his tenure at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Hummel is out of minor league options, so he needed to break camp with the Astros or be designated for assignment. The switch-hitter put a strong foot forward in Spring Training, hitting .316 with seven walks and nine strikeouts across 46 plate appearances. The Astros nevertheless opted not to carry him on their bench, tabbing former Rockies second baseman Brendan Rodgers as their final position player. They officially designated Hummel for assignment on Opening Day and placed him on waivers this week.

The 30-year-old spent one full season in the Houston organization. The Astros had claimed him off waivers from the Giants last spring. They outrighted him a couple weeks later but reselected his contract in June when they released José Abreu. Hummel spent most of the season in Triple-A, exhausting his final option year in the process. He went 0-8 with a pair of strikeouts in his big league work. He had a solid year in Triple-A, hitting .277/.419/.454 with a massive 17.9% walk rate through 442 plate appearances.

A former Milwaukee draftee, Hummel went to the Diamondbacks at the 2021 trade deadline as part of the return for Eduardo Escobar. He made a career-high 66 appearances for the Snakes the following season, putting up a .176/.274/.307 slash over 201 plate appearances. Arizona swapped him to the Mariners for former Rookie of the Year winner Kyle Lewis during the 2022-23 offseason. He bounced to the Mets and Giants before the move to Houston.

Hummel’s patient approach has resulted in an impressive .285/.419/.480 line across four Triple-A seasons. He has only made 16 big league appearances since the end of the ’22 season. Hummel has a decent amount of catching experience in the minors, but he divided his Triple-A time between the outfield and first base last year. He could potentially catch on occasion while joining Dominic Smith as non-roster first base depth.

Dodgers Place Freddie Freeman On Injured List

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April 4: Catcher Hunter Feduccia was recalled today as the corresponding move, per a club announcement.

April 3: The Dodgers announced that they’ve placed Freddie Freeman on the 10-day injured list with a right ankle sprain. The placement is retroactive to March 31, so Freeman will be eligible to return a week from today.

Freeman has not played since Saturday. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters that the star first baseman tweaked his ankle when he slipped in the shower (via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). Freeman played through an ankle sprain down the stretch and throughout last year’s playoff run. He had a monster World Series despite the injury but nevertheless required surgery in early December. That procedure didn’t prevent him from starting the season, but the recent shower slip will require at least another week of rest.

IL placements can be backdated by up to three days. That the Dodgers elected not to place Freeman on the IL right away suggests they didn’t consider this a significant injury. It was enough to send him for an extremely rare IL stint though. Freeman last went on the shelf in 2020 for a positive virus test. His most recent non-illness IL stay came back in 2017, when a fracture in his left wrist knocked him out for more than two months.

Enrique Hernández drew into the lineup at first base for the Dodgers’ series against the Braves. While he went a combined 1-11, the Dodgers swept Atlanta to move to 8-0. The four top teams in the NL West have all gotten out to excellent starts — the 7-0 Padres join the Dodgers as the only remaining undefeated clubs — but the Dodgers obviously have plenty of talent to weather what seems likely to be a short-term absence.

Los Angeles didn’t announce a corresponding roster move. They’re off today, so there wasn’t any urgency to fill the spot, but waiting until tomorrow to place Freeman on the IL would have pushed back his retroactive date by a day. They can recall another hitter leading up to their weekend series in Philadelphia.

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Brendan Rodgers’ Deal With Astros Contains Advance Consent Clause

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Brendan Rodgers broke camp with the Astros after signing a minor league contract in February. The deal comes with a $2MM base salary, but it’s apparently not fully guaranteed. Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Rodgers agreed to an advance consent clause: one which allows a team to release a veteran player within the first 45 days of the regular season and get out from under the remainder of the contract.

Most of the time, a player’s base salary will become fully guaranteed once the team selects their minor league deal. Players who have over five years of service time, as Rodgers does, also generally have the right to refuse any optional assignments to the minors. However, the collective bargaining agreement permits teams and players who have five-plus service years to agree to the advance consent provision — giving the team extra flexibility for a month and a half to determine whether they want to keep that player. Teams cannot use the advance consent clause to release players because of injury, but they can do so for any other reason within the first 45 days.

It’s obviously not an ideal situation for the player. It’s nevertheless fairly common for teams to seek advance consent clauses for veterans who sign late in the offseason and have little leverage. Ken Rosenthal and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic wrote in early March that some clubs were seeking advance consent provisions in negotiations with the handful of starting pitchers (e.g. Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson) who had remained unsigned into Spring Training, for instance.

Rodgers was non-tendered by the Rockies and found himself limited to minor league offers in the final week of February. He didn’t have a great Spring Training, hitting .233/.250/.349 without a home run in 44 plate appearances. Rodgers would have been able to opt out of his minor league deal at the end of camp if the Astros didn’t call him up. They did so but evidently worked in the clause to give themselves the flexibility to get out of the deal if he didn’t perform well early in the season. They also built in the ability to option him to Triple-A, though Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reported last month that Rodgers can opt out on May 1 and/or June 1 if he’s not on the 26-man active roster.

While a $2MM base salary isn’t much by MLB standards, the Astros are up against a luxury tax line they’ve had little interest in crossing. RosterResource estimates their CBT number around $238MM, about $3MM below the base threshold. That includes Rodgers’ $2MM salary. Money added via in-season waiver claims or trades would count towards the CBT calculation. That puts more emphasis on even relatively light investments that the front office makes. That’s presumably part of the reason they made Ben Gamel’s $1MM base salary conditional on him making the team out of Spring Training (which he did not do).

The clause puts more pressure on Rodgers to perform well in the early going. He has started five of the first seven games at second base. (Primary left fielder Jose Altuve and utilityman Mauricio Dubón have each made one start apiece at the keystone.) A three-hit game on Thursday pushed Rodgers to 5-16 (.313) on the year. He has drawn a pair of walks while striking out four times. An RBI double off Louie Varland today was his first extra-base hit of the season. The former third overall pick hit .267/.314/.407 with 13 homers through 539 plate appearances for the Rockies last year.

St. Petersburg City Council Approves Tropicana Field Roof Repair

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This afternoon, the St. Petersburg City Council approved $22.5MM in funding to repair the Tropicana Field roof (link via The Associated Press). That’s less the half the overall estimated $55.7MM necessary to get the Trop back to playable after last fall’s hurricane damage. Other necessary fixes include repairs to the playing surface and lighting. The roof is expected to take 10 months, according to The AP.

“We are pleased to see City Council take this important step toward preparing Tropicana Field for Major League Baseball in time for 2026 Opening Day,” Rays president Brian Auld said in a statement. “We commend in particular city, Rays and MLB staff for their cooperative efforts to get us to this point.”

The City of St. Petersburg owns Tropicana Field, which it leases to the Rays. The city is therefore obligated to cover repair costs. Major League Baseball and the Rays have maintained hope that the field will be ready by Opening Day. They have three years left on their lease. Since the field is not in use this year, the lease is extended by one season. They’re contracted to play at The Trop through 2028, assuming they’re able to return to the stadium next year.

What happens after that is unknown. Colleen Wright of The Tampa Bay Times wrote earlier this week that the project for a new ballpark to be built in St. Petersburg officially died on Tuesday. The Rays had already announced they would not proceed with that plan, citing cost overruns related to delays in the county’s approval of bonds. Unlike the Tropicana Field repairs, the Rays would have been responsible for excess costs on the new stadium. The bonds nevertheless technically remained available until March 31, when the tentative agreement formally lapsed because the Rays had not met necessary construction benchmarks.

The Rays were not permitted to speak with other municipalities until the St. Petersburg deal officially expired. Team president Matt Silverman suggested last month that they could reengage with the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County after March 31. Commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly stated that MLB remains committed to finding a solution in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays could not explore relocation without league approval.

Jesse Chavez Elects Free Agency

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The Braves announced that reliever Jesse Chavez elected free agency after being designated for assignment on Tuesday. He cleared outright waivers and retested the market rather than accept the assignment to Triple-A.

This was the expected outcome, though there’s a decent chance Atlanta will look to bring the 41-year-old righty back on a new minor league contract. He signed his most recent minor league deal with the Braves on March 23, two days after he was released by the Rangers. Atlanta called him up on Monday but squeezed him off the roster after one game. Chavez tossed 41 pitches to get through two innings of mop-up work. He would not have been available for at least a day or two, so Atlanta swapped him out for Zach Thompson to add some length to the bullpen.

Over the past four years, the Braves signed Chavez to four separate contracts, claimed him off waivers once, and traded for him once. He has provided Atlanta 186 2/3 innings of 2.56 ERA ball while striking out a quarter of batters faced between those various stints. Chavez hasn’t had anywhere near that level of success anywhere else. He has also spent time in the Angels, Cubs, White Sox and Rangers organizations (at least during Spring Training) in recent years, but he has continually circled back to the Braves.

It would not be a surprise if that continued. It’s common for players to decline an outright assignment before re-signing with that team. (Phillies infielder Buddy Kennedy took that approach on Tuesday.) That allows the player to renegotiate opt-out or upward mobility provisions that may not have been in the previous deal.

Braves Acquire Jason Delay

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The Pirates and Braves announced a trade sending catcher Jason Delay to Atlanta for cash. Pittsburgh had designated him for assignment on Tuesday. Atlanta optioned Delay to Double-A Columbus and transferred Reynaldo López to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot. Pittsburgh also optioned infielder Ji-Hwan Bae to Triple-A Indianapolis to make room on the active roster for Alexander Canario, who has reported to the team.

Delay had been with the Pirates since they drafted him in the fourth round in 2017. The Vanderbilt product cracked the big league roster for the first time in 2022. He worked as Pittsburgh’s backup catcher for good chunks of the 2022-23 seasons, combining for 127 MLB appearances. He only got into seven big league games last year and had been in Triple-A to begin this year.

The 30-year-old Delay owns a .231/.295/.315 batting line with two home runs across 373 career plate appearances. He’s a .239/.310/.338 hitter over parts of seven minor league seasons. Delay isn’t going to provide much offensively, but he has slightly above-average pitch framing grades and a strong reputation for his work with pitching staffs. He has yet to qualify for arbitration and has a couple minor league options remaining, so the Braves add him for minimal cost.

Delay is the fourth catcher on Atlanta’s 40-man roster. Drake Baldwin and Chadwick Tromp are dividing the MLB playing time while Sean Murphy is on the injured list. Murphy is at Triple-A Gwinnett on a rehab stint after breaking a rib early in Spring Training. He could return from the IL by the end of next week. Baldwin, one of the sport’s top catching prospects, will probably be optioned back to Gwinnett at that point. If they want to keep Baldwin on the MLB roster, they’d need to designate the out-of-options Tromp for assignment.

The Braves essentially had a free 40-man spot because of the López injury. The righty was placed on the 15-day IL earlier this week with shoulder inflammation. The Braves announced that he’ll undergo an arthroscopic procedure to confirm there’s no structural damage. Even in the best case scenario, he didn’t have much chance of coming back within the next two months. He’s officially out until at least the end of May but seems unlikely to return until the second half of the season at the earliest.

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