Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

By | at

On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

The 2025 season is chugging along. If you have a question about the campaign, a look ahead to the deadline or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Craig Kimbrel’s Braves Deal Contains Rolling Opt-Out Clause

By | at

The Braves signed veteran closer Craig Kimbrel to a minor league deal in the middle of March. He hasn’t been called up to the big leagues yet but it seems that could happen at any time with any club. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Kimbrel’s deal has a clause that Rosenthal refers to as a “rolling opt-out”. This clause means that, if any other club offers him a major league job, Atlanta has to promote him or let him go.

The way Rosenthal describes it, it sounds more like an upward mobility clause than a strict opt-out. With an opt-out clause, a player usually has a specific date wherein he can trigger the clause and become a free agent. With an upward mobility clause, when the player triggers it, it gives teams around the league a chance to give the player a major league roster spot. There’s usually a time frame of 48 hours for such decisions. If any club wants the player, the original signing team then has to decide to call him up or let the claiming team have him.

Semantics aside, what seems to be unique in this case is the “rolling” nature of the clause. Rather than having specific dates mentioned in the contract, it seems that any of the 29 other clubs could trigger the clause at any time by offering Kimbrel a gig in the big leagues. If that happens, Atlanta would then have to decide to call him up or let him go.

That makes it somewhat surprising that Kimbrel isn’t in the majors already. He has thrown 17 innings in the minors this year, mostly at Triple-A but also with a few appearances at Double-A. He has a combined 1.06 earned run average on the year. His 12.5% walk rate is a bit high but he has struck out 32.8% of batters faced and kept 45.7% of balls in play on the ground. A .171 batting average on balls in play isn’t sustainable but his 2.43 FIP suggests he’s still doing quite well when correcting for some regression.

That’s a fairly small sample of work in the minor leagues but Kimbrel also has his lengthy major league track record. He is fifth on the all-time saves leaderboard with 440. He has a 2.59 ERA over 809 2/3 innings, along with a 38.8% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate.

More recently, his results have been less consistent, which is why he settled for a minor league deal coming into this year. He was quite shaky in 2019 and 2020, posting ERAs north of 5.00 in both of those seasons. He generally had better results for the 2021-23 campaigns but struggled again in 2024. He posted a 5.33 ERA with the Orioles last year, getting released in September.

Perhaps teams are putting more stock in last year’s struggles in the majors, as opposed to this year’s good results in the minors. His deal also comes with a $2MM base salary if he’s called up. Presumably, that’s prorated, leaving a bit less than $1.3MM to be paid out at this point. That’s relatively small by MLB standards but teams are often reluctant to add money in midseason pickups. Joel Payamps just passed through waivers unclaimed even though he was quite effective in 2023-24. His $2.995MM salary this year might have been a factor, in addition to the fact that his results have backed up.

Whatever the reasons, Kimbrel still doesn’t have a major league opportunity. But given that a number of clubs around the league are dealing with bullpen challenges and pitcher injuries are inevitable, a path could open for him. Given the specifics of this clause, he only needs one of the 30 clubs to bite.

Photo courtesy of Kareem Elgazzar, Imagn Images

Angels Release Tim Anderson

By | at

The Angels announced that infielder Tim Anderson has been released. He had been designated for assignment two days ago. He’ll be a free agent once he clears release waivers, unless he has already.

This was the expected outcome when Anderson was designated for assignment earlier this week. He was unlikely to be claimed based on his performance this year and in other recent seasons. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, so the Angels have skipped over that formality.

He’ll now be free to sign with any club, though he’ll surely be limited to minor league offers. Anderson just produced a tepid .205/.258/.241 line over 90 plate appearances with the Angels. That continued a yearslong slump for him. Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, he has stepped to the plate 855 times with a .232/.269/.270 line. That leads to a 49 wRC+, indicating he’s been 51% worse than league average at the plate.

Based on that performance, he’s unlikely to get a major league opportunity in the immediate future. There’s no harm in a minor league deal, however, and Anderson has previous major league success. From 2019 to 2022, he slashed .318/.347/.473 for a 123 wRC+ with the White Sox. He also stole 53 bases while playing solid shortstop defense.

But early in 2023, he landed on the injured list due to a left knee sprain and hasn’t been the same since. The White Sox declined a $14MM club option for 2024, going for the $1MM buyout instead. Anderson landed a $5MM deal with the Marlins going into last year but was released in July. He signed a minor league deal with the Halos for this year and cracked the Opening Day roster but wasn’t able to produce. His 32nd birthday is next month. He’ll now see what kind of opportunities await him on the open market.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images

Diamondbacks Designate Joe Mantiply For Assignment

By | at

The Diamondbacks announced a series of roster moves today, most of which were previously reported. They have selected right-hander Jeff Brigham and signed infielder Ildemaro Vargas. To open active roster spots for those two, infielder Jordan Lawlar and right-hander Kevin Ginkel have been optioned to Triple-A Reno. The club had one open 40-man roster spot but opened a second by designating left-hander Joe Mantiply for assignment.

Mantiply, 34, has fallen on hards time here in 2025 after a strong performance in previous seasons. From 2021 to 2024, he logged 198 1/3 innings with the Diamondbacks, allowing 3.63 earned runs per nine. His 22% strikeout rate in that time was around average but he only walked 6% of batters faced and kept 51.9% of balls in play on the ground. He racked up three saves and 50 holds in that span.

But this year, he allowed 13 earned runs in his first 7 1/3 innings. He was optioned down to Reno in mid-April while sporting an ERA of 15.95. He was recalled briefly a couple of weeks ago and allowed four more earned runs in 2 1/3 innings before getting optioned down again. He currently has an ugly 15.83 ERA on the year, though in a small sample of 9 2/3 innings.

There’s surely some bad luck in there, with his .512 batting average on balls in play and 56.5% strand rate both far to the unfortunate side of things. However, his strikeout rate has also dropped to 13.8% this year and he’s only been getting grounders at a 43.2% clip.

Those struggles have apparently been enough for him to lose his 40-man spot. He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Snakes could spend up to five days exploring trade interest.

Other clubs might be willing to look past this year’s struggles but MLB teams are generally loath to take on money via midseason pickups, even relatively small amounts. Joel Payamps, like Mantiply, is a pitcher with some recent success but having a bad year. He recently passed through waivers, with no club willing to take on what remains of his $2.995MM salary.

Mantiply is making $1.7MM this year, barely half of what Payamps is making. He is also left-handed and can be optioned to the minors, whereas Payamps is a righty and out of options. On the other hand, Mantiply is three years older. The next few days will tell if Mantiply can find a club willing to take him on.

If he goes unclaimed, he will likely stick with the D’Backs as non-roster depth. Players with at least three years of major league service time have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, players with less than five years of service have to forfeit any remaining salary in order to exercise that right. Mantiply is shy of the five-year mark and would therefore probably accept an outright assignment, in order to keep that salary coming to him.

Photo courtesy of John Hefti, Imagn Images

AJ Smith-Shawver Diagnosed With Torn UCL

By | at

Braves right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. It is still being determined whether the righty will undergo Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure. In either case, he should miss the remainder of this season and part of the 2026 campaign as well.

The news is devastating but not surprising. Smith-Shawver started the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader against the Phillies. He was removed in the third inning and it was quickly reported that he felt a pop in his throwing elbow. He was placed on the 15-day IL before the second game of that twin bill with an elbow strain. “It doesn’t look good,” was manager Brian Snitker’s assessment of the situation. He was transferred to the 60-day IL earlier today, only enhancing the sense that bad news was coming.

All the warning signs have now proven to be accurate. Smith-Shawver will go under the knife and the only thing left to determine is if he’ll require a full Tommy John procedure or the internal brace variant. The latter generally comes with a slightly lesser return timeline, but even that reduced time frame is generally around a year or so. He will therefore spend the rest of the year on the 60-day IL and will perhaps start the 2026 season there as well.

He will collect big league pay and service time while on the IL but that’s a small consolation. He was in the middle of establishing himself as a true big league starter. He had logged 44 1/3 innings over nine starts this year with a 3.86 earned run average. His 10.9% walk rate was on the high side but his 21.9% strikeout rate was slightly above par for a starter. He’ll now have to wait until 2026 to build off that showing.

For the team, they are now down two starters. Reynaldo López had arthroscopic shoulder surgery earlier in the year and seems unlikely to return until late in the season, even in a best-case scenario.

Bryce Elder will be recalled to start on Sunday, per Bowman. Elder seemingly cemented himself in the big leagues in 2023 when he posted a 3.81 ERA over 31 starts. However, his results backed up last year, which bumped him down the chart to being a frequently-optioned depth piece. He was only able to make ten big league starts last year with a 6.52 ERA. He has continued to be shuttled to Gwinnett and back here in 2025. He has a 4.50 ERA in eight big league starts as well as an 8.76 ERA in three Triple-A starts.

If Elder falters, he still has options and the club has other arms available. Hurston Waldrep, Nathan Wiles and Davis Daniel are all on the 40-man roster and pitching in the Triple-A rotation. Ian Anderson and José Suarez are not on the 40-man roster but both have major league experience and are pitching in the Triple-A rotation as well.

Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images

Tigers Place Jackson Jobe On IL With Flexor Strain

By | at

The Tigers announced that they have placed right-hander Jackson Jobe on the 15-day injured list due to a grade 1 flexor strain in his right elbow. Righty Dylan Smith was selected to take his place on the roster, a move that was previously reported. Righty Alex Cobb was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Smith.

The news on Jobe doesn’t completely come out of nowhere. After Wednesday’s game, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press noted that Jobe’s velocity was down a bit. Jobe wasn’t in the clubhouse to talk to reporters after the game and the Tigers even closed the clubhouse while reporters were waiting to speak to him within an hour of the game ending, which Petzold noted was a violation of MLB club and media regulations. The club hasn’t provided a timeline for how much time they expect Jobe to miss, though it’s always at least somewhat concerning when a pitcher’s throwing elbow is injured.

Either way, this IL stint interrupts his first extended look in the big leagues. A former third overall pick and one of the top prospects in baseball, he hasn’t quite hit his stride in the majors yet. He made a brief debut late last year and earned a rotation job here in 2025. He has made ten starts this year with a 4.22 earned run average, 17.9% strikeout rate, 12.4% walk rate and 43.2% ground ball rate.

Those aren’t exactly dominant numbers but Jobe is still quite young. He won’t even celebrate his 23rd birthday until July. The fact that he’s in the majors at all at this age is a testament to his talent. There’s still lots of time for him to fully break out and the injury perhaps provides an explanation for why he hasn’t quite been firing on all cylinders yet.

For now, the Tigers will have to fill his rotation spot. Chris McCosky of Detroit News suggests that Sawyer Gipson-Long is a likely candidate to take over for Jobe. Gipson-Long underwent internal brace surgery in April of last year. He is now healthy enough to have made five rehab starts, getting to 5 1/3 innings in his most recent outing. Prior to going under the knife, he made four starts for the Tigers in 2023 with a 2.70 ERA. He is on the 60-day IL so the Tigers would need to open a 40-man spot if he is to be reinstated in the coming days.

As for Cobb, this move doesn’t impact his timeline. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial placement on the 15-day IL. Since he’s already been on the shelf more than 60 days, he’s eligible to be reinstated at any time. Dan Hasty, broadcaster for the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps, relays that Cobb is expected to start a rehab assignment with that club tonight. Cobb will surely need a few weeks of ramp-up after missing so much time. He’s been out all year due to right hip inflammation.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images.

Blue Jays Place Anthony Santander On Injured List

By | at

The Blue Jays announced that outfielder Anthony Santander has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to left shoulder inflammation. Fellow outfielder Alan Roden has been recalled as the corresponding move.

The Jays signed Santander to a five-year, $92.5MM deal this offseason. Heavy deferrals reportedly knock the net present value closer to $70MM but it was still the club’s biggest offseason splash as they looked to bounce back from a disappointing 2024 season.

They haven’t received much from that investment so far. Santander has six home runs and has drawn walks at an 11.5% clip but has a 26.3% strikeout rate and a .179/.273/.304 batting line. That amounts to a 67 wRC+, indicating he’s been 33% worse than the league average hitter at the plate.

Santander’s .218 batting average on balls in play is really low but he’s also hitting the ball with less authority than before. He barreled up 11.7% of pitches last year but that mark is down to 4.6% this year. His current 40.8% hard hit rate would be his lowest since 2020. It’s possible that he hasn’t been fully healthy for a while. He was out of the lineup on May 10th with manager John Schneider describing his shoulder as “a little cranky”, per Mitch Bannon of The Athletic. He also missed some time due to hip soreness this month.

Ideally, a bit of rest will get him healthy and back on track. Last year, he hit 44 homers for the Orioles while only striking out 19.4% of the time and drawing walks at an 8.7% clip. That led to a .235/.308/.506 line and 129 wRC+. The Jays were surely hoping to get something resembling that level of production but haven’t gotten it yet.

The club has George Springer and Daulton Varsho in two outfield spots, while Nathan Lukes, Jonatan Clase and Myles Straw are also in the mix. Roden now comes up and joins that group, who will be jockeying for playing time in one of the outfield corners as well as the designated hitter slot. Roden cracked the Opening Day roster and hit just .178/.262/.260 in his first 84 big league plate appearances. He was then optioned down to Buffalo, where he has been mashing, putting up a .361/.446/.583 line for the Bisons.

Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images

Tigers Claim Ryan Cusick

By | at

The Tigers have claimed right-hander Ryan Cusick off waivers from the Athletics, according to announcements from both clubs. He has been optioned to Triple-A Toledo. The righty was designated for assignment by the A’s earlier this week. The Tigers had an open 40-man spot but are reportedly planning to select righty Dylan Smith, so they will now need to make a corresponding move for him, though Alex Cobb could easily be transferred to the 60-day injured list since he’s already been out of action longer than 60 days.

Cusick, 25, is a former first-round pick but his recent results haven’t lined up to that billing. Atlanta grabbed him with the 24th overall pick in 2021 and gave him a $2.7MM signing bonus. Just a few months later, he was flipped to the A’s as part of the Matt Olson deal in March of 2022.

The A’s kept him in a starting role at first but he missed time due to injury and struggled to successfully develop his changeup as a third pitch. Over 2022 and 2023, he tossed 143 innings, mostly at the Double-A level, with a 5.60 earned run average. He was still starting in the first half of 2024 but the A’s moved him to the bullpen midway through, with encouraging results. He posted a 1.73 ERA in his final 26 innings. His 11.8% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 28.2% of batters faced.

The A’s gave him a 40-man spot in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft but his results have backed up here in 2025. He posted a 6.75 ERA through 14 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. He was playing in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but didn’t do himself any favors with a 16.4% strikeout rate and 19.4% walk rate, though he did get grounders on 57.5% of balls in play.

Cusick may still be a work in progress but he has a full slate of options and the Tigers had a 40-man roster spot. They can send him to Toledo to see if they can help him get back on track after a rough start to his season.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Orioles Add John Mabry To Coaching Staff

By | at

The Orioles announced today that John Mabry has been added to the major league coaching staff as a senior advisor. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported yesterday that the two sides were in discussions about the position.

Mabry, 54, played in the big leagues from 1994 to 2007 but has pivoted to a coaching career since then. The Cardinals hired him as an assistant hitting coach prior to the 2012 season, working under hitting coach Mark McGwire. One year later, McGwire departed for the Dodgers and Mabry was promoted to hitting coach. Mabry held that job until manager Mark Matheny was fired in the middle of the 2018 season, with Mabry dismissed alongside the skipper.

He was then hired by the Royals as a major league coach for the 2020-22 seasons. He then returned to an assistant hitting coach role with the Marlins for the 2023 seasons and got promoted to hitting coach for 2024. At the end of last season, the Marlins underwent a massive internal staff turnover. They didn’t retain any of their coaching staff and also got rid of many clubhouse attendants, performance staff and others.

For the Orioles, they have recently started doing some staff turnover of their own. Amid a deeply disappointing season, they fired manager Brandon Hyde about two weeks ago. Third base coach Tony Mansolino became the interim manager. Major League field coordinator and catching instructor Tim Cossins was also let go. Major league coach Buck Britton took over for Mansolino as third base coach.

Mansolino doesn’t have a ton of big league coaching experience. He has managed in the minors but only joined a big league staff for the first time in 2020. He served as Cleveland’s third base coach and then pivoted to the Orioles in that same job for the 2021 season. As mentioned by Rosenthal, the club also has a first-year hitting coach in Cody Asche and a first-time bench coach in Robinson Chirinos. Pitching coach Drew French is only in his second season.

With the O’s having cut two members of the staff, Mabry will come in and give them a fresh set of eyes, presumably lending the wisdom of his experience to a new manager and a staff that’s fairly green on the whole.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Marlins To Designate Matt Mervis, Ronny Simón For Assignment

By | at

The Marlins are planning to make several roster moves, per Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. It was already reported earlier today that they would be selecting the contract of outfielder Heriberto Hernández. Kevin Barral of Fish on First reports that infielder Jack Winkler will also be selected to the roster. Per Mish, the club is planning to designate infielders Matt Mervis and Ronny Simón for assignment. That would open two 40-man spots for Hernández and Winkler.

Mervis, 27, was acquired from the Cubs in December with the Fish sending Vidal Bruján to Chicago. Mervis got out to a hot start but with some red flags. Through April 23rd, he already had seven home runs but had also struck out in 36.2% of his plate appearances. The feast-or-famine approach has since pushed hard to the famine side. He hasn’t hit a homer since then while still striking out at a 38.5% clip.

Combining this year’s struggles with his time with the Cubs, Mervis now has a .165/.238/.322 line and 34.5% strikeout rate in 261 major league plate appearances. He had tremendous minor league production in 2022 and 2023, slashing .297/.388/.576, but the strikeouts became a big issue last year. He spent most of 2024 in Triple-A and was punched out at a 30% rate at that level.

There’s clearly some pop in the bat but the Marlins ran out of patience. Mervis is only really capable of playing first base, so he needs to hit in order to have any value. Eric Wagaman isn’t doing much better, with a .227/.277/.382 line this year, but it seems he’ll be the regular first baseman now.

The Marlins will now have a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so that gives the club five days to see if there’s any trade interest. He does still have an option, so it’s possible some club out there grabs him and sends him to the minors to try to catch lightning in a bottle.

Simón, 25, was was just added to the 40-man roster last month. He had signed a minor league deal with the Marlins in the offseason. He has since received 56 plate appearances and hit .234/.327/.277.

He got an unfortunate moment in the baseball spotlight this week, as recapped by Jason Foster and Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Simón made several errors and other defensive miscues as the Marlins blew a 6-0 lead to the Padres on Tuesday, eventually losing 8-6. Simón was seen wiping tears from his face amid the ordeal. But later, he received plenty of encouragement from his teammates and even text messages from players on the opposing team such as Manny Machado, Luis Arráez and Fernando Tatis Jr..

But he’ll now have to endure another challenge, as he’s heading to DFA limbo. He was putting up good numbers in the minors earlier this year, which is why he got up to the big leagues in the first place. He had hit .354/.441/.521 in 15 Triple-A games. That was bolstered by an unsustainable .410 batting average on balls in play but he was drawing walks at a 15% clip while only striking out 16.7% of the time.

As recently as July, FanGraphs considered him to be one of the top 20 prospects in the Rays’ system. But he didn’t get called up last year and hit free agency, which led to his deal with the Marlins. He’s a switch-hitter and capable of bouncing around the diamond while stealing 20-35 bases a year. He still has a full slate of options.

Winkler, 26, gets the call to the big leagues for the first time. He’s never really been a top prospect but the Fish nabbed him from the Athletics in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft in November. He has gone on to hit .275/.331/.423 at the Triple-A level this year. That’s propped up by a .351 BABIP but Winkler already has 15 steals. He has played all four infield positions in his career as well as the outfield corners.

Photo courtesy of Mady Mertens, Imagn Images

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top