Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Poll: How Effective Has The Prospect Promotion Incentive Been?

By | at

The Prospect Promotion Incentive was instituted as part of the latest collective bargaining agreement prior to the 2022 season. As the name implies, it’s designed to incentivize teams to more quickly promote their top prospects to the majors and avoid service time manipulation to gain a seventh year of team control over a given player. If an eligible player wins the Rookie of the Year award or is a finalist for either the MVP or Cy Young award before he reaches arbitration eligibility, then his team will be awarded a pick immediately after the first round of the following year’s draft.

Over the first three years of the incentive’s existence, four players have earned a PPI pick for their team: Julio Rodriguez, Gunnar Henderson, and Corbin Carroll all did so by winning their league’s Rookie of the Year award, while Bobby Witt Jr. did so last year by finishing second in AL MVP voting. That’s more than one player per year bringing in an extra pick for their team, and that collection of some of the league’s brightest young stars would have otherwise been prime candidates for service time manipulation; all were viewed as among the game’s best prospects, and all except Carroll had not yet signed an extension with their club although both Witt and Rodriguez would do so later on. The Mariners, in particular, had a history of manipulating service time with their best prospects including a controversy surrounding their handling of then-top prospect Jarred Kelenic.

In the cases of Rodriguez, Henderson, and Witt, the club in question evidently felt that the combination of a potential PPI pick and a full season of their top prospect in the majors was the better choice to pursue than the possibility of a seventh year of team control. The fact that players who finish in the top-two of Rookie of the Year voting are awarded a full year of service time even if they have not yet reached 172 days naturally surely factors into that calculation as well; the Pirates held star right-hander Paul Skenes back from their Opening Day roster and ended up with the worst of both worlds when he won the NL Rookie of the Year award last year. Not only did they not receive a PPI pick for Skenes’s win after he wasn’t included on their roster to begin the year, but his win cost them that extra year of team control gained by holding him back in until May anyway. 2015 NL Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant surely would’ve appreciated the opportunity to get that same bump in service time and move his free agency up to the 2020-21 offseason.

Not all instances of the PPI’s influence are quite this cut-and-dry, however. One recent trend regarding PPI-eligible prospects has been for clubs to put potential Rookie of the Year candidates on their Opening Day roster (or promote them early enough in the season so that they retain PPI eligibility) before giving them a short run in the majors and optioning them to the minor leagues if they don’t excel. The Cubs recently did exactly this with top infield prospect Matt Shaw, who was promoted back today after making the Opening Day roster, struggling in 18 games, and then spending a month at Triple-A. The Orioles have used this tactic when handling the promotions of Grayson Rodriguez and Jackson Holliday, as well.

Exactly how much those demotions had to do with service time and how much they had to do with performance can be debated, but it’s a method that allows a team to essentially hedge their bets by only extracting that extra year of team control once the PPI-eligible player has struggled enough in the majors to make a top-two finish in Rookie of the Year voting extremely unlikely. Aside from those cases, there are also some teams that seem completely undeterred from holding down their top prospects by the PPI. The aforementioned Pirates fall into this group even after the debacle with Skenes last year, as they’ve shown no inclination towards promoting top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler despite his dominance at Triple-A and the club’s struggles at the big league level.

How do MLBTR readers view the incentive? Has it been a success because it’s allowed players like Skenes to earn a full year of service while getting players like Henderson the opportunity to break camp with the big league team on Opening Day of their rookie seasons? Or is the fact that players like Chandler are still being held down in the minors while players like Shaw and Holliday have been sent back to Triple-A once they’re no longer good bets to bring in a PPI evidence enough that the system is ineffective? Have your say in the poll below:

Does The Prospect Promotion Incentive Work?
Yes, it's an effective tool to encourage teams to promote their young stars even if it's not utilized by every team. 56.55% (1,226 votes)
No, teams have continued to hold down their top prospects too frequently for it to be considered a success. 43.45% (942 votes)
Total Votes: 2,168

Braves Activate Spencer Strider

By | at

May 19: The Braves announced this morning that Strider has been reinstated. Dodd was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett in a corresponding move.

May 18: The Braves optioned right-hander Bryce Elder to the minor leagues to call up southpaw Dylan Dodd earlier this weekend. The 2023 All-Star had a middling 4.50 ERA and 4.92 FIP in eight starts in the majors to this point in the season, so the club’s decision to send Elder to Triple-A is hardly a shock. That said, it’s still notable given that it opens up a spot in the rotation behind Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver, and Grant Holmes.

At first glance, Dodd seems like the obvious candidate to take that role considering that the lefty has started seven of his eight MLB appearances so far in his career. Dodd has moved to the bullpen full time at Triple-A this year, however, and Mark Bowman of MLB.com reported today that right-hander Spencer Strider is actually the one who will take Elder’s spot in the rotation after he’s activated from the injured list on May 20.

The 26-year-old missed nearly all of last season after undergoing internal brace surgery on his UCL early last year. The righty made it back to the big league mound just over a month ago and struck out five across five innings of one-run ball, but suffered a hamstring injury shortly thereafter while playing catch in preparation for his second start of the season. Rather than take any chances with Strider pitching on a balky hamstring, Atlanta placed him back on the injured list, where he’s remained for the past month.

Now, it appears Strider is finally poised to take his second start of the 2025 season. It was reported last week that Strider was scheduled to throw a 70-to-75 pitch simulated game in preparation for his return to action, at which point the club would decide whether to send him on a short rehab assignment or activate him directly off of the injured list. It seems they’ve opted to go with the latter option in order to get Strider back to the majors as quickly as possible. A disastrous 0-7 start to the season has become little more than a bad memory, as the 24-23 Braves are just four games back of a playoff spot and five games back of the Mets in the NL East.

That’s hardly an insurmountable deficit, particularly for a club that’s hoping to get a healthy, vintage performance from Strider the rest of the way. The hard-throwing righty was among the best pitchers in baseball in his first two MLB seasons as he posted a 3.36 ERA with a 2.43 FIP and a 37.4% strikeout rate from 2022 to 2023. If he can offer anything close to that sort of a production for a rotation that already features the reigning NL Triple Crown winner in Sale and a pair of electric young arms in Schwellenbach and Smith-Shawver, Atlanta should be a force to be reckoned with moving forward this year before even considering the fact that Ronald Acuna Jr.’s own return may be just around the corner or that All-Stars Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II have yet to produce offensively this year.

The Opener: Martin, Royals, Giants, Phillies

By | at

Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1. Martin exits due to shoulder issue:

Rangers right-hander Chris Martin departed yesterday’s game against the Astros after throwing just one pitch. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters (including Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News) that Martin’s exit was due to “shoulder discomfort.” Bochy indicated that Martin’s shoulder will be examined before the club makes any decisions about next steps, but it would hardly be a shock to see the nearly 39-year-old hurler be placed on the shelf. That would be a tough outcome for the Rangers, as Martin has been fantastic in a late-inning role this year with a 1.83 ERA and 1.87 FIP across 22 appearances.

2. Series Preview: Royals @ Giants

The Royals are headed to San Francisco for a three-game set that pits the current holder of the final Wild Card spot in each league against one another. The Royals have a one-game lead over the Rangers and Astros for the last spot in the AL, while the Giants have a two-game lead on the Cardinals over in the NL.

Southpaw Kris Bubic has a sterling 1.66 ERA through nine starts, and at 6:45pm local time in San Francisco he’ll be taking on fellow lefty Robbie Ray (3.04 ERA) in an attempt hand the Giants their first loss of the season with the veteran Ray on the bump. Tuesday, Royals righty Michael Lorenzen (3.76 ERA in nine starts) will square off against Hayden Birdsong (2.31 ERA in 11 relief outings) as he moves from the bullpen to the rotation. The series will close out on Wednesday with San Francisco ace Logan Webb (2.42 ERA in ten starts) taking on a to-be-announced Royals starter. Kansas City placed both Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo on the injured list over the weekend.

3. How will the Phillies handle the loss of Alvarado?

The Phillies were dealt a nasty surprise yesterday when closer Jose Alvarado was suspended for 80-games after testing positive for exogenous testosterone. The lefty has been crucial in the bullpen for Philadelphia, delivering a 2.70 ERA and 1.84 FIP in 20 appearances while picking up seven saves. Fellow lefty Matt Strahm (2.89 ERA, 1.91 FIP in 21 outings) has been nearly as effective, but the Phillies’ relief corps owns a lackluster 4.57 ERA as a collective unit. That’s a bottom-ten figure in baseball, thanks largely to early struggles from Jordan Romano (7.27 ERA) and Carlos Hernandez (6.35 ERA). Romano, however, has rattled off eight consecutive scoreless frames with an 11-to-1 K/BB ratio. Hernandez hasn’t been as sharp but still has a more palatable 4.50 mark with improved strikeout and walk rates over his past 10 frames.

Getting Romano back to the pre-injury form he showed in Toronto would be a boon, especially since trade season is unlikely to begin in earnest for another month at least. In the meantime, could the Phillies look to make a more minor addition, as their division rivals in New York did when they added southpaw Jose Castillo in a trade the Diamondbacks last week?

Mets Release Billy McKinney

By | at

The Mets have released outfielder Billy McKinney from his minor league contract with the club, as noted by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. McKinney signed a minor league deal with the club back in March.

Selected 24th overall by Oakland back in 2013, McKinney was once a consensus top-100 prospect who was included in two major trades before making his big league debut: first he was part of the package (headlined by Addison Russell) that the Cubs received in return for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel from the A’s, and then just two years later he was part of the package (headlined by Gleyber Torres) that Chicago sent to the Bronx in exchange for Aroldis Chapman. After that whirlwind of trades, McKinney finally settled in with the Yankees long enough to make his big league debut during the 2018 season.

Unfortunately, by that point McKinney’s top prospect shine had already worn off. He made it into just two games with the Yankees before being traded once again, this time to the Blue Jays alongside Brandon Drury in exchange for J.A. Happ. He spent three years with Toronto in total and got into a combined 122 games during that time while slashing .230/.291/.439. He was DFA’d by the Jays following the 2020 season, however, and spent 2021 bouncing between multiple clubs. He ultimately appeared in a career-high 116 games that year but hit just .192/.280/.358 across 300 plate appearances with the Brewers, Mets, and Dodgers before being non-tendered by the Rangers that November.

A return to Oakland on a minor league deal in 2022 did not go well, but McKinney’s return to the Bronx in 2023 injected some life back into his career when he hit a solid .227/.320/.406 after being selected to the roster in June of that year following an injury suffered by Aaron Judge. McKinney’s roughly league average performance did not keep him on the club’s 40-man roster throughout the offseason, however, and he was outrighted off the 40-man and elected free agency that November. He initially re-signed with the Yankees on a minor league deal but was traded to the Pirates shortly thereafter. He hit .299/.406/.460 at the Triple-A level for the Pirates before being called up to the majors in August, though his lackluster 52 wRC+ in ten games wasn’t close to enough to earn him a more stable role with the organization.

After being outrighted last September and once again electing free agency, McKinney found himself unsigned until late March, when he landed with the Mets on the aforementioned minor league pact. Now in his age-30 season, McKinney struggled even with the club’s Syracuse affiliate this year, hitting just .184/.285/.307 across 130 trips to the plate in 33 games at the Triple-A level. That was enough for the Mets to decide to part ways with McKinney, and he’ll now return to free agency in search of a fresh opportunity elsewhere. As a depth option with the ability to handle first base and all three outfield spots, it’s not hard to imagine a club bringing him in on a fresh minor league deal, whether that’s to see if they can tap into the potential that made him a top prospect a decade ago or simply to fill out their Triple-A depth chart.

Royals Purchase John Gant’s Contract

By | at

The Royals have purchased the contract of right-hander John Gant from the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, according to a report from Robert Murray of Fansided. Gant will report to club’s Triple-A affiliate in Omaha.

It’s an exciting turn of events of Gant, who last pitched in the majors back in 2021 and hasn’t pitched much since. A 21st-round pick by the Mets all the way back in 2011, Gant was traded twice before he fully established himself in the majors: once from New York to Atlanta in the 2015 Juan Uribe trade, and a second time from Atlanta to St. Louis prior to the 2017 season in exchange for Jaime García. In between those two deals, Gant made his big league debut and pitched to a 4.86 ERA with a 4.39 FIP in a 50-inning cup of coffee with the Braves during the 2016 season.

The majority of Gant’s time in the majors came as a member of the Cardinals, however. The right-hander made just seven appearances with the club in 2017 but was a fixture of the club’s pitching staff as soon as the 2018 season, when he posted a 3.47 ERA (112 ERA+) in 114 innings of work spread across 19 starts and seven relief outings. His 4.07 FIP and pedestrian 19.5% strikeout rate both stood out as potential red flags about his abilities in that role, however, and so the Cardinals moved him to the bullpen full time ahead of the 2019 campaign. Gant spent two years as a full-time reliever for the Cards, and pitched quite well in that time with a 3.43 ERA (123 ERA+) and a matching 3.44 FIP thanks to a more robust 23.6% strikeout rate.

That strong performance in relief was enough to earn Gant another crack at starting in 2021, and it went fairly well early in the season. On June 1 of that year, Gant pitched six scoreless frames to lower his ERA to 1.60 on the year through 50 2/3 innings of work. That impressive figure was belied by a 4.02 FIP, but even replicating that figure the rest of the way would have been enough to make Gant a solid mid-rotation arm. Unfortunately, Gant was torched for 18 runs across 14 innings in his final four starts of the year for the Cardinals before moving back to the bullpen. With a 1.54 ERA (albeit one that was once again paired with a lackluster FIP of 4.71) in 11 relief appearances, Gant’s value was able to recover enough that the Cardinals swapped him to the Twins for veteran southpaw J.A. Happ at the trade deadline.

Gant pitched decently in seven relief outings for Minnesota but floundered once moved back into the rotation for the stretch run, surrendering a 6.12 ERA in 25 innings of work across seven starts in August and September. The Twins decided to cut bait on the righty after the 2021 season, and he elected free agency after clearing outright waivers that November. Once he became a free agent, he signed with the NPB’s Nippon-Ham Fighters to play in Japan during the 2022 season. Unfortunately, he was largely sidelined for the 2022-24 seasons, making just three appearances for the Fighters in 2023 and missing the other two seasons in that window entirely.

He’s re-emerged with the Ducks in 2025, however, and in his age-32 campaign he’s looked dominant with a 1.71 ERA across four starts while striking out 35.5% of opponents. Independent league play is obviously a far cry from the majors, but that level of dominance was still enough to get the attention of a Royals club in need of some extra starting pitching depth after losing Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans to the injured list this weekend.

Jared Jones To Meet With Dr. Keith Meister Regarding UCL Sprain

By | at

Pirates fans received some ominous news today when John Perrotto of Pittsburgh Baseball Now reported that right-hander Jared Jones was “likely” to undergo Tommy John surgery. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com expanded on that report shortly thereafter, emphasizing that nothing has been decided yet regarding Jones’s status. With that being said, Stumpf did report that Jones is poised to meet with orthopedic surgeon (and Rangers head physician) Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday and that surgery is “an option” for the righty, who was shut down near the end of Spring Training due to elbow soreness that eventually turned out to be a UCL sprain.

Jones was shut down for six weeks following that diagnosis, and (as noted by Stumpf) began playing catch at the tail end of April. Updates on Jones’s status have been sparse since then, but this latest update is not exactly an encouraging one. While it’s not yet clear if Jones will end up going under the knife, surgery after this attempt to rehab his elbow would still cost him his entire 2025 season, but could put his 2026 campaign in jeopardy as well. That’s a frustrating outcome for any pitcher, but particularly a 23-year-old who made his big league debut just last season an enjoyed a solid rookie campaign where he posted a 4.22 ERA and 4.01 FIP across 22 starts.

It may be quite some time before he’s able to attempt to build on that performance at this point. Losing Jones for that extended length of time would be crushing for a Pirates club that has struggled to a 15-32 record to this point in the season and is built around the strength of its young starting pitchers including Jones, 2024 NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes, and top prospect Bubba Chandler. That trio when paired with Mitch Keller and Andrew Heaney would make for one of the most fearsome on-paper rotations in the sport, but Chandler has yet to make his big league debut while Jones has been sidelined by injury all season.

Those dents in the armor that is the club’s rotation have only served to further exacerbate the issues brought on by a deeply flawed bullpen and lackluster offense. It’s already arguably cost the Pirates whatever shot they had at making a postseason run this year, but the loss of Jones for most or all of 2026 would risk casting a grim note over next season’s team as well without a significant turnaround going forward or a more robust financial outlay this winter than ownership has shown itself to be comfortable offering.

Of course, a meeting with a surgeon is not necessarily the same thing as being ticketed to undergo surgery itself. Gerrit Cole famously held a meeting with noted surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache last spring, but needed only to rehab his ailing elbow in the short-term and was able to return in the second half last year for the Yankees, though he did eventually end up requiring surgery during camp this past spring. Whether Jones ultimately ends up undergoing surgery or not at this time, it seems likely at the very least that his rehab progress will be slowed or perhaps even halted entirely. That would leave the Pirates without the talented young righty for even more of the 2025 campaign.

To this point, Bailey Falter (4.02 ERA) and Carmen Mlodzinski (5.67 ERA) have been relied upon to fill out the Pirates rotation behind Skenes, Keller, and Heaney. Chandler’s eventual promotion should create additional depth, however, and other options like Braxton Ashcraft and Thomas Harrington remain available in the minors who are already on the 40-man roster in case of further rotation injuries.

Kolten Wong Announces Retirement

By | at

Veteran infielder Kolten Wong announced his retirement from professional baseball earlier today at his alma mater, University of Hawaii, as relayed by Brian McInnis of Spectrum News. Wong was in town to throw out the first pitch at a game against UC San Diego.

“Pretty much right now, I’m done,” Wong said, as relayed by McInnis. “I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that I’m probably going to be hanging them up. It’s just one of those things where, the game how it’s going now, there’s no sense of chasing (it). … I’m a dad now, yes, I’m enjoying that. I’m trying to be the best big league dad that I can be. So I’m going to stick to that.”

A veteran of 11 MLB seasons, the 34-year-old Wong was drafted 22nd overall by the Cardinals back in 2011. He made his way to the majors for a brief cup of coffee just two years later, but his big league career began in earnest during the 2014 season. That year, Wong appeared in 113 games for the Cardinals and finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting behind Jacob deGrom and Billy Hamilton after slashing .249/.292/.388 in 433 trips to the plate while playing second base exclusively for St. Louis. Wong would go on as a roughly average regular with the Cards for a few years, getting a brief look in the outfield during the 2016 season to accommodate occasional reps at the position for Matt Carpenter and Jedd Gyorko but otherwise remaining locked in as the club’s everyday second baseman thanks to nearly average offense (92 wRC+) and fantastic defense at the keystone.

Wong enjoyed something of a breakout during his age-26 season with the Cardinals in 2017, as he slashed .285/.376/.412 with a 108 wRC+. It was his best offensive season to that point in his career, and while injuries limited him to just 108 games that year he would turn in above average results overall at the plate from the start of that season onward. That was a fortuitous step forward for the Cardinals, seeing as it came in just the second year of a five-year, $25.5MM extension the sides agreed to prior to the 2016 season. Wong hit a combined .273/.356/.398 (104 wRC+) while playing stellar defense over the course of his final four years in St. Louis, even earning Gold Glove awards for his work at second base during the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

Aside from that solid regular season production, Wong departed St. Louis with a solid postseason resume, having slashed .206/.243/.464 with five homers, four stolen bases, eight doubles, and a triple in 104 postseason plate appearances for the Cards. The Cardinals ultimately declined Wong’s 2021 club option and allowed him to test free agency in order to create an everyday spot in the lineup for utility man Tommy Edman. Wong eventually signed with the Brewers on a two-year, $18MM guarantee that came with a club option for the 2023 season. Wong’s defensive numbers took a step back during his time in Milwaukee as he entered his age-30 season, but his offense was better than ever as he hit a strong .262/.337/.439 (113 wRC+) across his two campaigns with the club.

Unlike the Cardinals before them, the Brewers did pick up his third year club option. With that being said, he still found himself in another uniform prior to the 2023 campaign as he was traded to the Mariners in a deal that brought Jesse Winker and Abraham Toro to Milwaukee. It’s a deal that didn’t work out for anyone, as none of those players were particularly effective for their new clubs. Wong struggled mightily during his time in Seattle, hitting just .165/.241/.227 across 67 games before he was released in early August.

Wong signed with the Dodgers on a minor league deal shortly thereafter, however, and managed to end his big league career on a high note as he slashed an impressive .300/.353/.500 (129 wRC+) over 20 games in Los Angeles before participating in the NLDS with the club. Headed into 2024, Wong signed briefly with both the Orioles and the Diamondbacks on minor league deals. He hit .271/.339/.383 in 121 trips to the plate for Arizona’s Triple-A affiliate in Reno before being granted his release just under a year ago. He’s not played in affiliated ball since, and after going unsigned this offseason Wong has evidently decided to put his playing career behind him.

In all, Wong wraps his MLB career with a .256/.330/.390 career slash line, good for a roughly league average 97 wRC+. That triple slash comes across 1189 games and encapsulates a career that saw him collect 973 hits, 303 extra-base hits, 511 runs scored and 405 runs batted in. In addition to his aforementioned two Gold Glove awards and status as a Rookie of the Year finalist, Wong also received down-ballot consideration for the NL MVP award during the 2019 season. MLB Trade Rumors congratulates Wong on a fine career, and wishes him all the best in whatever comes next.

Hayden Wesneski To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

By | at

Astros right-hander Hayden Wesneski is set to undergo Tommy John surgery, manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Chandler Rome of The Athletic) this afternoon. Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle relays that the Astros expect him back at some point during the 2026 campaign. A more specific timetable for his return won’t be known until after the procedure, which is expected to be performed in Dallas by Dr. Keith Meister later this week. In any case, he’ll miss the remainder of the 2025 season and presumably at least the first half of 2026 as well.

The news brings an abrupt end to Wesneski’s first season in Houston. The 27-year-old was acquired from the Cubs alongside All-Star third baseman Isaac Paredes and top prospect Cam Smith in the deal that shipped longtime Astros star Kyle Tucker to Chicago back in December. Initially drafted by the Yankees in the sixth-round of the 2019 draft, Wesneski was traded to the Cubs in exchange for right-handed reliever Scott Effross at the 2022 trade deadline and went on to spend parts of three seasons as a swing man on the north side. Wesneski pitched 190 innings total across 22 starts and 46 relief outings for the Cubs from 2022 to 2024, and in that time he posted fairly pedestrian numbers with a 3.93 ERA (106 ERA+) and a 4.74 FIP. His 23.0% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate were both solid, but his production was generally held back by a penchant for allowing homers.

Among pitchers with at least 180 innings of work over that three-year span, Wesneski’s home run rate was ninth-highest.  That’s certainly not ideal, and that proclivity towards the long ball held Wesneski back from reaching what many evaluators viewed as a mid-rotation ceiling during his time with the Cubs. The Astros saw something they liked, however, as they not only traded for him as part of the Tucker deal but also gave him a spot in their Opening Day rotation. The righty was serviceable but unspectacular, with a 4.50 ERA and 4.79 FIP across six starts that both clocked in just a bit worse than league average. Home run issues persisted for Wesneski, but a reduced 4.6% walk rate was enough for some of his advanced metrics to improve, such as a 3.68 SIERA that clocked in well below his career mark.

Whether he’ll be able to push his actual production into a range closer to those peripheral numbers has become a question for another time, however. The right-hander was placed on the injured list with elbow discomfort nine days ago, and initial testing on his elbow did not provide much clarity about what issues Wesneski was facing until a follow-up appointment with Meister confirmed that the righty would need to go under the knife. While the Astros have said that Wesneski is expected back next year, Rome notes that the hurler is eligible for arbitration for the first time in his career this offseason and suggests that could make him a potential non-tender candidate this winter if he’s not expected to contribute much in 2026, as was the case with former Astro Jose Urquidy this past winter.

In the meantime, the Astros will left to rely on a rotation mix that just got a little less deep for 2025. Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, and Lance McCullers Jr. are currently joined by rookie Colton Gordon in the rotation, with Ryan Gusto in the bullpen as a swing option. Spencer Arrighetti, Luis Garcia, and Cristian Javier are all expected back at some point this season from the injured list to provide additional reinforcements, but the timeline for all three remains murky.

Angels Announce Three Roster Moves

By | at

The Angels announced three moves this afternoon, including Jose Fermin’s placement (retroactive to May 15) on the 15-day injured list due to an impingement in his right elbow.  Los Angeles selected Hunter Strickland’s contract from Triple-A, and also designated infielder Ryan Noda for assignment to open up a spot on the 40-man roster.

Noda, 29, ends his tenure with the Angels without making an appearance with the big league club. The infielder was plucked out of the Dodgers organization by the Athletics in the Rule 5 draft prior to the 2023 season. Noda made that pick look like a brilliant move during his first season in Oakland, hitting .229/.364/.406 with 16 homers, 22 doubles, and a 122 wRC+ while serving as the A’s primary first baseman that year. With that being said, a 34.3% strikeout rate raised real long-term concerns even as he was producing at an above-average clip.

Given that, it was hardly a surprise when he struggled badly in his sophomore season as a major leaguer. Noda’s age-28 campaign saw him hit just .137/.255/.211 (44 wRC+) in 111 trips to the plate as he spent most of the season at Triple-A. Following the 2024 season, the A’s placed him on waivers and he found himself claimed by the Angels off waivers. With that being said, Noda did not make the club out of Spring Training and has failed to hit even at the Triple-A level with a .148/.364/.270 slash line in 38 games for the club’s affiliate. That was evidently enough for the Angels to feel comfortable pulling the plug on Noda, and they’ll now have one week to either work out a trade involving the infielder or try to pass him through waivers.

Noda’s departure creates room on the roster for Strickland, a veteran of ten MLB seasons already who made his big league debut with the Giants all the way back in 2014. Strickland was a solid late-inning relief arm early in his career with San Francisco, pitching to a 2.91 ERA and 3.40 FIP while racking up 19 saves in parts of five seasons. Things have been up and down in the years since then, however, with a 4.18 ERA and 4.73 FIP from 2019 to 2022 including a 2021 season where he pitched to a strong 2.61 ERA despite bouncing between three different teams over the course of the season. Last year, Strickland was a largely adequate middle reliever for the Angels with a 3.31 ERA in 73 1/3 innings of work despite a 4.45 FIP. He signed with the Rangers organization on a minor league deal over the winter but returned to the Angels earlier this month and will now get a shot in the club’s bullpen once again in 2025. In doing so, he’ll replace Fermin, a 23-year-old rookie with 7 2/3 innings of 5.87 ERA ball to his name in the majors so far.

NL East Notes: Young, Mauricio, Edwards

By | at

Today’s game between the Nationals and the Orioles included a scary moment where Nats center fielder Jacob Young crashed into the outfield wall at full speed and went down, as noted by Spencer Nausbaum of the Washington Post. He eventually departed the game with a left shoulder injury and was replaced by Alex Call in the outfield. Fortunately, Nausbaum was among those to note after the game that x-rays on Young’s shoulder came back negative. The 25-year-old’s status remains uncertain ahead of further evaluation tomorrow, but it’s undeniably a good omen for the club on the heels of an exciting win over Baltimore.

Young, 25, hasn’t hit much in his second season as a regular fixture of the Nationals lineup. Across 124 plate appearances this season, he’s posted a meager slash line of just .215/.300/.252 with zero home runs and just four doubles. Despite that lackluster performance at the dish, however, Young has largely made up for it with elite defense and base running. Young has been in the 88th percentile when it comes to value on the basepaths this year according to Statcast even in spite of his league-leading four failed stolen base attempts. The defense has been nearly as good, as his +2 Outs Above Average leaves him tied for sixth among NL center fielders with other strong defenders like Brenton Doyle and Johan Rojas.

With James Wood and Dylan Crews in the outfield corners on a daily basis and Call posting a solid 114 wRC+ in part-time duty, Young may need to hit more in order to keep himself in the lineup on a regular basis in the long-term, particularly with prospect Robert Hassell III beginning to hit at the Triple-A level this year. For now, however, the Nationals will surely content themselves with a quick return to action for their center fielder, given that the loss of Young would likely force Crews to slide over to center field on a more regular basis. With Crews scuffling badly at the plate himself to this point in the year, the Nats would surely prefer to avoid putting additional responsibilities on his plate at this point.

More from around the NL East…

  • The Mets optioned infielder Ronny Mauricio to Triple-A today after ending his rehab assignment at the Double-A level. As noted by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, the move is largely procedural in nature given that Mauricio was already in the minors. Mauricio missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a torn ACL during winter ball, and he’s appeared in just ten games in the minors so far this year as he works his way back up to speed with five games at Single-A and five games at Double-A. Now, Mauricio is set to finish getting back into form with the club’s Syracuse affiliate. Given he’s hitting just .125/.176/.188 with a 35.9% strikeout rate so far this year, it’s safe to say that Mauricio is still focused on recovery at this point and likely won’t be a realistic big league option for the Mets for some time yet.
  • The Marlins, meanwhile, have been without shortstop Xavier Edwards in the lineup for two days now due to back soreness. Craig Mish of the Miami Herald relayed today that, according to manager Clayton McCullough, Edwards underwent imaging that “came out OK” and that Edwards was slated to resume baseball activities today. It’s unclear if Edwards is expected to return to the lineup tomorrow, but if a trip to the injured list is being considered that would be an ideal time to make a decision seeing as a hypothetical IL stint could be backdated due May 16 if it began tomorrow. Edwards was one of the club’s better hitters in 70 games last year but has hit just .263/.337/.292 to this point in the 2025 campaign. Javier Sanoja is filling in at shortstop while Edwards is out of commission.

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