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White Sox To Promote Wikelman González

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The White Sox are calling up right-hander Wikelman González, reports Chase Ford of MiLB Central. The righty will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. He’s already on the 40-man roster, so the Sox will only need to make a corresponding active roster move in order to call him up.

González, now 23, was an international signing of the Red Sox out of Venezuela. He was one of four players who came to the White Sox in the Garrett Crochet trade, alongside Kyle Teel, Chase Meidroth and Braden Montgomery. Teel and Meidroth have already been promoted to the majors earlier this year, so Montgomery is the last piece still in the minors. Montgomery has a chance to eventually be the most impactful of the bunch but he was just drafted last summer and is still in High-A.

Throughout his minor league career, González has racked up strikeouts but has also given out a high number of walks. Prospect evaluators have long suggested that his lack of control would eventually push him to the bullpen and that seems to be happening this year.

He came into this year with a high walk rate of 12.6%, working primarily as a starter. He started 2025 in the Double-A rotation and made four starts there but he walked 18.2% of opponents. The Sox then pushed him to the Triple-A bullpen. Through 19 2/3 innings over 12 appearances, he has a 2.75 earned run average. Though that’s a nice ERA,  the underlying problem is still present. He has walked 18.1% of Triple-A batters faced. His ERA would look far worse if not for a .191 batting average on balls in play.

González’s promotion might be less about him forcing his way up to the big leagues and more about team need. The Sox played a doubleheader yesterday and used eight of their nine relievers, with Tyler Alexander the only one who didn’t get called upon. González may still be a work in progress but he will give the Sox a fresh arm going into their weekend series against the Blue Jays, with a good chance to make his major league debut north of the border.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Rockies Outright Keston Hiura

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June 19: Hiura cleared waivers and was outrighted back to Triple-A, according to the MLB.com transaction log. It’s not clear if he’ll elect free agency.

June 16: The Rockies announced that first baseman Michael Toglia has been recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. Infielder Keston Hiura has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

This is the reversal of a transaction from a few weeks back. On May 31st, Toglia was optioned to Albuquerque, with Hiura selected to the roster to take his place. Toglia had a nice season in 2024 but got out to an awful start in 2025.

Last year, he hit 25 home runs in just 116 games and took over as the clubs’ regular first baseman. His 32.1% strikeout rate was high and his batting average was low, but he drew walks at an 11.8% clip. His .218/.311/.456 line actually translated to a subpar 98 wRC+, thanks to the hitter-friendly nature of Coors Field, but that still made him one of the better hitters on a bad team.

This year, prior to being sent down, his walk rate fell to 8.7% and his strikeout rate climbed even higher to 39.1%. He currently has a .194/.266/.349 slash and a 55 wRC+. Since getting optioned, he has played 11 Triple-A games, with numbers in line with his 2024 season. He hit three home runs with an 11.8% walk rate and 29.4% strikeout rate for a .273/.353/.568 line and 112 wRC+.

Hiura, 28, got a small amount of big league playing time and didn’t do much with it. He got 21 plate appearances over eight games. He did not draw a walk but struck out seven times. He knocked four hits, including one double. It all added up to a .222/.333/.278 line and 71 wRC+.

Presumably, Toglia will now be retaking the regular first base job after this brief reset. In his absence, Hiura got a decent chunk of the time there, with utility players like Orlando Arcia and Kyle Farmer also chipping in.

Hiura now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Rockies can technically take five days to explore trades. There’s not likely to be a ton of interest. Hiura was performing well enough in the minors prior to coming up but it’s been the case for years now that he shows pop in the minors and then strikes out too much in the majors. He now has 1,105 big league plate appearances with 50 home runs but a massive 35.9% strikeout rate.

He exhausted his final option year with the Brewers in 2022, which pushed him into journeyman status. Over the past few years, he has repeatedly cleared waivers and signed minor league deals with clubs like the Tigers, Angels and Rockies, occasionally getting brief looks in the majors. If he clears waivers again, he’ll have the choice of electing free agency or reporting back to Albuquerque.

Photo courtesy of Rhona Wise, Imagn Images

Diamondbacks Sign Trevor Richards To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks have signed right-hander Trevor Richards to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Reno alongside lefty Anthony Gose, per the southpaw’s tracker. It was reported earlier this week that the Snakes would be signing Gose but it wasn’t clear if it was a major or minor league deal.

Richards, 32, has had some major league success but has been in poor form for about a year now. The Blue Jays dealt him to the Twins at last year’s deadline but Richards lasted only 13 innings with Minnesota before being outrighted off the roster. In that time, he walked 11 opponents, a rate of 18.6% of batters faced. He also hit two other batters and issued seven wild pitches.

Here in 2025, he has signed minor league deals with the Cubs and Royals, getting a brief look in the majors with the latter club. He has thrown 19 1/3 minor league innings this year with a 4.19 earned run average, 25.6% strikeout rate and 13.6% walk rate. In his quick major league stint with Kansas City, he allowed four earned runs in three innings.

Prior to those struggles, he had a good run in the big leagues. He tossed 201 innings over the 2021-23 seasons with a 4.61 ERA, 31.3% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate. He earned one save and 25 holds in that time.

The Arizona bullpen has taken a few punches this season. The relief group was supposed to be anchored by A.J. Puk and Justin Martínez but both are currently out of commission. Martínez recently required Tommy John surgery and will be out for the year. Puk is on the IL with a flexor strain and was recently shut down due to some renewed discomfort. In addition to those two, Kendall Graveman and Christian Montes De Oca are also on the IL.

Amid those injuries, the club’s bullpen numbers are unsurprisingly poor. Arizona relievers have a collective 5.39 ERA, which puts them ahead of only the Nationals and Athletics. If they stay in the playoff race, adding relievers will surely be a deadline focus. For now, they’ll take chances on guys like Richards and Gose while hoping for the best.

Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images

Latest On Cole Ragans

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Royals left-hander Cole Ragans went on the 15-day injured list due to a rotator cuff strain on June 11th, retroactive to June 8th. It was reported shortly thereafter that he would be getting a second opinion on his shoulder. Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports that the second opinion confirmed the rotator cuff strain, with a recommended four-week shutdown period from his initial injury.

His most recent outing was on June 5th, so four weeks from that date would be July 3rd. He’ll be re-evaluated at that point and, if declared healthy, will start to ramp back up. It therefore seems like, even in a best-case scenario, he won’t be available until after the All-Star break.

That will be a situation to monitor for the Royals, as a healthy Ragans is a key piece of their optimal roster. He logged 186 1/3 innings for them last year with a 3.14 earned run average, 29.3% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate. Here in 2025, he’s had to work around a groin strain and this shoulder injury but has actually improved his strikeout and walk rates to 36.4% and 7.7%. His ERA has unfortunately climbed to 5.18 but that seems to be mostly bad luck, as his .382 batting average on balls in play and 62.1% strand rate are both to the unfortunate side.

That will be a situation to monitor throughout the month of July, with the deadline on July 31st. They are currently 1.5 games out of a playoff spot and will likely be looking to buy. The rotation is a strength for the Royals, so they will presumably be more focused on offensive upgrades. Even if Ragans isn’t fully back by the end of July, if he is trending in that direction, it would presumably give them more confidence about that plan.

For now, the Kansas City rotation is fronted by Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic and Michael Wacha. That trio is backed up by Michael Lorenzen and Noah Cameron. Lorenzen is a serviceable back-end guy, with a 4.91 ERA this year. Cameron’s 1.91 ERA looks far nicer but is misleading. His 7.4% walk rate is a solid number and his 42.7% ground ball rate close to average but his 19.6% strikeout rate is subpar. A .191 BABIP and 89.5% strand rate are doing him some favors, with his 3.63 FIP and 4.22 SIERA pointing to regression.

Kyle Wright could also be a factor soon, as he is on a rehab assignment and tossed four scoreless innings in his most recent Triple-A start. However, he’s a big unknown since he missed most of 2023 and all of 2024 due to a shoulder injury which required surgery.

Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images

Marlins Designate Connor Gillispie For Assignment

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The Marlins announced that they have selected right-hander Robinson Piña, a move that was reported earlier. In corresponding moves, righty Adam Mazur has been optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville and righty Connor Gillispie has been designated for assignment.

Gillispie, 27, was claimed off waivers from Atlanta in January. He earned a rotation job to start the season but couldn’t hold it. In six starts, he allowed 25 earned runs in 26 innings, leading to an unsightly 8.65 ERA.

That got him optioned down to Triple-A, where he has since logged 33 2/3 innings with a 4.28 ERA. While that was obviously a big improvement, luck was a big factor. He struck out just 15.7% of batters faced in the minors while giving out walks at an 11.4% clip. If it weren’t for a tiny .161 batting average on balls in play, he would have fared far worse, hence his 6.55 FIP.

He’s now been nudged off the 40-man roster and will likely end up on waivers in the coming days. His minor league work prior to this year was better. From 2021 to 2024, he logged 406 innings on the farm with a 4.12 ERA. His 9.6% walk rate was a tad high but he also punched out 24.1% of opponents. He is still optionable for the rest of this year and one further season, so perhaps a club with a need for depth and a plan to get Gillispie on track could have interest. If he clears outright waivers, he would stick with the Marlins as non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Sun, Imagn Images

Braves To Select Didier Fuentes

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The Braves are going to promote right-handed pitching prospect Didier Fuentes, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. The youngster will start tomorrow’s game against the Marlins. Corresponding moves will be required to add him to both the 40-man and active rosters.

It’s an extremely aggressive promotion, as Fuentes only just celebrated his 20th birthday two days ago. A fairly unheralded international signing out of Colombia, Fuentes has raised his stock as he has climbed the minor league ladder. Last year, he tossed 75 2/3 innings at the Single-A level with a 2.74 earned run average. He struck out 32.1% of batters faced while only giving out walks at a 6.9% pace.

That got him some prospect love ahead of 2025, with Baseball America giving him the #7 spot in Atlanta’s system coming into the year. They mentioned his mid-90s fastball and slider, while noting he was still working on a splitter to neutralize lefties.

Here in 2025, he has seemingly raised his stock even farther. He has gone from High-A to Double-A and Triple-A, tossing a combined 39 1/3 innings. The 4.81 ERA might not jump off the page but he has a 28.9% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. He’s been hurt by a 58.4% strand rate, which is why his 2.81 FIP suggests he has deserved better this year.

Coming into the year, FanGraphs listed Fuentes as the #11 prospect in the Atlanta system but they now list him as third in the system and #82 in the entire league. Both FanGraphs and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN use Bryan Woo of the Mariners as a comp for Fuentes.

The Atlanta rotation has taken a few hits this year. AJ Smith-Shawver required Tommy John surgery and Reynaldo López has been sidelined by arthroscopic shoulder surgery. At the moment, the starting group consists of Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes. It’s possible that Fuentes will just be making a spot start. The club just began a stretch of playing 13 games in a row, so he can give all the other starters an extra day of rest in the midst of that, while getting his first taste of the majors.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Giants Notes: Devers, Eldridge, Payroll

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The baseball world was stunned by Sunday’s Rafael Devers trade and further details have continued to spill out in subsequent days. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Red Sox asked for prospect Bryce Eldridge in trade talks but the Giants quickly rebuffed that.

Eldridge is clearly a talented prospect, making it understandable that the Sox would ask about him, and that the Giants preferred to keep him. The 16th overall pick of the 2023 draft, he has since taken 845 plate appearances in the minors, hitting 39 home runs with an 11.5% walk rate. His 26.5% strikeout rate is a bit on the high side but he’s also been facing far older competition basically the whole time. He’s now in Triple-A even though he’s still only 20 years old.

He started this year at Double-A and mashed, putting up a line of .280/.350/.512 in 34 games. That got him quickly promoted to Triple-A, where his production has stalled a bit. He is hitting just .160/.232/.340 at the top minor league level so far with a 33.9% strikeout rate. But it’s a small sample of 13 games and, as mentioned, he is extremely young for the level.

By keeping Eldridge in the fold, the Giants may have a bit of a squeeze in the first base/designated hitter mix over the long run. It appears that Devers’ days of being a third baseman are effectively done. Matt Chapman is one of the top defensive third basemen in the league and is signed through 2030. Devers is now learning first base and could be a viable option at that spot in the coming weeks.

Whenever Eldridge earns his way up to the majors, he and Devers will have to share the first base and DH spots, though that may not be a short-term problem if Eldridge still needs some time to develop against Triple-A pitching. The Giants are presumably fine with the long-term fit, since they seemingly took a hard line against even considering Eldridge being included in the deal.

Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area also reports on the Sox asking for Eldridge and notes that players like Hayden Birdsong and Carson Whisenhunt also came up at times during the talks. It’s unclear if the Giants were opposed to dealing those guys or if the Sox just preferred Kyle Harrison and James Tibbs, who ultimately were included in the completed deal.

Beyond the players, money was a key component of this trade, with Devers having about $250MM still to be paid out over the eight and a half years remaining on his contract. Jordan Hicks is still owed about $30MM in the two and a half years remaining on his deal, which offsets that somewhat, but the Giants still took on roughly $220MM in the swap. Considering the largest contract the Giants have ever signed in the history of the franchise is the $182MM free agent deal for Willy Adames, absorbing the money in the Devers trade was no small matter.

With that kind of financial commitment changing hands, ownership would naturally have to be involved. Giants chairman Greg Johnson spoke to John Shea of The San Francisco Standard, noting that he and Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy spoke about the pact fairly early in the process, at the urging of Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey.

“I talked to [Kennedy] at the (owners’) meetings (in early June) in New York, and I talked to him this week. Just put the message in that we’re serious. It’s not just chatter. Nobody wants to do all this work and then say, ’Oh, now we’ve got to sell it to our owners.’ We wanted to let the other owners know ’these guys are serious. They want to get something done.’ That changes the urgency. Buster was very smart to recognize that point. That goes back to his sense. He’s got a good nose for how people think and operate. It’s one of his strengths.”

RosterResource currently estimates the Giants to have a competitive balance tax number of almost $223MM, roughly $18MM below the $241MM base threshold. That should leave the club plenty of wiggle room to continue adding to the roster ahead of the deadline, whether they plan to avoid the tax or not.

Photo courtesy of D. Ross Cameron, Imagn Images

Phillies Select Buddy Kennedy, Transfer Aaron Nola To 60-Day IL

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The Phillies announced that they have selected the contract of infielder Buddy Kennedy. Infielder/outfielder Weston Wilson has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley as the corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, right-hander Aaron Nola has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Kennedy, now 26, was acquired from the Tigers about a year ago. He exhausted his final option year in 2024 and was therefore out of options coming into 2025. He didn’t break camp with the club, which got him pushed onto the waiver wire. After he cleared waivers, the Phillies re-signed him to a new minor league deal. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports that Kennedy had recently triggered an upward mobility clause in that deal. The Phils didn’t want him to get away, so they have added him to the roster today.

Since signing that deal, Kennedy has been in good form at the Triple-A level. He has appeared in 61 games for the IronPigs, hitting eight home runs with an 11.6% walk rate and 15.3% strikeout rate. That’s led to a .283/.388/.447 line and 126 wRC+, indicating he’s been 26% better than league average at the plate overall.

Triple-A success isn’t new for him but he hasn’t yet translated it to the majors. He has received scattered big league time from the Diamondbacks, Tigers and Phils, with a .203/.295/.313 line and 72 wRC+ in 149 trips to the plate over the 2022-2024 campaigns.

He has experience at all four infield positions and left field, so he should replace Wilson as the club’s multi-positional bench piece. That may not lead to a lot of playing time for Kennedy. Wilson was reinstated from the injured list about two months ago but has received only 42 plate appearances since then, including just one since June 9th.

As for Nola, he landed on the IL in the middle of May due to a sprained right ankle, though that’s no longer the main concern. It was reported just over a week ago that he would be shut down for two weeks due to a stress reaction in his rib cage. He’s now ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement, which would be mid-July. Even if he’s declared healthy in a week, he will need to ramp up his throwing and probably make a few rehab starts, so he likely wasn’t going to be back before the All-Star break anyway.

Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images

Yankees Select Jayvien Sandridge

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The Yankees announced today that they have selected the contract of left-hander Jayvien Sandridge. He’ll take the active roster spot of right-hander Yerry De los Santos, who has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow discomfort. To open a 40-man spot, infielder/outfielder Oswaldo Cabrera has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

De los Santos has given the Yankees 20 innings this year while only allowing 1.80 earned runs per nine. That level of performance is surely not sustainable with a 14% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate. He’s managed to keep runs off the board by having a huge 88.2% strand rate and no home runs allowed on the season.

The Yankees haven’t provided any information about how long they expect him to be out, though an elbow injury is naturally always a concern for a pitcher. More information is likely to be forthcoming in the near future.

For now, his IL placement opens a path for Sandridge to get to the big leagues for the first time. The 26-year-old southpaw has spent time in the minors with the Orioles, Reds and Padres without getting called to the majors. He reached minor league free agency at the end of last year and signed a minors deal with the Yankees.

Sandridge started the season on the injured list but was able to get back on the mound by the middle of May. He made a few rehab appearances at lower levels before moving up to Triple-A. Combined, he has thrown 12 innings this year with four earned runs allowed. He has walked six opponents but also struck out 20, for respective rates of 11.8% and 39.2%.

That’s generally been Sandridge’s recipe throughout his minor league career. From 2021 to 2024, he tossed 173 2/3 innings for various minor clubs with a 3.94 ERA. His 18.2% walk rate in that time was massive but he also struck out 33.7% of batters faced.

As of July of last year, FanGraphs considered Sandridge to be one of the top 20 prospects in the Padres’ system. That report noted that his fastball was sitting in the upper 90s but that controlling his slider is his biggest issue, throwing out Jake Diekman as a potential ceiling comp since Diekman carved out a nice career despite consistently high walk rates.

The Yankees came into today with the only lefty in the bullpen being Tim Hill, a veteran soft-tossing ground ball guy. Sandridge will give them a second southpaw with a different profile. Since this is his first big league call, he has a full slate of options and can be cheaply controlled for years to come, though he’ll obviously have to perform well enough to hold his 40-man roster spot.

As for Cabrera, his transfer to the 60-day IL is not a surprise. He suffered a grisly ankle injury in the middle of May and underwent surgery. He’s technically able to be reinstated 60 days from that initial IL placement, so mid-July, but he’s expected to miss most or all of the remainder of the season.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Nationals Outright Juan Yepez

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The Nationals announced that first baseman Juan Yepez has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Rochester. He was removed from the 40-man roster earlier this week when the Nats designated him for assignment.

Yepez has less than three years of major league service time and this is his first career outright. That means he does not have the right to elect free agency. He will therefore play for the Red Wings and look to earn his way back to the big leagues.

He has some decent big league work on his track record, including a stint with the Nats last year. He signed a minor league deal with Washington going into 2024 and got called up in July. He eventually hit .283/.335/.429 for a 113 wRC+ in 249 plate appearances. When combined with his previous work with the Cardinals, he has a .258/.307/.423 line and 103 wRC+ in 588 plate appearances.

But this year has been a challenge. The Nats acquired Nathaniel Lowe and signed Josh Bell in the offseason, pushing Yepez down to Triple-A, where has hit .199/.273/.301 for a wRC+ of 56. That performance got him bumped off the roster and through the waiver wire.

Both Bell and Lowe will be trade candidates in the coming weeks, with the Nats lined up as clear sellers. Bell is an impending free agent. Lowe can be retained for 2026 via arbitration but is trending towards a non-tender at this point. He’s already making $10.3MM and is having a subpar season at the plate. Perhaps those two will be moved and more playing time will be opened up at first base and as the designated hitter, though Yepez would have to perform better in order to take advantage of that.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images

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