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Giants Sign JT Brubaker To Minor League Deal

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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.

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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.”

Diamondbacks Sign Matt Mervis To Minor League Deal

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Matt Mervis has found a new home after he was released by the Marlins earlier this month. The first baseman signed a minor league contract with the Diamondbacks today, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. He will report to the Triple-A Reno Aces. A lefty power bat, Mervis will slot in as a nice replacement for Seth Brown, who opted out of his minor league deal with the D-backs over the weekend.

The Cubs signed Mervis as an undrafted free agent in 2020. He got off to a slow start in 2021 but started mashing his way through the minors in 2022. He continued swinging a hot bat at Triple-A in 2023, earning his first MLB call-up that May. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t figure out big league pitching, a theme that continued in 2024 and again this year after the Cubs flipped him to the Marlins for Vidal Bruján. All told, in 261 plate appearances from 2023-25, he has hit .165 with a .560 OPS and a 53 wRC+. His 10 home runs are nothing to sniff at, but he has struggled to do damage when he hasn’t hit the ball out of the park, and he’s struck out more than one-third of the time.

There’s no denying how disappointing those MLB numbers are. Yet, perhaps the right organization can teach Mervis how to limit his strikeouts and tap into the prodigious power he has flashed in the minor leagues. In just over 1,800 minor league plate appearances, he’s hit 95 doubles and 95 home runs, good for a .517 slugging percentage and .250 isolated power. The Cubs and Marlins couldn’t help him reach his ceiling, but now the Diamondbacks will give it a shot.

Royals To Sign Nick Robertson To Minor League Deal

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The Royals have agreed to a minor league contract with Nick Robertson, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The right-hander had spent most of the season in the Astros organization, but he was released today, according to the transaction log on his MLB.com player page.

Robertson, who recently turned 27, appeared in the majors for the Dodgers, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Blue Jays from 2023-24, pitching a total of 35 2/3 innings over 27 games. He struck out 40 while issuing just nine unintentional walks, but a high opponents’ batting average and six home runs led to a 5.30 ERA.

The Blue Jays held on to Robertson over the 2024-25 offseason but designated him for assignment on Opening Day. They then traded him to the Astros, and while he never earned a promotion to Houston, he stuck on the 40-man roster for the first four months of the year. Eventually, however, Robertson was DFA’d in the days leading up to the trade deadline, but he passed through waivers unclaimed, and the Astros sent him outright back to Triple-A Sugar Land.

Robertson has a 4.25 ERA but a 5.12 FIP in 36 Triple-A innings this year. Control has been an issue, as his 16.6% walk rate is the highest mark he’s posted at any level in any single season of his career. Yet, the Royals must have seen something they liked; perhaps it’s his 47.8% groundball rate, which has helped him limit his opponents to just three home runs in 157 trips to the plate. Indeed, Robertson has always done quite a good job of limiting home runs at Triple-A. In 127 innings dating back to 2022, he has only given up 12 long balls, a rate of one every 46.25 batters faced. While he hasn’t earned much MLB playing time, several organizations have been intrigued by his profile over the past two years. The Dodgers included him in their trade for Enrique Hernández at the 2023 deadline, and the Red Sox flipped him to the Cardinals the following winter as part of the return for Tyler O’Neill. The Angels, Blue Jays, and Astros have since acquired him, and now the Royals are the latest club interested in seeing what he has to offer.

Tony Gonsolin Undergoes Internal Brace Surgery

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Tony Gonsolin underwent internal brace and flexor repair surgery today, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). According to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Friedman described the procedure as “a Tommy John revision with a flexor cleanup” but clarified that it was not a full Tommy John. Gonsolin will need approximately eight to 10 months to recover. The right-hander has been on the 60-day injured list since mid-June. With less than seven weeks to go in the regular season, it already seemed unlikely that Gonsolin would return, and today’s news confirms he will be out until 2026.

After undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023 and missing all of 2024 recovering, Gonsolin landed on the shelf again this past spring with a back injury. He finally made his return at the end of April and gave the Dodgers seven starts through early June, pitching to a 5.00 ERA. His 4.33 SIERA was better, but his walk rate (11.5%) and hard-hit rate (44.9%) were concerning. His velocity was back up to where it was in his strong 2022 season (2.14 ERA, 3.74 SIERA in 24 starts), but his results were a lot closer to his disappointing 2023 campaign (4.98 ERA, 5.05 SIERA in 20 starts).

The Dodgers would surely love to see Gonsolin rediscover what made him so successful from 2019-22. Over his first four MLB seasons, he pitched to a 2.51 ERA in 272 2/3 frames. Yet, his stuff was never all that intimidating, and his underlying metrics were never as impressive as his ERA. He posted a 4.04 SIERA in that same span, and the pitch modeling metrics Stuff+ and PitchingBot graded both his raw stuff and his command as below average. He also developed an injury-prone reputation even before his Tommy John, as he missed significant time with a ribcage injury, shoulder inflammation, a forearm strain, and a sprained ankle at various points from 2019-23. In other words, despite his former top-prospect status and early-career success, Gonsolin just might not be a true top-of-the-rotation arm.

So, while officially losing Gonsolin for the season hurts the Dodgers’ depth, and while they certainly could have used him at times over the past two months, it’s worth wondering if the team would have even had a place for him if he were able to return later this year. The Dodgers have suffered an enormous number of pitching injuries, but currently, their starting rotation is a six-man group featuring Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw, and Emmet Sheehan. The only one of those six Gonsolin could have possibly replaced is Sheehan, but Sheehan has pitched quite well this season, with a 3.00 ERA and 4.01 SIERA in 30 innings entering play tonight. Rookie Roki Sasaki is also on his way back from a shoulder impingement that’s cost him much of the year. He’s hoping to return by early September, if not before (per MLB.com’s Sonja Chen).

Regardless, that’s a moot point now. Gonsolin will be out until next April at the earliest, and quite possibly a couple of months longer. He’ll be in his age-32 season by then, still having never had the chance to establish himself over a full, healthy MLB season. Suffice it to say, it’s anyone’s guess what the Dodgers can expect from him upon his return from the second major elbow surgery of his career.

Rays Place Taylor Walls On 10-Day IL With Groin Strain

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The Rays have placed shortstop Taylor Walls on the 10-day injured list with a left groin strain, the team announced. In a corresponding move, outfielder Tristan Peters was recalled from Triple-A.

Walls has been Tampa Bay’s primary shortstop this year, with 77 starts and 94 appearances at the position. It was particularly noteworthy that he still got his fair share of starts at shortstop when both he and Ha-Seong Kim were healthy. Kim signed a two-year, $29MM deal with the Rays over the offseason (a sizeable deal by their standards) with the expectation that he would become the starting shortstop. While injuries have limited Kim to just 18 games this year, the fact that Walls has shared the position with Kim lately shows how highly the Rays must think of Walls’ defense. Indeed, Walls was scheduled to start at shortstop on Saturday before he was scratched from the lineup. Kim has since started at shortstop in each of the team’s last three games.

Manager Kevin Cash explained that Walls still felt “closer to 75% rather than 100%” before today’s matchup with the Athletics, so the team decided he needed “a couple days to let [his groin injury] continue to calm down” (per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).

Tampa Bay will be just fine in the middle infield in Walls’s absence. Kim can play shortstop full-time (with Tristan Gray around as a backup), and All-Star Brandon Lowe can return to playing second base on a daily basis. Lowe had recently started a handful of games at first base and DH to make room for Kim at second base when Walls was starting at short. The problem is that with Lowe at second base and Yandy Díaz at first, the Rays are left without a good option to DH. All-Star Jonathan Aranda is on the IL with a broken wrist (hence Díaz’s return to first base). He remains hopeful he’ll return this season (per MLB.com’s Joey Johnston), but it’s far from a guarantee. For as long as Aranda is out of the equation, the Rays are at their best with Walls and Kim sharing middle infield duties while Lowe and Díaz cover first base and DH. They have not yet offered a timeline for Walls’s return, but they will hope his groin strain proves to be minor.

Entering play today, the Rays are 5.5 games back of the last AL Wild Card spot. They’re a talented team, with a +43 run differential that is far more impressive than their sub-.500 record. However, they’re running out of time to make a comeback. Both FanGraphs and PECOTA have their postseason odds below 5%. With Aranda out indefinitely and Shane McLanahan officially done for the season, they can’t afford for much else to go wrong.

The Opener: Hader, Severino, Dodgers, Padres, MLBTR Chat

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Here are three things MLBTR readers should keep an eye out for today:

1. AL West injury updates:

Astros closer Josh Hader was unavailable to pitch last night, and manager Joe Espada revealed after the game that the left-hander was nursing some “discomfort” in his shoulder. Houston is now awaiting imaging results and will presumably provide an update later today. Needless to say, losing Hader for any amount of time would be difficult for the team to survive. Hader, who leads all relievers in Win Probability Added, is a huge reason why the Astros have been able to cling to their lead over the Mariners in the AL West – a lead that has fallen to just one game.

On a more positive note, Athletics manager Mark Kotsay told Jessica Kleinschmidt that injured starter Luis Severino was recently evaluated, and the results were more promising than expected. The A’s will provide more information when it is available, likely later today. Severino landed on the IL on Saturday (retroactive to August 6) with a left oblique strain, but the A’s were still waiting to determine the severity of the strain. While the A’s are not fighting for a postseason spot, they would certainly like to have their highest-paid player back in a stretched-thin rotation as soon as possible. Severino might not be having the 2025 season he hoped for when he signed his three-year, $67MM contract, but he still leads the A’s in starts, innings pitched, and FanGraphs WAR.

2. Can the Padres catch the Dodgers?

The Dodgers have now lost two straight, while the Padres have won three in a row, putting San Diego just one game back of the top spot in the NL West. If the Padres win tonight against the Giants, and if the Dodgers lose a sixth consecutive game against the Angels (dating back to last season), the Padres will pull into a tie with the Dodgers for first place in the division. The Dodgers have held sole possession of first place since June 14 and have been ahead of the Padres in the standings since April 27. According to MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, San Diego has not been this close to catching L.A. post-All-Star break in 15 years. The Dodgers remain the heavy favorites to win the NL West for the 12th time in the last 13 years, but after an active trade deadline, the Padres are making things interesting.

3. MLBTR chat today:

The trade deadline is in the rearview mirror, and the stretch run has officially begun. There is no shortage of close postseason races, and it’s never too early to look ahead to the offseason and what free agency and the winter trade market might bring. MLBTR’s Steve Adams will be hosting a live chat this afternoon at 1pm CT to discuss it all. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.

Poll: Who Had The Best Deadline In The AL East?

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The trade deadline has come and gone. While trade season was slow to get started this year, when all was said and done, there were several dozen trades made in a flurry of movement over the final few days before the deadline arrived. The full impact of these trades won’t be known for years to come, but that doesn’t mean we can’t analyze the deals and decide whose haul looks the best right now. Starting last week, MLBTR began running a series of polls asking which club in each division had the best deadline. So far, the Phillies, Reds, Padres, Mariners, and Twins have each come out on top in their respective divisions. Today, we’ll be finishing the series with the AL East. Here’s a look at each of the five clubs, listed from best to worst record in 2025:

Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays bolstered their bullpen, their offense, and their catching depth ahead of the trade deadline, but their biggest move was a high-risk, high-reward deal to upgrade the top of their rotation. Seranthony Domínguez and Louis Varland give manager John Schneider two more hard-throwing late-inning options, and while Domínguez is a rental, Varland is under team control through 2030. Ty France has played almost every day since he came over from the Twins alongside Varland, alternating between first base and DH. It’s been several years since he was much more than a league-average bat, but he’s hit well so far with Toronto. Former Padres prospect Brandon Valenzuela offers catching depth at Triple-A.

The crown jewel of general manager Ross Atkins’s deadline was 2020 AL Cy Young winner Shane Bieber, who is nearing his return from the Tommy John surgery that’s kept him out since last April. The Blue Jays will hope he can be the ace they’ve been lacking all season. In a best-case scenario, the Jays acquired the pitcher who will start game one of their first playoff series as they try to break out of a long postseason losing streak. In a worst-case scenario, they gave up a promising pitching prospect (Khal Stephen) in exchange for a guy who won’t be able to pitch like he did before his injury. Bieber has a $16MM player option for 2026 with a $4MM buyout.

In exchange for Bieber, Domínguez, Varland, France, and Valenzuela, Toronto parted with young major leaguers Alan Roden and Will Wagner, as well as pitching prospects Stephen, Kendry Rojas, and Juaron Watts-Brown. That’s no small price to pay, but the Blue Jays are hoping they added enough to help them secure their first AL East title in a decade.

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox made the biggest trade of the season in June, sending All-Star slugger Rafael Devers (and the nine years left on his contract) to the Giants in exchange for Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, James Tibbs III, and Jose Bello. Yet, they were rather quiet ahead of the trade deadline. They reportedly expressed interest in a wide variety of players, including Jhoan Duran, Eugenio Suárez, Yandy Díaz, Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell, and Dalton Rushing, as well as front-line starters Dylan Cease, Mitch Keller, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Sandy Alcantara, and, until late on deadline day, Joe Ryan. However, all they ultimately added was a back-end starter, Dustin May, and a left-handed long reliever, Steven Matz. They did not pick up any bats. May has a 4.93 ERA and 4.31 SIERA in 20 games (19 starts) this year, including a poor first outing with Boston last week. Matz has pitched well in his first season as a full-time reliever, putting up a 3.22 ERA and 3.53 SIERA in 58 2/3 frames. He has yet to allow a run in three outings with the Sox. Both will be free agents at the end of the year.

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s seeming failure to add a more talented starting pitcher, the kind Boston would feel confident starting in a playoff series, looked all the worse after the news broke that Tanner Houck would undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the season. That being said, the Red Sox have continued to play well since the deadline. They now hold the second Wild Card spot and boast the highest run differential in the American League. While they didn’t add much to help them make a playoff push, the flip side is that they didn’t have to give up much either. For instance, they held onto Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu, two players the Twins were reportedly seeking in exchange for Ryan – and two players who have been key contributors for the Red Sox all year.

New York Yankees

The Yankees were one of the league’s busiest buyers at the deadline, adding three notable bullpen arms and several complementary pieces for the lineup. All-Star closers David Bednar and Camilo Doval arrived in New York, alongside fellow righty Jake Bird, to join a bullpen that already featured Devin Williams and Luke Weaver. All three have had their struggles since they joined the team (as has Williams), but at its best, this Yankees bullpen still has the potential to be the best in the American League. Bednar is enjoying another dominant season after putting his poor 2024 behind him, and Doval, too, has bounced back from a disappointing 2024 campaign to post strong numbers in 2025. Bird was optioned to Triple-A after just three appearances for his new club, but he’s an experienced big league reliever with intriguing stuff. At worst, he’s a durable depth piece with options remaining, and at best, he’s a whole lot more. All three bullpen additions are under team control beyond this season: Bednar for one more year, Doval for two, and Bird for three.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. can only play one position at a time, and when that position became second base again, the Yankees needed a real solution at third. Ryan McMahon is that solution, and utility men José Caballero and Amed Rosario (when healthy) can help him out with a left-handed pitcher on the mound. GM Brian Cashman also brought righty-batting outfielder Austin Slater aboard to join Caballero and Rosario in balancing out a lefty-heavy lineup. Unfortunately for the Bombers, Rosario and Slater have both already hit the IL. Rosario is expected back from a minor shoulder sprain shortly, but Slater will be out for most of the regular season with a hamstring strain. Even so, the Yankees aren’t exactly missing Oswald Peraza, whom they flipped to the Angels; the former top prospect struggled badly for the past three years and desperately needed a change of scenery.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays started July with a top-10 record in MLB and sole possession of the first AL Wild Card spot. By deadline day, they had fallen below .500. Of course, it’s hard to say if that changed their deadline plans at all. As usual, the Rays did a bit of selling and a bit of buying. They dealt two key members of their starting rotation, Taj Bradley and Zack Littell, and two members of their regular starting lineup, utility man Caballero and catcher Danny Jansen. Yet, they also added a rental starter, Adrian Houser; two new catchers, Nick Fortes and Hunter Feduccia; and two relievers, Griffin Jax and Bryan Baker. Jax and Houser were two of the more sought-after players on the market, Houser due to his cheap contract and surprisingly dominant numbers with the White Sox, and Jax because he’s one of the game’s best relievers under team control for several more years.

Also noteworthy are the players the Rays chose not to trade. A few days before the deadline, they were said to be open to trading Yandy Díaz and Brandon Lowe, but they ultimately held on to both veterans. The Rays also kept closer Pete Fairbanks. A week before the deadline, a report suggested they would “strongly prefer” to keep Fairbanks, but it’s not as if he wasn’t drawing interest. Lowe, Díaz, and Fairbanks are three of the tight-fisted Rays’ more expensive players. Fairbanks and Lowe only have one year of team control remaining after 2025, while Díaz is signed through 2026 with a club option for 2027. The team’s decision to keep them around seems to suggest they’re hoping to contend this year, even after parting with the likes of Bradley, Littell, Caballero, and Jansen.

Baltimore Orioles

They weren’t quite as active as the Twins, but the Orioles took advantage of a seller’s market to make the most of their disappointing situation. They traded 2025 All-Star Ryan O’Hearn, the surprisingly productive Ramon Laureano, long-tenured center fielder Cedric Mullins, utility infielder Ramon Urías, veteran starter Charlie Morton, and relievers Domínguez, Baker, Andrew Kittredge, and Gregory Soto. In exchange, they brought back Boston Bateman, Brandon Butterworth, Cobb Hightower, Victor Figueroa, Tyson Neighbors, and Tanner Smith (O’Hearn/Laureno); Raimon Gomez, Anthony Nunez and Chandler Marsh (Mullins); Twine Palmer (Urías); Micah Ashman (Morton); Juaron Watts-Brown (Domínguez); Wilfri De La Cruz (Kittredge); Wellington Aracena and Cameron Foster (Soto); and a 2025 Competitive Balance (Round A) draft selection, No. 37 overall (Baker).

According to MLB Pipeline, Bateman slots in as their No. 9 prospect, while Watts-Brown slots in at No. 13, De La Cruz at No. 24, Hightower at No. 26, and Aracena at No. 29. Only time will tell how well these trades work out for the Orioles, but it’s hard to deny they made the right call to sell when they did, and they succeeded in dealing almost all of their healthy impending free agents. Meanwhile, they didn’t part with any pieces that could contribute significantly in 2026 and beyond. Fans can hope that GM Mike Elias will use the money he saved and prospects he added at the deadline to improve the O’s roster over the offseason and bring winning baseball back to Baltimore next year.

Entering the season, many thought the AL East would be the most talented and competitive division in the league. It could very well still produce three playoff teams and four clubs above .500, but not many would have guessed the division would shake out quite like this, with the Blue Jays leading at the deadline and the Orioles selling off parts. There are still seven weeks left for the AL East to continue surprising us, and the moves each team made at the deadline could play a big part in all that. So, which of these five do you think had the best deadline? Have your say in the poll below:

Which AL East team had the best deadline?
Toronto Blue Jays 36.17% (1,387 votes)
Baltimore Orioles 25.84% (991 votes)
New York Yankees 25.08% (962 votes)
Boston Red Sox 8.45% (324 votes)
Tampa Bay Rays 4.46% (171 votes)
Total Votes: 3,835

The Opener: Javier, Buxton, Brewers

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Here are three things we’ll be watching around baseball today:

1. Cristian Javier makes his return:

Cristian Javier was a key piece of the Astros’ World Series-winning squad in 2022, earning himself a five-year, $64MM contract extension with his performance that year. He followed that up with his first qualified season as a full-time starter in 2023. While he wasn’t as sharp as he’d been the year before, he was still an important innings eater, tying for the team lead in starts (31) and starting another three contests in October. Unfortunately for Javier and the Astros, he wasn’t able to participate in the team’s next postseason push. The right-hander suffered a UCL injury in May 2024, ultimately requiring Tommy John surgery after just seven starts.

Over the offseason, Javier suggested he’d be back at some point following the 2025 All-Star break, while GM Dana Brown said he could be pitching for the Astros again as soon as late July. On Sunday, manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle) that Javier would take the ball tonight against the Red Sox. If late July was the original goal, a mid-August return is only slightly behind schedule. Considering how long and difficult the road to come back from Tommy John can be, Javier’s timely return is a good sign for Houston. With the Mariners breathing down their necks in the AL West and a serious lack of rotation depth behind co-aces Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown, the Astros are surely glad to have Javier back in the fold. They’ll hope he can rediscover his 2022 form, but even the 2023 version of Javier would be a much-needed reinforcement for this club.

2. Will the Twins activate Byron Buxton today?

On Sunday, The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman reported that oft-injured superstar Byron Buxton was likely to rejoin the Twins during their upcoming series against the Yankees, possibly as soon as tonight. Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star Tribune offered a similar update, noting that Buxton is traveling with the team to New York and could be activated for the series opener.

The center fielder has been on the shelf since just before the trade deadline with inflammation in his left rib cage. Prior to his injury, he was enjoying arguably the best season of his career to date, and Minnesota will hope to see him pick up right where he left off. Despite selling big before the deadline, the Twins have been playing well in August, taking their last two series against the Tigers and Royals – a pair of division rivals with playoff aspirations. While their playoff chances are still slim, they’re now only five games below .500. Having a healthy Buxton for the final seven weeks of the schedule could perhaps help them to salvage something from a highly disappointing season.

3. Can the Brewers make it 10 in a row?

The Brewers have yet to lose a game in August. After sweeping the Nationals, Braves, and Mets, they’re 9-0 on the month and comfortably ahead of the Phillies for the best record in MLB. Tonight, they’ll go for a 1oth consecutive win, this time against the Pirates. Staff ace Freddy Peralta was originally expected to take the bump, but he’s been swapped out for former Pirate Jose Quintana, who will face off against Andrew Heaney in a battle of veteran left-handers. Peralta will take the ball tomorrow instead, when he’ll face fellow 2025 All-Star Paul Skenes.

After winning 11 in a row from July 6-21, Milwaukee already boasts the longest winning streak in the NL this year. They’re still four wins away from tying the Twins for the longest winning streak in MLB this season (Minnesota won 13 straight in May), but with a win tonight, the Brewers will become the only team with multiple 10-game winning streaks in 2025. The Red Sox and Blue Jays are the only other clubs with double-digit win streaks so far.

Rangers, Omar Narváez Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers have agreed to a minor league contract with catcher Omar Narváez. The team revealed the news to reporters, including Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports, this afternoon. Narváez will report to Triple-A Round Rock.

A veteran of 10 MLB seasons, Narváez has suited up behind the dish for the White Sox, Mariners, Brewers, and Mets. He returned to the White Sox on a minor league deal this offseason and eventually, albeit briefly, made his way back to the big league club. He caught four games for the South Siders in April, going 2-for-7 at the plate with two walks and three RBI.

After the White Sox released him in May, Narváez signed a minor league deal with the Astros in early June. He had previously signed a minor league contract with Houston last summer after being released by the Mets. However, as was the case in 2024, Narváez never made it to the majors with the Astros. They released him last weekend.

There was a time when Narváez was considered a good offensive catcher, but he became such a liability with the bat last season that the Mets released him partway through the second season of a two-year, $15MM deal. What’s more, while he blossomed into a strong defensive catcher during his time with the Brewers, he was previously a bat-first backstop. He had negative grades according to Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), Fielding Run Value (FRV), and Deserved Runs Prevented (DRP) in each of the first four seasons of his career. Many of his defensive metrics fell back into the negatives during his time with the Mets. So, it’s unclear if the 33-year-old Narváez still has much to offer a big league team on either side of the ball. That being said, he comes with plenty of game-calling experience, if nothing else, and he was hitting well at Triple-A Sugar Land (110 wRC+) before his Astros release. A team like the Rangers, that has next to no catching depth behind Kyle Higashioka and Jonah Heim, could certainly do much worse.

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