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Orioles Sign Jacob Stallings To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles announced that they have signed veteran catcher Jacob Stallings to a minor league deal. He had been released by the Rockies earlier this month. He will presumably head to Triple-A Norfolk in the near future.

The move is clearly a response to the club’s catching corps taking a couple of recent hits. Adley Rutschman hit the injured list due to an oblique strain a few days ago. Maverick Handley was called up to replace him but then he himself was injured when he collided with Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Yankees in a play at the plate. Handley was placed on the concussion IL yesterday with Chadwick Tromp selected to the roster, joining Gary Sánchez to form the club’s current catching duo.

Stallings, 35, signed with the Rockies this winter on a one-year deal with a $2.5MM guarantee. That didn’t pan out, as he hit .143/.217/.179 in 93 plate appearances and got released in early June. However, he is a veteran with a solid defensive reputation in roughly a decade in the big leagues. His bat was also in good form as recently as last year, when he hit .263/.357/.453 for Colorado.

Since the Rockies released him, they are on the hook for the remainder of his salary. If the O’s call Stallings up at any point, they would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for whatever time he spends on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Rockies pay. For now, he’ll give the O’s some experienced non-roster depth. If they need further catching reinforcements at any point, he’ll be able to provide them with a veteran backstop on the cheap.

Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images

Tigers To Select Dietrich Enns For Thursday’s Game

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The Tigers are going to select left-hander Dietrich Enns to the roster to start Thursday’s game, as first reported by @juiceyballl. The southpaw will have to be added to the 40-man and active rosters beforehand.

Enns, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in the offseason. He has since made 14 Triple-A starts, logging 62 1/3 innings with 2.89 earned runs allowed per nine. He has struck out 26.7% of batters faced while limiting walks to a 5.6% clip and getting grounders on 41.5% of balls in play.

That strong performance will get Enns back to the majors, which has been a long and winding road. He previously made two appearances with the 2017 Twins and then another nine with the 2021 Rays. That stint with Tampa was pretty decent, as he had a 2.82 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate in 22 1/3 innings.

Despite those solid numbers, he may not have felt great about his job security going into 2022, as he was out of options. He decided to head overseas and signed with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He had a strong performance that year, tossing 122 1/3 innings with a 2.94 ERA. He stuck with the Lions for 2022 but his results backed up, posting a 5.17 ERA over 12 starts. He then headed to Korea for the 2024 season, signing with the LG Twins. He made 30 starts for that club last year with a 4.19 ERA.

In the past month-plus, the Tigers have lost Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe to the injured list, blowing two holes in their rotation. Olson has been battling finger inflammation while Jobe required Tommy John surgery. In recent weeks, they have had a rotation core of Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize and Sawyer Gipson-Long, with Keider Montero also pitching in a sort of bulk role.

Montero was optioned to the minors recently, so Enns will step in for him. It’s unclear if Enns will get to make more than one start, however, as Olson is going to be back soon. Per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, he’s making another rehab start tomorrow and the club hopes he can return after that. Perhaps that means this will just be a spot start for Enns, though Gipson-Long also has options and could be bumped for Olson’s return instead. As mentioned, Enns is out of options. If the Tigers plan to bump him off the roster after his outing, he’ll effectively need to be designated for assignment.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Astros Select Jordan Weems

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The Astros announced to reporters, including Chandler Rome of The Athletic, that right-hander Jordan Weems has been selected to the roster. He’ll take the active roster spot of fellow righty Shawn Dubin, who has landed on the 15-day injured list due to a right forearm strain. Outfielder Pedro León has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot.

Dubin has thrown 20 1/3 innings for the Astros this year with a 1.33 earned run average. That’s a fairly misleading number, however, as he won’t be able to maintain a 99.1% strand rate forever. His 22.2% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate are closer to average, hence his 3.76 FIP and 3.73 SIERA being closer to par as well. Per Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle, Dubin hopes the strain is minor and believes he can avoid surgery. He had an MRI yesterday which will presumably determine if his feelings are accurate or not.

For now, Weems will take his roster spot. The 32-year-old signed a minor league deal with Houston earlier this month. He has since tossed 11 1/3 innings over nine Triple-A appearances with a 3.97 ERA. His 19.6% strikeout rate and 11.8% walk rate in that time were both subpar figures but his 54.3% ground ball rate was quite strong.

That’s obviously a small sample of work to judge. Weems has a larger track record of major league pitching, mostly with the Nationals. He had a decent two-year run for Washington over 2022 and 2023, logging 94 1/3 innings over those two seasons with a 4.29 ERA. His 10.1% walk rate was a tad high but he also struck out 25.4% of batters faced.

Since then, his results have backed up. His ERA spiked to 6.70 last year, with his strikeout and walk rate each worsening to 17.9% and 12.2% respectively. He was outrighted off the roster during the season and became a free agent. He signed a minor league deal with Atlanta but was released after posting a 5.09 ERA in 17 2/3 Triple-A innings.

Weems will give the Astros a fresh arm with some major league experience on his track record. He is out of options, so he’ll effectively have to be designated for assignment if the club wants to remove him from the active roster at any point.

As for León, he started the season on the 15-day IL due to a left MCL sprain. He’s already been on the shelf more than 60 days, so he’s eligible for reinstatement at any time. He doesn’t appear close to a return, however. He started a rehab assignment in late May but was pulled off that after just five games.

Photo courtesy of Mike Lang, Imagn Images

Braves Sign John Brebbia To Minor League Deal

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The Braves have signed right-hander John Brebbia to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett and will give Atlanta some veteran non-roster depth.

Brebbia, 35, was just released by the Tigers last week. Detroit had signed him in the offseason to a one-year deal with a $2.75MM guarantee. Around an injured list stint for a triceps strain, he gave them 18 2/3 innings with a 7.71 earned run average. There was some bad luck in there, with his .339 batting average on balls in play and 56.6% strand rate both to the unfortunate side, but he also had a subpar 11.8% walk rate and middling 21.5% strikeout rate.

That performance prompted Detroit to move on but Atlanta has snatched him up, as they did almost a year ago. Brebbia was released by the White Sox in August of last year, after posting a 6.29 ERA for that club, and wound up on Atlanta’s roster for most of September. He had a solid enough 2.70 ERA, though in a small sample of 6 2/3 innings. He hit free agency after that and signed his aforementioned deal with the Tigers.

Though the past two seasons have been challenging, Brebbia has a lengthy track record of being an effective big league reliever. From 2017 to 2023, he logged 299 2/3 innings for the Cardinals and Giants with a 3.42 ERA, 25.5% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. He earned two saves and 47 holds in that time. Even with his ERA spike last year, he still had strong strikeout and walk rates of 27.7% and 7.9%.

Atlanta’s bullpen has been middling this year. The relief corps as a whole has a 3.70 ERA, which puts them 14th in the majors. Joe Jiménez and Daysbel Hernández are each currently on the injured list. There’s no real risk on a minor league deal so signing Brebbia is a sensible addition.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Mets Reinstate Frankie Montas, Transfer Jesse Winker To 60-Day IL

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The Mets announced that right-hander Frankie Montas has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Right-hander Chris Devenski was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse as the corresponding active roster move. He has enough service time where he can’t be optioned without his consent, so he has presumably agreed to be sent down. To open a 40-man spot for Montas, outfielder/designated hitter Jesse Winker has been transferred to the 60-day IL.

Montas, 32, will be making his debut as a Met when he starts tonight’s game. At the moment, it’s difficult to guess what sort of quality of performance he’ll be able to provide. He was diagnosed with a lat strain back in mid-February. He started a rehab assignment in late May but hasn’t looked sharp, allowing 25 earned runs in 18 2/3 innings over six minor league starts.

Teams generally care more about health than results on a rehab assignment but a 12.05 earned run average is going to cause some concern. It would be one thing if Montas started rough and had been getting sharper but that hasn’t been the case. He surrendered five earned runs in five innings in his most recent outing, with just two strikeouts. The prior outing had seen him allow eight earned runs without getting out of the second inning.

Even before this year, there were question marks with Montas. He had missed almost all of 2023 due to shoulder surgery. Back on the mound in 2024, his 4.84 ERA wasn’t strong. The Mets seemed to be banking on his late-season strikeout surge. He had struck out just 19% of batters faced with the Reds but then 28.7% of opponents following a trade to the Brewers. He then headed into free agency and secured a two-year, $34MM deal from the Mets, with equal salaries of $17MM and an opt-out halfway through.

That was a notable investment in a pitcher who hadn’t been at his best in a few years. The Mets are also paying a 110% tax on spending beyond the top competitive balance tax threshold this year, making it an even more significant expenditure which they have yet to receive any return on.

Despite that cash outlay, the righty’s recent struggles on his rehab assignment almost pushed him to the bullpen. However, the club’s rotation picture changed quickly in recent weeks. Not too long ago, it seemed the club had so much rotation depth that a Paul Blackburn trade was reportedly considered. But then both Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill hit the injured list in the span of a few days, opening rotation space for both Blackburn and Montas alongside David Peterson, Clay Holmes and Griffin Canning.

If everyone is healthy, another squeeze could be just over the horizon. Sean Manaea is also on the IL and just a bit behind Montas in his rehab process. He recently made his fourth rehab appearance, getting to 62 pitches over 5 1/3 innings. Montas is getting a rotation spot for now due to the club’s need and the fact that his 30-day rehab window was closing but there will be pressure on him to perform in order to keep that spot.

As for Winker, he landed on the IL on May 5th due to a right oblique strain. His 60-day count is retroactive to that initial IL placement, so he’ll be eligible for reinstatement in early July. He was initially given a recovery timeline of six to eight weeks but the Mets recently said that he is still multiple weeks away from starting a rehab assignment.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Tyler Nevin Signs Two-Year Extension With NPB’s Seibu Lions

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The Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced that they have signed infielder Tyler Nevin to a two-year extension beginning in 2026. Salary figures were not included. “I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to my teammates, staff, and fans who have trusted me and supported me since the day I arrived in Japan,” Nevin said in a Japanese statement relayed by the team, per Google Translate. “I will strive to make the rest of the season even better and focus on the game in front of me. I can’t wait for the next two years. Awesome!”

Nevin, 28, signed with the Lions in January. His Japanese career has gotten out to a solid start through his first 68 games. His .269/.330/.379 batting line may not be overwhelming in a vacuum but actually translates to a 120 wRC+ in NPB this year. It seems that the club has been pleased enough with that performance to lock him up.

Considering the way Nevin’s career went before this year, it’s understandable that he would agree to be locked up. Broadly speaking, he had always hit in the minors but failed to do so in the majors. From 2022 to 2024, he stepped to the plate 639 times at the Triple-A level. He hit 26 home runs and drew walks at a 10.2% clip while only striking out 17.5% of the time. He had a combined batting line of .313/.391/.536 and a 137 wRC+.

That minor league performance got him a few major league looks from the Orioles, Tigers and Athletics, but he wasn’t able to do much with those chances. He got 591 big league plate appearances over the past few years with a .204/.299/.315 line and 81 wRC+. He exhausted his final option year in 2023, which put him into a fringe roster status. He spent 2024 bouncing on and off the Athletics’ roster, clearing waivers multiple times throughout the year. Finding regular playing time in the big leagues would have been difficult going forward.

Rather than spend another year grinding through the roster bubble lifestyle, he accepted a chance to head overseas and perhaps find some stability. Given that he’s having a decent year, he could have tried to parlay that into a return to North America in 2026. But there would have been no guarantee of that working out, so it’s easy to see the logic in him sticking with the Lions for another few years.

Though the salary figures haven’t been reported for this deal, North American players getting regular work in Japan often get paid in the vicinity of $1MM annually. That’s more than players in the minors in North America get and even more than pre-arbitration major leaguers. Whatever his salary is, Nevin will get a bit of cash and some job security for his age-29 and age-30 seasons. If he can make the most of that regular role, he could perhaps try to return to affiliated ball a few years from now or secure himself another deal to continue playing in Asia.

Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images

Royals Option Kyle Wright

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The Royals announced today that right-hander Kyle Wright has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Omaha. He had been pitching on a rehab assignment but the club has decided to have him stick in the minors a while longer, as opposed to adding him to the big league roster.

As of a few years ago, the idea of optioning Wright to the minors would have been a huge surprise. In 2022, he made 30 starts for Atlanta, going 21-5 and logging 180 1/3 innings. He had a 3.19 earned run average, 23.6% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 55.6% ground ball rate. He then tossed six shutout innings in his lone playoff start of that year. He finished 10th in National League Cy Young voting.

It’s been rougher sledding since then. He only tossed 31 innings in the 2023 season due to shoulder issues which eventually required surgery. The Royals acquired him ahead of the 2024 season, even though they knew he was likely to miss all of that campaign. He eventually did miss that entire season while the Royals paid him $1.8MM. They agreed to pay him that same salary figure this year.

The hope was that Wright could potentially help them in 2025 and 2026 after recovering from his shoulder surgery, which hasn’t come to pass yet. His shoulder was still enough of an issue for him to start this year on the 15-day IL. He started a rehab assignment in early May but was pulled off that due to shoulder fatigue after just two starts. He restarted that rehab assignment on May 25th and has since made six starts, two at Double-A and four at Triple-A.

Rehab assignments for pitchers can last as long as 30 days, so Wright was coming to the end of his window, but his results in those rehab outings weren’t especially impressive. His four Triple-A outings resulted in a 6.23 ERA. He did strike out 23% of batters faced but also gave out walks at a 14.8% clip. Perhaps there’s still some rust to shake off or he’s still building strength. He averaged over 95 miles per hour on his fastball in 2022 but has only been at 92 mph at Triple-A so far this year.

The club’s current rotation likely played a role in the decision as well. Even with Cole Ragans on the IL, Kansas City’s starting group is quite strong. It’s anchored by a solid trio of Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic. They have Michael Lorenzen as a solid back-end guy. Rookie Noah Cameron has a 2.08 ERA through his first eight big league starts.

The combination of the strength of that group and Wright appearing as though he still needs some fine tuning has seemingly blocked his path back to the majors for now. It makes for an interesting situation for the Royals with the deadline now just over a month away. Ragans may be close to a return by the end of July. If the rest of the group stays healthy, they may have a relative surplus of starting pitching. Trading away from that surplus would be dangerous, especially with the rate of pitching injuries in the modern game, but it could be a way for the club to add some more offense.

Wright came into this year with four years and 62 days of major league service time, 110 shy of the five-year mark. By my count he has added 88 days so far here in 2025, though the clock now stops ticking with this option. He is making a relative modest salary, as mentioned. If he doesn’t have a spot in the Royals’ rotation now and Ragans is coming back, perhaps they could consider making him available. Lorenzen is also one a one-year deal and likely wouldn’t be part of the club’s planned playoff rotation, so perhaps he could end up on the block as well.

This optional assignment could also impact Wright personally. As mentioned, he is still shy of five years of service. If he stays in the minors the rest of the year, it would delay his path to free agency, though he may end up a non-tender candidate in that scenario. He has just one option remaining and will be out of options next year if this assignment last 20 days or longer.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Rangers Select Dane Dunning

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The Rangers announced that they have selected right-hander Dane Dunning to their roster. Fellow righty Caleb Boushley has been optioned as the corresponding active roster move. The 40-man roster already had a vacancy.

The Rangers have been running a four-man rotation in recent weeks, having lost both Nathan Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle to the injured list. Behind starters Jacob deGrom, Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker and Patrick Corbin, the club has had Boushley and Jacob Latz serving as multi-inning relievers. Leiter started yesterday and only lasted four innings, with Boushley getting the final four. The club lost on the road, meaning the bottom of the ninth didn’t need to be played.

Boushley likely wasn’t going to be available for a few days, so he’ll be swapped out. Corbin is taking the ball tonight but there’s likely going to be some sort of bullpen game tomorrow. The club then has deGrom likely to go on Wednesday with an off-day on Thursday and Eovaldi potentially returning after that. But in the meantime, they are still limping for a few more days and could need guys like Latz and Dunning to soak up some innings over the next few days.

Dunning, 30, has had some decent seasons for the Rangers but his results have backed up over the past year or so. He got bumped to the bullpen last year and has been bouncing off and on the roster this year. That’s due to the fact that he’s making a $2.66MM salary this year, which is preventing other clubs from claiming him off waivers. As a player with between three and five years of major league service time, he can reject an outright assignment but would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in order to do so. Twice this year, he has been passed through waivers and then accepted an outright assignment to Round Rock.

The club’s current pitching predicament will get him back to the majors yet again. He has just three big league innings pitched on the year, spending most of this time with Round Rock. For the Express, he has thrown 46 1/3 innings over 12 appearances with a 4.77 earned run average, 24.4% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate.

Photo courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images

Giants Option Tyler Fitzgerald

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The Giants announced that infielder Tyler Fitzgerald has been optioned to Triple-A Sacramento. That opens an active roster spot for right-hander Justin Verlander to be reinstated from the paternity list.

The move highlights what a seachange it’s been for Fitzgerald compared to last year. In 2024, he popped 15 home runs in just 96 games. He slashed .280/.334/.497 for a wRC+ of 132. He stole 17 bases and bounced around to various positions on the field, mostly at shortstop.

Coming into 2025, the Giants signed Willy Adames to cover shortstop but seemed likely to have Fitzgerald as their everyday second baseman. For the first month of the season, that was how it played out. Through the end of April, he had a .284/.341/.432 batting line and 119 wRC+ while holding down the keystone.

Unfortunately, he then hit the injured list due to a left rib fracture. He returned a couple of weeks later but has been slumping badly since then. He has stepped to the plate 110 times since coming off the IL but with a brutal line of .186/.245/.227 in that time.

The Giants have apparently decided that Fitzgerald needs a rest away from the big leagues, so he’ll get regular playing time in Sacramento as he tries to get back on track. In his absence, the second base playing time will likely go to some combination of Christian Koss, Brett Wisely and Casey Schmitt, though Schmitt is currently covering third base while Matt Chapman is on the injured list.

Neither Koss nor Wisely has much major league success thus far. Koss has a .219/.269/.260 line in 81 plate appearances with Wisely at .212/.256/.312 through 415 trips. Ideally, Fitzgerald will get back in a groove fairly quickly, or perhaps Chapman can get healthy in short order and bump Schmitt over to second base. With the deadline just over a month away, the Giants have some time to suss out the situation and decide if the infield is something they need to address at the deadline.

For Fitzgerald personally, it’s likely to impact his trajectories to arbitration and free agency. He came into 2025 with exactly one year of major league service time, which would put him on pace for exactly two years of service after 2025. A major league season is 186 days long and a player needs 172 days of service to get a full year, so it’s still possible for Fitzgerald to get to that two-year line, though he would have to be recalled in the next two weeks and stay up the rest of the way.

Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images

Mets Select Travis Jankowski, Option Luisangel Acuña

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The Mets announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported signing of left-hander Richard Lovelady. The Mets announced his name as “Dicky Lovelady” and Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that the southpaw has indeed requested that name change. The Mets also selected the contract of outfielder Travis Jankowski. To make room for those two, the club optioned right-hander Tyler Zuber and infielder Luisangel Acuña to Triple-A Syracuse. The Mets had one 40-man vacancy but opened another by transferring outfielder Jose Siri to the 60-day injured list.

It’s the second time in as many days that the Mets have shaken up their roster by optioning a young player who has previously been getting regular playing time. Catcher Francisco Alvarez was sent to Syracuse yesterday and now Acuña is following him upstate. Acuña held his own earlier this year with a .288/.342/.356 line and 102 wRC+ through the end of April. However, his production has tailed off badly since then, with a .194/.244/.208 line and 31 wRC+ since the calendar flipped to May.

Those struggles have cut into his playing time, with Acuña getting just five starts in the past month. Rather than languishing on the bench, the Mets have decided to send him to the farm, presumably hoping that regular starts down there are better than sitting on the bench in the majors. For parts of this season, Acuña has been the only viable backup to shortstop Francisco Lindor but Ronny Mauricio is now healthy and capable of filling in there, making it more plausible for Acuña to depart the major league roster.

His roster spot will go to Jankowski. The 34-year-old veteran signed a minor league deal with the Mets a couple of weeks ago. He has spent over a decade in the majors as a speed and defense specialist. His playing time has been sporadic over the years thanks to his inconsistent offense, but he’s capable of strong glovework and double-digit steals if he in the lineup regularly.

On the whole, he has a .236/.318/.305 batting line and 76 wRC+. That has occasionally spiked to around league average but has also been well below at times. Between the White Sox and Rays, he has hit .244/.286/.289 for a 64 wRC+ this year. Since signing that minor league deal with the Mets, he has hit .200/.263/.286 in Triple-A. He will likely be serving as a pinch runner and defensive replacement off the club’s bench.

As for Siri, he’s already been on the IL for more than 60 days due to a left tibia fracture. He was originally given a timeline of eight to ten weeks but hasn’t healed as quickly as hoped. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement so he’s eligible for reinstatement at any time.

Photo courtesy of Scott Taetsch, Imagn Images

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