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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.

Mariners To Select Luis F. Castillo

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The Mariners plan to select right-hander Luis F. Castillo to start tomorrow evening’s game against the Giants, the club informed reporters (including Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). As Jude notes, it’ll be the second straight Mariners game started by a Luis Castillo. Seattle’s veteran right-hander of the same name tossed seven innings in yesterday’s win over Detroit.

Luis F. Castillo will be making his first major league start. The 30-year-old has three MLB relief appearances under his belt. Those came with the 2022 Tigers, for whom he tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Detroit sent him through outright waivers at the end of that season. Castillo signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball the following offseason.

After turning in a 3.12 ERA across 49 innings for the Marines, Castillo moved to the Orix Buffaloes. He fired 94 1/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball despite a pedestrian 19.6% strikeout rate. Castillo showed fantastic control, though, walking fewer than 5% of batters faced for the second consecutive season. The Dominican-born pitcher returned to the affiliated ranks last offseason, joining the Mariners on a minor league contract in January.

Castillo pitched five innings of three-run ball across three appearances in Spring Training. He worked 5 2/3 frames in his first Triple-A start on Sunday, allowing one run on two hits and a pair of walks. Seattle will bring him up for at least a spot start as the fifth spot in their rotation comes around. Emerson Hancock got that job out of Spring Training because of the George Kirby injury, but the former sixth overall pick couldn’t escape the first inning in his season debut. Seattle optioned him out a few days later.

The Mariners announced this afternoon that they reinstated Jorge Polanco from the paternity list. They optioned Leo Rivas and swingman Jhonathan Díaz to Triple-A Tacoma. Castillo will take Díaz’s active roster spot. The 40-man roster is at capacity, so they’ll need to make another move in that regard tomorrow.

Blue Jays Release Zach Pop

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The Blue Jays released reliever Zach Pop after designating him for assignment last week, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent.

Pop lost his 40-man roster spot as part of the Opening Day shuffle. Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling noted in mid-March that Pop had come down with elbow inflammation during Spring Training and would have begun the regular season on the injured list. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, so the DFA meant he’d be released unless the Jays found a trade partner.

The Canadian-born righty joined the Jays at the 2022 deadline in a trade with Miami. He turned in a 1.89 ERA in 17 appearances down the stretch. While he made a strong first impression, Pop has struggled over the last two years. He gave up 11 runs in 13 2/3 innings in 2023 and was tagged for a 5.59 ERA over a career-high 58 appearances last season. Pop got ground-balls at a strong 54.6% clip but only managed a 15.8% strikeout rate. When opponents were able to elevate the ball, they found success. He surrendered nine homers in 48 1/3 frames — a rate of 1.68 longballs per nine innings.

Pop had made seven Spring Training appearances before the elbow issue. He allowed five runs (four earned) across 6 2/3 innings despite eight strikeouts. He wasn’t expected to face a long-term absence, as imaging didn’t reveal any structural issues. He should find interest on a minor league deal once he’s healthy.

Twins Outright Randy Dobnak

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The Twins sent righty Randy Dobnak outright to Triple-A St. Paul after he went unclaimed on waivers, relays Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star-Tribune. As expected, Dobnak will accept the assignment and report to the minors.

Minnesota has shuttled Dobnak on and off the 40-man roster a few times over the past couple years. They can comfortably do so because of his contract. Dobnak signed a $9.25MM extension back in 2021. He’s playing on a $3MM salary and is guaranteed a $1MM buyout on a ’26 club option. Another team would need to assume that contract to claim him off waivers. As a player with less than five years of service time, Dobnak would need to forfeit the salary to decline the outright assignment in favor or free agency.

Neither situation is likely, so the Twins can continuously outright him off the roster when they want to send him to Triple-A. Dobnak has made one big league appearance this year. He worked 5 1/3 innings of mop-up relief, allowing only one run on two hits and a pair of walks. He pitched in five MLB games last season, his first big league work since 2021. Dobnak spent the rest of the season working out of the St. Paul rotation. He posted a 4.25 ERA with a solid 22.7% strikeout rate across 28 appearances. He’ll stick around as non-roster rotation or long relief depth.

Hector Neris Elects Free Agency

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Veteran reliever Héctor Neris elected free agency, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been designated for assignment by the Braves on Monday.

Neris broke camp with Atlanta after signing a minor league contract in early March. He didn’t have much of a leash, though, as they moved on after two appearances. Opposing hitters went 5-7 with a walk, a home run, and a strikeout. Neris had made all of three appearances during Spring Training, so it was a very brief Braves tenure.

The 35-year-old righty has topped 50 innings in each of the last five full seasons. He’d been a productive setup man with the Phillies and Astros for most of that stretch. Neris fired 68 1/3 frames of 1.71 ERA ball as recently as 2023, but he had a shaky ’24 season. He signed a $9MM deal with the Cubs and operated as Chicago’s closer for a good portion of the year.

Neris went 17-22 in save opportunities while walking more than 13% of batters faced. The Cubs released him in August. He returned to Houston to close the season, and while he threw a lot more strikes, he gave up four home runs in 16 appearances. Neris finished the year with a combined 4.10 ERA through 59 1/3 innings. He fanned a little less than a quarter of opponents against a 10.8% walk percentage. Between that and his slow start to 2025, he’ll likely be limited to minor league offers.

MLB Mailbag: Braves, Twins, Torkelson, Sutter Health Park

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MLBTR is going deep into the bench for this week's mailbag. With Tim Dierkes and Steve Adams each on vacation, I'll step in to answer questions on the Braves' poor start, whether the Twins are a playoff-caliber team, this year's most improved rosters, Sutter Health Park, situational hitting, and much more!

Abner asks:

Even when the biggest concern with the NY Mets has always been their starting rotation, so far the starters have looked pretty good in general and the bullpen has performed almost perfectly. With the problems that have experienced the Atlanta Braves in the opening week (Reynaldo López injury, Jurickson Profar suspended, Ronald Acuña out at least until May, Spencer Strider is out for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season) do you think that we are about to see a battle between Mets and Phillies the rest of the way?

I had the Phillies and Mets a little ahead of the Braves to begin the season. The past week certainly hasn't increased Atlanta's odds of winning the division. It's way too early to start digging their grave, though. Last year's Astros dropped five of their first six games and seven of nine. They bottomed out at 12 games below .500 in the second week of May; they ended up winning the AL West by 3.5 games. Most teams that dig themselves that big a hole will not make the playoffs, of course, but they also usually don't have as much talent as the Braves do.

Atlanta has started the season against arguably the two best teams in the National League. They're without their best player, one of the league's best pitchers, and their starting catcher. Even if you don't expect much out of Sean Murphy at this point, getting Acuña and Strider back within the next few weeks is massive. They've got 96% of the season remaining to put this behind them.

Losing Profar and López obviously hurts, largely because they're stressing areas where the roster already looked weak. The Jarred Kelenic left field experiment didn't work out in year one. Alex Verdugo could push Kelenic into a fourth outfield role once Acuña comes back, but he was unsigned deep into Spring Training for a reason. The rotation depth behind the top four or five is spotty. Strider, Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach and some combination of AJ Smith-Shawver, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and prospect Hurston Waldrep is probably workable. If they lose any of their top three to injury before López is able to return, it's teetering.

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Max Scherzer Receives Cortisone Injection To Treat Thumb Injury

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Max Scherzer received a cortisone shot to treat the inflammation in his right thumb, the future Hall of Famer told reporters (including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet). The Jays will have a better idea of when he could return after they see how he responds.

Scherzer’s thumb has bothered him back to last summer, when it was linked to some kind of nerve problem in his hand. The injury resurfaced this spring. Scherzer opened the season on the active roster but departed his first start in a Jays’ uniform after three innings and 45 pitches because of lat discomfort. The three-time Cy Young winner said postgame that the thumb was the cause of his other issues. “My arm is making adjustments because of that. That’s a recipe for disaster,” he told reporters on Saturday.

The Jays placed Scherzer on the injured list the next day. It’s a frustrating situation for the righty. Scherzer acknowledged on Tuesday that he has had conversations with doctors about the potential for surgery, but he said they’re “not even close to that” scenario right now (via Hazel Mae). He added that he’s hopeful he can begin playing catch again as soon as Friday.

Toronto has an opening in their rotation around Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Bowden Francis. It initially seemed that Yariel Rodríguez would step into the starting five after beginning the season in the bullpen. Rodríguez has continued working in a leverage role since Scherzer’s injury. He fired a scoreless inning to earn a hold on Sunday. He came on tonight in relief of Berríos and tossed another inning (allowing one run) to pick up his second hold.

The Jays list left-hander Easton Lucas as their probable starter for tomorrow’s series finale against the Nationals. They’ll push Gausman to Friday, giving him six days rest early in the season. They’re off on Thursday but will begin a stretch of 13 consecutive game days between April 4-16. They’ll probably want a fifth starter by the middle of next week.

Tomorrow’s start will be the first in the big leagues for the 28-year-old Lucas. He has 18 1/3 career innings across 14 relief appearances between the A’s, Tigers and Jays. Lucas worked out of the bullpen for all but four of his 38 Triple-A outings last year. He combined for an impressive 2.75 earned run average with a 26.2% strikeout rate over 68 2/3 innings. Lucas worked mostly 1-2 inning stints, but he made a five-inning start during his final Triple-A appearance. He topped out at 2 2/3 frames in a game in Spring Training, so they’ll likely lean heavily on the bullpen behind him tomorrow. Rodríguez, Jake Bloss and non-roster veteran Eric Lauer are alternatives if the Jays want to turn to a more traditional fifth starter next week.

Padres, D-Backs In Discussions To Play Mexico City Series In 2026

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The Diamondbacks and Padres are in discussions with MLB about playing a regular season series in Mexico City next year, report Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The league has yet to make that event official.

MLB and the Players Association agreed to the establishment of the “World Tour” series to promote international play in the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. The CBA provides for a possible Mexico City event in May 2026. It also includes the possibility for a London series in June and one in San Juan in September, but MLB has not proceeded with every World Tour series contemplated in the bargaining agreement. The CBA permitted 2025 events in Mexico City, Paris and San Juan — none of which will happen for economic reasons.

Arizona and San Diego were scheduled for a two-game series in Mexico City on April 18-19, 2020. Those games were canceled for obvious reasons. MLB played its first regular season games in the city three years later. The Padres and Giants met for two games on April 29-30, 2023. The Rockies and Astros played there on April 27-28 last season.

There will not be any regular season contests in Mexico this year, though the Red Sox played a pair of Spring Training games against a Mexican League team in Monterrey. The only regular season action outside the U.S. and Canada this season was the season-opening Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and Cubs.

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