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Corbin Burnes To Miss Next Start With Shoulder Inflammation

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Diamondbacks right-hander Corbin Burnes is battling inflammation in his right shoulder, as reported by Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Piercoro adds that Arizona intends to scratch Burnes from his next start. It’s unclear whether or not he’ll ultimately require a stint on the injured list due to the issue, though Piecoro relays that manager Torey Lovullo told reporters before today’s game that they remain hopeful he’ll be back on the mound after just one missed start. The manager suggests that Burnes has been nagged by fatigue in his shoulder going back his last couple of starts, and that led to the club sending him for an MRI back in Arizona.

That MRI revealed “a little bit” of inflammation in Lovullo’s words, leading to the decision to skip the right-hander’s next start. Even as the Diamondbacks remain optimistic that Burnes will miss just one outing, the news is worrying for fans in the desert. After all, Arizona has fallen to fourth place in a hyper-competitive NL West division despite their solid enough 17-15 record. That record leaves them on the outside looking in for an NL Wild Card spot, behind the Padres, Giants, Phillies, and Reds in the standings aside from the division-leading Dodgers, Cubs, and Mets.

That lackluster pitching is a big reason for that middling record. While Arizona’s offense has been phenomenal so far, their run prevention has left something to be desired despite being a major strength on paper. The starting five’s 4.27 ERA is a bottom-ten figure in baseball this year, and Brandon Pfaadt is the only pitcher in the mix who has met expectations with a dazzling 2.78 ERA across six starts. Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, and especially Eduardo Rodriguez have all struggled so far this year.

Burnes, meanwhile, has a decent enough ERA of 3.58 that clocks in 18% better than league average by ERA+. That’s not quite what the Diamondbacks had in mind when they signed him to a six-year, $210MM deal over the winter, however, and his peripherals tell a more alarming story. His pedestrian 20.0% strikeout rate is the lowest of his career, and he’s paired it with a hefty 12.1% walk rate after having reliably excellent command in recent years. Burnes’s 5.08 FIP, 5.31 xERA, and 4.61 SIERA are all very worrisome, and suggest that even his mid-rotation production to this point in the year isn’t sustainable.

Perhaps this inflammation that he’s been battling is at least part of the explanation for the righty’s struggles. The 30-year-old hurler has made at least 32 starts in each of the past three seasons, and while that durability is admirable it’s the nature of pitching in this current era of baseball that hurlers need more rest than ever before as they push themselves for higher velocity and maximum spin efficiency. Perhaps this breather will be enough to calm the inflammation and get Burnes back on track, which would surely be a relief for Arizona as they fight to force their way back into the NL playoff picture after their surprising World Series run in 2023 and narrowly missing out on October last year.

Whether the inflammation forces Burnes to sit down for just one start or requires a stint on the injured list, the Diamondbacks are reasonably well-equipped to handle his absence even after losing sixth starter Jordan Montgomery to Tommy John surgery earlier this year. Ryne Nelson is in the bullpen as a long reliever but threw 68 pitches his last time out and is stretched out enough for a spot start or even to slide into the rotation longer-term as needed. He appears to be the most likely candidate to replace Burnes, though hurlers like Tommy Henry and Cristian Mena are also on the 40-man roster as potential depth options.

Rangers Activate Corey Seager, Outright Dane Dunning

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The Rangers announced this afternoon that they’ve activated star shortstop Corey Seager from the injured list. Jonathan Ornelas was optioned to Triple-A in order to make room for Seager’s return to the roster. In addition, the Rangers announced the righty Dane Dunning has cleared waivers and been given an outright assignment to Triple-A.

Seager, 31, was shelved with a hamstring strain on April 23 and returns after a minimum stay on the IL. For the time being, however, he’s in the lineup at DH with Josh Smith continuing to cover shortstop for Seager. That seems to suggest that Seager is healthy enough to hit at this point but not fully recovered from his hamstring strain, so the Rangers are planning to be careful with him when it comes to fielding. Struggling DH Joc Pederson remains in the lineup today at first base, with newly-promoted first baseman Blaine Crim headed to the bench to make room for Seager. It’s unclear how long the Rangers intend to use Seager in a DH-only capacity, but for however long that lasts it seems Pederson and Crim will need to battle for playing time.

Regardless of how the first base situation plays out or when Seager returns to his short, his return is welcome news for a beleaguered Rangers lineup. Texas has sported one of the league’s weakest offenses this year thanks in large part to the struggles of Pederson, Marcus Semien, and Jake Burger. Seager’s recent absence didn’t help matters, and with him back in the lineup and Burger at Triple-A for a reset it’s possible the changes could help the club’s lineup get going. Seager’s trademark power hasn’t shown itself much so far this year, but the Rangers’ star hitter has still managed a 131 wRC+ while hitting .286/.345/.468 overall in 21 games this year.

Going to Triple-A to make room for Seager is Ornelas. The 24-year-old has been an up-and-down depth piece for the Rangers over the past three seasons and has appeared in just 30 MLB games total. A career .184/.245/.224 hitter in the microscopic sample, he went hitless in six plate appearances with a walk and three strikeouts during his brief time up with the big league club this year. He’ll head back to the team’s Round Rock affiliate and wait for his next opportunity, though his lackluster .146/.269/.146 slash line at Triple-A to open the year will need to improve in a big way for Ornelas to get a more serious look in the majors than his current role as an emergency depth piece.

As for Dunning, it’s the second time the right-hander has cleared waivers this year. He came up for a single three-inning appearance in the majors earlier this week but was cut from the roster immediately thereafter, leaving him to head back to the minors with a 6.00 ERA on the year. Dunning could theoretically choose to reject an outright assignment and test free agency, though in doing so he would forfeit the remainder of his $2.66MM salary this year. That makes the most likely outcome that Dunning will once again accept his outright assignment and pitch for Round Rock until he gets another opportunity in the majors.

Pirates Select Tanner Rainey, Place Isiah Kiner-Falefa On Injured List

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The Pirates are selecting the contract of right-hander Tanner Rainey, according to a club announcement. Right-hander Justin Lawrence was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room for Rainey on the 40-man roster, while Rainey’s active roster spot will come at the expense of infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The veteran utility man is being placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right hamstring strain, and the move is retroactive to May 1.

Rainey, 32, signed with the Pirates on a minor league deal back in December after being non-tendered by the Nationals just a couple of weeks prior. Originally drafted in the second round of the 2015 draft by the Reds, Rainey debuted with Cincinnati back in 2018 but was flipped to Washington prior to the 2019 season and has spent the vast majority of his career in the nation’s capital. In parts of six seasons with the Nats, Rainey has generally been a serviceable middle reliever with a 4.49 ERA (94 ERA+) and a 28.5% strikeout rate in his 182 1/3 innings of work.

Those numbers are decent enough, and he even earned some run as the club’s closer while the team was rebuilding in 2022 as he picked up 12 saves, but Rainey’s hefty 14.1% walk rate largely locked him out of the late innings with the club. His performance in 2024, when he pitched to a 4.76 ERA (86 ERA+) with a 5.42 FIP and a 12.6% walk rate against a strikeout rate of just 19.0%, was enough to convince the Nationals to move on from him rather than pay him an arbitration-level salary. Even so, the Pirates were interested enough in his strikeout-heavy profile to bring him into the fold as a potential depth option. He’ll now get a new big league opportunity with his third organization amid a season where the Pirates’ bullpen has largely been in flux.

Meanwhile, Kiner-Falefa exits Pittsburgh’s positional mix after hitting .280/.333/.330 in 109 plate appearances across his first 30 games of the year. The veteran’s lack of power means that line is overall good for a wRC+ of 87, but he’s been getting on base at a solid clip, keeping his strikeouts under control, and playing solid defense as the club’s reular shortstop. The Pirates will need to figure things out at the position without Kiner-Falefa’s steady glove, and that could be easier said than done. It would be a surprise if the Pirates opted to move Oneil Cruz back onto the infield dirt after he’s worked to improve as their everyday center fielder, which could leave the club to rely on Jared Triolo as its everyday shortstop for the time being.

As for Lawrence, it was revealed earlier this week that Lawrence was headed for a second opinion on his elbow injury. The diagnosis from that second opinion has not yet been revealed, but his transfer to the 60-day IL seems to indicate that Pittsburgh brass are expecting a fairly lengthy absence for their right-hander. It’s a frustrating blow to the Pirates’ bullpen, as his 11 1/3 innings of work with the club have been nothing short of fantastic with a 0.79 ERA and a 2.53 FIP. Lawrence was one of the biggest pleasant surprises of the Pirates’ young season so far, and now they’ll need to hope that Rainey or one of their other bullpen arms can similarly surprise and pick up the slack.

Poll: Anthony Santander’s Slow Start

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After missing out on the top available free agent for the second consecutive offseason when they fell short in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, the Blue Jays remained in the hunt to find a slugger who could complement Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a hopefully resurgent Bo Bichette. Toronto had already brought Andres Gimenez into the fold as a glove-first regular, but his defensive-minded profile was never expected to be a huge boost to the lineup. After being connected to slugger Pete Alonso, third baseman Alex Bregman, and even a possible reunion with Teoscar Hernandez, the Blue Jays finally landed Anthony Santander on a five-year, $92.5MM contract that comes with enough deferred money to lower the net present value of the deal to around $70MM.

The switch-hitting Santander swatted 44 home runs for Baltimore last year while hitting .235/.308/.506 with a 129 wRC+. That power-driven profile had proven to be fairly consistent for the slugger in recent years despite his generally low on-base numbers; Santander slashed .244/.317/.478 with a wRC+ of 124 since the start of the 2022 season. That was a long enough track record to give the Jays reasonable confidence in his ability to perform as a middle-of-the-order bat for them entering his age-30 season.

It’s a bet that hasn’t paid off so far. In Santander’s first 132 trips to the plate as a Blue Jay, he’s hit just .178/.258/.314 with a wRC+ of just 65. That’s 35% worse than league average and, in conjunction with his lackluster defense, has left him tied for the eighth-lowest fWAR total among qualified major leaguers. His overall production has been similar to that of another low on-base, defensively limited corner bat in Jake Burger, whom the Rangers just optioned to Triple-A last night due to his own struggles.

A look under the hood does suggest that Santander shouldn’t be expected to be quite this bad. While his strikeout rate has jumped four percentage points from last year, that 23.5% figure is not very different than the 23.2% he posted in 2023, when he turned in a perfectly respectable 119 wRC+. What’s more, Santander is actually walking more than ever this year. He’s garnered free passes at a solid 9.8% clip, more than two percentage points higher than his career norm. While his swinging-strike rate and contact rate are both down relative to last year, both numbers are more or less in line with his 2023 season. Between a strikeout rate within his ordinary range and the highest walk rate of his career, that .258 on-base mark seems likely to improve alongside his BABIP, which sits at an extremely low .202.

Where there is a more significant negative change in Santander’s numbers is the power department. A look at Santander’s batted-ball metrics reveals some troubling signs. His 5.7% barrel rate so far this year is his lowest since 2018, and his 39.8% hard-hit rate is also the lowest he’s posted since the shortened 2020 season. His exit velocities appear to still be more or less in line with where they have been in recent years, but Santander’s launch angle is down several points. That’s resulted in a ten-point drop in Santander’s fly ball rate and a seven-point jump in his ground-ball rate. Hitting the ball into the dirt is hardly a recipe for success for a power hitter like Santander, whose sprint speed is in the 23rd percentile of big league position players, per Statcast.

Even if Santander will need to make some changes in order to get back to being that consistent 30-to-40 homer threat he was over the past two years, the deflated BABIP and strong walk rate do suggest that he should see at least some improvements, leaving him with an xwOBA 35 points higher than his actual wOBA. Even that .293 expected figure would be Santander’s worst in a full season of plate appearances, however. It’s a troubling trend and one that the Blue Jays and Santander will need to work to correct in the coming weeks in order to get his season back on track.

How do MLBTR readers think the rest of Santander’s first season as a Blue Jay will shake out? Will he manage to get things back on track well enough to post numbers similar to the expectations he’s created in recent years, or will he fall short? Have your say in the poll below:

How will Anthony Santander finish the 2025 season?
He'll bounce back enough to be an above-average hitter this year, but not return to the sort of impact he offered the Orioles in recent years. 52.71% (1,371 votes)
His power outage will continue, and he'll be an average to below average hitter come the end of the season. 28.10% (731 votes)
He'll bounce back to his 2022-24 level and post a wRC+ of 120 or better. 19.18% (499 votes)
Total Votes: 2,601

Angels Place Mike Trout On 10-Day Injured List

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May 2: The Angels formally announced that Trout has been placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to May 1. First baseman Niko Kavadas has been recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake in a corresponding move.

May 1: The Angels are placing veteran star Mike Trout on the injured list, Ron Washington told reporters (including Sam Blum of The Athletic) after tonight’s game against the Tigers. Trout is dealing with a bone bruise on his left knee, though Washington emphasized that the injury is not considered “too serious” and that there’s been no structural damage to the 33-year-old’s knee. As noted by ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, Trout suffered multiple meniscus tears in different parts of his left knee last year that required two separate surgical procedures. That’s the knee which he’s currently suffering from a bone bruise on.

While the fact that Trout’s ailment isn’t considered serious by Angels brass is at least somewhat encouraging, it’s hard to expect fans to take much solace in that given Trout’s lengthy injury history. Trout played just 29 games last year due to those aforementioned meniscus surgeries, and missed all but 36 games of the 2021 season due to a calf strain. He played in just 82 games in 2023 due to a hamate fracture, and the closest thing to a healthy season Trout has put together in this decade was his 2022 campaign where he played 119 games. Even that year, however, he was still sidelined for significant time due to back issues.

It’s a run of various injuries that now spans half a decade, and that lack of time on the field has knocked Trout off his pedestal as the game’s consensus top talent after holding that position virtually unchallenged for a decade. The 11-time All-Star and 3-time AL MVP’s numbers speak for themselves, as he’s a career .297/.408/.579 hitter with 387 homers, 214 stolen bases, 85.8 bWAR and 85.7 fWAR over the course of his 15-year major league career. This year, the Angels made the decision to move Trout off of his native center field and into right field in order to hopefully help him stay fresher and avoid injuries. Despite that change, Trout’s first trip to the injured list of the year comes with just 29 games under his belt, the exact same number he finished the 2024 season with.

In previous years, Trout has maintained superstar-level production even in seasons abbreviated by injury. While he was on the field for just 266 of Anaheim’s 648 games from 2021 to 2024, he did slash an incredible .276/.376/.575 (160 wRC+) and accumulate 12 fWAR across those 266 games. That’s not been the case this year, however. In 121 trips to the plate, Trout has actually been slightly below league average with a 96 wRC+. While he’s clobbered nine homers and walked at a healthy (if diminished) 9.9% clip, Trout’s elevated 29.8% strikeout rate and shockingly low .159 BABIP have left him hitting just .187 with a .264 on-base percentage. If he were to play a full season, Trout surely wouldn’t maintain that unbelievably low BABIP and would enjoy enough positive regression to be an above-average overall hitter, but the elevated strikeouts and decreased walks are a legitimate cause for concern about his ability to remain a superstar even if he were to stay on the field for a full campaign.

Of course, all of that will remain largely speculative until Trout gets back on the field for a significant period of time. While the club terming the issue a bone bruise seems to suggest that he’ll be able to come back relatively quickly, it’s a diagnosis that comes with a lot of variability in terms of timetable. On the more optimistic side of things, Cody Bellinger missed about a month when he suffered a bone bruise with the Cubs back in 2023. More concerning are the cases of Anthony Rendon in 2023 and Kyle Tucker last season.

Rendon fouled a ball off his left leg on July 4 two years ago and missed the remainder of the season with what the Angels termed a bone bruise despite the fact that Rendon himself told reporters he had actually been diagnosed with a fractured tibia. A similar situation played out elsewhere in the AL West between Tucker and the Astros last year, where Tucker missed just over three months due to what Houston initially termed a bone bruise but was later revealed to be a small shin fracture. It should be noted that smaller fractures like the ones Rendon and Tucker faced are no different from bone bruises in terms of the treatment prescribed, making the distinction immaterial in some ways.

Even so, that some players can come back from bone bruises after just a month while others could miss half a season or more due to a similar issue highlights the uncertainty that now faces Trout and the Angels. While it seems unrealistic to expect a firm timetable for Trout’s return given both that uncertainty and the veteran’s lengthy injury history, it’s fair to expect a significant absence at this point. Ryan Noda, Scott Kingery, and prospect Matthew Lugo are among the possible options who could be called upon to join Jo Adell and Taylor Ward in the Angels’ outfield mix while Trout is on the shelf, and switch-hitter Gustavo Campero could see more playing time after serving as the club’s fourth outfielder prior to Trout’s injury.

Rangers Option Jake Burger

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May 2: The moves have now been officially announced by the Rangers. As reported, Crim has been selected and Ornelas recalled, with Ahmed designated for assignment and Burger optioned.

May 1: The Rangers are demoting Jake Burger to Triple-A, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. First baseman Blaine Crim will be promoted to the majors in his place, according to Rosenthal. Burger has one minor league option remaining, so the Rangers will not need to pass him through waivers in order to send him to Triple-A. Crim is not yet on the 40-man roster and will need to have his contract selected. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports that the swap from Burger to Crim will be paired with the club designating shortstop Nick Ahmed for assignment to open up a 40-man roster spot for Crim. That will create a new vacancy on the roster’s bench, which Grant suggests could go to utility infielder Jonathan Ornelas.

According to Rosenthal, Burger’s demotion to the minor leagues could be a fairly short one. He reports that the Rangers’ plan is to allow Burger an opportunity to “reset” in the minor leagues before bringing him back up to the majors in the near future. At the very least, the 29-year-old will report to Round Rock for the next ten days before he can be considered for a return to the majors. That’s the minimum stay for a player optioned to the minor leagues before they can be promoted back to MLB.

Even a short stay in the minors demonstrates how difficult Burger’s start to his Rangers career has been. Acquired from the Marlins back in December in exchange for infield prospects Maximo Acosta and Echedry Vargas as well as pitching prospect Brayan Mendoza, Burger was brought in to replace Nathaniel Lowe at first base on the heels of a year-and-a-half stint with the Marlins where he slashed .265/.315/.472 with a 112 wRC+ across 190 games. Last year’s production was less impressive, however, as he posted a 106 wRC+ overall. While he slugged 29 homers in 137 games, he struck out in 25.9% of his plate appearances and got on base at a lackluster .301 clip. Still, it was an above-average profile overall and the power intrigued the Rangers enough to invest in the slugger, who will remain under team control for three more seasons after this one.

Burger is only 29 games into his career with the Rangers, but the early returns on that investment have not exactly impressed. In 105 plate appearances this year, Burger has hit just .186/.229/.330 with a well below-average wRC+ of just 55. He’s struck out at a worrisome 30.5% clip, walked in just 2.9% of his plate appearances, and has so far failed to generate the trademark power that has become his carrying tool over the years. That all came together to leave Burger with the fifth-worst season among qualified first basemen this year by wRC+ and the sixth-worst by fWAR. Perhaps a more successful team would be more willing to display patience with a newly-acquired player, but the Rangers are currently 16-16 and have fallen to fourth place in the AL West behind the Mariners, Astros, and Athletics.

Those woes can largely be attributed to a lackluster offense. There have been some major bright spots; Wyatt Langford is looking like a potential superstar, Jonah Heim, Josh Jung, and Josh Smith have all been impressive, and Corey Seager looks like his typical star-level self when healthy. Unfortunately, Seager is currently on the injured list and other key pieces of the offense expected to help carry the load in his absence like Marcus Semien, Joc Pederson, and Burger have been disappointing in the early going. Given the veteran statuses of Semien and Pederson, Burger was the only one of that struggling trio who could be optioned to the minors and therefore by far the easiest to remove from the lineup for a temporary reset.

That makes Burger’s demotion in some ways about circumstances as much as it’s about performance. After all, while Burger’s plate discipline numbers early in the season have been worrying as he’s made worse swing decisions while whiffing inside the strike zone more often as compared to last year, underlying metrics actually paint quite a rosy picture about his expected power production. The slugger’s 13.4% barrel rate is higher than last year, and the same can be said for a 49.3% hard-hit rate that actually matches his breakout 2023 season with the Marlins and White Sox. Combine Burger’s expected slugging percentage of .411 (more than 80 points higher than his actual production) and his artificially low .234 BABIP, and it’s easy to see how Burger could turn things around in relatively short order.

He’ll need to fight his way back up to the majors in order to do that, however. In the meantime, the Rangers will turn to well-regarded prospect Blaine Crim to handle first base. Crim is nearly 28 years old, making him older for a prospect, and he was drafted by the Rangers all the way back in 2019 during the 19th round of that year’s draft. Despite that age and lack of pedigree, Crim is now in his third consecutive season with impressive results at the Triple-A level, where he has a career .286/.373/.486 slash line across 308 games. Crim’s been even more impressive so far this year, with a .313/.365/.565 slash line across 126 plate appearances. If he can come up to the majors and prove he can hit at the highest level, it would hardly be a surprise to see Crim remain in the mix even after Burger returns to action. After all, Pederson typically sits against left-handed pitching, and a right-handed bat like Crim could offer the Rangers a solid platoon partner for their struggling slugger going forward.

As for Ahmed, the 35-year-old is now in his 12th season in the majors and has appeared in just four games for the Rangers this year. He’s yet to record a hit in eight trips to the plate this year but does have a walk and a run scored to go with three strikeouts. Assuming he does get designated for assignment to make room for Crim, the Rangers will have one week to either attempt to pass Ahmed through waivers or work out a trade sending him elsewhere. Should Ahmed clear waivers, he would then have the opportunity to either accept an outright assignment to the minor leagues or elect free agency instead.

The Opener: Hoglund, Buehler, Cubs, Brewers

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With around 20% of the MLB regular season now in the books, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on heading into the weekend:

1. Hoglund to debut:

The A’s have gotten off to a nice start this year with a 17-15 record, tying them for second place in the AL West with the Astros, just two games behind the Mariners. It’s a massive turnaround for a team that lost 205 games across the previous two seasons, but lackluster starting pitching has held them back somewhat to this point in the season. The club’s 4.88 FIP from their starters is the third-worst figure in baseball, ahead of only the Angels and Orioles.

Reinforcements will be necessary if the A’s hope to continue competing, but help could be on the way as soon as today. The Athletics are calling up prospect Gunnar Hoglund for his big league debut, and MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos specified yesterday evening that he’ll be tasked with starting tonight’s game against the Marlins. The game is scheduled for 7:10pm local time in Miami and will see Hoglund square off against an as of yet unannounced Marlins pitcher. Hoglund is already on the A’s 40-man roster, though a corresponding move will still be necessary to make room for the righty on the active roster.

2. Buehler undergoing testing:

The Red Sox rotation got healthier with the returns of Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito, but it appears that healthy group of arms may be relatively short lived. As noted by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, Walker Buehler was scratched from his scheduled start for today due to some “discomfort” in his shoulder.

Buehler underwent testing in Boston yesterday. The results have not yet been made clear, but manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Joe Braverman of WEEI) that team trainers believe the issue isn’t “too alarming.” Cora added that Buehler making a start this weekend remains a possibility and that any IL stint would be a relatively short one. Even so, losing Buehler for any period of time would be a frustrating turn of events, given that the right-hander has bounced back from early-season struggles to post a 2.59 ERA in his last four starts.

3. Series Preview: Cubs @ Brewers

The Cubs have raced out to a 19-13 record to this point despite a difficult schedule that included series against the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Padres. Chicago only just had their first series of the season against the NL Central this week, where they beat Paul Skenes to take two of three against the Pirates. Today, they’ll be faced with a tougher challenge from within their division when they head to Milwaukee to face the Brewers.

The NL Central champions in each of the past two seasons (and three of the past four), Milwaukee has opened the 2025 season with a 16-16 record. They’ve lost six of their past ten games against the Giants, Cardinals, and White Sox. Even so, a sweep of the Cubs this weekend would be enough to catapult them right back into the mix for the NL Central lead, as both teams would leave the series with identical 19-16 records. The series kicks off this evening with a pair of young righties battling it out: 25-year-old Ben Brown takes the mound for the Cubs against 24-year-old Quinn Priester, whom the Brewers just acquired from the Red Sox last month. Jameson Taillon and Jose Quintana are slated to face off tomorrow in a clash of steady veterans, and the series wraps on Sunday with a duel between each team’s top starter: lefty Shota Imanaga and right-hander Freddy Peralta.

Mets Interested In Left-Handed Bullpen Help

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The Mets are interested in trades that would bring in lefty bullpen help, according to a recent mailbag from SNY’s Andy Martino. The news comes after both A.J. Minter and Danny Young were placed on the injured list with ailments that might require season-ending surgery. In Minter’s case, he’s facing a “significant” lat strain. Young, meanwhile, may end up undergoing Tommy John surgery after he was sidelined by an elbow sprain.

With Minter and Young both facing significant absences even if they don’t ultimately go under the knife, it’s hardly a surprise that the Mets would like to add some left-handed depth to their bullpen mix. Genesis Cabrera is currently the only southpaw in their bullpen, and his debut outing with the Mets this year saw him surrender a run while recording just one out. A single outing isn’t enough to judge a reliever on, but the 28-year-old’s 4.03 ERA and 5.03 FIP from 2022 to 2024 while pitching for the Cardinals and Blue Jays doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in his ability to provide quality innings for the Mets’ bullpen.

Outside of Cabrera, the club’s internal options are few and far between. The team recently signed Brooks Raley to a big league deal, and his 2.48 ERA and 3.47 FIP in a Mets uniform over the last two years would certainly be welcome. But Raley is still recovering from last season’s Tommy John surgery and seems unlikely to be an option for the Mets until the second half given that the tentative plan appears to be for him to start a rehab assignment next month. Anthony Gose is in the organization on a minor league deal, but his 14.6% walk rate with Triple-A Syracuse is worrisome and it would be understandable if Mets brass felt they needed to see better numbers before calling him up to Queens.

As for external options, Martino doesn’t suggest any specific names. Jon Heyman of the New York Post floated the possibility of Orioles southpaws Keegan Akin and Gregory Soto as possible targets if Baltimore’s early-season struggles persist into trade season, but the Mets might have Raley back by the time July rolls around even if the Orioles haven’t rebounded enough to avoid a hypothetical sell-off. Perhaps a bottom-dwelling team like the Rockies or White Sox would make a veteran lefty like Scott Alexander or Cam Booser available, but neither has inspired confidence with their well-below average play to this point in the year.

Perhaps in the short-term, New York’s best hope of bringing in a lefty reliever could be looking for a veteran on a minor league deal in another organization. Brandon Hughes (Cubs) and Justin Bruihl (Blue Jays) are among a handful of former big league relievers in the minors with another club who the Mets could plausibly work out a minor trade for. Of course, another possibility would be simply cutting out the middle man and signing a current free agent to a minor league deal. Free agents are few and far between at this stage of the calendar, but Chasen Shreve is one example who elected free agency just yesterday after joining Atlanta on a minor league pact back in January.

Giants Place Tyler Fitzgerald On 10-Day Injured List

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The Giants placed infielder Tyler Fitzgerald on the 10-day injured list earlier today due to a left rib fracture. The club called up infielder Brett Wisely from Triple-A Sacramento to replace Fitzgerald on the active roster.

Fitzgerald, 27, broke out in a big way down the stretch last year in the first run of regular playing time of his career. After becoming an everyday player after the All-Star break, Fitzgerald slashed .281/.333/.519 with ten steals, 15 doubles, and 13 homers in just 255 plate appearances. That impressive combination of power and speed, along with his ability to play solid defense up the middle, was enough to earn him a regular role despite a 31.4% strikeout rate. Fitzgerald played shortstop late last year for the Giants, but has moved to second base thanks to the club’s decision to sign Willy Adames.

So far this year, Fitzgerald’s offense has been a mixed bag. He’s managed to cut his strikeout rate down to just 22.2% in 90 trips to the plate this year while actually slightly increasing his walk rate, though he’s hitting for much less power with a meager 4.8% barrel rate. Overall, he’s hitting .284/.341/.432 (118 wRC+) this year. That’s a solid figure, though it’s elevated by a .356 BABIP. Whether that’s sustainable remains to be seen, but that question will have to wait for at least the time being now that he’s headed for the shelf.

It seems as though Fitzgerald’s initial injury may have happened almost a week ago. It was reported by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday that Fitzgerald was scratched from the lineup after suffering a chest contusion the day prior, but after sitting for a couple of days he returned to the lineup. That changed this afternoon, as Fitzgerald told reporters (including John Shea of the San Francisco Standard) that he underwent an MRI today that revealed the rib fracture, prompting his placement on the shelf. Fitzgerald suggested that he was feeling the fracture when swinging a bat and as such will be down for a couple of days without baseball activity to rest up.

With that being said, it seems as though Fitzgerald is hoping for a relatively brief absence. The infielder told Shea that he hopes to be back with the Giants after just two weeks, which would be just barely over the minimum stay of ten days on the injured list. Whether Fitzgerald will be able to hit that target or not remains to be seen, of course, but San Francisco would surely love to have him back as quickly as possible amid their efforts to keep the brilliant 19-12 start they’ve managed to put together going in an extremely competitive duel not only for the NL West but also the three NL Wild Card spots.

In the meantime, the Giants will likely turn to a combination of Wisely and Christian Koss at the keystone. Koss, 27, made his MLB debut earlier this year and so far has hit just .217/.280/.217 with a 30.8% strikeout rate during his time in the majors. Those lackluster numbers have come in just 28 plate appearances, however, and Koss hit quite well at Triple-A last year with a 134 wRC+ in 88 games. Joining Koss in the mix for starts at second is Wisely, who hit .238/.278/.345 (75 wRC+) across 91 games in a part-time role with the Giants last year. He’s spent the 2025 season at Triple-A so far, where his .235/.325/.431 slash line in 118 trips to the plate has been exactly league average (100 wRC+).

Rangers Sign Ty Blach To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers have signed southpaw Ty Blach to a minor league deal, MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports. The veteran elected free agency shortly after the 2024 regular season came to a close abut is now set to join a new organization for just the fourth time in his career. He’s represented by Sports Pro Services.

Blach, 34, has pitched in the majors in parts of seven MLB seasons. A fifth-rounder drafted by the Giants all the way back in 2012, the lefty didn’t make his big league debut until the 2016 campaign. That initial cup of coffee went extremely well, as Blach pitched to a 1.06 ERA and 3.62 FIP in 17 innings of work across two starts and two relief appearances. He took on a much larger role with the Giants over the next two years and turned in slightly below-average results as the club’s primary swingman. From 2017 to 2018, Blach pitched to a pedestrian 4.56 ERA (89 ERA+) despite a 4.18 FIP but made up for that lack of impressive rate production with volume. He threw 282 1/3 innings total while splitting time between the rotation and bullpen, making 37 starts and 44 relief appearances in total.

The southpaw started the 2019 season with San Francisco as well, but he was designated for assignment and found himself claimed off waivers by the Orioles not long after. Unfortunately, Blach’s time in Baltimore did not go especially well and he finished the year with a 12.00 ERA in 27 innings of work between his two clubs. That lackluster performance led the Orioles to outright him off their 40-man roster following the 2019 season but he re-signed with the organization on a minor league deal ahead of the 2020 season. Between the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign and Tommy John surgery that summer, Blach wound up not pitching for the Orioles at all in his second season with the organization.

After rehabbing in the minors with the Orioles during the 2021 season, Blach latched on with the Rockies on a minor league deal entering the 2022 campaign. It was in Colorado that he’d make his return to the majors, and he wound up spending three years in the organization on minor league deals, shuttling between Triple-A and the majors as dictated by the Rockies’ pitching needs. Blach didn’t exactly take well to pitching with the Rockies in that up-and-down role, and he’s struggled to a 6.14 ERA in 193 2/3 innings at the big league level since first signing with the Rockies prior to the 2022 season. Lackluster as that figure is, it should be noted that it’s nearly half a run higher than Blach’s FIP. On the other hand, Coors Field may not have been as big of an issue for Blach as one might expect given that his road ERA was higher than his ERA at Coors in all three of his seasons with Colorado.

Whether he’ll be able to improve in a new organization with more pitcher-friendly conditions in the majors remains to be seen, but the Rangers appear to be betting on just that by bringing him into the fold. At the very least, he should be a serviceable non-roster depth option for the club, helping to back up a rotation that’s currently relying on Patrick Corbin as its fifth starter due to injuries suffered by Kumar Rocker, Jon Gray, and Cody Bradford. That starting depth took a potential additional hit earlier this week when the club designated Dane Dunning for assignment, though Dunning has already cleared waivers previously this year. Even if Blach isn’t being brought in as a potential replacement for Dunning on the depth chart, he’s still a useful arm to have in the mix in case fo further injuries in the majors.

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