Nathan Eovaldi Undergoes Surgery For Sports Hernia
Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi has undergone surgery to repair a sports hernia, reports Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports. GM Ross Fenstermaker revealed earlier this month that the righty would be meeting with a specialist to determine the best course of treatment, and evidently, surgery was the conclusion they came to. Willson suggests that the Rangers expect Eovaldi to be fully recovered from the hernia surgery (and the strained rotator cuff that ended his season in August) by the time spring training rolls around, presuming he suffers no setbacks.
In addition to the rotator cuff strain, Eovaldi also missed a month earlier in the season with what was originally labelled a triceps issue and later diagnosed as posterior elbow inflammation. When he took the mound, however, the 35-year-old looked better than ever in his 14th big league season. He finished with a 1.73 ERA in 22 starts. Like his ERA, his xERA and SIERA were also career-bests. His velocity was down, but he compensated with pristine command, walking just 4.2% of the batters he faced, and he still did a phenomenal job of missing bats and inducing soft contact. If it weren’t for the time he missed, Eovaldi likely would have been a strong contender for the AL Cy Young, and even so, there’s a good chance he’ll earn some votes for just the second time in his career.
Eovaldi’s health will be paramount for the Rangers in 2026. RosterResource estimates that the team has about $45MM coming off the books this winter, but it doesn’t seem like ownership is ready to foot the bill for a high-spending offseason. When Bruce Bochy stepped down as manager, president of baseball operations Chris Young explained that the team would be focusing on youth moving forward, citing financial uncertainty. That certainly suggests that Texas won’t be making many major additions in the coming months. So, if the Rangers want any hope of improving upon a second straight mediocre finish and contending in 2026, the stars who are already under contract will need to put the team on their back. A full, healthy season from Eovaldi – especially the version of Eovaldi on display in 2025 – would go a long way for this team in 2026.
Connor Wong Undergoes Hand Surgery
Red Sox catcher Connor Wong went under the knife for a right hand carpal boss excision. The procedure, which the team described as “successful,” was performed earlier this morning by Dr. Matthew Leibman at Mass General Brigham Hospital. The Red Sox have not yet provided further details about the timeline for Wong’s recovery.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a carpal boss is a benign “bony overgrowth or lump” found on the back of one’s hand or wrist. The condition doesn’t always cause pain, but the fact that Wong had his carpal boss removed suggests it was causing him at least some degree of discomfort. Most people return to “typical activity” within two to six weeks following a carpal boss excision. While that timeline could be longer for a professional athlete, it seems likely Wong will be back to full strength by the time he reports for training camp next spring.
The 29-year-old, who bats and throws right-handed, spent four weeks on the injured list early in the season after fracturing his left pinky finger. However, this is the first time the Red Sox have mentioned any sort of issue with his dominant hand. Wong started behind the dish on the final day of the regular season, and while he did not appear in the playoffs, that decision seemingly had more to do with his poor performance all season than any injury concerns. As for how much his poor performance might have had to do with the carpal boss? Wong can only hope it played a significant factor and that having it removed will help him rebound in 2026.
After significantly outperforming his expected stats (en route to a .280/.333/.425 slash line) last season, Wong saw his luck take a sharp turn for the worse. Through 63 games in 2025, he hit below .200 with zero home runs. The 42-point gap between his wOBA and xwOBA is a good sign for Wong going forward, but that said, even his xwOBA would have ranked him among the bottom 3% of hitters in the sport if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. He grounded into seven double plays, drove in just seven runs, and finished with -0.7 FanGraphs WAR. It certainly didn’t help that, once again, he posted negative defense metrics across the board.
Wong wasn’t Boston’s only backstop who spent time at Mass General Brigham recently. Carlos Narváez, who usurped Wong as the team’s starting catcher this year, went in for a left knee meniscectomy yesterday. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow previously described the procedure as a “cleanup,” clarifying that he expects Narváez to be back at full strength by spring training. Narvaez will presumably slot in as Boston’s primary catcher for 2026, while Wong’s status with the organization is up in the air. He is projected to earn $1.6MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and after the season he just had, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see the Red Sox non-tender him instead.
Poll: Can The Padres Hold Onto The NL West?
It’s been a big week for baseball in California. After the Padres swept the Giants and the Angels swept the Dodgers, a new leader stood atop the NL West. The Padres had claimed sole possession of first, while the Dodgers slipped into second, one game back of San Diego. The playoff odds will tell you that the Dodgers remain the favorites, but they’re losing momentum. According to FanGraphs, the Dodgers had an 83.8% chance to win their division on Opening Day, while the Padres’ odds were a mere 3.8%. As recently as three weeks ago, L.A.’s odds reached 96.6%, while San Diego’s sat at 1.5%. Yet, the Padres have since won 14 of their last 18 games, while the Dodgers are 8-10 in the same span. Accordingly, FanGraphs now has L.A.’s odds just below two-thirds (63.8%) and San Diego’s just above one-third (36.1%). You can think of it this way: These odds mean the Padres are now about as likely to win the NL West as the White Sox (.364 winning percentage) are to win on any given day. It’s still not likely, but it’s more than possible. The White Sox, as bad as they are, have still won 44 games.
This big week of California baseball will continue into the weekend, as the Dodgers host the Padres for a three-game set at Chavez Ravine. With a series win, the Dodgers would secure the season series tiebreaker, which could prove critical in a close division race. A sweep would give them sole possession of first place once again. Conversely, for the Padres, a series win would keep their chances of winning the tiebreaker alive, while a sweep would give them a four-game cushion over their rivals. With a four-game lead, the Padres would control their own destiny for the 38 games remaining in the regular season; they only have three more against the Dodgers after this weekend.
The Dodgers are lined up to send Clayton Kershaw, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow to the mound. While the team continues to be plagued by injuries – most recently to Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Hyeseong Kim, Tommy Edman, and Brock Stewart – the starting rotation is much stronger with Kershaw, Snell, and Glasnow, as well as Emmet Sheehan and Shohei Ohtani, all healthy at the same time, alongside 2025 All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto. While the Dodgers have seen their playoff odds plummet over the past three weeks, their starting rotation leads the majors in strikeout rate and SIERA in that time. They also rank second in groundball rate and xERA and third in fWAR. All this to say, the Dodgers’ starters, should they stay healthy, will be a strength for this team down the stretch.
As for the Padres, their pitching plans for the weekend became more complicated when Michael King was scratched with knee inflammation, heading back to the IL after only one start. He had just returned from a thoracic nerve issue that kept him out for more than two months. San Diego’s rotation, now more than ever, has a lot of question marks behind Dylan Cease and Nick Pivetta. Yu Darvish has been inconsistent since he made his season debut in July; the former ace is almost 39, and he’s missed a lot of time with injuries in the past few years. Deadline acquisition Nestor Cortes has only made two starts since returning from a four-month IL stint, and he’s yet to make it out of the fifth inning. It’s hard to know what the Padres can expect from him as well. The recently recalled Randy Vásquez is a great backup plan for King – he’s a much more established sixth starter than most teams can boast – but his 5.98 xERA and 5.85 SIERA are huge red flags underlying his 3.93 ERA in 22 starts this season.
Thankfully for the Padres, they have the best bullpen in the league backing up their starting staff. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller bolstered a group that already included Robert Suarez, Adrian Morejon, Jason Adam, and Jeremiah Estrada with flamethrower Mason Miller in a blockbuster deadline trade. The Padres’ bullpen leads the majors with 37 wins, 40 saves, a 2.97 ERA, and 6.7 fWAR, and keep in mind, Miller has only been a part of it for a couple of weeks. As for the Dodgers, they might have a great bullpen if it weren’t missing Scott, Yates, Stewart, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech, and Brusdar Graterol. It would be an exaggeration to call their arm barn a weakness, but one has to imagine that Dave Roberts is a lot less confident than Mike Shildt when it comes time to take his starter out of a game.
It should also be said that Miller and Cortes were far from Preller’s only trade deadline pickups. While Andrew Friedman and the Dodgers didn’t add much – Stewart and outfielder Alex Call were their biggest acquisitions – Preller may have won the deadline. At the very least, he won the deadline in the NL West, according to two-thirds of respondents in a recent MLBTR poll. At 5:01 PM CT on July 31, the newest Padres included Miller, Cortes, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, JP Sears, Freddy Fermin, and Will Wagner. The Dodgers were still three games up on the Padres at that point, but the Padres were a whole new team, with a deeper bullpen, a stronger rotation, a better catcher, and a more powerful offense against righties and lefties alike. Equally important was their decision to hold onto all of their key contributors who had come up in pre-deadline trade rumors, including Cease and Suarez.
The Dodgers have the better odds, according to both FanGraphs and PECOTA. They also have the better run differential, the higher FanGraphs WAR, and the reputation as the team to beat. After all, they’re the reigning World Series champions. They’ve won the NL West 11 times in the past 12 seasons. Meanwhile, the Padres haven’t won the West in almost 20 years. They haven’t won a pennant since the ’90s. They’ve never won it all. Yet, they’re playing like the better team right now, and they have the one-game lead to prove it. The question is: Can they hold on?
Will the Padres finally usurp the Dodgers in the NL West? Will the Dodgers’ dynasty live on another year? Or could a dark horse in the division pull off a remarkable comeback? Have your say in the poll below!
Who Will Win the NL West?
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Los Angeles Dodgers 53% (2,201)
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San Diego Padres 40% (1,665)
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Colorado Rockies 6% (257)
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San Francisco Giants 1% (29)
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Arizona Diamondbacks 0% (20)
Total votes: 4,172
The Opener: Acuña, McLean, Nola
Here are three things we’ll be watching for around baseball over the weekend:
1. Braves to activate Ronald Acuña Jr. tonight:
The Braves might not be playing for much except their pride anymore, but it will still be nice for them to have their superstar back in the lineup. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit the injured list at the end of July with a Grade 1 calf strain. Yesterday, the Braves told reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) that Acuña will rejoin the club tonight in Cleveland. Acuña won the NL MVP unanimously in 2023, the only season in the last five in which he has stayed completely healthy. He looked a lot like the MVP version of himself this year in between two stints on the IL, slashing .306/.429/.577 with 14 home runs and a 178 wRC+ in 55 games from May to July. Atlanta will hope he can pick up where he left off.
2. Nolan McLean to debut Saturday:
The Mets are looking to snap out of a downward spiral, and perhaps one of their top prospects is the answer. Right-hander Nolan McLean is widely considered one of the top prospects in the organization and one of the top pitching prospects in the sport. On Saturday, he’ll take the ball for his MLB debut, as he takes over from struggling veteran Frankie Montas in New York’s rotation. The 24-year-old will be in for a challenge in his first taste of MLB action, as he takes on the red-hot Mariners (8-2 in their last 10) and 2025 All-Star Bryan Woo. However, if his performance at Triple-A Syracuse is any indication, he should be up for the task. McLean has a 2.78 ERA in 16 games (13 starts) since his promotion to the Syracuse Mets, with 97 strikeouts in 87 1/3 innings and a groundball rate over 50%. While walks have given him trouble at times, his strikeout rate has only continued to climb; he’s struck out one-third of all batters he’s faced in his last seven games.
It should be noted that Saturday, the day McLean is set to debut, is the earliest date that a team can call up a prospect without the chance that he could accrue enough service to exhaust his rookie eligibility. This means McLean will most likely still be eligible for the Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) program in 2026. With this in mind, there’s a good chance he won’t be the only top prospect promoted in the coming days.
3. Phillies moving to six-man rotation:
Aaron Nola, injured since mid-May, will make his long-awaited return to the Phillies on Sunday, the club revealed to reporters (including The Athletic’s Charlotte Varnes). Upon his return, the team will move to a six-man rotation, at least temporarily. Manager Rob Thomson said he will cycle through the six of Nola, Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Zack Wheeler, and Taijuan Walker “once for sure.” After that, he has “some other ideas how to attack this thing going forward” (per the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber).
Lauber notes that those ideas for the future could include pairing up two starters in a piggyback situation or skipping each starter entirely once through the cycle. For now, however, the Phillies will take the simplest approach. No one in the current starting five deserves a demotion, but they could all use a little extra rest amid a stretch of 24 games in 25 days. The Phillies have enough optionable bullpen arms that they can afford to roster six starters – and therefore only seven relievers. Philadelphia can cycle through arms like Max Lazar, Seth Johnson, Alan Rangel, Michael Mercado, Josh Walker, and the recently-acquired Matt Manning to help keep the bullpen fresh.
Cubs To Promote Owen Caissie For MLB Debut
The Cubs are planning to promote top prospect Owen Caissie, as reported by Kiley McDaniel and Jesse Rogers of ESPN. The young outfielder is already on the 40-man, and he will presumably take Miguel Amaya‘s spot on the active roster. Amaya sprained his ankle tonight and will require an IL stint. As for Caissie, the Ontario native is expected to make his MLB debut tomorrow against the Blue Jays.
The Padres selected Caissie in the second round of the 2020 draft, and they flipped him to the Cubs that winter as part of the trade package that brought Yu Darvish to San Diego. He has since worked his way up Chicago’s minor league system, turning into one of the team’s most promising prospects. Baseball America ranked him 21st in the organization in 2021, eighth in 2022, 13th in 2023, fifth in 2024, and second in 2025. He has also ranked among BA’s overall top 100 prospects in each of the past three years. Not every source was quite as high on Caissie entering the 2025 campaign; FanGraphs dropped him off their top 100 list after ranking him 65th in 2024, while The Athletic’s Keith Law has never included Caissie among his top 100 prospects. Yet, none ever doubted Caissie’s huge raw power – the question was whether he could translate that power into success at the highest level.
That question loomed larger than ever after Caissie slashed .278/.375/.472 with a .195 isolated power and a 115 wRC+ in his season at Triple-A in 2024. Those are solid but hardly earth-shattering numbers, especially not for a bat-first corner outfielder. However, the lefty slugger has taken a massive step forward this year, with 22 home runs and 50 extra-base hits in 92 games for the Iowa Cubs. His .281 ISO and 145 wRC+ both rank fifth among qualified hitters in the International League. His strikeout rate is still high – that has always and probably will always be an issue – but a 28.0% K-rate certainly isn’t fatal, at least not if he keeps drawing his walks and crushing home runs.
None of this is to say that Caissie is a sure-thing, middle-of-the-order jolt for the Cubs’ lineup. He’s still just a 23-year-old prospect who has to prove his swing-and-miss issues won’t sink him against MLB pitching and, in particular, left-handed MLB pitching. Still, it’s exciting that he’s joining the team for the stretch run as they look to hold on to the NL’s top Wild Card spot and try to challenge the seemingly unstoppable Brewers for the NL Central crown. Any offensive boost he can provide will be much appreciated. The Cubs rank among the league’s best offensive teams on the season, but they’ve struggled as of late, scoring just 34 runs in 11 games since the trade deadline.
With that said, it’s worth wondering where Caissie would fit into Chicago’s lineup. He can play the corner outfield or DH, and the Cubs are set at those positions with Kyle Tucker, Ian Happ, and Seiya Suzuki. Tucker bats lefty like Caissie, while Happ is a switch-hitter with stronger splits against righty pitching. Suzuki bats right-handed, but he doesn’t have any trouble facing same-handed pitching. Ultimately, as the cliché goes, this is the best kind of problem for manager Craig Counsell to have. He can take advantage of Caissie’s presence on the roster to give his veterans a bit more rest, particularly the slumping Tucker. As long as Caissie hits, it will work out quite nicely. On the other hand, this means there’s quite a bit of pressure on the youngster to perform right away. The Cubs are as competitive as they’ve been in several years, and they can’t afford to take away reps from Tucker, Suzuki, and Happ if Caissie isn’t producing.
The roster fit isn’t perfect, but the Cubs only had four healthy minor leaguers on the 40-man roster to choose from, and it’s hard to argue that Caissie didn’t earn this opportunity over fellow top prospects Kevin Alcántara and Moisés Ballesteros, or the less-heralded Ben Cowles.
Image in post courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports.
Zach Eflin Interested In Returning To Orioles In 2026
Zach Eflin made his three-year, $41MM contract look like an absolute bargain in 2023 and ’24. The right-hander produced a 3.54 ERA and 3.62 SIERA over 59 starts in the two most productive seasons of his career. Unfortunately, the final year of that deal has been nothing short of disastrous. He has taken three trips to the injured list, the first with a lat strain and the latter two with back discomfort. On Tuesday, Orioles manager Tony Mansolino announced that Eflin would undergo a lumbar microdiscectomy procedure, ending his season. In and around his three IL stints, the righty stumbled to a 5.93 ERA. His 16.2% strikeout rate was his worst since 2017, while his 40.2% groundball rate was his lowest since his rookie season the year before. Meanwhile, he gave up home runs at the highest rate of his career.
If Eflin had returned to free agency last winter, he could have commanded something like the three-year, $75MM deals that Nathan Eovaldi and Sean Manaea signed. Considering his age (he’s still only 31), perhaps he could have earned even more. Now, he will most likely have to settle for a single-year pillow contract – one that might not even reach eight figures – as he looks to rebuild his value.
Exactly what kind of contract he ultimately signs will depend on his timeline to recover from the lumbar microdiscectomy procedure, which is scheduled for Monday (per Danielle Allentuck of the Baltimore Banner). Eflin told reporters (including Allentuck) that he’s hopeful he can have a relatively normal offseason after 12 weeks; that timeline would have him resuming his regular offseason activities right around the GM Meetings. However, he acknowledged that recovery from this particular procedure can take anywhere from four to eight months. An eight-month recovery would put his return sometime in mid-April.
Regardless of when exactly he’s back to full strength, whichever team signs Eflin will be taking a risk on an injury-prone starter. The payoff could be substantial; at his best, Eflin is the kind of pitcher who can start game two of a playoff series, like he did for the Rays in 2023 and the Orioles in 2024. On the other hand, the downside is just as plain to see: He could have another season like this one.
Could the Orioles be the team that takes that risk? It feels unlikely. They could certainly use the help in their starting rotation, but they already have three injured starters they’re hoping will contribute significantly in 2026: Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish, and Tyler Wells, as well as swingman Albert Suárez. If they’re going to add a starter, it would make sense for GM Mike Elias to make a safer choice. That said, if the Orioles do reach out, it seems like Eflin would be interested in a reunion.
“Absolutely,” Eflin replied when asked if he could see himself back in Baltimore for 2026 (per Allentuck). It’s not uncommon for a pending free agent to express loose, noncommittal interest in re-signing with his current team. Yet, Eflin’s language was direct, and the reporters he spoke to conveyed the impression that he genuinely hopes to return. It would be hard to blame him if he were ready to move on after such a disappointing season for both himself and his team, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Says Eflin, “I told pretty much everyone that we’ve had a conversation about that, I told them I love this place and I’d love to be here.”
Cubs To Place Miguel Amaya On Injured List With Sprained Ankle
Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya had to be carted off the field during tonight’s matchup with the Blue Jays. He hurt his left ankle running to first base in the eighth inning. After the game, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times) that Amaya’s X-rays thankfully came back negative for a broken bone, but the backstop still sprained his ankle and will require a trip to the IL. While he has avoided the worst, this is nonetheless a tough blow for Amaya, who was playing in his first game back after suffering an oblique strain in May.
Chicago’s decision to keep Reese McGuire on the roster after reinstating Amaya now seems almost eerily prescient. The Cubs signed the veteran backup catcher to a minor league deal in the offseason and selected his contract when Amaya first went on the IL in May. One might have expected they would designate McGuire for assignment went Amaya returned, but instead, it was utility man Jon Berti who lost his roster spot.
Now the Cubs can simply go back to the catching setup they had been using for the past few months, a setup that was working perfectly well. Carson Kelly will remain the primary catcher with McGuire as his backup. Kelly has cooled down after a red-hot start, but he’s still hitting perfectly well for his position, as is McGuire. The two combined for a .723 OPS and 103 wRC+ during Amaya’s first IL stint, and they’ve both played strong defense behind the plate as well.
None of this is to say the Cubs won’t miss Amaya. The 26-year-old produced an .819 OPS and 126 wRC+ in 27 games prior to his oblique injury. He has a .797 OPS and 122 wRC+ in 83 games dating back to last July. A high BABIP and a low xwOBA suggest that degree of success is unsustainable, and the jury is still out on his defense, but that’s just the thing: Amaya is four years younger than Kelly or McGuire, with a lot less experience under his belt. He still has room to grow, and the Cubs want to figure out what kind of role he can play for their club over the next several years. It’s a lot harder to do that when he’s stuck on the shelf.
The Cubs have not yet addressed Amaya’s timeline, but it is certainly possible, and probably quite likely, that he’ll be back before the end of the year. Once rosters expand from 26 to 28 in September, it will be easier for the team to roster all three of Kelly, McGuire, and Amaya, should McGuire still be playing well if/when Amaya is ready to return.
Diamondbacks Release Kendall Graveman
The Diamondbacks have released right-hander Kendall Graveman, according to his transactions log on MLB.com. He was designated for assignment on Monday.
Graveman, now 34, began his MLB career with a cup of coffee in Toronto in 2014 before the Blue Jays shipped him off to Oakland in the Josh Donaldson trade. He then spent the next four seasons putting up serviceable numbers as a back-end starter, until Tommy John surgery in 2018 led the A’s to non-tender him.
After a lost 2019 season and another injury-marred campaign in 2020, Graveman turned heads in his first full season as a reliever in 2021. Across 56 innings for the Mariners and Astros (Seattle dealt him to Houston before the deadline), he put up a 1.77 ERA and 3.30 SIERA, striking out 27.5% of batters and inducing groundballs at a highly impressive 54.9% rate. Of course, groundballs had always been his speciality, and it was the strikeouts that really showed he had tapped into something new.
Graveman signed a three-year, $24MM guarantee with the White Sox the subsequent offseason, and he avoided the injured list entirely over the first two years of the deal. In fact, his 133 appearances and 131 1/3 innings for Chicago and later Houston (he was traded again ahead of the 2023 deadline) both ranked 10th among AL relievers in that span. He pitched to a 3.15 ERA and 4.01 SIERA.
Unfortunately, the injury bug came back to haunt him in 2024, and Graveman missed the entire season after undergoing shoulder surgery. He inked a one-year, $1.35MM deal with the D-backs this past winter, though the value of the pact could more than double with performance bonuses. Yet, once again, Graveman opened the season on the injured list, this time with a back strain. He made his return in May, but over 19 games and 17 2/3 (interrupted in the middle with a hip impingement), the righty gave up 14 runs on 23 hits and 12 walks, striking out only nine. His velocity was down significantly on his four-seam, sinker, and slider, but truth be told, no one needed a radar gun to tell his stuff just wasn’t the same.
Thus, the D-backs eventually cut ties with Graveman, although they’re still on the hook for the remainder of his guaranteed salary. Now a free agent, he can look for another team to try to help him rediscover what briefly made him such a successful bullpen arm.
Giants Sign JT Brubaker To Minor League Deal
The Giants have signed JT Brubaker to a minor league contract, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. He will report to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. The Yankees released the right-hander last week.
Brubaker, now 31, made 61 starts for the Pirates from 2020-22, more than any other pitcher on the team. Interestingly, his numbers in that span were quite similar to those of another Pirates righty, Mitch Keller. Brubaker gave Pittsburgh 315 2/3 innings with a 4.99 ERA, a 4.04 SIERA, and 3.0 FanGraphs WAR, while Keller tossed 281 1/3 frames with a 4.64 ERA, 4.67 SIERA, and 3.0 fWAR of his own. Brubaker beat out Keller for the Opening Day start in 2022, although Keller slightly outearned him (by less than $200,000) the following winter in their first year of arbitration eligibility.
Unfortunately for Brubaker, their paths notably diverged after that. While Keller made the All-Star team in 2023 and turned that strong performance into a five-year, $77 million extension in the offseason, Brubaker lost his 2023 campaign to Tommy John surgery. The Pirates traded him to the Yankees the following winter, and an oblique strain he suffered whilst rehabbing from his Tommy John kept him from coming off the IL in 2024. Then, he fractured three ribs this past spring, forcing him back to the injured list, where he stayed until June.
Finally, on June 21, Brubaker returned to the major leagues for the first time in almost three years. He did a good job limiting hits, and therefore runs, pitching to a solid 3.38 ERA, but he also gave up nine walks and one hit-by-pitch to just 10 strikeouts. His 4.67 xERA and 5.32 SIERA suggested his sub-4.00 ERA was too good to be true. Evidently, that’s what the Yankees thought, too, when they decided to release him and eat the money remaining on his contract for 2025.
The Giants will now give him a chance in their minor league system, and they’ll only have to pay him a prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time he might spend on the big league roster. While injuries have plagued him the last three seasons, he was a productive innings eater for three years before that. San Francisco could certainly use the pitching depth, so it would not be surprising to see him back in the majors before the 2025 season is up.
Dodgers Place Brock Stewart On IL With Shoulder Inflammation.
August 13: Roberts told reporters (including Harris) that tests did not find any structural damage in Stewart’s shoulder. Instead, the skipper described the injury as simply “wear and tear.” Stewart has received an injection and will be shut down for at least the next week. However, Roberts is hopeful the veteran will be back not long after, optimistically suggesting he could return in a few weeks’ time.
August 12: The Dodgers are placing reliever Brock Stewart on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). He will be replaced on the active roster with Edgardo Henriquez (per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Ardaya reported earlier today that Henriquez had joined the team in Anaheim.
Roberts said Stewart first felt the soreness in his shoulder four days ago (per Harris), which would mean before his outing against the Blue Jays on Saturday. Nevertheless, the skipper suggested the team caught the injury quickly (per ESPN’s Alden González). While the Dodgers have decided that Stewart’s injury necessitates a stint on the IL, the severity of the strain – and therefore his timeline to return – is not yet clear. He will go for further testing tomorrow.
Stewart, now 33, began his career with the Dodgers. They selected him in the 2014 draft, and he struggled his way through parts of four seasons with the big league club from 2016-19. In 36 games (11 starts), the right-hander produced a 5.46 ERA and a 4.93 SIERA. His strikeout rate was low, his walk rate was high, and he gave up 17 home runs in 84 innings pitched, resulting in a 5.70 FIP that was even higher than his ERA. His FanGraphs WAR and Win Probability Added were negative all four years.
After a brief stint with the Blue Jays to close out the 2019 campaign, Stewart did not pitch in the majors for the next three seasons. He spent time in the Cubs and Dodgers organizations in 2020 and ’21, but he did not appear in a game at even the minor league level, due to the cancelled minor league season in 2020 and Tommy John surgery in 2021.
Stewart signed a minor league deal with the Twins in 2022, and the following year, he finally enjoyed his breakout season. Then 31, he pitched 27 2/3 innings in 2023, giving up just two earned runs. Walks continued to be somewhat of an issue, but he struck out 39 of the 109 hitters he faced and gave up only 19 hits (.196 BAA). Unfortunately, elbow troubles popped up again halfway through the year, and he spent most of the final three months of the season on the IL. The year after that, it was shoulder injuries (and eventually surgery) that limited him to just 15 2/3 innings. He posted a bloated 5.17 ERA in that small sample, but his stuff still looked good, and his SIERA was a much more impressive 3.47.
His 2025 season started with yet another injury, but at least it was a hamstring strain rather than an arm issue. It proved to be mild, and Stewart was back on the mound in mid-April. From then on through the trade deadline, he was enjoying the most prolific season of his career. He set a new career high in appearances before the All-Star break, and he was one out shy of surpassing his previous career high in innings when the Twins flipped him to the Dodgers for James Outman on deadline day. While he didn’t look quite as sharp for L.A., perhaps related to his injury, he still entered today ranked among the league’s top 50 relievers (min. 35 IP) in ERA (2.63) and SIERA (3.22). His 27.7% strikeout rate was slightly down from where it was in 2023 and ’24, but his groundball rate was up (37.1%), and, more importantly, his walk rate was all the way down to 8.2%. In other words, the Dodgers will certainly miss his veteran presence on their already injury-plagued pitching staff. He joins fellow relievers Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech, Michael Grove, and Brusdar Graterol on the IL.
It is perhaps surprising that the Dodgers chose to make a pitcher with such a checkered injury history their primary deadline pickup for the bullpen. Then again, as evidenced by the sheer number of their pitchers who have hit the IL, the Dodgers clearly don’t shy away from injury-prone arms. What’s more, the Dodgers took time to review Stewart’s medicals before finalizing the trade (per Austin Green of The Athletic). That’s standard practice, but Green’s report seems to imply that this was at least a slightly more thorough review than usual.
Regardless, the Dodgers’ surprisingly quiet trade deadline now looks even more disappointing in hindsight. Yet, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman claims he doesn’t regret his approach. “We don’t live like that,” he told reporters, including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “There’s deals that we thought made sense for us we pursued hard. It’s not like we had the potential to do a deal where we were like, ‘No’ and now we wish we would have.”