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Orioles Re-Sign Chadwick Tromp To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles announced to reporters, including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, that catcher Chadwick Tromp has been re-signed to a minor league deal. He is with the club in Seattle and on the taxi squad.

Tromp, 30, was on the O’s roster for a few days recently. Adley Rutschman got a concussion scare, so the O’s added Tromp in order to have another backstop on the roster alongside Maverick Handley. Rutschman felt better a few days later, which led to the out-of-options Tromp being designated for assignment. He went hitless in four plate appearances during that brief stint as an Oriole. He elected free agency just a few hours ago but he and the club have worked out a new pact.

There hasn’t been anything to suggest that there’s anything currently wrong with Rutschman or Handley, so it’s possible Tromp is just around on the taxi squad for logistical reasons. The Orioles are in Seattle for three games and then play three against the Athletics in West Sacramento. The Triple-A Norfolk Tides are in Louisville, Kentucky this week, so it would take some time to get a fresh body to the West Coast if an injury did pop up. Tromp’s presence gives them someone on hand who can be added to the roster on short notice.

The O’s go back home next week after facing the A’s, at which point Tromp could perhaps join the Tides. He hasn’t hit much in his big league career, with a .219/.229/.375 line in part-time play over six seasons, but he has a solid defensive reputation and better offense in the minors. He has a combined .256/.337/.427 line and 102 wRC+ in 872 Triple-A plate appearances dating back to the start of the 2022 season.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images.

Cardinals Sign Tyler Matzek To Minor League Deal

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The Cardinals announced that they have signed left-hander Tyler Matzek to a minor league deal. He has been assigned to Triple-A Memphis and will provide the club with some non-roster bullpen depth.

Matzek, 34, started the year with the Yankees on a minor league deal. He was called up to the big leagues on April 22nd and lasted almost a month before being designated for assignment on May 16th. He tossed 6 1/3 innings over seven appearances, striking out seven opponents while giving out five walks and allowing 11 hits, which resulted in three earned runs. After being bumped from the roster, he cleared waivers and elected free agency. After a couple of weeks on the open market, he has landed with a new organization.

The lefty has some good seasons on his track record but hasn’t been able to do much in recent years. From 2020 to 2022, he logged 135 2/3 innings with Atlanta, posting a 2.92 earned run average in that time. His 13.4% walk rate was quite high but he also struck out 27.4% of batters faced. He earned one save and 33 holds over that span.

In October of 2022, he required Tommy John surgery. That put him on ice through the entire 2023 season. He was back in the mix last year but it turned out to be another challenging season. By early May, he allowed 11 earned runs in 10 innings for Atlanta. He then landed on the IL due to elbow inflammation. While still on the IL, he was traded to the Giants as salary ballast in the Jorge Soler deal. The Giants released him in August and he returned to Atlanta on a minor league deal but didn’t get back to the majors.

Put it all together and Matzek has only 16 1/3 big league innings since the end of the 2022 season. Regardless, he has some past major league success and there’s no harm for the Cards in adding some non-roster depth. They currently have Steven Matz, JoJo Romero and John King as the left-handed contingent of their big league bullpen but pitching injuries are fairly inevitable for all teams. The Cards will get a close-up look at Matzek in Memphis as he tries to earn his way back to the majors.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Astros Looking For Starting Pitching

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The Astros lost yet another rotation member to the surgeon’s table recently, with Ronel Blanco requiring Tommy John surgery. He will officially undergo that procedure this Friday, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the club is on the lookout for more starting pitching.

It shouldn’t come as a shock that Houston has this focus. They currently have six viable starting pitchers on the injured list, most of them unlikely to return anytime soon. Luis Garcia hasn’t pitched in the majors in over two years now, as he has repeatedly hit setbacks in his attempts to return from his own Tommy John surgery. Cristian Javier underwent that procedure in June of last year. Hayden Wesneski required it last month and, as mentioned, Blanco is next. In addition to all those Tommy Johns, J.P. France is still recovering from last year’s shoulder surgery and has an uncertain timeline.

Spencer Arrighetti is also on the IL, though he hasn’t required surgery. He suffered a right thumb fracture in a bizarre accident, getting struck by an errant ball while throwing on the field during batting practice. That means he could be able to return quicker than the guys who did require surgery, though he’s not especially close either. Manager Joe Espada said last week that the righty is now out of the cast and playing catch, per Leah Vann of chron.com. He suffered his fracture almost two months ago and will presumably need to ramp up his throwing program before going on a rehab assignment for a few weeks.

That leaves the Astros with a very top-heavy rotation in the short term. Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown are a fantastic one-two punch at the front but it gets flimsy behind them. Lance McCullers Jr. is back after his own two-year-plus injury odyssey and has made five starts thus far with mixed results. He is obviously talented but it’s anyone’s guess what to expect from him now after such a lengthy absence.

Ryan Gusto and Colton Gordon currently have two rotation spots but they have less than 60 big league innings pitched combined. AJ Blubaugh and Brandon Walter are also inexperienced arms on the 40-man, currently on optional assignment. Jason Alexander is also on the 40-man, though he’s a 32-year-old veteran swingman. Miguel Ullola is a notable prospect but he’s not on the roster and has only 36 Triple-A innings under his belt so far.

Taken all together, it’s understandable that the front office wants to add to this group. Doing so this far in advance of the July 31st trade deadline will be a challenge. Most clubs prefer to hang onto their players until closer to the deadline to see if they can hang in the playoff race. Even those teams with pitchers to offer usually prefer to wait with the hope that the pressure of the deadline will drive up prices. To get a major deal done earlier usually comes at a premium.

Even as the deadline approaches, the Astros will probably have to walk a fine line. They have clearly been trying to avoid paying the competitive balance tax this year. While they made some notable offseason additions such as signing Christian Walker, they also moved some money around by flipping Kyle Tucker and Ryan Pressly to the Cubs in separate deals. RosterResource puts their CBT number at just under $236MM, which puts them about $5MM away from this year’s $241MM base threshold.

Assuming they still want to stay under that line, they will have to avoid taking on significant salary in the coming weeks. Asking another club to eat money in a deal could help them in that regard, though that usually means having to pay a higher price in terms of prospect capital. Houston’s farm system is generally considered one of the weaker ones in the sport, so that could be a tricky balancing act.

Elsewhere on the roster, infielder/outfielder Zach Dezenzo landed on the 10-day IL a few days ago due to left hand inflammation. The club told reporters today, including Rome, that Dezenzo has a capsule sprain. He will be resting for the next two weeks and will get more imaging done at that time. Even if declared healthy at that point, he will presumably need to take some time to get back into game shape, either via some live batting practice or a rehab assignment.

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images.

Tucker Barnhart Elects Free Agency

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The Rangers announced that catcher Tucker Barnhart has elected free agency. That indicates that he has passed through waivers unclaimed after being designated for assignment over the weekend.

Barnhart, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in the offseason. He was called up to the big leagues at the end of April as Kyle Higashioka battled a hamstring injury, replacing Higashioka as the backup to Jonah Heim. Higashioka was on the injured list for most of the first half of May. Barnhart stuck on the roster even once Higashioka was reinstated, giving the club three catchers for a while.

Naturally, that didn’t lead to a lot of playing time for Barnhart. Though he spent over a month on the roster, he only got into eight games and stepped to the plate just 15 times, producing a .231/.333/.231 line in those.

As a veteran with years of big league experience, Barnhart can’t be sent to the minors without his consent, so the Rangers bumped him off the 40-man. His experience also gives him the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, so he will now look for his next opportunity.

The fact that he cleared waivers suggests there isn’t a major league job available for him right now but he should have no trouble finding a minor league offer if he wants one. He has now appeared in 924 major league games dating back to his 2014 debut. His .241/.318/.351 line translates to a wRC+ of 78 but he has a strong reputation for his work while donning the tools of ignorance.

Photo courtesy of David Butler II, Imagn Images

Dodgers To Designate Chuckie Robinson For Assignment

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The Dodgers are going to designate catcher Chuckie Robinson for assignment, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. That will be the corresponding 40-man move for signing right-hander José Ureña, which was previously reported. The Dodgers will also have to make a corresponding active roster move for Ureña.

Robinson, 30, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels a few days ago. He was a sensible addition, since the club recently subtracted some catching depth. They called up prospect Dalton Rushing to pair with Will Smith at the big league level, with Austin Barnes designated for assignment. They still had Hunter Feduccia and Chris Okey as depth options at Triple-A but Robinson could have joined them.

Instead, he’s been bumped off by the constant churn of pitchers through the club’s bullpen. The Dodgers have been rotating pitchers on and off the roster almost daily, in part due to a huge slate of injuries, with 15 different pitchers currently on the IL.

Robinson will likely head back to the waiver wire in the coming days. His major league track record is both limited and uninspiring, with a .132/.170/.194 line in 136 plate appearances. Naturally, his minor league track record is greater in quality and quantity. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has stepped to the plate 1,204 times on the farm with a .268/.333/.412 line and 91 wRC+. He has also received praised for his glovework behind the plate.

He is still optionable for the rest of this year and one additional season, so he could appeal to clubs in need of some extra catching depth. If he clears waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Nationals Release Jorge López

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The Nationals announced that right-hander Jorge López has cleared unconditional release waivers and is now a free agent. He was already off the 40-man roster, having been designated for assignment a few days ago.

Heading back to the open market was the expected outcome once López was designated for assignment. He is playing on a $3MM salary this year. Given that figure and his poor results this year, no club would be eager to take claim him off waivers. If the Nats had sent him outright to Triple-A, he has enough service time that he could have rejected that assignment and elected free agency.

He’ll now head to the open market and look for his next opportunity. Since the Nats released him, they remain on the hook for what’s left of his salary. Any other club could sign him and only pay him the prorated league minimum salary. That amount would be subtracted from what the Nats pay.

It was reported that Washington’s decision to move on from López wasn’t strictly motivated by his performance, with manager Dave Martinez admitting that he was displeased with López getting flustered by an umpire’s strike zone.

It’s not the first time that López has drawn attention for losing his cool, as he had a well documented on-field blow-up with the Mets last year as well, throwing his glove into the stands. Though it was also reported at the time of that scene with the Mets that López has dealt with a number of notable off-field issues that may have exacerbated some mental health challenges. His son has apparently been in and out of hospitals with regularity due to several autoimmune disorders.

The Mets let him go after that spectacle but the Cubs picked him up. He posted a 2.03 earned run average with Chicago the rest of the way, which likely helped him get his deal with the Nats. However, he has a 6.57 ERA so far this year. His 46.8% ground ball rate and 6.6% walk rate are strong but he’s only striking out 16% of opponents.

The ERA is probably at least somewhat misleading, as López only has a 50.6% strand rate this year. ERA estimators like his 3.44 FIP and 3.99 SIERA suggest he has deserved better. Still, the declining strikeout rate is part of his mercurial career as a reliever. When he first moved to the bullpen with the Orioles in 2022, he punched out 27.6% of batters faced. After being traded to the Twins that summer, he stuck out just 17.6% of opponents. That mark stayed relatively low at 18.4% in 2023, jumped back up to 23% between the Mets and Cubs last year but is now down again.

Ideally, López will land somewhere that puts him in a good position mentally and helps him thrive on the field. If any Major League team thinks they can offer that, López can be signed for essentially no cost.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

Pirates Outright Nick Solak

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The Pirates announced that infielder Nick Gonzales has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Infielder/outfielder Nick Solak has been sent outright to Triple-A Indianapolis as a corresponding move. Solak has the right to elect free agency though the Bucs didn’t give any indication that he would do so. Righty Kyle Nicolas has also been recalled to take the roster spot vacated by Tanner Rainey being designated for assignment yesterday.

Solak, 30, was added to the roster just over two weeks ago. He didn’t get much action between then and now, getting just 11 plate appearances in four games. He recorded one hit, a single, and struck out twice. There wasn’t any previous indication he had been removed from the 40-man roster but it seems the Bucs quietly put him on waivers in recent days, presumably knowing that they would need a roster spot for Gonzales.

Once a notable prospect with the Rangers, Solak burst onto the scene in 2019 but has floundered in his subsequent big league appearances. He hit five home runs in his first 33 big league games while drawing walks at an 11.1% clip. That led to a .293/.393/.491 line and 126 wRC+ in that small sample. But in 850 plate appearances since that debut, he has hit .243/.314/.350 for a wRC+ of 86.

He only got into two big leagues games in 2023 and was stuck in the minors throughout 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Pirates coming into 2025 and put up a huge .393/.452/.625 line in 32 Triple-A games. That was surely inflated by a .422 batting average on balls in play but he also had six home runs and a 9.5% walk rate. That got him up to the majors but, as mentioned, he didn’t get to play much.

Solak is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors without clearing waivers. Despite his huge Triple-A numbers this year, no club put in a claim. Since he has a previous career outright, he could elect free agency, though he would surely be limited to minor league offers. Whether it’s with the Pirates or another club, he figures to be getting playing time in Triple-A while hoping for a better major league chance in the future.

As for Gonzales, he suffered a non-displaced fracture in his left ankle during the first game of the season and has been on the IL since then. The seventh overall pick of the 2020 draft, he hasn’t hit much in the majors yet, with a .256/.300/.392 line and 88 wRC+ in 518 plate appearances. However, he put up a huge .301/.392/.531 line and 134 wRC+ in Triple-A over 2023 and 2024.

He has played a few different spots on the diamond but more second base than anywhere else. Gonzales is one of seven players the Bucs have used at the keystone this year. Adam Frazier has gotten the most playing time but Jared Triolo, Enmanuel Valdéz, Liover Peguero, Tsung-Che Cheng and Solak have also factored in. No one in that group has taken hold of the position so Gonzales might get a chance to seize it now that he’s healthy.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Yankees Designate Carlos Carrasco For Assignment

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June 3: The Yankees announced today that Carrasco has been designated for assignment while Cruz has been reinstated from the IL, as expected. Additionally, Luke Weaver landed on the 15-day IL, as was previously reported. Righty Yerry De Los Santos was recalled in a corresponding move. The Yanks also reinstated infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the IL and optioned infielder Jorbit Vivas.

June 2: The Yankees have placed right-hander Carlos Carrasco on outright waivers, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post. Players can be placed on waivers without being designated for assignment, so it seems Carrasco is still on the roster for now. However, Sherman notes that righty Fernando Cruz could be coming off the injured list on Tuesday. The Yankees are off today, so it seems like Carrasco could be the corresponding move for Cruz tomorrow.

The veteran Carrasco was only just added to the Yankee roster yesterday. Their pitching staff had been used fairly heavily in the prior days. Facing the Dodgers this weekend, the Yanks used five pitchers in Friday’s 8-5 loss. Then on Saturday, they got creamed 18-2. Starter Will Warren only lasted an inning and a third in that game, forcing the Yankees to use seven other pitchers to get through the rest of the game. One of those was utility player Pablo Reyes but the larger point is that the bullpen got pushed pretty hard.

Carrasco was added to give the club a fresh arm just in case Sunday’s game was another nightmare but it thankfully went far smoother. Ryan Yarbrough started and gave the club six good innings in a game the club eventually won 7-3. Jonathan Loáisiga tossed the seventh and Devin Williams the eighth. Luke Weaver was going to toss the ninth but was held back due to some hamstring discomfort. Tim Hill came in instead and got the final three outs.

That seemingly puts Carrasco in the unfortunate position of losing his roster spot without getting into a game. He was with the Yankees earlier this year and logged 32 innings in a swing role but had a 5.91 earned run average in that time. He got bumped off the roster and cleared waivers. He accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and made two starts there. The first outing was fine but the second was rough, as he allowed five earned runs without making it out of the second inning.

It seems unlikely that Carrasco will be claimed. He just cleared less than a month ago and hasn’t been in great form since. However, it’s also theoretically possible that there’s a team which has been snakebit by injuries of late and is more willing to take a chance on Carrasco now than they were just a few weeks ago.

If he does go unclaimed and the Yankees outright him off the roster, he has more than enough service time to elect free agency. However, the last time he cleared, he accepted and reported to the RailRiders, so perhaps he would do so again.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Chadwick Tromp Elects Free Agency

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The Orioles announced that catcher Chadwick Tromp has elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment a few days ago.

Tromp, 30, had a very brief stint on Baltimore’s roster. Catcher Adley Rutschman had a concussion scare last week, leaving Maverick Handley as the only healthy backstop on the roster. That prompted the club to add Tromp. However, Rutschman quickly recovered, which led to Tromp getting bumped right back off. Since he is out of options, Baltimore had little choice but to designate him for assignment. He appeared in two games for the O’s, going hitless in four plate appearances.

A player with a previous career outright assignment has the right to elect free agency. This is the second time this year that Tromp has exercised that right. He started the year with Atlanta but had a tenuous hold on a roster spot since he burned his final option season in 2024. Sean Murphy started the season on the injured list, which got prospect Drake Baldwin to the majors. Murphy got healthy in the first week of April, sending Tromp into DFA limbo. He cleared waivers, elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the O’s.

He’s now likely to get another minor league deal somewhere in the coming days, perhaps even returning to the Orioles. The fact that he cleared waivers suggests that no club is currently willing to give him a big league spot.

Tromp has 63 games of big league experience now, spread across six different seasons. He has a tepid .219/.229/.375 batting line over those campaigns. His glovework has generally received solid grades and he has shown more offensive potential in the minors. Dating back to the start of the 2022 season, he has a .256/.337/.427 line and 102 wRC+ in 872 Triple-A plate appearances.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Padres Interested In Jarren Duran

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The Padres are looking to upgrade in left field and Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports that Jarren Duran of the Red Sox is on their list of trade targets. They have been interested in Duran before, as they were connected to him in rumors ahead of the 2024 season.

Given the prior interest, it’s not especially surprising that the Friars still have their eyes on him. They weren’t able to pry him loose ahead of last year but wound up with a cheap solution for their left field opening, as they looked to replace Juan Soto without having much to spend. They signed Jurickson Profar for just $1MM and got a career year out of him, though obviously that now looks suspect in the wake of his recent PED suspension.

Going into 2025, the Friars once again had financial limitations and tried to grab more lightning in a bottle. They brought in a number of players on small deals and minor league pacts, adding them to their incumbent options. So far, they have tried eight different players in left: Jason Heyward, Oscar González, Brandon Lockridge, Gavin Sheets, Tirso Ornelas, Tyler Wade, Jose Iglesias and Connor Joe.

No one in that group has been a solution so far. González is now playing in Japan. Heyward hit .176/.223/.271 before landing on the injured list with an oblique strain. Ornelas has hit .071/.188/.071 in the majors and is on optional assignment. Joe was traded to the Reds. Wade, Iglesias and Lockridge are mostly glove-first multi-positional guys. Sheets is having a good year at the plate but is not a good defender in left. He also departed yesterday’s game after colliding with the left field wall while trying to catch a home run ball.

Duran, on the other hand, is a great left fielder. Last year, he hit 21 home runs and slashed .285/.342/.492 for a 129 wRC+. He stole 34 bases and got strong marks for his glovework, splitting his time almost equally between center and left. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 6.7 wins above replacement on the year.

Here in 2025, his offense is down. He has just four home runs so far. His walk rate has also fallen from last year’s 7.3% to this year’s 5.7% mark. That gives him a .264/.312/.406 line and 97 wRC+. His Statcast numbers are a mixed bag. His hard hit rate and exit velocity are up relative to last year but he’s barreling the ball less. His home run to fly ball rate has almost been cut in half, going from 11.7% last year to 6% this year.

Whether he can get back to last year’s offense is hard to say but he does have 13 steals. His glovework isn’t getting the glowing marks it did last year but those numbers can get a bit wonky in small samples.

Regardless of this year’s slide, Duran would be a nice upgrade over anything the Padres currently have in house. There’s also the financial element to consider, as the Friars have clearly been operating with limited funds for years now. Duran just qualified for arbitration for the first time as a Super Two player in the most recent offseason.

He and the Red Sox didn’t agree to terms ahead of the filing deadline but eventually avoided arbitration. He is making a $3.75MM salary this year with a $100K buyout on an $8MM club option for 2026. That option can climb as high as $12MM via escalators. Even if that option is turned down, Duran can still be retained via arbitration for 2026, and through the 2028 season as well.

The combination of his skills, control and affordable salary makes the interest from the Padres very easy to understand. However, those attributes also give him plenty of appeal to the Red Sox and it’s unclear if they have any interest in moving him while he could still be a key part of their club for years to come.

It is possible to imagine a scenario where they consider it. The Sox currently have a crowded outfield mix, with Duran usually slotting in next to center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela and right fielder Wilyer Abreu, while Rob Refsnyder is on hand as a bench outfielder. Masataka Yoshida would be in the mix if he were healthy. Rafael Devers has the designated hitter spot taken almost every day. The situation is such that Roman Anthony, considered by many to be the top prospect in baseball, can’t get a call-up even as he is destroying Triple-A pitching.

The Sox are also having a bit of a disappointing season on the whole, currently sporting a record of 29-32. They are only 3.5 games out of a playoff spot but would have to leapfrog many teams to get into postseason position. Their injured list currently features Yoshida, Alex Bregman, Triston Casas and a number of pitchers.

Over the coming weeks, it’s possible that they slide further back in the crowded American League playoff race. In that scenario, perhaps they decide that they want to make Duran available. Trading him would open left field for Anthony while presumably bringing back some valuable pieces in the trade as well.

However, that’s a lot of speculation. And even if becomes more realistic, the Padres surely wouldn’t be the only club with interest. As noted by Lin, the Friars have traded away a lot of prospects in recent years. Even with their clear interest, they may not have the prospect capital to get a deal done. Their system is headlined by two highly-ranked prospects in Ethan Salas and Leo De Vries but reporting has generally indicated the Padres want to hold onto those two as their future catcher and shortstop respectively.

Even if the Padres are willing to further subtract from their system, they might also have to think about their rotation, as Lin points out. Michael King and Yu Darvish are on the injured list right now, which further subtracts from a group that was already top-heavy to begin the year.

There are plenty of variables involved here and there’s still lots of time until the trade deadline, but it’s a situation to monitor for now with more rumors surely to follow. This year’s trade deadline is on July 31st.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

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