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Padres’ Jhony Brito Underwent UCL Surgery

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Last month, Padres righty Jhony Brito underwent an internal brace surgery to address his UCL as well a flexor tendon repair. General manager A.J. Preller announced the news to reporters (including AJ Cassavell of MLB.com).

Brito will miss all of this season and likely the first couple months of next year. The internal brace procedure can sometimes come with a slightly quicker timeline than would a full Tommy John ligament reconstruction. It’s nevertheless typically at least a yearlong rehab process. Brito is already on the 60-day injured list after beginning the season on the shelf with what was initially diagnosed as a forearm strain. He’ll remain on the IL all season but will need to be reinstated to the 40-man roster or placed on waivers at the beginning of the offseason.

San Diego acquired Brito as an ancillary part of the Juan Soto return from the Yankees. He had reached the big leagues with New York in 2023 after seven seasons in the minors. The righty started 13 of 25 appearances as a rookie, working to a 4.28 ERA through 90 1/3 innings. The Friars used him out of the bullpen last year. He allowed 4.12 earned runs per nine with a well below-average 15.7% strikeout rate over 43 2/3 innings. Brito did start all six appearances that he made with Triple-A El Paso. Opposing lineups tagged him for 17 runs over 14 innings.

An elbow strain ended his ’24 season in August. He was healthy enough to return to the mound in Spring Training, where he was competing for a middle relief role. The new elbow injury prevented that from happening and could put him on the roster bubble next winter. Brito will be paid the MLB minimum $760K salary for this season. He’ll surpass the two-year service threshold and isn’t on track to qualify for arbitration until the 2026-27 offseason. The Padres could control him for another four seasons if they’re willing to carry him on the 40-man throughout the offseason.

A’s Return Rule 5 Pick Noah Murdock To Royals

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The A’s returned Rule 5 draftee Noah Murdock to the Royals, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. Kansas City assigned him to Triple-A Omaha. Murdock does not occupy a spot on their 40-man roster.

This was the likeliest outcome after the A’s designated Murdock for assignment last Friday. Any team that traded for him or claimed him off waivers would have taken on the same Rule 5 restrictions. They would have needed to carry him in the big league bullpen. Murdock evidently went unclaimed and heads back to the team that drafted him in the seventh round in 2019.

Murdock, 26, divided his 2024 season between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Omaha. He worked to a 2.22 earned run average over 24 1/3 innings at the former level. Murdock posted a 3.76 ERA through 38 1/3 frames in Triple-A. He combined for a 27% strikeout rate and a huge 59.7% ground-ball percentage, though that came with an alarming 15.4% walk rate.

The 6’8″ righty broke camp with the A’s after being selected with the fifth pick in last winter’s Rule 5 draft. His first 14 big league appearances did not go well, as he was blitzed for 25 runs across 17 1/3 innings. The free passes remained far too problematic. Murdock walked 20 batters and hit two more among the 98 he faced. The grounder rates that have been his calling card in the minors weren’t there against big league competition. Murdock posted a 42.6% ground-ball percentage and a 21.4% strikeout rate — both decent numbers but not nearly enough to offset the free passes.

Yankees Notes: LeMahieu, Infield, Gil

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The Yankees plan to activate DJ LeMahieu from the injured list before tomorrow’s game against the Mariners, manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Brendan Kuty of The Athletic). LeMahieu is already en route to Seattle but will not be active for tonight’s series opener. They’ll ease him back in, as he’ll be off the bench on Tuesday and draw into the starting lineup on Wednesday.

LeMahieu will make his season debut after a six-week IL stay. The veteran infielder strained his left calf fairly early in Spring Training. The Yankees announced it as of borderline Grade 1 or 2 severity. It ended his camp after one game and two at-bats. The Yanks sent him out on a minor league rehab assignment on April 22. Position players can spend up to 20 days on a rehab stint before the team either needs to activate them or pull them off the stint for at least another five days. The rehab window closed today.

While there’s not much to be gleaned from a player’s stats during a rehab stint, the Yankees are presumably encouraged by LeMahieu’s form. He batted .444 with a home run and nearly as many walks (three) as strikeouts (four) over nine games. He divided that time between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

LeMahieu projected as the Yankees starting third baseman entering camp. New York seemingly made little effort to upgrade at the hot corner even though he’s coming off a .204/.269/.259 showing in his age-35 season. He also missed time with foot and hip injuries. Boone suggested last week that LeMahieu could see more time at second base while Jazz Chisholm Jr. is on the shelf (relayed by Chris Kirschner of The Athletic).

The Yanks have been relying upon Oswaldo Cabrera and Jorbit Vivas at third and second, respectively. The switch-hitting Cabrera owns a .243/.319/.311 slash through 117 plate appearances. Vivas is hitting .158 through his first nine MLB games. Their other second/third base candidates are out-of-options bench players Oswald Peraza and Pablo Reyes. LeMahieu will play regularly.

Boone also provided an update on Luis Gil (via Greg Joyce of The New York Post). Last year’s AL Rookie of the Year remains two to three weeks away from working off a mound. Gil began a throwing program at the end of April but has worked solely on flat ground. Gil sustained a high-grade lat strain a couple weeks into Spring Training. He wasn’t able to pitch in an exhibition game. He’s going to need multiple bullpen sessions and an extended rehab assignment. It seems Gil might not get onto a mound until the end of May, making it tough to envision a return to Yankee Stadium before the calendar flips to July.

Brandon Bielak Undergoes Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery

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Right-hander Brandon Bielak recently underwent season-ending surgery, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams. He’s expected to be ready for 2026 Spring Training. Bielak was released from a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks on Saturday after going on the full-season injured list last month.

The injury essentially ended Bielak’s stint with Arizona before it got off the ground. The 29-year-old signed a minor league contract with the Snakes in February. He worked 5 2/3 frames of two-run ball during Spring Training before being reassigned to the minors. Bielak started twice for Triple-A Reno. He allowed three runs across 9 2/3 innings with five strikeouts and walks apiece. Both appearances came within the first week of April. Bielak landed on the injured list on April 9 and was ruled out for the season within three days.

There’s a decent chance Bielak will spend the rest of the year as a free agent. He’ll be limited to minor league offers next winter but would again project as rotation or long relief depth if his recovery goes as expected. A former 11th-round draftee by the Astros, Bielak has spent most of his minor league career as a starting pitcher. He made 13 big league starts with Houston a couple seasons ago, though his 16 MLB appearances last year all came in relief.

Bielak divided last season between Houston and the A’s. He turned in a 5.16 ERA over 29 2/3 big league frames and a 6.08 mark across 16 Triple-A appearances. He now owns a 4.63 ERA over 204 major league innings. Bielak has a 4.37 mark over six career Triple-A seasons — a decent number for a depth starter who has spent all that time in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Blue Jays Outright Dillon Tate

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The Blue Jays announced this afternoon that reliever Dillon Tate accepted an outright to Triple-A Buffalo. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Friday.

Tate, 31, first landed in Toronto last September. The Jays claimed him off waivers from the division-rival Orioles, with whom the former fourth overall pick had pitched parts of five MLB campaigns. Toronto dropped him over the offseason in lieu of a projected $1.9MM arbitration salary. They re-signed him midway through Spring Training on a split deal that pays at a $1.4MM rate in the big leagues and $500K for whatever time he spends in the minors.

The Jays have mostly kept him in Triple-A early this year. He opened the season on optional assignment to Buffalo. The Jays recalled him in mid-April and kept him on the active roster for around two and a half weeks. He made five appearances, allowing three runs on seven hits and six walks over 5 1/3 frames. He fanned seven hitters but got whiffs on only 6.8% of his total pitches. The results have been much better over his six innings with the Bisons: one run on six hits and a walk with seven strikeouts and a huge 18.2% swinging strike rate.

Tate has spent most of his career working in middle relief. His best season came in 2022, when he provided the O’s with 73 2/3 innings of 3.05 ERA ball behind a 57.4% ground-ball percentage. A flexor strain wound up costing him the entire following year. Tate avoided surgery but was unable to progress through multiple attempts at a rehab assignment.

He wasn’t as effective when he returned last season, allowing 4.66 earned runs per nine across 36 2/3 frames. His stuff hasn’t been as sharp since the injury. Tate’s sinker averaged 94 MPH during the ’22 season. It was down to 92.6 last year and is checking in below 92 MPH on average through this season’s first six weeks.

Tate entered this season with four years and 144 days of major league service. He has collected another 17 days on Toronto’s roster this season. Players reach a full service year at 172 days, meaning Tate will tip beyond the five-year threshold with 11 more days in the big leagues. At that point, he’d be able to refuse any optional assignments and retain his salary if he declines an outright and elects free agency after clearing waivers. Until then, he’d need to forfeit his salary to test free agency, so it’s no surprise that he decided to accept the assignment back to Buffalo.

Cubs Promote Cade Horton

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May 10: The Cubs have officially selected Horton’s contract, according to a team announcement. Left-hander Tom Cosgrove was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Horton on the active roster, while right-hander Eli Morgan was transferred to the 60-day injured list due to an inflamed ulnar nerve in his right elbow.

May 8: The Cubs are promoting pitching prospect Cade Horton, per reporting from Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. Tommy Birch of The Des Moines Register first reported this afternoon that Horton was traveling to New York in advance of this weekend’s series against the Mets. The young righty is not yet on the club’s 40-man roster, so they will need to open a spot for him.

Chicago’s rotation has taken a few notable hits recently. They came into the season with Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga as a one-two punch atop the rotation. Unfortunately, Steele required UCL surgery last month, putting him out of action for the rest of the year. Imanaga suffered a hamstring strain a few days ago. He is surely facing a far shorter absence than Steele but has been placed on the 15-day IL, meaning he’ll miss at least a few turns through the rotation.

Those are the two most obvious losses, but the clubs has also been without Javier Assad all year. He started the season on the 15-day injured list due to an oblique strain. He started a rehab assignment last month but re-aggravated the same muscle, suffering a Grade 2 strain.

Those injuries have created an opening for Horton to make it to the majors for the first time. The Cubs have “TBD” listed as their starter for Saturday’s game at Citi Field, which will seemingly be when Horton takes the ball. It seemed the decision on Imanaga’s rotation spot came down to promoting Horton or stretching out veteran swingman Chris Flexen.

Horton is the higher-upside play. Chicago selected him out of Oklahoma with the seventh overall pick in 2022. The 6’1″ righty has been the organization’s top pitching prospect over the past few seasons. His arsenal is headlined by a mid-90s fastball and a slider that grades as a plus pitch. Horton’s fastball velocity had dipped slightly to the 94 MPH range last year but has rebounded to sit at 95.8 MPH on average with Triple-A Iowa this season.

The 23-year-old has been out to an excellent start in Triple-A. Horton carries a 1.24 ERA while striking out nearly 31% of batters faced through 29 innings. He’s issuing walks at a lofty 12% clip, but the high-octane stuff will get him an opportunity to step into Imanaga’s rotation spot. If Imanaga makes it back within a few weeks, it might be a brief call-up, but the Cubs could theoretically push Ben Brown or Colin Rea to the bullpen if Horton forces their hand with a strong showing over his first few starts.

It’s too late for Horton to reach a full year of service time the traditional way. He meets the necessary prospect criteria to qualify for the Prospect Promotion Incentive, however. That means he could earn a full service year if he finishes in the top two in NL Rookie of the Year balloting. The Cubs would not receive a bonus draft choice if that happens because they didn’t promote Horton early enough to spend 172 days in the majors.

Lou Trivino Elects Free Agency

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Lou Trivino elected free agency after going unclaimed on waivers, relays Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle. He’d been designated for assignment by the Giants when they recalled Kyle Harrison last weekend.

Trivino, a former closer of Bob Melvin’s in Oakland, signed a minor league deal with the Giants in February. He made the team out of Spring Training and pitched 11 times over the season’s first few weeks. The overall results weren’t great. He allowed eight runs on 11 hits and four walks over 12 1/3 innings. That said, the bulk of the damage came in one five-run drubbing at the hands of the Brewers. Trivino held the opposition scoreless in eight of his other 10 appearances.

This marked the veteran righty’s first big league work in two years, as he spent the 2023-24 campaigns on the Yankees’ injured list. Trivino missed the ’23 season due to an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. He tried to rehab in time to contribute to New York’s playoff run late last year. Shoulder discomfort shut down his rehab assignment, though, and the Yankees made the easy call to decline a $5MM option.

Trivino’s stuff hasn’t been quite as crisp as it was before the surgery. He averaged 94.9 MPH on his sinker with the Giants, down a tick from his 95.8 MPH average from the ’22 season. It’s not a dramatic dip, but his ground-ball rate was down and he surrendered four home runs in the early going. While it’s conceivable that he could find an immediate MLB roster spot as a free agent, he might wind up taking another minor league deal as he searches for a more extended opportunity.

Orioles Outright Walter Pennington

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The Orioles announced on Friday that lefty reliever Walter Pennington cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk. He’d been designated for assignment on Wednesday as the corresponding move when the O’s acquired Luis F. Castillo from Seattle.

Pennington, 27, had been designated for assignment and released by the Rangers at the end of April. Baltimore grabbed him off release waivers. He made one appearance apiece at High-A Aberdeen and with Norfolk. Pennington hasn’t been able to find the strike zone, walking six of 10 batters faced while allowing seven runs (five earned) in one combined inning.

Initially drafted by the Royals, Pennington was traded to Texas last summer in the Michael Lorenzen deadline deal. He’s only a season removed from posting a 2.13 ERA with a 32.2% strikeout rate over 63 1/3 Triple-A innings. Pennington had been pitching at the Rangers’ complex before they moved on, and his pair of appearances with Baltimore affiliates were alarming.

Now that he’s cleared waivers, the O’s can keep Pennington in Norfolk without carrying him on the 40-man roster. He’ll obviously need far better control than he has shown in his limited work so far, but he’d be a solid depth arm if he can find last year’s form. He recorded an even 3.00 earned run average with 17 punchouts and 11 walks over his first 18 big league innings last season.

Nationals Release Lucas Sims

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The Nationals announced that they’ve placed veteran reliever Lucas Sims on release waivers. They’ll make a corresponding bullpen move tomorrow. They now have a vacancy on the 40-man roster.

It’s an abrupt end to what proved to be a brief stint in Washington. Sims was on the mound for the Nats roughly an hour ago. He had a nightmare outing in a blowout loss to the Cardinals. Sims entered in the eighth inning with the Nationals trailing 6-0. He hit a batter (his MLB-leading seventh HBP of the season), walked four more, and gave up a hit in a three-run inning. He recorded two outs before being lifted for Andrew Chafin.

Sims joined the Nats a one-year, $3MM free agent deal early in Spring Training. He made 18 appearances but proved far too prone to blow-up outings. He allowed multiple runs in six appearances, including each of his last two. His Washington tenure concludes with 19 runs allowed across 12 1/3 innings. He issued 14 walks while recording 13 strikeouts.

It continues an incredibly challenging stretch for Sims, who was a high-leverage bullpen pickup for the Red Sox as recently as last summer. He carried a 3.57 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate over 35 1/3 innings with the Reds leading up to the trade deadline. Boston acquired him for A-ball pitcher Ovis Portes. Sims’ production tanked immediately with the Sox. He allowed 10 runs on as many walks while picking up nine strikeouts in 14 innings. A minor lat strain cost him a couple weeks in September.

Sims will remain on waivers for the next two days. Another team would need to assume his remaining salary to claim him. No one is going to do that. He’ll clear and become a free agent. The Nats will pay the remainder of his salary aside from the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for any time he spends in the majors with another club. The control issues will probably limit him to minor league offers.

Kyle Wright Pulled Off Rehab Stint With Shoulder Fatigue, Continuing To Play Catch

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Kyle Wright’s first appearance with the Royals will wait a little longer than hoped. The team announced this evening that they’ve pulled him back from his rehab assignment in Double-A after Wright reported shoulder fatigue. The club specified that they believe it to be a minor setback, saying the “tentative plan” is for him to skip one or two starts before beginning a new minor league stint.

Wright discussed the issue with Anne Rogers of MLB.com, saying he felt some deltoid fatigue that resulted in a velocity drop during the second inning of his start on Wednesday. He framed it as more of a precautionary measure, saying he “just wanted to not do anything dumb” by pressing it. Rogers adds that Wright returned to Kansas City and continues to play catch, so he hasn’t been shut down from throwing entirely.

It doesn’t seem especially worrisome, though it’s notable given that Wright is working back from October 2023 shoulder surgery. He’d battled shoulder injuries throughout the ’23 season, his final year with the Braves. Kansas City acquired him a month later, knowing that he would spend the entire 2024 campaign on the injured list. It was a roll of the dice with an eye to this year, but Wright suffered a hamstring strain early in camp. He probably would have begun the season on the IL in either case, as the Royals have been cautious about overworking his shoulder.

Before the injuries, Wright looked like a potential top-of-the-rotation starter. He was the fifth overall pick in the 2017 draft. He struggled over his first handful of MLB opportunities before things clicked in 2022. Wright fired 180 1/3 innings of 3.19 ERA ball that year. He struck out an above-average 23.6% of opponents while getting ground-balls at a stellar 55.6% clip. He led the majors with 21 wins and finished 10th in NL Cy Young voting.

It’s unreasonable to expect that level of production after two-plus seasons lost to shoulder injuries. The Royals don’t need him to be anywhere near that good. They already boast arguably baseball’s best rotation. Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic form an excellent top four. Michael Lorenzen is a capable fifth starter. Once healthy, Wright could push Lorenzen into a swing role or move into the bullpen as a multi-inning arm.

Wright is making $1.8MM in his second year of arbitration, as the injury capped his earning power. He’ll be under affordable club control for next year before hitting free agency during the 2026-27 offseason.

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