Eloy Jiménez Clears Waivers, Elects Free Agency
TODAY: Jiménez has cleared waivers and elected free agency, according to Keegan Matheson of MLB.com.
April 29: The Blue Jays have reinstated outfielder/designated hitter George Springer from the 10-day injured list. In a corresponding move, designated hitter Eloy Jiménez has been designated for assignment. Hazel Mae of Sportsnet was first to report the moves.
It’s the inverse of a transaction from a couple of weeks ago. Springer fractured a bone in his left big toe when he fouled a ball off of his foot. On April 12th, he was placed on the IL, with Jiménez selected to take his place on the roster. Now that Springer is healthy enough to return, Jiménez has been bumped off.
In the meantime, Jiménez wasn’t able to do much to secure a longer look. He didn’t play the field, continuing a recent trend of his. He only played eight innings in the outfield in 2024 and none in 2025. As a bat-only player, he needs to hit to provide value, but he wasn’t able to do much of that. His .290 batting average looks nice but he didn’t produce an extra-base hit, leading to a .290/.343/.290 slash line and 82 wRC+, indicating he was 18% worse than league average at the plate overall.
That’s a small sample size of 35 plate appearances but continues a trend that began a few years ago. Though Jiménez was potent slugger for much of the 2019 to 2023 window, he hasn’t been in good form since. In 2024, he hit just six home runs in 98 games, leading to a .238/.289/.336 line and 78 wRC+. He didn’t play in the majors last year, spending the season in the minors, where he hit a combined .247/.326/.347 between the Triple-A teams of the Rays and the Jays.
There was a bit of optimism among some Jays fans when Jiménez put up a decent .286/.333/.524 line in spring training this year, followed by a .257/.372/.371 line in 11 Triple-A games. But as mentioned, his big league numbers were uninspiring. With Springer now back and likely to be in the DH spot most of the time, there wasn’t going to be much use for Jiménez.
Jiménez now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Jays could take as long as five days to field trade interest, but they could also put him on waivers sooner if they so choose. Given his recent track record, it’s likely he will clear waivers. As a veteran with at least five years of major league service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment and instead elect free agency. It’s possible the Jays will skip that step and just release him.
For the Jays, their hope is that greater health can steady the ship for them. They are out to a shaky 13-16 start as they have been battling a large number of injuries. They just got Trey Yesavage back in the mix yesterday and now Springer has rejoined the roster as well. José Berríos and Addison Barger could be next, with guys like Nathan Lukes and Alejandro Kirk ideally returning to the club in the not-too-distant future as well.
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Randal Grichuk Elects Free Agency
The Yankees announced that outfielder Randal Grichuk has elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.
Grichuk, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in the offseason. That deal came with a $2.5MM salary if he got added to the roster, which he did, cracking the Opening Day squad. He is a right-handed hitter and has traditionally been better against lefties. The Yanks were hoping he could be a nice complement to their lefty-heavy lineup. Unfortunately, he has hit just .227/.261/.364 against southpaws this year. That line leads to a 71 wRC+, indicating he has been 29% below average in that split. He hit .194/.212/.323 overall.
That performance got him bumped into DFA limbo and none of the 29 other teams wanted to claim his contract off waivers. Players with at least five years of big league service time can reject outright assignments while keeping their salary commitments in tact. The Yankees will remain on the hook for the remainder of that $2.5MM. Another club could now sign Grichuk and would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the $780K league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Yankees pay.
Grichuk’s recent form isn’t much to garner interest. Last year’s .228/.273/.401 line was better than this year’s but still subpar, translating to a wRC+ of 82. Defensively, Grichuk is essentially a corner-only guy now. He has lots of center field experience but has just two innings at that position since the end of the 2023 season.
He’s not too far removed from being a useful complementary player. With the Diamondbacks in 2024, he slashed .291/.348/.528 for a 139 wRC+. Roughly two thirds of his plate appearances were against southpaws but he had above-average results against pitchers of either handedness. That led to him securing a $5MM guarantee for 2025 but, as mentioned, his results weren’t as good. He had to settle for a minor league deal for 2026. Even when he got called up, his base salary was half of the year prior.
Though 29 teams just passed on the chance to get him off waivers, signing him now would be much cheaper. On a prorated basis, the league minimum would be less than a third of his salary and it would also come with no commitment, as teams could cut bait at any time.
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Orioles Place Ryan Helsley On IL With Elbow Inflammation
The Orioles announced that right-hander Ryan Helsley has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 29th, with right elbow inflammation. Fellow righty Albert Suárez has been selected to take Helsley’s place on the active roster. The 40-man roster had a couple of vacancies and the addition of Suárez brings the O’s up to 39 players on there.
It’s an out-of-nowhere IL stint for Helsley, as there wasn’t any previous indication that anything was wrong. He last pitched on Tuesday, recording a clean inning and earning a save as the O’s beat the Astros 5-3. His fastball averaged 99.3 miles per hour, right around his season average and a slight increase over his previous two outings. He didn’t pitch in the past two days but Baltimore didn’t have save chances in the interim. The game on Wednesday was postponed. The two games in yesterday’s doubleheader were not close, one being decided by six runs and the other by seven.
The club will presumably have more information later but it’s always a bit ominous when a pitcher’s throwing elbow is involved in an injury. For the O’s, they will have to figure out how to proceed with yet another hit to their bullpen. Their previous closer, Félix Bautista, underwent shoulder surgery in August of last year. That procedure came with a timeline of about a year. He could perhaps be back late in 2026 but it’s also possible he misses the entire season, which is why Helsley was signed to fill the closer’s role.
The O’s also have Dietrich Enns and Yaramil Hiraldo on the IL, meaning Helsey is now the fourth reliever on the shelf. Guys like Andrew Kittredge, Rico Garcia, Anthony Nunez or Grant Wolfram could step up to absorb some higher-leverage roles.
For Helsley personally, it could be a rough development as well. Not so long ago, he was one of the top relievers in the game and was trending towards cashing in as a free agent. Unfortunately, he had an ill-timed dip in performance in 2025, his walk year. His earned run average shot up to 4.50 after being around 2.00 in the previous three seasons.
He signed a two-year, $28MM deal with the Orioles, a pact which contained an opt-out halfway through. That would give Baltimore a replacement for Bautista in the closer’s role. For Helsley, ideally, he would return to form and then go back to free agency in search of a longer deal and a bigger guarantee.
The results have been mostly good so far, through 10 2/3 innings. His 15.2% walk rate is way too high but his 32.6% strikeout rate is a nice bounceback after it dropped to 25% last year. Obviously, a major elbow injury would kill that plan, so this will hopefully be just a minor issue and eventual footnote in his season.
Suárez, 36, began the season with the O’s on a minor league deal. His contract was selected a few days into the season. He spent close to a month in the bullpen as a long reliever, tossing 13 innings over five appearances with a 3.46 ERA.
Despite those pretty solid results, he was squeezed off the roster a few days ago. He cleared waivers and then elected free agency on Wednesday. It was reported at that time that he and the O’s would likely work out a new minor league deal. According to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, his new minor league deal was approved just a few hours ago. He was initially going to join the Norfolk Tides in Nashville before being rerouted to be added to the big league roster as a replacement for Helsley.
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Ryan Pepiot To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery
Rays right-hander Ryan Pepiot will undergo hip surgery and miss the rest of the season, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Pepiot is already on the 60-day injured list and will stay there for the rest of the campaign.
It’s obviously an unfortunate blow for Pepiot and the Rays. The right-hander was healthy in spring training but some inflammation in his right hip sent him to the 15-day IL to start the season. It initially appeared as though that would be a minimal IL stint. As of April 4th, Pepiot had thrown a bullpen session and was in line to rejoin the Rays a little over a week later.
The tides shifted a couple of weeks ago. On April 14th, around the time Pepiot was supposed to be activated, the Rays instead transferred him to the 60-day injured list when they signed Michael Grove. Few details were available at that time but that at least signalled that Pepiot wasn’t going to return before late May. This latest update is even more ominous than that, with Pepiot now set to go under the knife and miss the whole season.
Acquired from the Dodgers as part of the Tyler Glasnow trade in December of 2023, Pepiot was largely a mainstay of the Tampa rotation in the past two seasons. He made 26 starts in 2024 and 31 last year. Between the two seasons, he gave the Rays 297 2/3 innings with a 3.75 earned run average, 25.4% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate.
So far, the Rays have done well this year, despite getting no contributions from Pepiot. They are 18-12 and in second place in the American League East. The rotation has been a key part of that, as the club’s starters have a combined 3.45 ERA, fifth-best in the majors.
Still, it’s less than ideal that Pepiot won’t be coming back to join the group at any point. They traded away Taj Bradley at last year’s deadline and then Shane Baz in the offseason, thinning out the rotation depth. This year, they’ve gotten multiple starts from Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, Steven Matz, Nick Martinez and Joe Boyle. The Rays put Boyle on the IL a few weeks ago due to a right elbow strain. Jesse Scholtens has effectively taken his place in the rotation, largely working behind an opener.
It’s not a sturdy group on the whole. McClanahan is pitching well but it’s fair to wonder if he’ll hit some kind of wall since he missed the previous two seasons. Rasmussen has a spotty health history with multiple surgeries on his chart. Martinez and Matz are mid-30s guys who were in swing roles as of last year. Scholtens was a waiver claim towards the end of last season.
At some point, the Rays will have to turn to other arms in the system, with Pepiot no longer part of the calculus. Joe Rock is on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment but he’s walking everyone in Triple-A. Prospect Brody Hopkins is in Triple-A but he only has six starts at that level and is also showing significant control issues. Yoendrys Gómez is working as a long reliever in the big leagues but he has a 6.23 ERA and is out of options.
For now, the Rays will do their best to keep making it work, though any further injuries could really hurt them. If they manage to stay in contention until the deadline, they will presumably look for reinforcements.
Turning back to Pepiot, he got his service clock just over three years in 2025, therefore qualifying for arbitration for the first time for 2026. He is making $3.025MM this season and can be controlled via arbitration through 2028. When arb-eligible players miss an entire season, they usually end up making the same salary in the following campaign. The Rays surely aren’t happy to be losing Pepiot but the one benefit for them is that they should be able to have him back in 2027 without giving him a raise.
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Brewers Place Brandon Woodruff On IL With Shoulder Inflammation
2:30pm: Woodruff spoke to members of the media, including Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, shortly after being placed on the IL. He said there are no structural concerns and it should be a pretty minimal IL stint.
2:05pm: The Brewers announced that right-hander Brandon Woodruff has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. Fellow righty Easton McGee has been recalled in a corresponding move.
The IL placement is unsurprising but ominous. Woodruff has been battling shoulder problems for years. He was limited to 11 starts in 2023 and eventually required surgery, which wiped out his entire 2024 season. He got back on the mound in the summer of 2025 and made 12 starts but then finished the season on the IL due to a lat strain.
The Brewers felt confident enough in Woodruff’s health to issue him a $22.025MM qualifying offer for 2026, a deal he accepted. He got healthy enough this spring to break camp with the club. However, alarm bells started ringing when he made his start yesterday, as his velocity was down about 7 mph. He had been averaging about 92 miles per hour in his previous starts but couldn’t really get past 85 mph yesterday.
Milwaukee removed him from the game but the details were a bit murky. Manager Pat Murphy said that Woodruff wasn’t experiencing any pain, but merely felt his arm was a bit dead. The Brewers weren’t sure if an IL stint would be necessary or if maybe they would simply try pushing his next start by a few days. He did go for an MRI and it seems there was enough concern to put him on the shelf for at least a couple of weeks.
Further details may be revealed later today but all the pieces add up to a worrisome situation. Woodruff hasn’t been fully healthy for an extended stretch of time since 2022 and it seems he can’t fully shake the shoulder problems.
For now, McGee gives them an extra bullpen arm. In a few days, they will need to figure out how to fill Woodruff’s spot in the rotation. Jacob Misiorowski is taking the ball today and should be followed by Kyle Harrison, Chad Patrick and Brandon Sproat in the subsequent games. By Tuesday at the latest, they’ll need either a bullpen game or another starter in the mix. If Woodruff is going to be out for a while, they will need to think about long-term solutions.
Shane Drohan, DL Hall and Jake Woodford have been throwing multi-inning stints out of the bullpen. Perhaps someone in that group could make a spot start or act as the bulk guy in a bullpen game, or maybe even a combo of those guys could cover a game. The Brewers also have options in the minors. Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Coleman Crow and Carlos Rodriguez are all on optional assignment in Triple-A right now, so someone in that group could be recalled.
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Stearns: No Plans To Make Managerial Change
The Mets are out to an awful start, which is a situation that often puts a manager in the hot seat. However, president of baseball operations David Stearns downplayed the likelihood of manager Carlos Mendoza getting the sack. “We know our record is not what we want, and we know we are capable of more,” Stearns told Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. “We don’t view this as a manager problem, and we don’t intend to make a change.”
The spotlight seemed to pivot to Mendoza in the past week when manager firing season began. The Red Sox got things started by canning Alex Cora last weekend, giving the interim job to Chad Tracy. The Phillies followed suit by letting Rob Thomson go. That job was offered to Cora but he declined, so Don Mattingly has taken over on an interim basis.
Like the Red Sox and Phillies, the Mets came into the 2026 season with every intention of contending but have fallen flat in the early going. Despite having the second-highest payroll in baseball, behind the Dodgers, the Mets have the worst record in baseball at 10-21.
How much blame lies at the feet of the manager in such situations is something that has been debated throughout baseball history and that will surely continue to be the case. A skipper certainly does make some decisions that impact results, such as setting the lineup and making pitching changes, but how much those things can actually impact the win-loss is debatable. Some feel a manager’s job as a strategist is essential while others feel that role is overblown and a skipper is more about being a motivational clubhouse leader.
In the case of the Mets, one could take either side of the debate. As a team, the Mets are hitting .227/.289/.342 this year. That results in a wRC+ of 80, indicating the entire team is 20% below league average. They’re the worst team in the majors in that category. Eight guys on the team have taken at least 70 plate appearances, a group that doesn’t include Juan Soto since he spent time on the IL. Of those eight, Francisco Alvarez is the team leader with a 104 wRC+. Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, Brett Baty and Carson Benge are all below 70.
The pitching is a bit better but still not great. Their 4.17 earned run average is very middle of the pack, putting them 15th out of the 30 teams in the majors. David Peterson, Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga have each posted ERAs north of 6.00 in samples of 20 innings or more. Devin Williams and Luke Weaver were supposed to be the lockdown bullpen arms but Williams has an ERA of 8.00 and Weaver is at 6.00.
An endless debate could be had about what role Mendoza plays in those numbers. One side could argue a manager should find ways to wring better results from his players. The other camp could say the manager can only do so much if the players aren’t performing. Stearns has been consistent in his viewpoint. “I think Mendy’s doing a very good job,” Stearns said two weeks ago, per SNY Mets. “I think Mendy is putting players in position to succeed and we need to go out and play better.” Today’s comments echo those.
It will be unwelcome news for those who want heads to roll but it seems the Mets don’t view the manager as the key issue, at least for now. If the struggles continue, it’s possible the club’s desire to make a change will grow.
Mendoza is in the final guaranteed year of his three-year contract. They won 89 games in 2024 and went to the NLCS. Last year, they were on an even better pace for most of the year. They were 62-47 through July but had an awful August and September, going 21-32. That put them at 83-79 and just outside the playoff picture. Mendoza’s deal has a club option for 2027. The events of the coming months will determine if that seems likely to be picked up.
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D-backs Designate Aramis Garcia For Assignment
The Diamondbacks announced this morning that they’ve designated catcher Aramis Garcia for assignment and reinstated fellow backstop Gabriel Moreno from the 10-day injured list. Additionally, the Snakes recalled lefty Brandyn Garcia from Triple-A Reno and optioned lefty Philip Abner in his place.
Aramis Garcia, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Snakes in the offseason. He started the year as Triple-A depth, as Arizona deployed a catching tandem of Moreno and James McCann. The season began with Adrian Del Castillo on the injured list with a calf strain but he was activated after a minimal stint. Injuries to Pavin Smith and Carlos Santana opened up the designated hitter spot and allowed the Diamondbacks to roll with three catchers, with Del Castillo getting a decent amount of DH time.
Moreno suffered an oblique strain in mid-April. Arizona could have continued with McCann and Del Castillo as the catching duo but they decided to add Garcia, keeping them at three backstops and giving them more freedom to keep Del Castillo in the DH mix. That didn’t leave a lot of playing time available for Garcia. He’s been on the roster for over two weeks and only appeared in three games, making three plate appearances. He went one for three with a single and a strikeout.
Del Castillo has options and could have been sent down today, especially since he’s hitting .207/.246/.362 so far this year, but the Diamondbacks have decided to keep him in the mix. He is much better against righties, so perhaps Moreno’s return will allow him to be deployed situationally instead of behind the plate.
Garcia is out of options, so he had to be bumped into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Diamondbacks could take five days to field trade interest, though they could also put him on waivers at any time before that. Garcia is probably not likely to garner too much interest. Given his out-of-options status, another club would have to be willing to plug him directly onto the big league roster.
He’s never been much more than a part-time catcher, as his career high for games in a season is 47. Over multiple seasons, he has appeared in 124 contests with a .210/.245/.321 line in 334 plate appearances. He’s a solid defender and framer but the bat is light and the lack of roster flexibility hurts him.
He has previously been outrighted in his career, which means he would have the right to elect free agency if he is passed through outright waivers again. Twice last year, he briefly joined the Arizona roster and then got bumped off, eventually ending up back in Reno. It seems the most likely scenario is that he clears waivers and then either accepts an assignment with the Aces or elects free agency and then re-signs on a new minor league deal.
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Tigers Acquire Zack Short
The Tigers have acquired infielder Zack Short from the Nationals. The Nats get cash considerations or a player to be named later. Short was not on Washington’s 40-man roster and doesn’t need to be immediately added to Detroit’s. He has been assigned to Triple-A Toledo. Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group first reported that the Tigers were getting Short for cash. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic mentioned the PTBNL.
Short, 31 this month, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in the offseason. It’s not especially common for players on minor league deals to get traded but it has happened to Short twice this year. He was flipped to the Nationals for cash in March and has now been traded again.
For the Nats, Short provided some non-roster depth at shortstop. They have CJ Abrams there but don’t have an amazing fallback plan, which is presumably why they added Short. Since then, they’ve been getting some decent results from Jorbit Vivas. He doesn’t have a ton of shortstop experience but is perhaps at least an emergency option there. Nasim Nuñez doesn’t hit much but is a strong defensive backup. Prospect Seaver King is crushing Double-A pitching at the moment and could be up in Triple-A soon. The odds of Short getting a call-up were perhaps not high.
But Detroit just lost Javier Báez to the injured list with a right ankle sprain. He and Kevin McGonigle had been sharing the shortstop position, with McGonigle also playing third base and Báez also spending some time in the outfield. The Báez injury leaves McGonigle all alone at short, since other shortstop options like Trey Sweeney and Zach McKinstry are also on the IL. This week, manager A.J. Hinch told Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press that the backup shortstop is Hao-Yu Lee, who hasn’t played the position since 2023.
Báez, Sweeney and McKinstry will eventually get healthy again but it’s an imperfect situation for the short term. Adding Short gives them a glove-first non-roster depth option to fall back on. In 594 big league plate appearances, Short has a meager .172/.271/.296 line but he has almost 800 innings of shortstop experience. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average view him as a subpar shortstop for his career, but mostly due to struggles in his 2021 debut. Since then, he’s been roughly par. He also has experience at second base, third base and in the outfield.
Perhaps the Tigers will add Short and option Lee, which would improve their shortstop depth but would be a downgrade offensively. They could also just keep Short in Triple-A in case another injury pops up. If he’s added to the 40-man at any point, Short is out of options.
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Brandon Woodruff Sent For MRI After Velocity Dip
6:52pm: Woodruff has indeed gone for an MRI, writes Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Murphy said an injured list stint is a possibility but did not commit to that pending the imaging results.
1:53pm: Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff was removed from today’s game in the second inning with his velocity notably lower than usual. It quickly became obvious that something was off, as he started the game with his velocity way down. His fastballs were averaging around 85 miles per hour today, whereas he had been around 92 mph in his previous outings this year.
At this point, it’s unclear what the problem is, as Woodruff evidently wasn’t experiencing any pain. “He wasn’t himself,” manager Pat Murphy said in a mid-game interview on the TV broadcast, relayed by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “He felt like, felt kind of dead. He said he didn’t feel any pain, just nothing was coming out. We’ve seen a little bit of this, but never at this level, where he can’t get the ball over 85 mph. He’s so important to us. We’re not going to risk anything, maybe long-term by having him to try to step on it. He’s going through this process and hopefully will be okay.”
A 7 mph drop in velocity would be worrisome for any pitcher. The concern is heightened since this relates to Woodruff, given his recent history. Shoulder problems limited him to just 11 starts in 2023. He eventually required surgery, which wiped out his entire 2024 campaign. He was able to return to the mound in the summer of 2025 and made 12 good starts, but finished the season on the injured list with a lat strain.
The Brewers felt good enough about Woodruff’s health to make him a $22.025MM qualifying offer, a notable gesture for a club that rarely pays players at that level. Woodruff took some time to explore his opportunities but eventually accepted the QO and returned to Milwaukee for 2026.
Coming into this year, he was ramped up in measured fashion and it wasn’t clear if he would be built up in time for the Opening Day roster, but he did eventually break camp with the Brewers. Through his first five starts, he had a solid 3.77 earned run average, though with some yellow flags. His 20% strikeout rate was a big drop from last year’s 32.3% clip. He seemed to benefit from a .235 batting average on balls in play. ERA estimators like his 4.06 FIP and his 4.27 SIERA felt he was lucky to have his ERA under 4.00.
Presumably, Woodruff is slated for some testing, with more information to be revealed in the coming days and weeks. If Woodruff needs to spend some time on the injured list, that would be a blow to the Milwaukee rotation. He is capable of ace-level production when at his best, with a 3.13 ERA and 28.8% strikeout rate in his career. But due to the shoulder issues, he hasn’t made more than 12 starts in a season since 2022.
The rest of the Milwaukee rotation is currently manned by Jacob Misiorowski, Kyle Harrison, Chad Patrick and Brandon Sproat. Someone would have to step up to replace Woodruff if he needs to miss some time. DL Hall, Shane Drohan and Jake Woodford have been working multiple innings out of the bullpen of late and could perhaps step up with a spot start or working as a bulk guy in a bullpen game.
They also have guys in the minors they could pull from. Logan Henderson, Coleman Crow, Robert Gasser and Carlos Rodriguez are all on optional assignment in Triple-A. Any one of them could be an option to make a spot start or perhaps get a few turns in the rotation, depending on how Woodruff’s situation eventually pans out.
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Phillies Select Trevor Richards
The Phillies made a move in between games of today’s double-header. Left-hander Kyle Backhus has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 27th, with left elbow inflammation. Right-hander Trevor Richards has been selected to take his place on the roster. The Phils have had an open 40-man spot since Taijuan Walker was released a week ago, so no further corresponding moves are required.
No details have been provided about the injury to Backhus, who last pitched on Saturday. IL stints can be backdated by by a maximum of three days. Perhaps more information on his status will be released after the second game of today’s twin bill but he’ll be on the shelf for at least 12 days.
His injury opens the door for Richards to get back to the majors. Richards signed a minor league deal with the Phillies in the offseason and has been pitching for Triple-A Lehigh Valley so far this year. He has been in great form for the IronPigs, tossing 14 innings over nine appearances, allowing three earned runs. His 1.93 ERA has gotten some help from a .111 batting average on balls in play and 100% strand rate, since his three runs allowed all came on homers, but he struck out 26 of the 50 batters he has faced, a massive 52% clip. He only walked three, a 6% pace.
Richards has had some intriguing but inconsistent major league results in the past. From 2021 to 2023, he tossed 201 innings, mostly for the Blue Jays. His 31.3% strikeout rate in that time was very strong but he gave out walks at a high rate of 10.9% and also struggled with the long ball. 14.5% of his fly balls cleared the fence in that time, a few ticks north of par. He recorded 25 holds but posted a 4.61 ERA for that stretch. That’s obviously not a great number but his 3.37 SIERA showed some optimism, since that metric expects home run rates to even out in larger samples.
2024 ended up being a real mixed bag for Richards. Back with the Jays to start the year, he gave them 51 1/3 innings with a 4.64 ERA. He wasn’t allowing as many homers but also wasn’t striking as many guys out. He was traded to the Twins at the deadline. Though his 4.15 ERA was technically an improvement from his time with the Jays, his control problems became untenable. He walked 11 of the 59 batters he faced as a Twin, an 18.6% clip. He also hit another two batters and threw seven wild pitches.
Minnesota designated him for assignment before the month of August was done. In 2025, he was mostly stuck in the minors. He made five big league appearances in total, three for the Royals and two for the Diamondbacks. He allowed five earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, for three different clubs, and had a combined 5.19 ERA at that level.
Though it’s been a frustrating road at times, Richards has shown strikeout stuff in the past and is doing so again now, albeit in a small sample. He has usually undercut the punchouts by giving out too many walks and surrendering home runs. For the Phillies, there’s little harm in giving him the last spot in the bullpen and seeing what happens. Richards is a veteran with at least five years of service time, meaning he can’t be optioned without his consent. If the Phils want to bump him off the active roster in the future, he’ll need to be removed from the 40-man as well.
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