Cardinals Designate Ryan Vilade For Assignment, Select Andre Granillo
The Cardinals announced that they have selected right-hander Andre Granillo to their roster and also recalled outfielder Michael Siani. In corresponding moves, they have optioned righty Chris Roycroft and designated outfielder Ryan Vilade for assignment.
Granillo, 25, was selected by the Cardinals in the 14th round of the 2021 draft. Exclusively a reliever, he has climbed the minor league ladder while posting good strikeout numbers and also giving out a high number of walks. He has 233 1/3 minor league innings under his belt to this point, having allowed 3.74 earned runs per nine innings. He has punched out 32.2% of batters faced in that time while also giving out free passes at a 12.7% clip.
It seems he has taken a big step forward in terms of his control this year. He has thrown 29 2/3 innings over 18 appearances with a 1.82 ERA. He has only walked 6.9% of batters faced while still getting punchies at a huge rate of 39.7%. In May of last year, FanGraphs ranked Granillo as the #21 prospect in the system. That report gave the highest praise for his slider, though it also mentioned his changeup and his mid-90s fastball.
With Granillo seemingly taking a big step forward at Triple-A, the Cards will give him a chance to face major league hitters. But that required a 40-man spot, so Vilade will get bumped off. Vilade, 26, signed a minor league deal with the Cards in the offseason. He put up a strong .280/.375/.476 line in 48 Triple-A games and was added to the roster a couple of weeks ago when Jordan Walker landed on the IL.
Unfortunately, Vilade hasn’t been able to do much in his limited big league playing time. He has been sent to the plate 15 times and struck out in five of those trips. He drew two walks but recorded just one hit, a single. He now has a .141/.200/.188 slash in his 71 big league plate appearances for his career.
He will now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Cards technically could take five days to explore trade interest. Vilade’s major league numbers aren’t good but in a tiny sample. Dating back to the start of 2024, he has a .279/.355/.457 slash and 114 wRC+ in 156 Triple-A contests. He also stole 25 bases in that time while playing the three non-shortstop infield positions and all three outfield slots. Since he still has an option year, perhaps he could appeal to a club looking for extra position player depth.
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Brewers Promote Jacob Misiorowski
June 12: The Brewers announced today that they’ve formally selected Misiorowski’s contract. He’ll start tonight’s game. Righty Easton McGee was optioned to Triple-A in his place, while Woodruff was indeed moved to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot.
June 10: The Brewers are calling up pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The righty will start Thursday’s game against the Cardinals. Milwaukee will need to make room for him on the active and 40-man rosters. The latter should be as easy as Brandon Woodruff being transferred to the 60-day injured list since he’s already been out longer than that.
Misiorowski, 23, is one of the top prospects in baseball. The Brewers selected him with a second-round pick in the 2022 draft and signed him with a $2.35MM bonus, more than double the $1.1MM slot value for that pick.
Since then, he has been climbing the ladder with very exciting results. His fastball sits in the high-90s and can get into triple digits. He also has a curveball, slider and a lesser-used changeup. Those pitches have helped him strike out a lot of opponents though control is clearly still a work in progress.
He got a brief professional debut in 2022, making just two Single-A appearances. In 2023, he logged 71 1/3 innings while climbing as high as Double-A. He posted a 3.41 earned run average while punching out 35% of hitters, but he also gave out free passes at a high rate of 13.4%. Last year, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, logging 97 1/3 innings. The Brewers moved him to a relief role late in the year as a way of monitoring his workload. He had a 3.33 ERA, 30.5% strikeout rate and 14.4% walk rate.
The numbers have been similar this year. He has logged 63 1/3 Triple-A innings thus far with a 2.13 ERA and 31.6% strikeout rate. His 12.3% walk rate is an improvement for him but still about four ticks above typical major league average, which is 8% for starters this year.
Misiorowski still has some things to work on, particularly the control and the workload, but the arsenal is clearly exciting. Baseball America currently lists him as the #21 prospect in the league. FanGraphs has him at #27. ESPN‘s most recent update put him at #30. Baseball Prospectus had him at #65 in the offseason. MLB Pipeline currently has him further down at #68, with a bit more concern that the control issues will eventually push him to the bullpen. Keith of Law of The Athletic had similar concerns when giving Misiorowski the #87 slot coming into the year.
Time will tell if Misiorowski is destined for the bullpen or can stick in the rotation but it’s understandable that the Brewers will keep trying the starting path until they get some clarity. There’s simply far more value in an excellent starting pitcher compared to an excellent reliever. Even if it doesn’t work out, the bullpen path will still be available as a fallback. Even Law, the most bearish of those prospect evaluators, believes Misiorowski has a future as an elite closer.
For now, the Brewers will see if Misiorowski can evolve into a big league starter. The rotation has been constantly shifting for Milwaukee this year, mostly due to injuries. Woodruff was expected to start the season on the injured list, recovering from last year’s shoulder surgery, but his rehab has also hit a few snags. He battled some ankle tendinitis and also suffered an elbow contusion from a comebacker and is still likely a few weeks away. Robert Gasser had Tommy John surgery last summer and is another guy the club knew would be on the IL to start this year.
In addition to Woodruff and Gasser, several other pitchers have missed some time. Nestor Cortes is still on the shelf, having suffered a flexor strain back in April. Tobias Myers missed time due to an oblique strain. Aaron Civale had a hamstring strain, Jose Quintana a shoulder impingement and DL Hall a lat strain.
Around all those transactions, the club has been trying to find various solutions. Quintana was a spring signing. The Brewers traded for Quinn Priester a week into April. Several minor leaguers have been called up. As the club has been spinning those plates, 12 different pitchers have started for the team already this year. Some of those have been openers, but it’s clearly been a bit of a whirlwind.
As of this moment, the rotation consists of Freddy Peralta, Civale, Priester, Quintana and Chad Patrick, with Hall doing some starting but also some long relief work. It’s not totally clear what the club plans to shift with Misiorowski’s promotion. It could simply be a spot start. Perhaps they will go with a six-man rotation for a while. Priester and Patrick both have options and could be sent down, though Patrick’s numbers this year have been far better than Priester’s.
The Brewers are still in the playoff race. Their 35-32 record currently has them just three games back of the final National League Wild Card spot. Regardless of how they perform over the next few weeks, it’s possible to imagine them trading some starting pitching this summer. Woodruff, Quintana, Civale and Cortes are all impending free agents, which would make them logical trade chips. A bolder move would be Peralta, who can be controlled through 2026 via an $8MM club option.
Sending one or more of them out of town would theoretically downgrade this year’s rotation but the Brewers could perhaps provide replacements from within the system while bolstering another part of the roster or simply adding some prospect talent. Hall could be given a more proper rotation gig. Gasser could get back in the mix later in the year. Myers, Logan Henderson and other arms are in Triple-A and could be recalled.
The Brewers don’t have a lot of spending capacity, so this kind of tough balancing act is normal for them. Recent years have seen them trade away guys like Josh Hader and Corbin Burnes while still trying to field a competitive team. Those trades usually see them targeting a mix of MLB-ready talent and prospects or draft picks. Given the number of rotation options they have in the mix now, another move of that nature may be in the cards this summer.
That will be a situation for the next few weeks. For now, one of the most electric arms in the minor leagues is coming up to the show. As a consensus top prospect, Misiorowski is eligible for the prospect promotion incentives. The Brewers can’t earn an extra draft pick based on his performance in awards voting this year because they didn’t call him up early enough. Misiorowski can earn himself a full year of service time if he finishes in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting, though that will be a long shot. The race is still fairly wide open but Misiorowski is getting called up late and is already near his personal high in innings pitched in a season, so it’s possible the club eases off his workload at some point later in the year.
Photo courtesy of Dave Kallmann, Imagn Images
Jackson Jobe To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe will undergo Tommy John surgery. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press was among those to relay the news. He’ll miss the remainder of his season and possibly all of 2026 as well. He is already on the 15-day injured list but will be transferred to the 60-day IL whenever the Tigers need to open a roster spot.
The news is obviously brutal for both Jobe and the Tigers. Jobe, third overall pick of the 2021 draft, was one of the top pitching prospects in the league as he climbed the minor league ladder. The Tigers called him up late last year to factor into their postseason run even though he was only 21 years old. He got to make two regular season appearances and then two more in the postseason.
He came into this year as a member of the rotation. He wasn’t exactly dominant, with a 4.22 earned run average, 17.9% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate through ten starts. However, that’s a small sample of work and he’s also still quite young.
It’s also possible, in the wake of this news, that he wasn’t fully healthy. His velocity was down in his final start and the Tigers placed him on the 15-day IL a couple of weeks ago with a flexor strain. Now it seems the determination has been made that he’ll need to go under the knife. Tommy John surgery usually requires 14 to 18 months of rehab. Given that window, Jobe will miss the remainder of the year and a return in the second half of 2026 can’t be guaranteed either.
For Jobe, it’s obviously a gut punch for him to lose most of his age-22 season and potentially all of his age-23 campaign. For the Tigers, they are going to lose almost two whole seasons of their six-year window with Jobe.
They will have to proceed without him in their plans for the foreseeable future. Their current rotation consists of Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, Keider Montero and Sawyer Gipson-Long. They could get Alex Cobb into the mix soon, as he’s currently on a rehab assignment. Reese Olson is out with a finger issue that doesn’t seem terribly serious. Jose Urquidy had Tommy John surgery around this time last year and could be a factor later in the year. Ty Madden has a rotation cuff strain and could also return from the IL later this year.
Most of that group will be in the mix for the 2026 rotation as well. Cobb is the only one fully slated for free agency. Flaherty has a player option for 2026 and could decide to return to the open market. The Tigers have a club option for Urquidy’s services for next year. It’s also possible that the Tigers change this picture via trades ahead of this year’s deadline.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images.
MLBTR Podcast: White Sox Ownership, Roman Anthony, And The Diamondbacks’ Rotation
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 Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The White Sox getting a new owner, at some point in the future (1:10)
- The Red Sox promoting Roman Anthony (13:25)
- Corbin Burnes undergoing Tommy John surgery and where that leaves the Diamondbacks (23:20)
- The Mariners designating Leody Taveras for assignment (34:10)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Do the Mariners need a left-hander in the rotation? (40:45)
- What will the Braves do with the rest of the season and would they trade Chris Sale? (45:30)
- With the Mets seemingly having too many young infielders, who stays and who goes? (53:35)
Check out our past episodes!
- Jarren Duran Rumors, Caglianone And Young Promoted, And Pitching Injuries – listen here
- Bregman Injured, Marcelo Mayer Called Up, And Pirates Talk – listen here
- The Disappointing Orioles, Dalton Rushing, And The Phillies’ Bullpen – 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 Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
Angels Sign Chad Wallach To Minor League Deal
The Angels have signed catcher Chad Wallach to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had previously been with the Rangers on a minor league deal but was released a few days ago.
Wallach, 33, is a known commodity for the Halos. He got into 77 games for them over the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He also spent last year at Triple-A Salt Lake on a minor league deal but didn’t get called up.
He pivoted over to the Rangers at the start of this year and got into 28 games for Triple-A Round Rock. He struck out 27.2% of the time but also walked at a strong 11.4% clip and hit four home runs. That added up to a .245/.333/.408 line and 89 wRC+.
Wallach faced a steep path to playing time in Texas, where Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka are the primary catching duo. Even when Higashioka went on the injured list earlier this year, it was Tucker Barnhart who got the call to cover for him. Higashioka subsequently returned from the IL and Barnhart was bumped off the roster but quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal.
The Angels have Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud at the big league level. For much of the season, they had Chuckie Robinson at Salt Lake on an optional assignment, but he was lost to the Dodgers via waivers a couple of weeks ago. Though Wallach is not on the roster, he essentially replaces Robinson as the top option to get called up if either O’Hoppe or d’Arnaud suffers an injury.
Including his time with the Angels, Wallach has also suited up for the Reds and Marlins. He has 155 big league games under his belt over seven separate seasons. He has a .198/.263/.328 batting line but solid defensive grades.
Image courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images
Giants Select Logan Porter, Designate Osleivis Basabe For Assignment
The Giants have selected catcher Logan Porter to their roster. Fellow backstop Patrick Bailey goes on the 10-day injured list with a neck strain, retroactive to June 8. Infielder Osleivis Basabe has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to relay the moves.
It doesn’t appear as though Bailey is facing a lengthy absence. He was initially in Tuesday’s lineup but was scratched due to neck spasms. Not even half an hour before this news dropped, Bailey wasn’t sure if he would actually be going on the IL or not, per Slusser. Manager Bob Melvin also said they were hoping to have Bailey in the lineup by tomorrow, per Slusser. Instead, it seems the club has decided to give Bailey some time to rest up. Since the move has been backdated by three days, he could be back in a week.
Bailey is one of the best defensive catchers in the game but has struggled badly at the plate this season. In 180 plate appearances, he has a .185/.246/.272 batting line and 46 wRC+. The Giants will surely miss his glovework but it’s possible the lineup will get a boost.
Suddenly, the club’s catching corps looks totally different from earlier in the year. Bailey was sharing the position with Sam Huff for most of the season but the Giants swapped in Andrew Knizner for Huff a week ago. Huff was outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento but the club has opted to select Porter instead of bringing Huff back.
Porter, 29, has just 38 major league plate appearances. He hit .194/.324/.323 in those trips to the plate, which came with the 2023 Royals. He has put up good offensive numbers at the Triple-A level but has been inconsistent. He slashed .301/.452/.451 for a 148 wRC+ in 2022 but that dropped to a .232/.339/.377 line and 80 wRC+ in 2023. Last year, he bounced back with a .267/.370/.453 showing and 113 wRC+ but he’s down to a .237/.350/.319 line and 89 wRC+ this year.
He may not get much playing time. Knizner has 296 big league games under his belt and doesn’t have great offensive numbers, with a .208/.277/.314 line. However, he was hitting .378/.512/.520 in the minors this year before getting called up. Between that and his experience, he might get a bit more trust to handle things for Bailey’s absence. The fact that Knizner has had a one-week headstart in working with the Giants’ pitching staff should only help. Porter has a full slate of options and can easily be sent back down to Sacramento when Bailey returns.
Basabe, 24, was acquired from the Rays in an offseason cash deal. He has played 53 Triple-A games this year with a tepid .242/.287/.352 line and 69 wRC+. He was once a notable prospect thanks to some big numbers in the lower levels. However, his bat has cratered since reaching the top rung of the minor league ladder. In 213 Triple-A games, he has a .269/.319/.381 line, as well as a .218/.277/.310 showing in his 94 major league plate appearances.
He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Giants could take five days to explore trade possibilities. Basabe can be optioned for the rest of this year but will be out of options in 2026. If the Giants pass him through outright waivers, he could stick with the club as non-roster depth.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Athletics Outright Carlos Durán
The Athletics announced today that right-hander Carlos Durán, who was designated for assignment a few days ago, has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Las Vegas. He’ll stick with the club as non-roster depth.
Durán, 23, has spent most of his professional career in the Dodgers’ system. He was traded to the A’s in early April for outfielder Esteury Ruiz. The A’s added Durán to their 40-man roster at the end of April.
Since then, he’s been shuttled to Triple-A and back a few times. He’s only been able to make one major league appearance, which didn’t go especially well. On May 22nd, he was sent into the game against the Angels with the A’s down 7-5 in the ninth. He got the first batter to pop out but then allowed two walks, a single and then a bases-loaded walk. Hogan Harris then came into the game and allowed two more baserunners to score. That left Durán charged with three earned runs in a third of an inning, so he currently sports an unfortunate 81.00 earned run average in his career.
He has occasionally shown some promise in the minors but that hasn’t been the case here in 2025. He has logged 31 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 7.18 ERA. That’s been in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but he hasn’t helped his cause with a 17.1% walk rate.
Since this is Durán’s first outright and he doesn’t have three years of big league service time, he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency. The A’s will therefore hang onto him and try to get him back on track. He was able to put up some good numbers as recently as last year, when he had a 3.71 ERA and 29.4% strikeout rate in 53 1/3 innings. His 12.9% walk rate was definitely high but also miles better than this year’s control.
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Royals Place Cole Ragans On IL With Rotator Cuff Strain
The Royals announced a series of roster moves today. Right-hander Lucas Erceg has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list and righty Jonathan Bowlan has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha. In corresponding moves, right-hander Trevor Richards has been designated for assignment while lefty Cole Ragans has been placed on the 15-day IL due to a left rotator cuff strain, retroactive to June 8th.
The Royals have not yet announced how long they expect Ragans to be out of action but it’s obviously a concern whenever a pitcher’s throwing shoulder is injured. It’s also the second IL stint for Ragans in as many months. A left groin strain sent him to the shelf in mid-May. He just came off the IL recently and started on Thursday. His velocity was down a bit and his results weren’t great but that wasn’t necessarily alarming since it was his first start in three weeks due to the groin injury.
Now it’s possible there’s a more serious issue at play, which could be awful news for the Royals. Ragans had a tremendous breakout last year, posting a 3.14 earned run average over 186 1/3 innings. His ERA has jumped to 5.18 this year, though all signs point to that being bad luck. His 36.4% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate are both improvements over last year’s 29.3% and 8.8% figures. This year’s .382 batting average on balls in play and 62.1% strand rate are both on the unfortunate side, which is why his 2.40 FIP and 2.46 SIERA suggest he’s actually been pitching better than last year.
For the Royals, they started strong but have been in a bit of a skid lately. From May 10th to the present, they have gone 10-17, dropping them out of playoff position. Pulling out of that skid will be a little more difficult without Ragans in the mix.
What will be working in the club’s favor is that they should still have a strong rotation even without Ragans. The club has a collective 3.32 ERA from their starters this year, one of the top five marks in the majors. Kris Bubic, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and Michael Lorenzen are a fine quartet. Rookie Noah Cameron was recently called up while Ragans and Lugo were both on the IL. He has decent numbers through six starts, although he was just torched by the Yankees in his most recent outing. Kyle Wright is also on a rehab assignment and could rejoin the club shortly. Veteran Rich Hill is also in the system on a minor league deal, though he could opt-out of that deal in a few days.
One thing that will also help the Royals is that their bullpen gets Erceg back. He was dealing with a lower back strain in late May and landed on the IL because of it. He has a 1.96 ERA on the year while working as the primary setup guy to closer Carlos Estévez and can continue building on that performance after a brief rest period.
Richards, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Royals last month and was only added to the roster a few days ago. He tossed three innings over three appearances but allowed four earned runs while recording just two strikeouts. He issued two walks and three wild pitches.
As a veteran with years of experience, Richards can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent, so he’s been bumped off the 40-man entirely. He’ll likely end up on waivers in the coming days and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him clear.
He has had some good results at times in his career but struggled late last year, which is why he had to settle for minor league deals this year. In Triple-A with the Cubs and Royals, he has a 4.19 ERA this year, giving out walks at a 13.3% clip with three wild pitches. After being traded from the Jays to the Twins at last year’s deadline, he walked 11 batters, an 18.6% clip. He also hit another couple of opponents and threw seven wild pitches. He was passed through waivers late in the year and hasn’t gotten on a better track here in 2025.
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Twins Claim Joey Wentz
The Twins announced that they have claimed left-hander Joey Wentz off waivers from the Pirates. The latter club designated him for assignment a few days ago. Wentz is out of options, so the Twins will need to make a corresponding active roster move when he reports to the team. To open a 40-man spot for Wentz, the Twins have transferred righty Pablo López to the 60-day injured list. It was reported last week that López is expected to miss eight to twelve weeks due to a teres major strain.
Wentz, 27, is in his fourth major league season. He was primarily a starting pitcher in 2022 and 2023 but didn’t quite establish himself as a bonafide big league rotation member. At the end of the 2023 season, he had a 5.99 earned run average and had exhausted his final option season.
That pushed him to the bullpen, a role in which he has shown some potential. He tossed 55 1/3 innings out of Detroit’s bullpen last year. The 5.37 ERA wasn’t great, nor was his 10.6% walk rate, but his 23.6% strikeout rate and 42% ground ball rate were pretty close to average. That got him bumped off the roster at the end of August last year.
The Pirates put in a claim and got some encouraging results from Wentz to end the season. He posted a 1.50 ERA in 12 frames after that claim. His walk rate ticked up to 12% but he also struck out 26% of batters faced.
He stuck on Pittsburgh’s roster through the winter and into 2025 with some mixed results so far. His 9.6% walk rate is still a bit high but an improvement for him. He’s also tamped down his home runs, with only 6.5% of fly balls leaving the yard compared to 11.3% last year. His 41.8% ground ball rate is still close to league par but his strikeout rate has dipped to 19.1%.
That got him bumped off Pittsburgh’s roster but the Twins will take a shot on him. Minnesota currently has Danny Coulombe as its only lefty reliever on the active roster, with Kody Funderburk on optional assignment. Wentz will give manager Rocco Baldelli a second southpaw in the relief corps alongside Coulombe, at least for the time being. Given his out-of-options status, Wentz will likely have a tenuous hold on a roster spot unless he takes a step forward.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
James McCann’s Braves Deal Contains Rolling Opt-Out Clause
Catcher James McCann signed a minor league deal with Atlanta and has spent most of the year playing for Triple-A Gwinnett. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the deal contains a rolling opt-out clause. Similar to Craig Kimbrel‘s earlier deal with Atlanta, this means that any club can offer McCann a big league job at any time. If one does, Atlanta would have decide to call him up or let the other club have him.
“The big thing is that rolling opt-out,” McCann said to Rosenthal. “That was part of our agreement with the Braves, knowing their situation and knowing the potential of being blocked to the big leagues there. They respected the 10 years that I’ve accrued in service time and gave me the opportunity to opt out, similar to (Craig) Kimbrel.”
As McCann alluded to, he doesn’t have a great path to playing time in Atlanta. They have Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin sharing the catching duties at the big league level this year. Murphy is having a nice bounceback season, all things considered. He was injured a lot in 2024 and struggled when in the lineup. This year, his 30.6% strikeout rate is a concern but he has nine home runs and a 10.2% walk rate. His .222/.325/.459 line translates to a 118 wRC+, with solid defense to boot. He’s also under contract for three more years after this one, guaranteed $15MM annually.
Baldwin is just a rookie but is having a great season. His 7.3% walk rate is a bit low but he has seven home runs and is only striking out at a 15.3% clip. His .291/.343/.488 line translates to a 132 wRC+. His defensive grades are also solid. The club also has Jason Delay on the 40-man roster as a depth guy with options remaining.
That makes the opt-out clause a sensible one for McCann, who has been doing his best to earn another major league opportunity. He has stepped to the plate 138 times for Gwinnett this year with a .281/.319/.484 line and 110 wRC+. He’s getting a bit of help from a .333 batting average on balls in play but has launched six homers already this year.
McCann has been an effective big leaguer at times but has struggled in more recent seasons. He hit .276/.334/.474 for a 114 wRC+ over 2019 and 2020. He also got some competent grades for his glovework in that time, allowing him to tally 3.4 wins above replacement in 149 games, per the calculations of FanGraphs.
That got him a four-year, $40.6MM deal with the Mets but he couldn’t maintain that level of production over the course of that contract. Traded to the Orioles halfway through, he hit .224/.279/.352 over the four seasons of that pact, leading to a 77 wRC+.
After that performance, he had to settle for a minor league deal. He has been performing well so far this year but it seems no club has been compelled to give him a major league job yet. He’ll have to keep plugging away and hope that some club finds a use for him at some point. It’s theoretically possible that could come in Atlanta. With the club falling back in the standing and Baldwin performing well, they might try to trade Murphy this summer. Or an injury could arise for one of those two, though that’s also possible of all the other catchers in the majors.
Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images