Paul DeJong To Undergo Hamstring Surgery
6:51pm: Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that DeJong suffered a hamstring injury that’ll require season-ending surgery.
5:45pm: It appears that Paul DeJong, who recently signed a minor league deal with the Tigers, is done for the year. The Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens have placed him on the full-season injured list, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
An injury isn’t listed but it’s likely something related to his lower body. DeJong last appeared in a game on May 12th. In that game, he was visibly limping around the bases to score a run, as seen in this clip from Tigers ML Report.
It will unfortunately be a second straight injury-marred season for DeJong. Last year, he missed over two months after a fastball hit him in the face and caused several fractures. He was limited to just 57 games with the Nationals and didn’t perform especially well when he was on the field.
He had to settle for a minor league deal with the Yankees coming into 2026. He hit well for their Triple-A club for a while. He was held back by a .167 batting average on balls in play but hit six home runs in 83 plate appearances, leading to a lopsided .203/.361/.516 line and 123 wRC+.
He opted out of that deal and was able to secure a fresh minor league deal with the Tigers, which was a pretty decent landing spot considering they had some injured infielders. But in just his sixth game with the Mud Hens, he was bitten by the injury bug himself and will apparently miss the remainder of the campaign.
Assuming he can get healthy for the 2027 season, he should be able to secure another minor league deal somewhere. DeJong strikes out a ton but hits home runs and is a solid shortstop defender, with the ability to play other positions as well. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has been punched out in 32.1% of his 1,327 plate appearances but has hit 50 homers in that time.
For the Tigers, as mentioned, they have been dealing with a number of infield injuries. Gleyber Torres, Trey Sweeney and Javier Báez are all on the IL at the moment. Due to those injuries and others, the club went out and added DeJong for extra depth. With DeJong no longer available, that could prompt them to find a way to bring in someone else.
Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images
Red Sox To Select Tayron Guerrero
The Red Sox are going to select right-hander Tayron Guerrero to their roster, per reporting from Andrew Parker of SoxProspects.com. He’ll be back in the big leagues for the first time since 2019. Righty Zack Kelly has been optioned as a corresponding active roster move, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The Sox will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man roster spot. That will likely involve moving someone to the 60-day injured list, with Kutter Crawford being a logical candidate.
It’s an incredible comeback story for the 35-year-old. Guerrero was in the big leagues from 2016 to 2019, pitching for the Padres and Marlins. He logged 106 innings with a 5.77 earned run average. He lost his roster spot ahead of the 2020 season. Since then, he has alternated between minor league deals and time spent in Japan, without a ton of success. He was with the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2022 and 2025. The first stint overseas was okay, with Guerrero posting a 3.52 ERA, but he had a 6.41 ERA last year. In his minor league work from 2021 to 2024, he posted a 7.62 ERA.
He signed a minor league deal with the Sox this offseason and has been shoving in Triple-A. He has thrown 19 2/3 innings for the WooSox, allowing just two earned runs for a 0.92 ERA. His 8% walk rate is right around average, while his 29.3% strikeout rate is quite strong and his 69.6% ground ball rate is massive. His fastball is still averaging in the upper 90s, with his slider and changeup coming in around 90ish.
The Sox will take a chance on Guerrero to see if he can translate any of that to the big leagues. Given his age and his recent track record, it’s an unusual move, but there’s obvious appeal in his numbers so far this year. If the gambit doesn’t pan out, Guerrero is out of options.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Pirates To Promote Esmerlyn Valdez
The Pirates are going to promote first base/outfield prospect Esmerlyn Valdez, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. Fellow outfielder Billy Cook will be optioned as the corresponding active roster move, per DK Pittsburgh Sports. Valdez, who will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game, is already on the 40-man roster.
Valdez was an international signing out of the Dominican Republic, securing a $130K bonus. He has since been climbing the minor league ladder with a pretty heavy three-true-outcomes approach. He can draw walks and hit the ball over the fence but can also be vulnerable to strikeouts, though he has shown improvement in terms of the punchouts.
Last year, Valdez split his time between High-A and Double-A, hitting 26 home runs in 529 plate appearances. He drew free passes in 10.6% of those trips to the plate. His 24.6% strikeout rate was a bit high but a notable decrease from the 30.6% rate he posted in Single-A the year prior. He finished 2025 with a combined .286/.376/.520 line and 155 wRC+. He got some help from a .344 batting average on balls in play but it was a strong showing regardless.
The Pirates added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Baseball America ranked him the #11 prospect in the system coming into this year, noting that he’s not a strong runner or defender. Here in 2026, he’s been in Triple-A and has been posting really strong results. In 194 plate appearances, he has a huge 17% walk rate and a 21.1% strikeout rate. He has already hit ten home runs. His .253/.381/.506 line leads to a 131 wRC+. BA recently bumped him to #5 in the system.
Pittsburgh opened the year with Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds in two outfield spots. With Spencer Horwitz at first base and Marcell Ozuna the designated hitter most days, Ryan O’Hearn was spending most of his time in an outfield corner. Jake Mangum and a few others also chipped in from time to time. O’Hearn hit the IL a few days ago due to a quad strain, which opened up some playing time. The Bucs already recalled Jhostynxon García and are now adding Valdez into the mix as well.
It’s unclear how the Bucs will divvy up the playing time now. Both García and Valdez are righties, so perhaps there will be some platoon situations at play. Cruz is a lefty and has notable platoon splits in his career but reverse splits in 2026. Reynolds and Mangum are switch hitters with fairly neutral career splits.
Horwitz is a lefty and is usually platooned, so perhaps Valdez will see most of his playing time at first base. The Bucs had been using O’Hearn at first base for a lot of the games starting by a left-handed opponent, with Mangum taking O’Hearn’s spot in the outfield in those instances. Perhaps García and Valdez will combine to pick up O’Hearn’s slack in that dual outfield/first base role. Infielder Jared Triolo, who hits right-handed, recently picked up a few outfield starts but that might be less necessary now.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Robby Snelling To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
The Marlins announced to reporters, including Craig Mish of SportsGrid, that left-hander Robby Snelling will undergo Tommy John surgery. He was transferred to the 60-day injured list earlier today and will stay there for the rest of the year. He’ll likely be out until around the 2027 All-Star break.
It’s obviously awful news for any pitcher when a Tommy John surgery is required but it’s particularly bitter timing for Snelling. He has spent the past few years working his way through the minor leagues and became one of the top pitching prospects in the game. Miami called him up to the majors earlier this month and he made his big league debut. But he experienced some discomfort after his first start and was diagnosed with a sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament, the ligament that is replaced in Tommy John surgery.
Instead of building up his major league track record, Snelling is now going to be rehabbing for quite a while with just one game on his stat sheet. TJS usually requires 14 months or more of recovery time, so Snelling will miss the rest of the 2026 season and probably at least half of 2027.
For Snelling personally, the one silver lining is that this injury occurred just after his promotion. Since he is on the major league IL, he will collect big league pay and service time throughout his rehab process. If the injury occurred a few weeks earlier while he was still in the minors, that would not have been the case.
That’s a small positive for Snelling but a negative for the Marlins. They called up Snelling in May, so he wasn’t in position to get to a full year of service this season. That means his window of club control would include this year and six additional seasons. He could have been a Marlins rotation mainstay for that time. Or even if he eventually wound up on the trade block, as many Miami pitchers do, that window of control was going to be part of his eventual trade appeal.
Instead, he’s now going to be on the shelf for most of the first two years of that seven-year window. He will still have lots of time to get back on track and establish himself as a viable big league arm, but this is going to take a big bite out of the club’s control window.
The Marlins will also now have to proceed without Snelling in their plans for quite a while. Not too long ago, they were overflowing with rotation depth. They felt good enough about their stable of arms to trade Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers in the offseason, allowing them to add some offense and prospects. Even with those trades, they came into the season with a rotation consisting of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Max Meyer, Chris Paddack and Janson Junk. Their minor league depth included Braxton Garrett, Snelling and fellow prospect Thomas White.
But has so often happens, the surplus has evaporated. The Fish designated Paddack for assignment to open a spot for Snelling. Once Snelling hit the IL, they called up Garrett, but Garrett made two poor starts and was optioned back to the minors. White was placed on the minor league IL on Tuesday, so he’s not a short-term option.
Junk started for the Marlins yesterday. They have Alcantara, Pérez and Meyer slated to start the next three games. By Sunday, they will need some kind of plan, whether that’s a bullpen game or a spot starter. Tyler Phillips has been pitching multiple innings out of the bullpen and could be part of the solution. In addition to Garrett, they have Dax Fulton, Ryan Gusto and Bradley Blalock on optional assignment. Those three all have ERAs north of 4.40 in Triple-A this year.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Marlins Acquire Rece Hinds
The Marlins and Reds announced that they have made a trade sending outfielder Rece Hinds from Cincinnati to Miami. The Marlins optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville and transferred left-hander Robby Snelling to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. The Reds, who designated Hinds for assignment a few days ago, receive minor league right-hander Zach McCambley in return. The Marlins also recalled infielder Graham Pauley and placed infielder Leo Jiménez on the seven-day injured list with concussion symptoms.
Hinds, 25, has shown the potential to be a masher but hasn’t yet done that in a major league setting. In 131 big league plate appearances, he has a .172/.221/.426 line. But he hit five home runs in spring training this year, leading to a ridiculous .410/.465/.949 line. In Triple-A, dating back to the start of 2025, he has 31 home runs in 540 plate appearances a .303/.371/.576 line.
There is clearly some power there but the concern is when he doesn’t connect. Hinds has generally struck out in about a third of his plate appearances throughout his minor league career. In his brief big league action, he has a massive 42% strikeout rate.
There is a small hint of optimism in that department. At Triple-A, again dating back to the start of 2025, his strikeout rate is just 26.3%. That’s still above average but not as bad as his earlier minor league numbers, as he had a 35% strikeout rate from 2021 to 2024. He’s got some wheels and a good arm for right field, so he could be a real asset if he can get the strikeouts under control.
Hinds is in his final option year. The Marlins can keep him at Jacksonville for now and get a close-up look at his offensive approach. If there’s an injury in the big league outfield or he shows notable improvement, he could be called up.
The Reds moved on from Hinds but are able to turn him into some extra pitching depth. McCambley, 27, is a reliever who has shown some promise in the minors. The Phillies grabbed him in the Rule 5 draft in November but returned him to the Marlins at the end of spring training.
McCambley has a mid-90s four-seamer but that’s only his third pitch in terms of usage. He primarily throws his high-80s cutter and mid-80s slider, throwing each of those pitches about a third of the time. Four-seamers, sinkers, curveballs and changeups make up the other third.
Between last year and this year, he has thrown 67 1/3 Triple-A innings thus far, allowing 2.94 earned runs per nine. His 11.6% walk rate in that time is too high but he has punched out 30.3% of batters faced and induced a good amount of grounders as well. He is not on the 40-man roster but the Reds could call him up at some point down the line if they need a fresh arm or want to shake up their bullpen mix.
Snelling was diagnosed with a sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament last week. It’s not yet clear if he will undergo surgery but it’s not a surprise to see him transferred to the 60-day IL. Even the non-surgical paths back from a UCL sprain require lengthy recovery periods. He will technically be eligible for reinstatement in July but time will tell what a realistic timeline is for his return.
As for Jiménez, he exited yesterday’s game with an apparent injury. As Ronald Acuña Jr. was sliding into third base, Jiménez tried to tag him and the two collided, as seen in this clip from MLB.com. As Jiménez recovers, Pauley will get another shot in the big leagues. Pauley is a strong defender at third base but his offense is more questionable. He hit .173/.225/.293 for the Fish earlier this year before getting optioned to Jacksonville. He hit three homers in nine games for the Jumbo Shrimp and will now try to produce more offense in the big leagues.
Pauley has one option year remaining. A player burns an option year once they spend 20 days on optional assignment. It was two weeks ago that Pauley was sent down, so he still has a chance to carry that option into 2027 if he stays up from here on out.
The Hinds/McCambley trade and Pauley’s recall were first reflected in the transactions tracker at MLB.com. Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald first reported that Jiménez would go on the IL. The Snelling move came from the official team announcement.
How Should The Astros Handle Their Infield This Summer?
In the offseason, there was a lot of talk about the Astros having a crowded infield. On paper, they had Christian Walker at first base, Jose Altuve at second, Jeremy Peña at short and Carlos Correa at third. With Yordan Alvarez set to be in the designated hitter spot most days, that didn’t leave a clear opening for Isaac Paredes, who would have to bounce around and cover other spots whenever someone was taking an occasional off-day.
The season quickly demonstrated that so-called surpluses can dry up quickly. A hamstring strain sent Peña to the injured list in mid-April, which allowed Correa to become the shortstop and Paredes the regular third baseman. Peña was nearing a rehab assignment a few weeks later when Correa suffered an ankle injury that required a season-ending surgery. The club used glove-first journeymen Nick Allen and Braden Shewmake to cover short until Peña got back. Once Peña was ready to be activated, Altuve hit the IL.
All of these players are still under club control for the 2027 season. The Astros could hang onto all of them. It would mean starting another season with a mildly clunky roster fit, but something would likely come along to again break up the logjam.
Regardless, the Astros might look at this summer as an opportunity to free things up a bit. Due to a mounting pile of injuries, they’re out to an awful 20-31 start. Only the Rockies and Angels have a worse record. Due to almost the entire American League underperforming so far, Houston is technically only five games back of a playoff spot, but climbing back in the race is going to be a challenge when so many of their key performers are injured or struggling.
With the league so wide open, some wacky things could happen in the coming months, but it seems like there’s a decent chance the Astros will be in seller position this summer. That would be an unfamiliar position for them, as they’ve been consistently competitive for over a decade now. They narrowly finished outside the playoff picture last year, their first miss since 2016. They haven’t finished below .500 since 2014.
Trading an infielder would mean going into 2027 with less depth than they have this year, but they may want to think about it anyway. In the past few offseasons, they have been working with limited payroll flexibility, due to owner Jim Crane’s desire to avoid the competitive balance tax. In the most recent offseason, they needed pitching and had to get creative, taking gambles on unproven arms like Tatsuya Imai, Ryan Weiss and Mike Burrows. For the most part, those bets haven’t paid off and contributed to the Astros’ current predicament. The outfield has also been a bit of an issue since they traded Kyle Tucker — another move that was motivated by financial concerns.
Moving someone from the dirt could perhaps be a way to address those parts of the roster, or at least free up some payroll space so that there’s more maneuverability this coming winter. Due to their recent string of winning, and penalties related to the sign-stealing scandal, their farm system is also considered one of the worst in the league. If they are suddenly sellers, it could be a chance to do some restocking. There are different ways they could approach things, with pros and cons to each.
Altuve and Correa aren’t worth considering. They are older veterans with big contracts, both currently on the IL. Even if they had trade value, they both have the ability to veto trades. Making Peña available is one route they could go. The 2027 season will be his final arbitration year before he hits free agency. The odds of him signing an extension are low.
For one thing, Peña is represented by the Boras Corporation. It’s not true that Boras never lets his clients sign extensions. For instance, Altuve is a Boras client who has signed multiple extensions with the Astros. But Houston has never topped $160MM on a contract, for Altuve or anyone else. Peña could be trending towards beating that, as many strong shortstops have done in recent years. Marcus Semien, Dansby Swanson, Willy Adames, Correa, Xander Bogaerts, Trea Turner and Corey Seager have all signed deals in recent years worth more than anything the Astros have ever given out.
It puts Peña in a somewhat analogous position to where Tucker was a few years back. Tucker was a homegrown star but was nearing free agency and wasn’t going to be signed, so the Astros flipped him while they still had a year of control left. Peña’s window of control will be barely over a year when this summer’s deadline rolls around. Trading Tucker allowed the Astros to get Paredes, Cam Smith and Hayden Wesneski from the Cubs. Peña could fetch a similar haul or perhaps even a better one. His offense hasn’t been as consistently strong as Tucker’s but his speed and shortstop defense make up a good chunk of the difference.
The downside is that Peña is going to be harder to replace, since he is a shortstop and Tucker is a corner outfielder. Technically, the Astros could trade Peña and move Correa over to short but that’s probably not wise. Correa has become increasingly injury-prone in recent years and will be coming off his aforementioned ankle surgery.
There also aren’t amazing options for trading Peña and then finding an external replacement. The best shortstop free agents of the 2026-27 class would be J.P. Crawford or Ha-Seong Kim. Crawford is a decent enough player but he is going into his age-32 season and his defense isn’t especially well regarded. He and the Mariners are already considering a move to third base. Kim has a better defensive reputation but hasn’t been healthy for most of the past two years. Old friend Mauricio Dubón will be out there but he’s never really been relied upon as an everyday shortstop for an extended stretch of time.
Trading Peña also wouldn’t represent massive cost savings. He is making $9.475MM this year and will be due a raise in arbitration, though it remains to be seen how much he can push his salary up. Around his injuries this year, he has a .259/.305/.333 line and 81 wRC+. He has lots of time to get healthy and get in a groove but it’s not yet a lock that he’s set for a huge raise.
Perhaps Peña being available is too much of a reach, but Walker and Paredes were both in plenty of rumors over the winter. It seems fair to expect that the Astros would be more willing to listen on these two.
Walker had a rough year in 2025 but is bouncing back with a big 2026. He has a .255/.330/.489 slash line and 128 wRC+. That’s much better than his 2025 line of .238/.297/.421 and roughly in line with his 2022-24 production in Arizona, when he hit .250/.332/.481 for a 121 wRC+.
The Astros may feel comfortable moving on from Walker and having Paredes on hand to take over at first base. Since Walker is making $20MM annually through 2027, they might also welcome the opportunity to move that deal and open up some payroll space. But that contract is also why Walker isn’t likely to have huge trade value, despite his comeback performance. Though some teams may be interested in adding his bat for the stretch run, a 36-year-old first baseman with a $20MM salary in 2027 isn’t going to be terribly attractive.
Players that age generally don’t get paid at that level. The most recent comp for a guy that age getting paid like that is the three-year, $58.5MM deal the Astros themselves gave to José Abreu. Houston fans know all too well how that one played out. Perhaps Walker can have a better age-36 season than Abreu did, but teams won’t be eager about paying to make that bet. Houston would probably have to eat some money to bring back any kind of notable return.
Paredes is in a more attractive position contractually. He is making $9.35MM in his penultimate arbitration season. His deal has a $13.35MM club option for 2027. Even if that is not picked up, he will be eligible for arbitration and could be retained at a price point roughly in that range.
He will therefore be cheaper than Walker and is also far younger, as he’ll be 28 next year. Unfortunately, he is having a bit of a down year so far. His 8.6% walk rate is down about three ticks relative to last year. His .244/.333/.378 line is above average, leading to a 105 wRC+, but it’s a big drop from last year’s .254/.352/.458 line and 128 wRC+. There’s a bit of surplus value here but not a ton. Considering that his pull swing fits perfectly with the Crawford Boxes in Daikin Park, he may be more valuable to Houston than to other clubs.
Holding all three of Peña, Walker and Paredes is also a possibility. As mentioned, that would maintain depth for 2027, as injuries will surely pop up next year. The downside to this path is that it won’t give the club much of a chance to capitalize on being sellers. Their impending free agents won’t fetch huge hauls. Lance McCullers Jr. and Weiss aren’t going to have much appeal to other clubs as things stand. Relievers Bryan Abreu, Steven Okert and Enyel De Los Santos can probably be dealt but aren’t performing up to their previous levels. Christian Vázquez is having a good season and may be moveable, but he won’t fetch much as a 35-year-old backup catcher.
In short, the Astros don’t have much to sell if they limit themselves to impending free agents. In that scenario, they wouldn’t do much to bolster the farm and wouldn’t free up any meaningful payroll space. They would go into the offseason with a similar roster, which is talented but with holes.
Trading an infielder would reduce the depth but could help in other areas. Peña would bring back a lot, either in terms of prospect capital or major-league-ready talent, but he would blow a big hole at shortstop. Moving one of Walker or Paredes wouldn’t leave such an obvious gap but neither has nearly as much trade value as Peña.
It’s an interesting fork in the road for the franchise and it’s unclear who will be picking which route to take. General manager Dana Brown is in the final year of his contract. Owner Jim Crane hasn’t been shy about making bold decisions about his front office, only offering then-GM James Click a one-year deal after the club’s World Series win in 2022 and subsequently letting him walk. Crane was uncertain enough about Brown to let him go into 2026 as a lame duck. Will he let him be in charge of a deadline sell-off? Would Brown even want to take part in a big sell-off when his job is potentially on the line?
If not Brown, who would be making the decisions? Crane briefly ran the front office between Click’s departure and Brown’s hiring, so he could do it himself. However, that didn’t go especially well. In that brief window, the Astros signed the aforementioned Abreu deal and also inked Rafael Montero to a three-year pact. Both of those deals quickly turned into big duds, so perhaps Crane realizes he shouldn’t be the one making these calls. Is there some assistant GM he would be willing to elevate this summer? Is there any possibility of finding an external front office leader midseason?
There are many lingering questions surrounding the the team, the players and the front office. How those questions are answered in the coming months will shape the club’s future, making them one of the most interesting clubs to monitor this summer.
Photo courtesy of Katie Stratman, Imagn Images
MLBTR Podcast: Colt Emerson Debuts, Blue Jays’ Rotation Issues, And What To Make Of The Mets And Astros
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Mariners calling up Colt Emerson (3:40)
- The Blue Jays losing José Berríos to surgery and trading Eric Lauer (10:50)
- The Dodgers losing Blake Snell to surgery (17:05)
- The Mets losing Francisco Alvarez to surgery and Clay Holmes to a fibula fracture (21:00)
- The Astros losing Jose Altuve to an oblique strain (31:35)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Which teams have been the biggest positive surprises so far this season? (43:00)
- With the Dodgers having a lot of outfield prospects and trending towards a surplus, do they put together a trade or hold and develop them? (54:10)
Check out our past episodes!
- Patrick Bailey To Cleveland, The Struggling Astros, And Arizona’s Outfield Changes – listen here
- Skubal’s Injury, The Marlins’ Catchers, Eldridge Called Up, And Volpe Sent Down – listen here
- The Alex Cora Situation, Lucas Giolito Signs, And The Phillies Fire Rob Thomson – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
Angels Outright Alek Manoah
The Angels announced that right-hander Alek Manoah has been outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake. There wasn’t any announcement about him being designated for assignment but it appears the Halos quietly put him on waivers and he cleared. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.
Manoah has the right to elect free agency but isn’t likely to do so. A player with at least three years of big league service has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of the open market but needs five years of service to exercise that right while keeping his salary commitments in place. Manoah’s service count is over four years but less than five. The Angels signed him to a deal worth $1.95MM this offseason. With roughly $1.35MM left to be paid out, it’s fair to expect Manoah will accept his assignment and won’t be walking away from that money.
For the Angels, signing Manoah was a bet on a bounceback. He was a borderline ace earlier in his career. With the Blue Jays in 2022, he posted a 2.24 ERA over 31 starts and finished third in Cy Young voting. But he hasn’t been anywhere close to that level since. He posted a 5.87 ERA in 2023. Shoulder and elbow issues held him back after that and he ultimately required Tommy John surgery. He made five big league starts in 2024 and none in 2025.
He was put on waivers late last year and was claimed by Atlanta, but that club non-tendered him. That sent him to free agency and allowed the Angels to scoop him up, but that hasn’t panned out thus far. He started the season on the IL due to a middle finger contusion. He came off the IL earlier this month and has made three relief appearances. The first two were scoreless but he was torched by the Dodgers in the third, allowing eight earned runs in an inning and a third. He was optioned to the minors a few days ago and is now off the 40-man.
It’s unclear if the Angels want to keep Manoah stretched out or use him out of the bullpen. He made just one rehab appearance before coming off the IL, tossing 4 1/3 innings. Once activated, he started with a single-inning appearance, then tossed five frames in the second outing. That was followed by the aforementioned drubbing from the Dodgers in an inning and a third.
With Yusei Kikuchi on the IL, the rotation currently consists of José Soriano, Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz, Walbert Ureña and Grayson Rodriguez. They have George Klassen, Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri on the 40-man but currently on optional assignment. If Manoah is used as a starter in Triple-A, he can try to pitch his way into that group.
Photo courtesy of Dan Hamilton, Imagn Images
Gunnar Hoglund Undergoes Season-Ending Hip Surgery
The Athletics announced that right-hander Gunnar Hoglund underwent left hip surgery yesterday, specifically a hip labral repair and cartilage debridement to address femoroacetabular impingement. He will miss the entire 2026 season. He is already on the 60-day injured list and will stay there for the remainder of the campaign.
It’s a brutal development for Hoglund, as this will be his second straight season ended by surgery on that hip. In 2025, he was on the mound through the month of May. He hit the IL in early June due to a left hip impingement and went under the knife a couple of weeks later.
Ideally, he would have been healthy again in 2026 but that hasn’t come to pass. He missed all of spring training due to a knee issue and a back issue. He started the season on the IL with a lumbar spine strain. Now yet another hip surgery will wipe out his whole season.
Injuries were already a part of Hoglund’s story even before these multiple hip surgeries. While still in college, he required Tommy John surgery in May of 2021. A couple of months later, the Jays selected him 19th overall in that summer’s draft. While still rehabbing in March of 2022, Hoglund was traded to the A’s as part of the deal sending Matt Chapman to Toronto.
Hoglund was able to make a very brief professional debut late in 2022, tossing eight innings on the farm. He got up to 61 minor league innings in 2023 but with poor results, posting a 6.05 earned run average. He showed some progress in 2024, posting a 3.44 ERA in 130 2/3 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A.
He was added to the 40-man roster in November of 2024, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He began 2025 back at Triple-A and made six strong starts, which led to a call-up to the majors. He put six big league starts under his belt before hitting the IL last year. Ideally, he would have been developing as a pitcher and continuing to build his workload capacity as he moved further from his Tommy John. Instead, he lost most of 2025 and now all of 2026, leaving him as a big question mark going into 2027.
For the A’s, without Hoglund, they have primarily relied on a rotation consisting of Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, Aaron Civale, J.T. Ginn and Jacob Lopez. That group has mostly been putting up good numbers, except for Lopez, who has a 6.14 ERA. Depth options on the 40-man include Luis Morales, Joey Estes, Mason Barnett and Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang.
The A’s are 24-24, which is good enough for them to have the lead in the American League West at the moment. If they continue to hang in the playoff race this summer, the pitching staff would certainly be an area to add before this summer’s trade deadline. The club has a collective 4.38 ERA on the season, which is better than just six clubs in the majors. Since Hoglund won’t be able to come back this year, that should only add to the club’s desire to add arms in the coming months.
Photo courtesy of Matt Kartozian, Imagn Images
José Berríos Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos has had a full Tommy John surgery, per manager John Schneider, as relayed by Hazel Mae of Sportsnet. He will miss the entire 2026 season and a good chunk of 2027 as well. He is on the 15-day injured list but will be transferred to the 60-day IL whenever the Jays need a 40-man roster spot.
It has been a strange injury odyssey for Berríos, who was the most durable pitcher in the league until late last year. From 2018 through 2024, he made 32 starts in each full season, plus 12 in the shortened 2020 campaign. In 2025, he made 31 appearances but landed on the IL late in the year due to right elbow inflammation, his first time going on the IL as a big leaguer.
Berríos missed Toronto’s playoff run last year but appeared to be healthy going into 2026, making three spring training starts. He was then going to join the Puerto Rico team in the World Baseball Classic. A routine physical for that tournament showed some more elbow inflammation, even though he wasn’t experiencing any pain or symptoms. Things got stranger still when further testing revealed a stress fracture.
Despite the ominous diagnosis, Berríos began throwing again not long after and started a rehab assignment in mid-April. However, his results during those rehab starts were not good and his velocity started dropping. It was reported a few days ago that Berríos would undergo some kind of surgery here on Wednesday, but the details wouldn’t be known until it took place. Elbow surgery is always a big deal but it still seemed possible that a relatively minor procedure to address loose bodies, with a rough timeline of a few months, was a possibility.
But now the worst-case scenario has come to pass. Per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, the stress fracture damaged the ulnar collateral ligament, which made this surgery necessary. It’s been an unusual sequence of events, taken all together. It’s unclear exactly how or when this stress fracture occurred, since Berríos wasn’t in pain and it was seemingly only discovered by accident. If there was a risk of the fracture damaging the ligament, it’s unclear why Berríos was allowed to resume throwing or if there were any alternate paths to take.
Perhaps there will be some more clarity on the whole saga in time. Regardless, the result is that Berríos is now slated for a long recovery. A full Tommy John surgery usually requires a pitcher to take 14 months or more to get back on the mound, so Berríos might be looking at a return around the 2027 All-Star break in a best-case scenario from this point forward.
Back in 2021, Berríos and the Jays signed a seven-year extension worth $131MM. That deal allowed him to opt out after 2026, walking away from the final two years, both of which come with salaries of $24MM. Leaving two years and $48MM on the table would have seemed viable at his peak but Berríos wasn’t trending in the right direction. His strikeout rate dipped below 20% in both 2024 and 2025. This injury makes it a lock that he’ll forgo the opt-out and play out the remainder of the contract.
For the 2026 Blue Jays, this only adds to the huge number of rotation issues they have had to deal with. At one point earlier this year, it looked like they were eight starters deep on paper. In addition to Berríos, they had Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer and Eric Lauer. Berríos, Bieber and Yesavage all started the season on the IL, quickly dropping the Jays from eight to five. Ponce suffered a season-ending knee injury in his first start, prompting the Jays to sign Patrick Corbin. Yesavage eventually came off the IL but Scherzer went the other way.
In addition to the injuries to those big league starters, the bodies have also been piling up in the depth department. Bowden Francis required Tommy John surgery a few months ago. Lazaro Estrada is on the IL with a shoulder impingement. Ricky Tiedemann‘s hasn’t pitched in official game action this year due to his ongoing injury issues. Jake Bloss is still working back from last year’s Tommy John, having just started a rehab assignment this month.
On top of the injuries, Lauer pitched so poorly that he got designated for assignment and then traded to the Dodgers. The Jays have four healthy starters in Gausman, Cease, Yesavage and Corbin but are currently patching together Lauer’s spot with bullpen games led by Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles, who came into the year with fewer than 15 innings in the minors and no appearances above Single-A.
They will now have to proceed knowing there’s no chance of Berríos coming back late in the year to help out. For the time being, they will be hoping that Scherzer, Bieber, Estrada or Bloss get healthy and re-enter the mix. Until that happens, some of their depth options at Triple-A include Josh Fleming, Austin Voth, Chad Dallas and CJ Van Eyk. Fleming has good numbers in Triple-A this year but was lit up by the Dodgers when called up to the majors. Voth has a solid ERA in Triple-A but with a very low strikeout rate. Dallas and Van Eyk both have ERAs under 3.50 this year but they don’t currently have any major league experience nor a spot on the 40-man.
It’s possible the Jays will enhance their efforts to add external arms, though the options aren’t amazing at this time of year. There aren’t really notable free agents and a big trade is hard to pull off as few teams are looking to sell this early.
In the longer term, the Jays will no longer be able to pencil Berríos into their rotation for the start of 2027. Gausman, Bieber and Scherzer are all impending free agents after 2026. The Jays should have Cease and Yesavage in two slots. Ponce will probably get a chance to take a spot, though he’ll be coming off an essentially lost season. Perhaps guys like Bloss, Estrada or others could push into the mix later this year, but there are clear gaps. Even before this news, the Jays were probably going to be looking for pitching in the coming offseason. Subtracting Berríos from the plans should only increase those odds.
Photo courtesy of Brian Fluharty, Imagn Images