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Guardians Place Alex Cobb On Injured List

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The Guardians announced that right-hander Alex Cobb has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a fractured nail on his right hand. Left-hander Anthony Gose was selected to take his roster spot. Lefty Sam Hentges was transferred to the 60-day IL in order to open a 40-man spot for Gose.

Cobb, 36, has dealt with his share of challenges over the past year. While with the Giants last season, he finished the campaign on the IL due to left hip inflammation. He underwent surgery on that hip in October, which was going to put him on the shelf to start 2024, but it was hoped that he could be back some time in May. The Giants seemed to have some belief in that timeline, as they picked up a $10MM club option for this year.

As he was ramping things up in March, it seemed he had a chance to beat that projection and come back earlier than expected, but then he hit some snags. Right shoulder inflammation delayed his return and he was transferred to the 60-day IL in mid-April. Even at that point, it was still hoped that a late May return was possible, but his throwing program was shut down in the middle of May due to discomfort in that shoulder.

He was able to get back on the mound and start a rehab assignment on June 30 but was traded to the Guardians a month later, just ahead of the deadline. The Giants had strengthened their rotation by welcoming Robbie Ray and Blake Snell off the IL, while getting encouraging results from rookies Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong.

The Guardians, meanwhile, had far less stability in their rotation. Shane Bieber required Tommy John surgery in April and is done for the year. Gavin Williams missed the first half of the season due to right elbow inflammation and has posted a 5.02 earned run average since being activated. Guys like Triston McKenzie, Logan Allen and Carlos Carrasco have also posted ERAs north of 5.00 this year. Carrasco is now on the IL with a strained hip while McKenzie and Allen have been optioned.

Getting a veteran like Cobb was therefore a sensible move but he’s now back on the IL after just two starts. The club hasn’t yet provided any information about what kind of absence they expect but it’s less than ideal regardless. Even if the finger issue is relatively minor and clears up in a few weeks, it’s yet another hurdle that will make it challenging for Cobb to get into a groove after so many stops and starts this year.

The Guardians have been in first place for a large chunk of the season but the standings have tightened up on them lately. They are now just two games up on the Twins and just three up on the Royals in the Central. Teams like the Red Sox and Mariners aren’t far behind, so it’s possible the Guards find themselves in a tight battle for a playoff spot in the coming weeks.

For now, they will have to try to stay afloat with a rotation that still has lots of uncertainty apart from Tanner Bibee. They recently welcome Matthew Boyd back from a lengthy Tommy John absence and he looked good in his first start of the year, but it’s his fourth straight season of missing time due to a serious injury, so it’s anyone’s guess what he can provide in the coming weeks and months. Ben Lively has a 3.68 ERA on the year but with a .255 batting average on balls in play and 83.6% strand rate. His 4.90 FIP and 4.51 SIERA are less optimistic. As mentioned, Williams has an ERA over 5.00 this year.

The Guardians are off today but then play ten games in nine days starting tomorrow, thanks to a double-header against the Royals next Monday. With Cobb now out of the picture for the next little while, they will have to reach into their depth to fill out the rotation alongside Bibee, Boyd, Lively and Williams. Neither McKenzie nor Allen have been especially strong in the minors this year. Joey Cantillo has a 2.97 ERA in Triple-A but had a 6.23 ERA in his three major league starts earlier this season.

In the meantime, they’ve added another arm to their bullpen by selecting Gose. The lefty was just outrighted off the roster a week ago but accepted an assignment to Triple-A Columbus. The former outfielder has strikeout stuff on the mound but also notable control issues. In 39 Triple-A innings this year, he has a 3.46 ERA and 32.9% strikeout rate but he has also walked 15% of batters that came to the plate.

He missed the 2023 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery and the Guards called him up earlier this month, but he was squeezed off the roster a few days later when Cobb was reinstated from the IL. Now that Cobb is back on the shelf, Gose has his roster spot back. However, Gose is out of options and could potentially be nudged off yet again in the coming days as Cleveland will need to figure out their rotation plans.

Hentges has been on the 15-day IL since July 11 due to left shoulder inflammation. He’s now ineligible to be activated until 60 days from that date, which would be the second week of September. He started a rehab assignment in early July but hasn’t pitched since August 7. A few days after that, Zack Meisel of The Athletic relayed on X that Hentges was slated for more testing. His current status isn’t publicly known but the Guardians apparently don’t expect him to be able to return in the next few weeks.

Blue Jays Claim Easton Lucas

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The Blue Jays have claimed left-hander Easton Lucas off waivers from the Tigers and optioned him to Triple-A Buffalo, per announcements from both clubs. The lefty was designated for assignment by Detroit a few days ago. The Jays transferred right-hander Alek Manoah to the 60-day injured list to open up a 40-man roster spot.

Lucas, 27, made his major league debut with the Athletics last year. He had been in the Orioles’ system prior to that but went to Oakland in the July 2023 trade that sent righty Shintaro Fujinami to the O’s. This year, Lucas has found himself on the waiver wire a couple of times, getting claimed by the Tigers in May and now by the Jays.

Between the A’s and Tigers, he has 13 2/3 major league innings at this point in his career. He has allowed 14 earned runs to this point, leading to an unimpressive 9.22 earned run average in that small sample of work.

The interest from the Jays likely comes from his intriguing results in a larger sample of work in the minors. He has thrown 49 Triple-A innings this year with a 3.31 ERA. His 11.2% walk rate in that time is on the high side but he struck out 25.2% of batters faced. Last year, he threw 46 2/3 minor league innings with a 3.86 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate.

Lucas is in his first of three option years and has less than a year of service time. That means the Jays can stash him in the minors until he’s ready for another look in the big leagues or they can simply bring him up whenever they next need a fresh arm. If his performance justifies his continued presence on the roster, he is still a ways away from qualifying for arbitration or free agency.

The Jays have recently been remaking a bullpen that let them down here in 2024. Jordan Romano has been on the injured list for much of the year and it’s unclear if he’ll be able to make it back before the campaign is done. Erik Swanson struggled enough to get sent to the minors for a while, though he has since returned. Tim Mayza’s struggles were strong enough that he was released and is now with the Yankees.

Last year, the club’s relievers had a collective 3.68 ERA, one of the ten best marks in the majors. This year, the group is at 4.22 and in the bottom ten. That undoubtedly played a role in the club falling from contention, which led them to further subtract from the group by trading Yimi García, Trevor Richards and Nate Pearson prior to the deadline.

As the season has gone along, they have picked up Ryan Burr, Tommy Nance, José Cuas, Yerry Rodríguez, Luis Frías and now Lucas, either through small trades or waiver claims. The club will undoubtedly be making more moves to address the relief corps in the offseason, but for now, the Jays can try them out either in the majors or Triple-A as they look to bolster the depth for next year’s club.

As for Manoah, he underwent UCL surgery in June and won’t be back until next summer at the earliest, so this move was an inevitable formality. He’ll stay on the IL for the rest of the year but will need to retake a 40-man roster spot in November as the IL goes away in the days after the World Series.

Reds Select Julian Aguiar

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The Reds announced today that they have selected the contract of right-hander Julian Aguiar. Righty Casey Legumina was optioned to open an active roster spot. To get Aguiar onto the 40-man, the Reds recalled righty Christian Roa and placed him on the 60-day injured list with a right shoulder sprain.

Aguiar, 23, was a 12th-round selection of the Reds in the 2021 draft. In 2022, he tossed 96 1/3 innings, mostly at the Single-A level but also with a brief look at High-A. He allowed 3.46 earned runs per nine innings, struck out 27.6% of batters faced, limited walks to a 6.6% clip and got grounders on more than half of the balls that were put in play against him. Last year, he made 25 starts between High-A and Double-A. In his 125 innings, he posted a 2.95 ERA, 26.8% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and again got hitters to hit the ball into the ground about half the time.

Coming into 2024, Baseball America ranked him the #14 prospect in the Reds’ system. FanGraphs had him a bit higher, putting him at #7 in early April. BA highlights his pitch mix, describing it as consisting of a four-seamer, two-seamer, curveball, slider and changeup. FG doesn’t mention the two-seamer and also characterizes the slider and curveball as the same breaking ball, just shaped slightly differently, though they admit that this essentially leads to Aguiar having two different breaking balls even if they are the same speed.

Here in 2024, Aguiar has continued posting some decent numbers, though not quite as strong as previous years. He has thrown 116 1/3 innings over 22 starts between Double-A and Triple-A with a 3.79 ERA. His 6% walk rate still demonstrates good control but his 19.7% strikeout rate is well below his previous two seasons. His ground ball rate has also been just below 40% at both levels this year, a drop from what he was able to achieve at the lower levels.

The Reds have Graham Ashcraft and Brandon Williamson on the 60-day injured list. The former has a right elbow strain and an uncertain timeline. The latter has a shoulder strain and could be nearing a rehab assignment, per Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer on X, but hasn’t pitched in the big leagues yet this year. Even if he is able to start a rehab assignment soon, he’ll likely need a few weeks of ramp-up to get into game shape. Righty Hunter Greene landed on the 15-day IL this weekend with some elbow soreness and the club seems optimistic he can return after roughly a minimum stint, but it’s still a big blow to the rotation mix given that he’s pitched well enough to be in the Cy Young conversation this year.

Amid those injuries, the rotation is down to a core duo of Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott, along with swingmen Carson Spiers and Nick Martinez. Now they will be adding the rookie Aguiar into the mix. The Reds are six games back of a playoff spot at this point and clearly have at least some hope of making the playoffs as they recently claimed infielder Amed Rosario off waivers. Rosario is a veteran on a one-year deal and has no future impact, so they wouldn’t have made that move if they had given up on the season.

Perhaps Aguiar will get a few turns through the rotation to see how his stuff plays against big league hitters, at least until Greene or Williamson are able to come off the IL. The club also has Lyon Richardson and Connor Phillips on the 40-man roster but Richardson has a 4.58 ERA and 13.4% walk rate in Triple-A this year. Phillips, meanwhile, has a ghastly ERA of 10.11 in his 14 minor league starts and hasn’t pitched in official game action since June. Non-roster options like Justus Sheffield, Connor Overton and Brett Kennedy are either injured, putting up poor numbers or both. The club has an off-day on August 26 but then has a double-header on August 30, meaning they don’t have a ton of leeway with their rotation at the moment.

As for Roa, 25, he was added to the club’s 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He has been on optional assignment all year and still hasn’t made his major league debut. He last pitched August 10 and it appears this shoulder strain will end his season. Based on this transaction, he won’t be eligible to return until the middle of October. That’s not a pleasant outcome for him but the silver lining is that he’ll now get a bit of major league service time and pay while spending the rest of the season on the injured list.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast

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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 2024 season is coming into its final few weeks, with plenty left to be decided. If you have a question about a past transaction, a look ahead to the offseason 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.

Twins Sign Scott Blewett To New Minor League Contract

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TODAY: Blewett rejected the outright assignment to become a free agent, but then quickly re-signed with the Twins on a fresh minors deal, according to the righty’s MLB.com profile page.

Aug. 16: Blewett cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A St. Paul, per the Twins’ transaction log at MLB.com.

Aug. 13: The Twins announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander and top pitching prospect Zebby Matthews, a move that was reported yesterday. In a corresponding move, the club has designated right-hander Scott Blewett for assignment.

Blewett, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Twins over the winter and was selected to the big league roster last week. He made one appearance for the Twins and pitched a perfect inning of relief with one strikeout. He’s spent the rest of the current season in Triple-A St. Paul, where he’s totaled 51 2/3 innings of 3.66 ERA ball with a 23.2% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and a 40.6% ground-ball rate for the Saints.

A second-round pick by the Royals back in 2014, Blewett pitched a combined eight innings in the majors with Kansas City in 2020-21. He’s since bounced around pro ball, also spending time in the White Sox and Braves systems in addition to a nice stint with the Uni-President Lions in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League last year.

Now that he’s been designated for assignment, he’ll hit outright waivers in the coming days and be made available to all 29 other clubs. Waiver priority is determined by reverse order of the MLB-wide standings and is not league-specific. If Blewett goes unclaimed, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, by virtue of the fact that he’s been outrighted previously in his career (most recently by the 2021 Royals).

Tigers Designate Gio Urshela, Easton Lucas For Assignment

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TODAY: The Tigers announced today that Urshela has cleared outright waivers and has been placed on release waivers. In the likely event that Urshela clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent and be eligible to sign with any of the league’s clubs for a pro-rated portion of the big league minimum.

August 16: The Tigers announced today that they have selected the contracts of infielders Jace Jung and Trey Sweeney, moves that were reported yesterday. In corresponding moves, outfielder Akil Baddoo was optioned to Triple-A Toledo and infielder Gio Urshela was designated for assignment. To open another 40-man spot, left-hander Easton Lucas was designated for assignment. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the Urshela move on X prior to the official announcement.

Urshela, 32, reached free agency for the first time after the 2023 season. He had a solid four-year run in the big leagues from 2019 to 2022 but then had an injury-marred 2023 campaign. He got into 62 games with the Angels, hitting just two home runs before a pelvic fracture wiped out the second half of his season.

That was naturally going to impact his individual market but he also had the misfortune of being a part of one of the frostier offseasons in recent memory. Even big-name free agents lingered on the open market well into the new year. Many players below the superstar level ended up settling for very modest deals in the early parts of 2024. Guys like Michael A. Taylor, Enrique Hernández, Adam Duvall, Randal Grichuk and others settled for one-year deals of less than $5MM.

The Tigers were able to nab Urshela for a guarantee of just $1.5MM on a one-year deal. Though his 2023 season wasn’t great, they were likely excited to get a solid veteran at such a low price point. As mentioned, Urshela had a strong four-year run prior to 2023, spending time with the Yankees and Twins. In that stretch, he hit 54 home runs in 435 games and slashed .290/.336/.463 for a wRC+ of 118.

He spent most of that time at third base and generally had the reputation of a strong defender. Bizarrely, Outs Above Average hates him and gave him a grade of -17 in that 2019-22 period, but Defensive Runs Saved gave him a solid grade of +5.

If the Tigers got anything close to that kind of performance for their modest investment, it would have been a steal. Unfortunately, Urshela has not been able to bounce back as hoped. He has been in 92 games for Detroit this year with five home runs and a modest batting line of .243/.286/.333. That translates to a 73 wRC+, indicating he’s been 27% below league average at the plate this year.

Detroit is 7.5 games back of a playoff spot, which isn’t a totally hopeless position, but they are clearly focused on the future at this point. Prior to the deadline, they traded away Jack Flaherty, Carson Kelly, Andrew Chafin and Mark Canha. They are going to use the remainder of the schedule to get Jung and Sweeney exposed to major league pitching, which will nudge Urshela out of their plans.

Since the trade deadline has come and gone, they will have no choice but to place Urshela on waivers in the coming days. He has about $345K of his salary still to be paid out, meaning a claiming team wouldn’t be taking on huge amounts of money by grabbing him. However, given his performance both last year and this year, it’s possible that he passes through unclaimed. He has been hot of late, with a .265/.342/.412 batting line and 108 wRC+ in August, but that’s a sample of just 38 plate appearances amid a rough two-year stretch.

If he passes through unclaimed, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while keeping that salary in place. If he ends up a free agent, the Tigers would be on the hook for that money. Any other club could sign him for the prorated league minimum, which would be subtracted from what the Tigers pay.

Lucas, 27, was just claimed off waivers from the Athletics in May. Since that claim, he has made three appearances for the Tigers with two earned runs allowed, two strikeouts and two walks. Combined with his time with the A’s, he now has 13 2/3 major league innings pitched with a 9.22 earned run average.

His minor league work this year has been far more interesting. Between the two organizations, he has thrown 49 Triple-A innings with a 3.31 ERA. The 11.2% walk rate is on the high side but he’s countered that with a 25.2% strikeout rate.

Lucas still has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time. For any club intrigued by his Triple-A numbers this year, he could be a long-term depth piece. Like Urshela, he will have to be placed on waivers in the coming days since the trade deadline has passed. Lucas has a previous career outright, which would give him the right to elect free agency if he eventually passes through waivers unclaimed.

Angels Outright Willie Calhoun

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Today: The Angels have sent Calhoun outright to Triple-A Salt Lake, the team announced. Calhoun has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but it is unclear whether or not he plans to do so.

August 15: The Angels are going to designate first baseman/outfielder Willie Calhoun for assignment, according to Alden González of ESPN on X. Infielder/outfielder Jack López is being called up, per Jorge Castillo of ESPN on X.

Calhoun, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Angels in the offseason and was selected to the big league roster on the first day of May. Since then, he has stepped to the plate 254 times in 68 games. His 9.1% walk rate in that time is solid and he’s done a great job of avoiding strikeouts, just a 12.2% rate, but hasn’t done much damage. He has five home runs and his .245/.315/.380 batting line translates to a 94 wRC+. His .263 batting average on balls in play is below league average, but he’s one of the slowest runners in the league and he has subpar metrics in terms of exit velocity, barrel rate and hard hit rate.

That has generally been the recipe with Calhoun. Although he was once one of the top prospects in the league and had a 21-home run season in 2019, that was the juiced-ball season and he’s been far less impactful since then. He has 857 plate appearances from 2020 to the present with an 8.4% walk rate and 12.8% strikeout rate but just 18 home runs, a .231/.299/.360 batting line and 82 wRC+.

Calhoun isn’t a burner on the basepaths, as mentioned, and isn’t considered a strong defender. It was once thought that he could make up for those shortcomings with his hit tool but he hasn’t provided enough thump for that to be the case thus far. He exhausted his final option in 2022, which has led to him bouncing around the league in recent years, spending time with the Rangers, Giants, Yankees and Angels. With the trade deadline now passed, the Halos will have no choice but to put Calhoun on waivers in the coming days.

López, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Halos in the offseason. He has played 104 Triple-A games this year, hitting 12 home runs and slashing .274/.333/.421 for a wRC+ of 86 in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

There’s not much in his track record to suggest he’ll provide much more than that. He first reached Triple-A in 2017 and has played 687 minor league games from that year to the present. In that time, he has a .256/.306/.386 batting line and 77 wRC+. His major league experience consists of seven games with the 2021 Red Sox and he hit .154/.214/.308 in those.

However, he has regularly provided double-digit steals during his minor league career, including 15 so far this year. He’s also capable of playing all three outfield positions and the three infield spots to the left of first base. Calhoun has been the club’s designated hitter for much of the year but now they can rotate various players through that spot. With López giving them extra depth all over the diamond, they will have some cover for whoever is the DH on a given day.

Braves Outright Parker Dunshee

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August 16: Dunshee went unclaimed on waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett, tweets David O’Brien of the Athletic. Since this is his first career outright, he’ll remain in the organization without carrying a 40-man roster spot. The Wake Forest product has the necessary minor league time to become a free agent in the offseason unless the Braves reselect his contract.

August 14: The Braves announced today that outfielder Michael Harris II has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, as was expected. Outfielder Eli White was optioned to Triple-A to open an active roster spot while right-hander Parker Dunshee was designated for assignment in a corresponding 40-man move.

Dunshee, 29, just had his contract selected last week, his first time on a big league roster in his career. In Thursday’s game, Charlie Morton had a rough outing, allowing eight earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. Dunshee was sent in for some mop-up duty and ate up 2 1/3 innings but allowed five earned runs in the process. He was optioned to the minors the next day, meaning he’s currently sitting on an unsightly 19.29 earned run average in his very brief MLB career.

The trade deadline has now passed, so Atlanta will be putting Dunshee on waivers at some point in the coming days. Perhaps some club will be intrigued by his solid results in recent years, major league debut notwithstanding. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has thrown 112 minor league innings with a 2.81 ERA. His 10.3% walk rate in that time is a bit on the high side but he has struck out 29.4% of batters faced. He has a full slate of options and essentially no service time.

He was drafted by Oakland and was a somewhat notable starting pitching prospect a few years ago but his results tailed off as he hit the upper levels of the minors. He’s been in more of a relief role recently which seems to have led to better numbers and could perhaps lead to an upcoming waiver claim.

Atlanta will be hoping that the return of Harris is the spark that incites a turnaround. They have been dropping in the standings throughout the summer and are currently 63-56. That puts them four games back of the Padres and Diamondbacks, who are tied for the top two Wild Card spots in the National League. Atlanta still has the final spot but the Mets are just two games back and there are several other clubs within striking distance.

Much of Atlanta’s struggles have been related to injuries. Ronald Acuña Jr. is out for the year after yet another ACL tear, this time in his left knee. Ozzie Albies has been out of action for about a month due to a left wrist fracture and Harris has missed two months due to a strained left hamstring. That’s on top of several notable injuries to the pitching staff.

All that has led the club to turn to veteran fill-ins like Whit Merrifield, Ramón Laureano, Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall. The first two have been passable this year but the other two have struggled significantly. Rosario has already been released but Duvall is still clinging to his roster spot despite a .178/.240/.315 batting line. Among big league players with at least 300 plate appearances this year, the only one with a worse wRC+ than Duvall’s 53 is Rosario.

Though Duvall is still holding onto his roster spot, Harris should be able to upgrade the team simply by taking his playing time. Before landing on the IL, Harris was himself struggling, having hit .250/.295/.358 for a wRC+ of 80. But he was hitting .295/.334/.494 for a 124 wRC+ coming into the year and even the slumping version of Harris would still be far stronger than Duvall’s season so far.

Astros Sign Brandon Walter To Minor League Deal

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The Astros have signed left-hander Brandon Walter to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The lefty was released by the Red Sox earlier this month, freeing him up to sign this deal.

Walter, 27, was a 26th-round selection of the Sox in the 2019 draft. He made a brief professional debut at the Rookie ball level that year, but the minor leagues were then canceled in 2020 by the pandemic. In the years after that, he elevated his prospect stock with some encouraging results.

In 2021, he tossed 89 1/3 innings across the Single-A and High-A levels, allowing 2.92 earned runs per nine. He struck out 36.3% of batters faced while only giving out walks at a 5.5% clip and also got grounders on more than half of the balls in play he allowed. Baseball America ranked him #11 in Boston’s system going into 2022, noting that he spent the pandemic shutdown year overhauling his arsenal.

In 2022, he was bumped up to Double-A and made nine starts there before getting moved to Triple-A. A bulging cervical disk ended his season in June, after just two starts at the top minor league level. Nonetheless, he finished the year with a solid 3.59 ERA in 57 2/3 innings in his 11 starts over those two levels. He struck out 32.2% of batters faced, gave out walks just 3% of the time and continued to get lots of grounders.

In November of 2022, the Sox added him to their roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft, then his results weren’t quite as impressive in 2023. He tossed 23 major league innings with a 6.26 ERA in that small sample, as well as a 15.1% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate. He also added another 94 Triple-A frames with a 4.60 ERA, 21.3% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and 49.5% ground ball rate.

Here in 2024, he hasn’t yet pitched in an official game. He landed on the minor league injured list to start the year with a strained left rotator cuff, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive on X. The Sox needed a 40-man roster spot when acquiring righty Lucas Sims at the deadline and designated Walter for assignment. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, so the Sox essentially had no choice but to release him.

At this point, it’s not publicly known what Walter’s health status is. Even if his shoulder has healed and he’s ready to take the mound again shortly, he’ll presumably need some ramp-up time in order to get back into game shape. That might make him more of a long-term play for Houston as opposed to immediate non-roster depth. But Walter has posted some intriguing numbers in recent years when healthy, so it’s understandable why they would be interested in bringing him aboard.

If he eventually gets his roster spot back, he will still have one option year remaining after this one, and there would be an easy case for a fourth option to be granted on account of him missing most or maybe all of 2024. He also has less than a year of service time, meaning he can be controlled for many years into the future.

Astros Release Aledmys Díaz

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Astros manager Joe Espada says that infielder/outfielder Aledmys Díaz has been released, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic on X. That’s the corresponding move for the club’s selection of infielder Shay Whitcomb, which was previously reported.

The Astros signed Díaz to a minor league deal last month after he was released by the Athletics, adding him to their roster shortly thereafter. He got hardly any playing time at all in Houston, with four plate appearances in almost a month on the roster. He went 0-4 in those, striking out twice.

There was no real cost for the Astros in grabbing Díaz for that stint on the roster. The A’s are still on the hook for his salary after releasing him earlier this year. Oakland signed him to a two-year, $14.5MM deal going into 2023 and got very little in return for that investment. Díaz has hit .216/.265/.313 since the start of 2023 for a wRC+ of 60, which prompted them to cut him loose earlier this year.

He’ll return to the open market in the coming days and perhaps will garner attention based on his previous track record. With the A’s still on the hook for most of his salary, it would essentially be a no-cost pickup for any club that has interest.

From 2016 to 2022, Díaz hit .266/.320/.443 in 582 games between the Cardinals, Blue Jays and Astros. That production translated into a 105 wRC+, indicating he was 5% better than league average during that seven-year stretch. He did that while providing plenty of defensive versatility, lining up at all four infield positions as well as the outfield corners.

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