Marlins’ Jesus Tinoco To Undergo Flexor Surgery
Marlins reliever Jesús Tinoco will undergo flexor surgery next month, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. It’ll cost him most or all of the 2026 season. Tinoco is already on Miami’s 60-day injured list and will remain there until the beginning of the offseason.
The Fish claimed Tinoco off waivers from the Cubs last July. The journeyman righty impressed down the stretch, turning in 26 2/3 innings of 2.03 ERA ball behind a 30.6% strikeout rate. It was the best two-month stretch of his career and secured his spot on the roster last offseason.
Tinoco opened the season on the shelf with a minor back injury. He returned in mid-April and struggled over the next six weeks. His velocity was down nearly two ticks relative to the end of last season, and he allowed more than five earned runs per nine with a massively reduced 12.5% strikeout rate. A forearm strain sent him back to the IL in early June. He evidently had a setback in recent weeks and will be unable to avoid surgery.
The 30-year-old will collect the $760K minimum salary for the season. He surpassed the two-year service threshold, but that’s not of huge significance as he faces the extended rehab process. Miami will almost certainly run him through outright waivers at year’s end rather than putting him back on the 40-man roster. The injured list goes away over the offseason, and Tinoco would’ve been a fringe roster player even if healthy. He’ll become a minor league free agent and could look for a two-year minor league contract. He owns a 3.98 ERA in 100 career big league appearances.
A’s Activate Jacob Wilson From Injured List
Jacob Wilson returns to action nearly a month after suffering a forearm fracture. The A’s activated the rookie shortstop from the 10-day injured list. He’s hitting fifth against Seattle starter Bryan Woo. The A’s optioned Max Schuemann to Triple-A Las Vegas in a corresponding move. They also made a couple changes on the pitching staff. Eduarniel Núñez and Joey Estes are up from Triple-A as Ben Bowden (lat strain) and Jack Perkins (shoulder strain) land on the 15-day injured list.
Wilson’s return is the most significant of those moves. The 2023 sixth overall pick had an outstanding first half. He’s hitting .312/.354/.439 with 10 longballs and 17 doubles. Wilson had struggled a bit in July but hit .323 or better in each of the season’s first three months. His return won’t mean much in the standings with the A’s sitting 11 games below .500, but they’re obviously a much better team when he’s in the lineup.
At the time of his injury, Wilson was the frontrunner for American League Rookie of the Year. Teammate Nick Kurtz has mashed his way to that spot and probably has the award all but secure at this point. Wilson still easily leads MLB rookies with 115 hits. He has a shot to finish in second for the award, though Boston’s Roman Anthony and the Yankees’ Will Warren are among those who also have reasonable arguments for that spot.
Anthony would earn a full year of service if he manages a top two finish. While he already signed a long-term extension with the Red Sox, that’d be important for his earning power considering his deal has significant escalators dependent on his Rookie of the Year placement. The ROY finish is less meaningful for Wilson. He has been on the MLB roster since Opening Day and will get a full service year either way. He cannot earn the A’s an extra draft choice by winning the award, however, because he entered this year with more than 60 days of service. Wilson spent five weeks on the MLB injured list late last season with a hamstring strain, which is why he had that much service time while remaining Rookie of the Year eligible.
Darell Hernaiz was called up when Wilson went on the shelf. The 24-year-old has turned in a solid .261/.337/.420 slash in 20 games. That’s enough to hold his roster spot. Hernaiz had played shortstop while Wilson was down but moves to second base tonight. He’ll probably get everyday run there, kicking impending free agent Luis Urías to the bench.
Angels Activate Robert Stephenson
The Angels announced they’ve reinstated reliever Robert Stephenson from the 60-day injured list. They optioned righty Chase Silseth in a corresponding move. Los Angeles already had a couple openings on the 40-man roster after recently designating Connor Brogdon and Shaun Anderson for assignment.
Stephenson returns after losing almost three months to a biceps injury. He’d missed all of last season rehabbing elbow surgery. That carried over into late May this year. Stephenson has spent a total of three days on the Angels’ active roster. He tossed a perfect inning with two strikeouts in his team debut on May 28. Two days later, the biceps injury knocked him out of action before he finished an at-bat.
The Halos signed Stephenson to a three-year, $33MM free agent deal going into 2024. While the elbow injury wiped out the entire first season, it triggered a conditional $2.5MM club option for 2027. Stephenson was dominant down the stretch two seasons back, striking out 43% of opponents with a 2.35 ERA in 42 appearances for the Rays. His arm hasn’t given him a chance to repeat that performance.
The Halos have dropped five games under .500 and are very likely going to miss the playoffs. They’ll hope Stephenson looks like his old self in the final five weeks of the regular season. That’d at least allow them to pencil him in as a high-leverage arm as they construct their 2026 bullpen.
Kenley Jansen is an impending free agent. Ben Joyce will be working back from shoulder surgery. Reid Detmers is a quality reliever but might get a chance to compete for a rotation spot next spring. Ryan Zeferjahn has strikeout stuff with wildly inconsistent command. Stephenson and Brock Burke may be the only locks for next year’s season-opening bullpen right now, and that’s obviously conditional on the former staying healthy after two injury-wrecked years.
Rays Option Joe Boyle, Recall Brian Van Belle For Potential MLB Debut
The Rays optioned Joe Boyle to Triple-A Durham this afternoon. They recalled swingman Brian Van Belle in a corresponding move, setting the 28-year-old up to make his MLB debut.
Boyle has held a spot in Kevin Cash’s rotation for the past month. Tampa Bay optioned and eventually traded Taj Bradley in part because they felt Boyle deserved a starting look. The hard-throwing righty had brilliant numbers out of the rotation in the minors (1.85 ERA with a 33% strikeout rate in 15 appearances) and looked similarly sharp in relief against big league opposition. His rotation audition hasn’t been as smooth.
Four of Boyle’s five recent starts have been underwhelming. While he fired five scoreless innings against the Dodgers on August 3, he gave up at least four earned runs in every other outing. That includes each of his past three. The Cardinals put up six runs (five earned) on nine hits and a trio of walks in four innings yesterday.
The Rays haven’t named a replacement in the rotation. Rookie lefty Ian Seymour seems the likeliest option. He turned in a 2.62 ERA with a 29% strikeout rate in 16 appearances out of Durham’s rotation. Seymour’s first 12 MLB outings have come in relief. He carries a 3.86 earned run average while fanning 27% of opponents.
Van Belle could also be a consideration, though it seems likelier he’ll pitch out of the bullpen. The former undrafted free agent has combined for a 3.17 ERA in 105 Triple-A frames divided between three organizations. The Rays acquired him from Cincinnati at the deadline as an ancillary piece of the Zack Littell trade.
A Miami product, Van Belle is approaching his 29th birthday and sits around 90 MPH with his fastball. He’s not really a prospect, but his plus changeup and elite control have fooled Triple-A hitters. Van Belle spent two days in the majors with the Red Sox in early June but didn’t make it into a game. He’ll hope to achieve that milestone with Tampa Bay and should be available in long relief behind scheduled starters Adrian Houser and Ryan Pepiot this weekend.
Astros Sign Craig Kimbrel
August 22: Houston finalized their one-year deal with Kimbrel this afternoon. They also activated Lance McCullers Jr. from the 15-day injured list to start tonight’s game in Baltimore. They cleared active roster space by optioning rookie Logan VanWey to Triple-A and placing southpaw Bennett Sousa on the 15-day injured list. Brandon Walter, who has been out for a month with elbow inflammation, was moved to the 60-day IL in the necessary 40-man move.
Sousa is dealing with elbow inflammation himself. Manager Joe Espada said Sousa reported discomfort after Tuesday’s appearance and has not progressed as hoped. He’s flying back to Houston for further evaluation while the team continues its road trip (link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic).
August 21: The Astros are in agreement with Craig Kimbrel on a major league contract, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The SportsMeter client was just granted his release from a minor league deal with Texas, per Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. Houston will need to create space on both the active and 40-man rosters.
Kimbrel spent a little more than two months in Triple-A with Texas. He signed in June one day after electing free agency from the Braves. That followed a bizarre sequence in which Kimbrel’s initial team called him up for one day. The nine-time All-Star labored through a scoreless inning in his lone appearance. That remains his only MLB outing this season. Kimbrel has otherwise divided the year between the upper minors affiliates of Atlanta and Texas.
Between the two organizations, Kimbrel carries a flat 3.00 earned run average in 39 minor league innings. He has recorded an excellent 31.5% strikeout percentage but has walked nearly 13% of batters faced. It’s a similar profile as Kimbrel has shown in the big leagues in recent seasons. He had a strikeout rate in the 31-34% range while issuing free passes between 10-13% of the time in both 2023 and ’24. Kimbrel remained effective with the Orioles in the first half of the ’24 season, but he melted down after the All-Star Break (20 earned runs in 17 innings) and has barely gotten an MLB look since then.
While the Triple-A results are solid, Kimbrel’s raw stuff hasn’t been as sharp this year. His fastball has been in the 92-93 MPH range in Triple-A; he averaged less than 92 on the heater in his only big league outing. He’d sat closer to 94 last year and was up to 96 as recently as 2023. He missed enough bats against minor league hitters to intrigue the Astros, whose bullpen has struggled of late.
Only the Rockies, Blue Jays and Nationals have a higher bullpen ERA than Houston does over the past month. The Astros lost Josh Hader for at least the remainder of the regular season to a capsule strain in his shoulder. Bryan Abreu is an elite back-end arm in his own right, and they have a strong left-handed trio of Steven Okert, Bryan King and Bennett Sousa. Abreu is essentially their only reliable righty reliever. Kimbrel’s command makes him a volatile bullpen piece as well, but he has more swing-and-miss upside than Enyel De Los Santos or Shawn Dubin provide in the middle innings.
The signing is expected to become official on Friday. Getting the deal done before September 1 means Kimbrel will be eligible for postseason play if the Astros qualify. He’ll have a little over five weeks of regular season action to convince the front office and coaching staff he’s worth carrying in October. Houston leads the Mariners by 1.5 games in the AL West. They’re 3.5 games clear of the Royals, the top team that is not currently in playoff position.
Image courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images.
Mets, Ali Sanchez Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mets are in agreement with catcher Ali Sánchez on a minor league contract, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. He’d elected free agency after being outrighted by the Red Sox.
It was only a matter of hours before Sánchez found a new landing spot. The Mets placed Francisco Alvarez on the injured list this week. He’s dealing with a thumb injury that’ll require surgery at some point, though he and the team are holding out hope that can be delayed until the offseason. That leaves them with a catching duo of Luis Torrens and Hayden Senger.
Torrens had his own brief injury scare on Wednesday after being struck on the glove hand by a swing in a catcher’s interference. He was able to finish the game and said afterwards that he believes he’s avoided any real injury, though he conceded he felt some soreness while gripping the bat (link via Tom Hanslin of SNY).
Senger started yesterday and is back in the lineup tonight. Torrens is capable of playing. Otherwise, the Mets would’ve made a roster move for another catcher in case Senger is knocked out of the game early. It nevertheless highlights how tenuous their catching depth is after the Alvarez injury. Neither of their current Triple-A catchers, Matt O’Neill and Onix Vega, appear to be viable big league options. Sánchez would very likely be the next man up if Torrens or Senger requires an injured list stint.
The 28-year-old Sánchez played in the Mets’ farm system between 2014-20. He had a very brief big league stint five years ago and was traded to the Cardinals during the 2020-21 offseason. He has since been a member of seven different organizations, reaching the big leagues with four of them. He’s a .185/.222/.235 hitter in 47 career MLB contests. It’s a very light bat, but Sánchez has a solid defensive reputation that makes him a capable third or fourth catcher on the depth chart.
Diamondbacks Name Tim Bogar Third Base Coach
The D-Backs are hiring Tim Bogar as third base coach, report Nick Piecoro and José M. Romero of The Arizona Republic. He’d already been in the organization’s player development department but now returns to coaching. Arizona skipper Torey Lovullo announced on Wednesday that they were removing prior third base coach Shaun Larkin from that responsibility; Larkin will remain on staff in a different capacity.
After playing parts of nine MLB seasons as a utility infielder, Bogar has spent over two decades in coaching. He has plenty of minor league managerial experience, including with Arizona’s Double-A club last year. He has been on big league staffs in various roles going back to 2008. Bogar spent a couple seasons as a base coach with the Red Sox. He has worked as a bench coach in Boston, Texas, Seattle and Washington and spent a month as Rangers’ interim manager in 2014. Bogar’s most recent MLB coaching experience came in 2023, when he worked as Dave Martinez’s bench coach with the Nationals.
Larkin, previously the organization’s farm director, was hired as third base coach last offseason. That came after Tony Perezchica departed to take the same role in Houston. Steve Gilbert of MLB.com writes that Larkin had garnered criticism for some poor send/hold decisions.
The final of those came on Wednesday. Larkin waved Alek Thomas around from first base after Guardians center fielder Angel Martínez stumbled following a bloop single. Martínez got to his feet and set up shortstop Gabriel Arias for a relay to the plate. Cleveland threw Thomas out, the first in what would be a scoreless inning. Arizona came back to win in extras, but Lovullo decided it was time for a change. Gilbert writes that Larkin will focus on infield instruction.
Red Sox Move Walker Buehler To Bullpen
August 22: Buehler is indeed headed to the bullpen, Cora told reporters (video provided by NESN). Monday’s start has yet to be determined.
August 21: A disappointing season for Red Sox’s righty Walker Buehler continued on Tuesday. He only completed four innings while allowing four hits and as many walks in a home loss to the Orioles. It was the fourth time in his past five outings that Buehler issued at least three free passes, and his season earned run average is up to 5.40 across 22 starts.
Asked this evening whether Buehler would make his scheduled start on Monday, manager Alex Cora said the team “(hasn’t) talked about it yet” (via Tim Healey of The Boston Globe). While Cora wasn’t interested in discussing the situation publicly, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the Sox are having internal conversations about moving Buehler to the bullpen. It’s not out of the question that he pitches in relief at some point during this weekend’s series against the Yankees. That’d obviously rule him out of starting Monday in what would be a rematch against Baltimore.
Buehler hasn’t been anywhere near as effective as hoped. The Sox signed him to a one-year, $21.05MM free agent deal that matched the price of the qualifying offer that he didn’t receive from the Dodgers. Buehler had a very poor regular season in 2024 (5.38 ERA in 16 starts) but hit the market with positive buzz after closing out the World Series. That convinced the Sox he was a solid upside play, but Buehler’s numbers this year are even worse than those of the 2024 regular season.
The righty has a career-low 16.5% strikeout rate and has gotten whiffs on just 7.7% of his pitches. The recent command woes have pushed his walk rate north of 10% for the first time in his career (outside of a 2017 debut in which he pitched fewer than 10 innings). Buehler carried a 6.12 ERA into the All-Star Break. While he has managed a serviceable 3.66 mark in the second half, he has walked as many batters as he has struck out over his past six starts.
Boston recalled former fifth starter Richard Fitts from Triple-A Worcester this afternoon. Cora said that Fitts, who has started all 17 appearances between MLB and the upper minors, will be available out of the bullpen. Fitts averaged only four innings per start while posting a near-5.00 ERA in the big leagues. The Sox pushed him out of the rotation when they acquired Dustin May at the deadline. They could reverse course and have him start on Monday.
Boston could also use both Buehler and Fitts in relief and recall one of Kyle Harrison or Cooper Criswell to work as the fifth starter. Harrison has made 10 Triple-A starts since being acquired in the Rafael Devers deal. He has a solid 3.69 ERA but has walked 12% of batters faced while averaging fewer than five innings per start with Worcester. Criswell has a 3.70 mark in 65 2/3 frames over 16 Triple-A outings.
If the Sox do pull Buehler from the rotation, it’d impact him financially. He has already picked up $1MM in bonuses by reaching 20 and 22 starts. He’d unlock another $500K each at 24, 26, and 28 starts. He’ll be a free agent next offseason when the Sox decline their end of a mutual option in favor of a $3MM buyout.
Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript
Anthony Franco
- Hey everyone, hope you've enjoyed your week!
- Have a bunch going on today so I need to keep this one at an hour
Olereb
- Who do you see the Braves targeting to upgrade at ss, also do you see the Braves trying to rid themselves of Justin Profar?
Anthony Franco
- Bichette would be uncharacteristic for them but they've got Iglesias and Ozuna coming off the books short term and there's a case they need to move off their usual operating procedure of prioritizing trades/extensions based on how poorly they've played this year
- Albies doesn't look like a core piece anymore, so they'd be able to slide Bo over to second in a couple years if he can't stick at SS long term. Trade market at the position has been bad for a while. Sox would probably move Story to make room for Marcelo Mayer (eh), could try to get the Royals to give up Maikel Garcia but it'd take a lot
- Profar's mashing since he's been back. They'd need a new left fielder if they trade him. I'm sure they're not happy with how things went down, but keeping him at 2/30 seems fine to me
Sam
- What's the Twins' offseason ahead look like? Will it be frugal once again due to the Pohlads retaining ownership of the team, or will they decide to start spending again (a la Correa) to try to get back into contention?
Anthony Franco
- I have a hard time seeing them kick up spending dramatically. Teams almost never follow up a massive teardown by throwing a bunch of money at it and trying again
- I expect Ryan and Jeffers to go at least. Feels like they could hold Pablo into next season because of the injury impacting his trade value. Then backfill with a bunch of smaller deals in the bullpen (similar to last winter's Rangers approach) at catcher, and for a right-handed outfield bat
- They brought back enough upper level talent, particularly in the rotation, that I could see a path to contention in 2027. Much harder for me to envision it next season
Brian
- with Samuel Basallo now locked up long term, what are chances the O's trade Adley this offseason?
Anthony Franco
- I don't think the Basallo extension moves the odds much. They had him under team control for six seasons and knew how good he was already
- They can coexist with the DH but Rutschman's offensive decline has made it feel for a while that he's running out of time there. Guess I'd put the odds of an offseason trade at 55%? Feels like at least 75% chance he's dealt by the 2026-27 offseason
The best evah
- Can you explain what makes Mackenzie Gore so attractive to MLB teams? Despite a higher K/9 this year compared to previous years (10.7), he has a career 4.01 ERA and (as far as I can tell) striking out half a batter more per nine seems to be the only thing he's improved in his game this year. To throw out another data point, Will Warren is a year younger and sporting a HR9/BB9/K9 of 1.0/3.9/10.1, compared to Gore's 1.2/3.4/10.7. Is Warren half a strikeout per nine away from being seen in a similar light to Gore?
Anthony Franco
- I'm sure there are plenty of teams that really like Warren but Gore throws two MPH harder from the left side, and there's a huge gap in swinging strikes on a per-pitch basis. Gore's eighth among pitchers with 100+ IP with a 13.4% swinging strike rate. Warren is 69th at 9.5%
- Warren gets a ton of called strikes, so they're pretty close in overall strikeout rate, but that's a little tougher to bank on year over year. Gore getting tons of whiffs with plus stuff from the left side feels like a higher upside play
- Also feels like Gore's results are weighed down a little bit pitching in front of a Nationals infield that is by far the worst in MLB. It's a good shout though. Warren's good, just a tier down below Gore for me
-
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Nationals’ Luis Garcia Jr. Taking Pregame First Base Reps
Nationals second baseman Luis García Jr. has begun taking pregame drills at first base, writes Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. While the Nats don’t have any plans to get García imminent game action there, Golden writes that they could give him a look at some point as they plan ahead to 2026.
García hasn’t played anywhere other than second base since the end of 2022. He got a few months of shortstop run that year but clearly wasn’t cut out for that position. He’s not a particularly good second baseman either. Defensive Runs Saved has graded him negatively in three straight years. Statcast’s Outs Above Average gave him above-average marks in 2024 but has had him as a subpar defender in every other season of his career. Both metrics have him alongside Kristian Campbell and Brandon Lowe among the league’s three worst defensive second basemen this season. Statcast feels he’s been particularly poor at tracking balls hit up the middle.
Infield defense has been a team-wide issue for a few seasons. CJ Abrams grades as one of the sport’s weakest defensive shortstops. José Tena was a non-viable option at third base earlier in the year. Rookie Brady House is getting everyday run at the hot corner now and raised the floor with the glove, but he hasn’t hit enough to stake a firm claim to the job going into next season.
Statcast grades the Nats’ overall infield defense at -31 Outs Above Average. That’s not only the worst in MLB, it’s 11 outs below the 29th-place Angels. Washington ranked 25th in that category a year ago. The Nats have allowed an MLB-high .278 batting average on ground-balls despite ranking middle of the pack in hard contact. They need to be far better defensively if they’re to take a step towards contention in 2026.
García has been a solid but not elite hitter over the past couple seasons. He turned in a career-best .282/.318/.444 showing with 18 homers and 22 stolen bases last year. The slash line has regressed to a .260/.300/.397 mark this season, but his results have lagged more impressive batted ball metrics all year. García doesn’t seem dramatically different than he was a year ago: a slightly above-average hitter who shouldn’t be playing up the middle on an everyday basis.
The bat is probably too light for him to be an average or better regular at first base. That said, the Nationals don’t have an obvious in-house candidate to play there next season. The Nathaniel Lowe trade didn’t work. Josh Bell is an impending free agent. Even if Washington re-signs him on a one-year deal, his streakiness makes him a better bench bat than a regular. There’s nothing to suggest the Nationals are projecting García to make a full-time move there, but there’s little downside in getting him comfortable at another position.
Washington’s offseason plans won’t be known until they hire a permanent GM and manager. Mike DeBartolo and Miguel Cairo are currently holding those roles on interim bases. Whether they keep that leadership structure in place or hire externally, they’ll need to address the infield over the offseason. First base is the most obvious priority, but getting García some kind of versatility would provide more flexibility for a free agent run at Gleyber Torres or to explore trade possibilities at the keystone.