Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Mets Have Considered Ramón Laureano

By | at

8:48pm: Heyman posts that Laureano appears to be behind Robert and Mullins on the Mets’ priority list, presumably because of the positional fit. Heyman adds that a few other teams are more likely suitors in the event that Laureano gets moved.

8:25pm: With the trade deadline fast approaching, the Mets have already been linked to some big bats, namely Eugenio Suárez and Brandon Lowe, and a handful of outfielders, including Harrison Bader, Luis Robert Jr., and Cedric Mullins. Now, you can add Ramón Laureano to both lists. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported this afternoon that the Mets have “considered” trading for Laureano, as well as noting their continued interest in Robert and Mullins.

In his eighth big league season, Laureano is on pace for a career year at the plate. Entering play today, his strikeout rate (25.1%) had never been lower, his isolated power (.247) had never been higher, and his .866 OPS, 139 wRC+, and .369 xwOBA were all career-bests. As for the other half of his game, he’s certainly not going to win a Gold Glove, but his elite throwing arm helps him make up for poor range, and he can more than hold his own in a corner spot. He is no longer well-suited for center field, but he has enough experience out there that he can play the position in a pinch. Indeed, that could be one reason why the Mets are interested. With Jose Siri out since April and Tyrone Taylor struggling badly at the plate, the club has been asking Jeff McNeil to play more center field lately. McNeil is well known for versatility, but he had only played three career games in center prior to this season. What’s more, every inning that McNeil plays in center is an inning that either Brett Baty or Luisangel Acuña plays at second base, and neither Baty nor Acuña is having a strong year at the plate. It’s hard to know whether Laureano would be a better defensive center fielder than McNeil, but there is little doubt that New York’s offense would be stronger with Laureano in center field and McNeil at second base. Ultimately, neither McNeil nor Laureano (nor Taylor nor Brandon Nimmo) is a great option in center field, but without a good solution, at least it helps to have depth.

Starling Marte and Mark Vientos have both come up in trade rumors recently, and if either one is dealt, that could also allow the Mets to slot in Laureano as their designated hitter as needed. Prior to this year, it would have been strange to suggest Laureano play DH; from 2020-24, he produced a perfectly mediocre .709 OPS and 101 wRC+. However, it’s impossible to argue with his production so far in 2025. He ranks 11th among AL batters (min. 200 PA) in OPS and 12th in wRC+. His hard-hit rate, barrel rate, and xwOBA all place him within the top quartile of Statcast qualified hitters. Perhaps most impressive, the righty-batting Laureano has done most of his damage against same-handed pitching. He has a 111 wRC+ against southpaws this year compared to a remarkable 154 wRC+ against right-handers. He’s likely due for some regression against righties, but that wouldn’t be the worst thing for the Mets, considering they already rank fifth in MLB with a 115 wRC+ against right-handed pitching. Conversely, they rank 17th with a 91 wRC+ against lefties. Laureano, who has a career 122 wRC+ with the platoon advantage, could help boost that number.

While payroll is obviously not a huge concern for the Mets, they are third-time luxury tax payers in the top tier of penalties, which means there is a 110% tax on all salary they take on. So, they surely like the fact that Laureano’s $4MM contract is significantly cheaper than those of other impact bats like Suárez and Lowe. His deal also includes a $6.5MM team option for 2026, which would be an absolute bargain if he keeps hitting like he has been for the rest of the year.

Laureano is not a perfect fit for the Mets’ roster. He is primarily a corner outfielder, and the team already has fixtures in both corner spots: Nimmo in left and Juan Soto in right. Still, he’s enjoying a tremendous season, and there is little doubt that the 2025 Mets would be a better team with Laureano in their lineup than they would be without.

Twins Place Byron Buxton On 10-Day IL With Ribcage Inflammation

By | at

The Twins announced today that they have placed outfielder Byron Buxton on the 10-day injured list with left ribcage inflammation. Catcher Ryan Jeffers, who was activated from the paternity list, will take Buxton’s spot on the active roster. In an additional transaction, the Twins officially selected right-hander Pierson Ohl’s contract from Triple-A. He will take the roster spot left vacant after yesterday’s Chris Paddack trade.

Buxton left Saturday’s game early with what the team then deemed left side soreness (per Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic). His MRI revealed he had suffered rib cartilage irritation, which manager Rocco Baldelli described as positive news on Sunday (per Gleeman). At the time, the team believed Buxton to be day-to-day. Evidently, they have now decided he’ll need more than a couple of days off to recover. He is now eligible to return next Wednesday, though it’s not yet clear how long he’ll be out.

The All-Star center fielder is in the midst of a phenomenal season that’s shaping up to be the best of his career. He is slashing .282/.343/.561 with 23 home runs, 17 stolen bases, and 4 OAA. His 3.9 FanGraphs WAR ranks him among the top 10 players in the American League. Of course, playing at a superstar level has never been a problem for Buxton. Rather, his problem has always been staying on the field. He has dealt with injury issues in every season of his career. Only once has he qualified for the batting title, and even then, he just barely reached the cutoff, taking 511 plate appearances over 140 games in 2017. Since then, he has yet to even surpass 400 plate appearances in a season, and only once has he surpassed 100 games (102 games played in 2024). This is already his second IL stint of 2025; he previously spent two weeks on the concussion IL. The Twins and Buxton will hope his rib injury is not much more serious than they initially thought, allowing him to get back on the field in time to set new career highs in plate appearances and games played.

While Buxton is out, the Twins have an excellent backup plan in Harrison Bader – as long as he isn’t traded in the next two days. Bader is a Gold Glove-winning center fielder, and he also happens to be enjoying the best offensive season of his career. He has played most of his games in left field this year (marking the first time in his career he’s spent more time in a corner than in center), but he was one of the game’s premier defensive center fielders over the previous seven years. When the Twins signed Bader over the offseason, they were presumably hoping he’d spend as much time in a corner spot as possible, but they surely knew he might eventually have to fill in for Buxton in center.

Things will become more complicated for Baldelli if the Twins trade Bader ahead of the deadline, especially if they also part with utility man Willi Castro. That would likely leave rookie DaShawn Keirsey Jr. as Minnesota’s starting center fielder in Buxton’s absence. Keirsey’s speed should help him hold his own in center, but he is batting .120 with a .354 OPS this year in 78 plate appearances. That’s a big drop-off from Bader’s production and a massive drop-off from Buxton’s production. Regardless, if the Twins are planning to continue selling before the deadline, it seems unlikely that Buxton’s injury would prevent them from parting with Bader or Castro.

Orioles Select Houston Roth, Recall Elvin Rodríguez

By | at

After trading Seranthony Domínguez to the Blue Jays this afternoon, the Orioles have made some additional transactions to shake up their bullpen ahead of game two of a doubleheader against Toronto. They have recalled right-hander Elvin Rodríguez and selected the contract of fellow right-hander Houston Roth, both from Double-A Chesapeake. The Domínguez trade freed up one roster slot, and to open another spot on the active roster, Baltimore optioned Yaramil Hiraldo to Double-A.

While Rodríguez and Roth are coming up from the Double-A (and Hiraldo is headed down to the Chesapeake Baysox), it’s worth noting that all three pitchers have spent the majority of the season at Triple-A Norfolk. However, Chesapeake is significantly closer to Baltimore than Norfolk. So, the O’s were presumably stashing Rodríguez and Roth at Double-A in case they were needed as depth. With that in mind, Danielle Allentuck of The Baltimore Banner suggests these are likely “temporary moves” to quickly replace Domínguez and replenish the bullpen after game one of the doubleheader.

Rodríguez, 27, signed a split major league deal with the Brewers over the offseason after a strong showing in Japan in 2024. However, he gave up 18 runs in 18 2/3 innings with Milwaukee, leading the team to designate him for assignment earlier this month. Baltimore scooped him up off waivers, and if he gets in a game, he will be making his Orioles debut. Before his time overseas, the right-hander pitched for the Tigers in 2022 and the Rays in ’23. All in all, he has a career 9.23 ERA in 51 2/3 MLB innings. The O’s will hope he can look more like the pitcher who put up a 1.80 ERA over 45 innings in NPB last season.

Roth, also 27, has spent his entire professional career with the O’s, rising through their minor league ranks since the 2019 campaign. If he gets in a game, he will be making his major league debut. In 24 appearances (36 2/3 innings) between Double-A and Triple-A this year, the right-hander has a 2.21 ERA but a 4.02 FIP and 4.55 xFIP. He has posted impressive strikeout rates at High-A and Double-A over the past two seasons but struggled to miss bats upon his promotion to Triple-A earlier this year. His double-digit walk rate only exacerbates that problem.

Hiraldo, 29, was recalled earlier today for his fourth stint with the Orioles this season. He pitched two innings in game one of the doubleheader, giving up one run on a solo home run by Joey Loperfido. All told, he has pitched 4.1 MLB innings in 2025 with two strikeouts, no walks, and three hits allowed. He has a 4.19 ERA in 38 2/3 minor league innings this year, but his 32.9% strikeout rate and 5.78 strikeout-to-walk ratio are more promising. Those numbers are all the more impressive considering he spent the 2022-24 seasons in the Atlantic and Mexican Leagues. Prior to 2025, he had not pitched in affiliated ball since the Diamondbacks released him in 2021.

Athletics Place Jacob Wilson On 10-Day IL With Fractured Forearm

By | at

The Athletics have placed rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson on the 10-day injured list with a fractured left forearm, the team announced today. He had been nursing what the team initially described as a left hand contusion since he was hit by a pitch before the All-Star break (per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com) and had not played since Friday. Darell Hernaiz has been recalled from Triple-A to fill Wilson’s spot on the active roster.

A hamstring strain and a month-long stint on the injured list prevented Wilson from exceeding rookie limits in 2024. However, he hit the ground running in 2025 and quickly established himself as a favorite for the AL Rookie of the Year. He produced a .339/.380/.473 slashline through the end of June, with a 137 wRC+ and 2.8 FanGraphs WAR, earning the starting shortstop spot on the AL All-Star squad. Yet, in nine games since he was hit by a pitch on July 8, he went just 4-for-38 with a .312 OPS and a -24 wRC+. His fWAR dropped by close to half a win in that short span, and even before the news of his IL stint, he seemed to have fallen behind his teammate Nick Kurtz as the AL Rookie of the Year frontrunner. (Of course, that has as much to do with Kurtz’s phenomenal performance as it does Wilson’s injury-induced slump.)

Until the A’s provide further information, it’s hard to guess how much time Wilson could miss. With only two months left on the calendar, a fractured forearm could be a season-ending injury. At the very least, it’s likely to keep the young shortstop out until September, though it remains a possibility that this is as minor as the wrist fracture Corbin Carroll suffered earlier this year, which only kept him out for two weeks. Regardless, it’s surely disappointing for Wilson that his fracture went undiagnosed for so long. Per Gallegos, he will be shut down from baseball activities for the time being, and the A’s will presumably provide some sort of timeline for his return in the coming days.

Needless to say, this is a tough blow for Wilson and a big loss for the Athletics. That said, it’s not as if the A’s have any dreams of contending for a playoff spot this season, so they have no reason to rush Wilson back onto the field, and this shouldn’t have much of an impact on their trade deadline plans. While Wilson is out, they can give the shortstop job to Max Schuemann, and Hernaiz will get a chance to show what he can do in a utility role off the bench.

Diamondbacks Outright Trevor Richards

By | at

The Diamondbacks have sent right-handed pitcher Trevor Richards outright to Triple-A Reno, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. Richards was designated for assignment over the weekend when Arizona called up Brandyn Garcia. The eight-year MLB veteran has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, and presumably, he will choose to do so. This is the second time Richards has been outrighted in 2025, and the last time, when it was the Royals who sent him outright to Triple-A in June, he elected free agency shortly thereafter.

Richards moved into a full-time bullpen role in 2021, and over the next four seasons, he was one of the more durable bullpen arms in the league. From 2021-24, he was one of only seven relievers to throw at least 60 innings each year. He appeared in a total of 226 games and threw 266 1/3 innings for the Rays, Brewers, Blue Jays, and Twins. Only six pitchers both made more appearances and threw more innings in that span. His 4.60 ERA was mediocre, but his 4.21 FIP and 3.64 SIERA were more impressive, and regardless, his ability to eat innings out of the bullpen was valuable in and of itself.

The 2025 campaign hasn’t gone very well for Richards. He signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in the offseason but failed to make the Opening Day roster. He didn’t last long in the majors for either the Royals or the Diamondbacks. All told, he has a 7.94 ERA in 5 2/3 MLB innings this year, and a 5.12 ERA in 31 2/3 innings at Triple-A. Nevertheless, he could certainly find a new home with a club in need of a proven major leaguer to cover bulk innings.

Kris Bubic To Miss Remainder Of 2025 Season With Rotator Cuff Strain

By | at

Royals left-hander Kris Bubic will be out for the remainder of the 2025 season after suffering a rotator cuff strain in his most recent outing, reports Anne Rogers of MLB.com. The 27-year-old exited his start on Saturday in the third inning, later telling Rogers that “something’s not right.” He noted that he had been pitching through a stiff shoulder for “a good portion of the season,” but what he felt on Saturday was worse than stiffness. The team placed him on the 15-day IL on Sunday, and further testing evidently found the injury to be quite serious. Thankfully for the young hurler, he is not expected to need surgery (per Sam McDowell of The Kansas City Star) and hopes to have a normal offseason. The Royals have not yet transferred Bubic to the 60-day IL, but they will presumably do so as soon as they need to open up a spot on their 40-man roster.

Most evaluators saw Bubic as a back-end starter in his prospect days, and that’s pretty much who he was over his first three seasons, pitching to a 4.89 ERA in 67 games (57 starts) from 2020-22. He then missed most of 2023 and a good part of ’24 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. When he returned in the latter half of 2024, he looked like a brand-new pitcher. Working out of the bullpen, he produced a 2.67 ERA in 27 games, striking out 32.2% of the batters he faced while walking only 4.1%. His four-seam fastball and changeup, always the bread and butter of his arsenal, looked better than ever, while he turned his slider into a sweeper and enjoyed tremendous success with the new breaking pitch.

The Royals moved Bubic back into the rotation in 2025, and he didn’t miss a beat. While he wasn’t as overpowering as he had been out of the bullpen, he was every bit as successful. Through 20 starts, Bubic pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 116 1/3 innings of work. He was named to the AL All-Star team earlier this summer. While his underlying metrics (3.06 xERA, 3.74 SIERA) suggested he wasn’t likely to maintain a sub-3.00 ERA all season, there was no denying that Bubic was a breakout star. With Bubic, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, and Noah Cameron atop their rotation, the Royals looked like dark horse postseason contenders, even with Cole Ragans on the IL and arguably the least productive offense in the American League.

By trading for Adam Frazier and Randal Grichuk earlier this month, and by extending a potential trade chip in Lugo, the Royals signalled that they would be buying rather than selling ahead of this Thursday’s trade deadline. However, their chances of leapfrogging the four teams ahead of them for a Wild Card berth are significantly lower without Bubic. Kansas City is down to four healthy starting pitchers now, and one of them is 45-year-old Rich Hill. In addition to Ragans and Bubic, Michael Lorenzen and Alec Marsh are also on the IL. The Royals have averaged fewer runs per game than any other team in the AL, and it’s starting to look like they just won’t have enough healthy pitching to compensate for their pitiful offense.

Cubs, Jed Hoyer Agree To Multi-Year Extension

By | at

The Cubs have agreed to a multi-year contract extension with president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer. The team announced the move this afternoon. Cubs executive chairman Tom Ricketts praised his POBO in a press release: “Jed and his baseball operations staff have built a healthy player development organization and put an exciting, playoff-contending team on the field. We are looking forward to the rest of the season and to working with Jed for years to come.”

Hoyer’s previous contract, which he signed when he took over from Theo Epstein as Chicago’s chief baseball decision maker after the 2020 season, would have expired at the end of the 2025 campaign. The Cubs underperformed in each of Hoyer’s first four seasons at the helm, failing to make the playoffs from 2021-24. Another disappointing season this year and he very well could have been out of a job. Yet, many of his offseason moves have worked wonders, with additions such as Kyle Tucker, Matthew Boyd, Carson Kelly, Caleb Thielbar, and Ryan Pressly complementing a strong core that Hoyer put together over the past handful of years.

So, the Cubs enter play on Monday tied with the Brewers for the best record in the National League (62-43). Their +116 run differential is the best in baseball, and FanGraphs puts their odds of making the playoffs at 96.6%. It’s not hard to understand why the Cubs waited to extend Hoyer until it was clear he had built a strong contender, but neither is it hard to understand why they didn’t want to wait any longer to get a deal done. This team is primed to be a major buyer this week, and evidently, they didn’t want to go into such a pivotal trade deadline season with a lame duck executive in the driver’s seat. As ESPN’s Jesse Rogers put it, the Cubs came into the season “looking for a reason” to retain Hoyer. The team’s strong performance over the first four months proved to be that reason.

Hoyer began his front office career with the Red Sox in 2002. He served as an assistant general manager under Epstein from 2005-09 and briefly served as a co-GM when Epstein stepped away during the 2005-06 offseason. Following the 2009 season, Hoyer left Boston to become the Padres’ GM, a role he held for two years before he left to take the GM job in Chicago, where he reunited with Epstein. From 2012-20, Epstein ran the Cubs front office with Hoyer as his second-in-command. Together, they helped the Cubs win a World Series championship in 2016, the club’s first since 1908. When Epstein resigned after the 2020 campaign, Hoyer took his place as president of baseball operations. Since then, he has acquired players like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Michael Busch, Dansby Swanson, Shota Imanaga, Seiya Suzuki, and Daniel Palencia, as well as Tucker, Boyd, Kelly, Thielbar, and Pressly, all of whom have been instrumental to the team’s success this season.

While it’s unclear how long Hoyer’s new extension will keep him in Chicago, he now has at least a couple more years to continue to build upon the core he’s assembled. With the trade deadline fast approaching on Thursday, it’s safe to expect him to start right away.

Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic was the first to report that Hoyer had signed a multi-year extension with the Cubs. Image in article courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski of Imagn Images.

Rangers To Sign Rowdy Tellez To Minor League Deal

By | at

TODAY: The deal between the Rangers and Tellez is now official, as relayed by Sean McFarland of the Dallas Morning News. Tellez will report to Triple-A for tonight’s game.

July 4: The Rangers are signing free agent Rowdy Tellez to a minor league contract, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. Tellez was released by the Mariners last week.

Now more than ever, Tellez seems to be a one-dimensional player, offering big power against right-handed pitching and not much else. He has put up negative defensive metrics at first base in every season of his career, including -5 DRS and -5 OAA in 393 innings this year with Seattle. Unsurprisingly, he is also a poor baserunner, with the second-slowest sprint speed among qualified runners in 2025. According to FanGraphs, he has also produced negative baserunning value in all eight seasons of his career.

Of course, no one ever expected Tellez to be a valuable defender or baserunner. What was surely more disappointing to the Mariners were his declining contact and on-base skills. He was chasing and whiffing significantly more than he had in recent years, and the result was his worst walk-to-strikeout ratio since his first big league cup of coffee in 2018. His power was still present. Indeed, he was barrelling balls up at the highest rate of his career (15.9%), and accordingly, he crushed six doubles and 11 home runs in just 62 games and 185 trips to the plate. Yet, despite the fact that the Mariners shielded him from left-handed pitching so effectively, his worsened plate discipline canceled out his .891 OPS on contact, and his overall batting line with Seattle was below league average (92 wRC+).

With all that said, Tellez’s .217 BABIP with the Mariners was well below his .259 career average entering the season, and the 54-point gap between his .293 wOBA and .347 xwOBA is the 12th-highest in the league (min. 180 PA). So, there is still some reason to believe that Tellez can overcome his shortcomings to be a productive major leaguer in 2025. And if any team is going to give him the chance to try, it makes sense that it’s the Rangers. Their team-wide 91 wRC+ against right-handed pitching is the fifth-worst in the sport, ahead of only the Pirates, Royals, White Sox, and Rockies. With Joc Pederson still weeks away from making his return from the IL, signing Tellez is a low-risk and potentially high-reward move by Texas.

Freddy Galvis Announces Retirement

By | at

Infielder Freddy Galvis announced his retirement today in an Instagram post. His decision to hang up his cleats marks the end of a 19-year career in professional baseball.

The Phillies signed a teenage Galvis as an international free agent in 2006. He worked his way up the minor league ladder over the next several years, proving himself to be an elite defensive prospect and a capable contact hitter, even if a lack of power and plate discipline looked like it would always hold him back from being anything more than serviceable at the plate. Indeed, that’s precisely the type of major leaguer he became.

Galvis spent the first six years of his MLB tenure in Philadelphia from 2012-17 before bouncing around between the Padres, Blue Jays, Reds, and Orioles from 2018-21 and finally making his way back to the Phillies. Over 10 seasons, he played in 1,102 games and hit well enough to let his glove do most of the talking. He finished with just under 1,000 hits, including 171 doubles, 27 triples, and 109 home runs, good for a .246 batting average, a .680 OPS, and an 80 wRC+. A talented and versatile defender, he appeared in 883 games at shortstop, 144 at second base, 46 at third base, 12 in the outfield, and even one at first base. He compiled 8 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), a 24 Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), and 25 Outs Above Average (OAA) – and keep in mind that OAA wasn’t tracked until his fifth big league campaign. While Galvis never won a Gold Glove, he was named a finalist in three consecutive years from 2016-18. So, despite middling offensive numbers, he nonetheless produced 10.8 FanGraphs WAR and 9.3 Baseball Reference WAR, an average of about 1.5 WAR per 162 games.

Following the 2021 season, Galvis, then 32, signed a two-year contract with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan. Unfortunately, he struggled badly in NPB and ended up spending more time with the Hawks’ farm team than the major league club. He hit well below .200 each year with an OPS under .600. Once his contract with the Hawks expired, Galvis spent 2024 with the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League. Most recently, he suited up for Aguilas del Zulia in the Venezuelan Winter League during the 2024-25 offseason. After a career that took him to several countries, it was perhaps only fitting that Galvis returned to his home country of Venezuela for his final professional games.

MLB Trade Rumors congratulates Galvis on all of his baseball accomplishments and wishes him the best in whatever he chooses to do next.

Rockies Reinstate Ryan Feltner From 60-Day IL, Outright Sam Hilliard

By | at

The Rockies announced a pair of transactions today. They reinstated Ryan Feltner from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A, and they sent outfielder Sam Hilliard outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. The team already had an open spot for Feltner on the 40-man after designating Hilliard for assignment earlier in the week, so no corresponding move was necessary.

It is somewhat surprising news that Feltner has been optioned, considering he has made Colorado’s Opening Day rotation in each of the past three years and has not pitched in the minors for any reason other than a rehab assignment since July 2022. In fact, he was the team’s most effective starting pitcher just last season (4.49 ERA, 4.31 SIERA in 30 starts), and he looked much the same over his first six starts in 2025, pitching to a 4.75 ERA and 4.49 SIERA through the end of April. However, this seems to be less of a demotion and more of a continued rehab assignment for Feltner. He has been on the IL since May due to back spasms, and he did not look particularly sharp in any of his three rehab outings with the Isotopes.

With the way that rookie Chase Dollander has struggled this season, especially as of late, Feltner won’t be blocked if he proves he’s ready to return to the majors. At the same time, the 20-67 Rockies have little incentive to rush him back before then. Hopefully for Felter, a few more outings at Triple-A are all he needs to rein in his control and get back to being the pitcher he was before his injury.

As for Hilliard, he has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but not without sacrificing the remainder of his guaranteed salary for 2025. Thus, it seems likely he will accept the assignment, just as he did the last time the Rockies DFA’d and outrighted him this season. Presumably, he will return to Albuquerque and continue to serve as speedy, lefty-batting outfield depth for the organization.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top