White Sox Designate Lucas Sims For Assignment
The White Sox shuffled up their bullpen Thursday, announcing that veteran righty Lucas Sims has been designated for assignment. Right-hander Tyler Davis has had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte and will join the big league relief corps.
Sims, 32 next month, pitched 10 innings for the South Siders prior to this morning’s DFA. He was tagged for seven runs (five earned) on nine hits, seven walks and a hit batter. He fanned 10 of his 46 opponents (21.7%), but his perennially spotty command also led to 17.4% of his opponents reaching base without even needing to put a ball in play.
The White Sox added Sims on a minor league deal over the winter. He had a nice spring, firing six shutout innings with three hits, three walks and eight strikeouts, but didn’t make the Opening Day roster. He began the season in Charlotte and tossed a scoreless frame before being selected to the majors when the Sox parted ways with Rule 5 pick Jedixson Páez.
A veteran of 10 partial major league seasons, Sims has more than six years of service time. He was a useful middle relief and eventual setup arm at his peak in Cincinnati, pitching to a combined 3.93 ERA in 183 1/3 innings from 2019-23. Sims punched out a hearty 31.9% of opponents in that time but was far too prone to free passes, issuing walks at a 12.2% clip.
Sims collected 39 holds and four saves in 2023-24, but a 2025 stint with the Nationals saw his shaky command erode to untenable levels. Sims walked more than 19% of his opponents (14 of 72) and plunked another seven batters before being cut loose in Washington. This year’s command was better than that low point, but Sims has walked or plunked more than 15% of the 1429 batters he’s face in the majors. It’s unlikely he’ll ever end up with even average command over a sample of any note.
The White Sox will have five days to trade Sims or place him on outright waivers. If they go the waiver route, that’d be an additional 48-hour process, meaning his DFA will be resolved within a maximum of one week.
As for Davis, he’ll be making his major league debut the first time he takes the mound. The 27-year-old was never drafted, instead signing with the Sox out of the independent Pioneer League in 2024, when he played for the Oakland Ballers. He’s a Sam Houston State product who’s pitched 103 innings in pro ball since signing. In that time, Davis has logged a 3.41 earned run average with a 27.1% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate.
Davis has some experience as a first baseman as well, having worked as a two-way player in college. However, he’s focused solely on pitching in affiliated ball and will come to the ChiSox with a four-seamer that’s been sitting 96.4 mph in Triple-A, a splitter that’s averaged 86.2 mph and a slider at nearly the same velocity as that split.
Phillies Release Taijuan Walker
The Phillies have released veteran right-hander Taijuan Walker, per a club announcement. Philadelphia also optioned right-hander Alan Rangel to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and recalled right-hander Nolan Hoffman. It seems there’ll be another move before today’s game to fill the 26th spot on the roster.
Walker, 33, is in the final season of a four-year, $72MM contract that didn’t pan out at all as the team hoped. It was a surprisingly large contract at the time he signed the deal. Walker was fresh off a solid 29-start showing with the Mets (3.49 ERA, 157 1/3 innings), but his rate stats didn’t support that level of run prevention. Walker had a decent season as an innings eating, back-of-the-rotation starter in year one of the contract (4.38 ERA, 172 2/3 frames), and he posted solid results between the rotation and bullpen in 2025 as well (4.08 ERA, 123 2/3 innings).
The other two seasons of the contract have been a nightmare. Walker was one of the least-effective pitchers in the sport in 2024, yielding a 7.10 earned run average across 83 2/3 innings. This season has gone even worse. The veteran righty has pitched 22 2/3 innings and been shelled for 25 runs (23 earned) on a whopping 36 hits and 11 walks with only 17 strikeouts. He’s working with the second-worst velocity of his career — ahead of only that disastrous ’24 campaign — and missing bats at his lowest levels ever. Between those red flags and the 9.13 ERA, the Phillies were left with little choice but to move on as they try to crawl out of an 8-16 hole and snap a woeful eight-game losing streak.
The Phillies will remain on the hook for the rest of Walker’s $18MM salary this season. He’s still owed a bit more than $15MM of that sum. Any team that signs Walker would owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time he spends on said club’s major league roster or injured list. That amount would be subtracted from what the Phillies owe, but they’re paying the vast majority of the tab even in a best-case scenario.
Ace Zack Wheeler will return to the Phillies’ rotation this weekend, though it’s anyone’s guess how he’ll perform on the heels of a procedure to address thoracic outlet syndrome. He’s posted a 5.85 ERA in 20 minor league rehab innings, albeit with more encouraging rate stats: 28% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate, 45.1% ground-ball rate. Wheeler will join last year’s Cy Young runner-up, Cristopher Sánchez, longtime top prospect Andrew Painter, and veterans Aaron Nola and Jesús Luzardo in the Philadelphia rotation.
All told, Walker ends up with 402 2/3 innings of 5.12 ERA ball as a member of the Phillies. He now becomes the second high-priced veteran whose contract will effectively be eaten by the Phillies this season. Outfielder/designated hitter Nick Castellanos was also cut loose from the final season of a five-year, $100MM contract just prior to spring training. He’s since signed with the Padres, for whom he’s batting .146/.196/.208 in 51 plate appearances. As with Walker, the Phillies are paying the vast majority of Castellanos’ $20MM salary. The Padres only owe him the prorated minimum for any time spent in the majors.
Red Sox To Recall Payton Tolle
The Red Sox are calling up left-hander Payton Tolle to start Thursday’s series finale against the Yankees, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. It’ll be the touted young lefty’s first major league action of the season and just the fourth big league start of his career.
Tolle currently sits 11th on Baseball America’s ranking of the sport’s top-100 prospects. He’s 15th over at MLB.com. The 23-year-old reported to camp this spring in hopes of securing a rotation spot after making a brief MLB debut late last season, but fellow top prospect and left-hander Connelly Early wound up claiming the lone rotation vacancy. Tolle opened the season in Triple-A Worcester, where he’s been excellent. In three starts, he’s totaled 15 innings and held opponents to five earned runs (3.00 ERA) on 12 hits and four walks with 19 strikeouts.
The Sox spent much of the offseason bolstering their pitching depth. While younger arms like Hunter Dobbins and Richard Fitts were sent out in trades, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow also acquired Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo via the trade market and signed longtime Phillies southpaw Ranger Suarez as a free agent.
Just under a month into the season, that depth has already been tested. Oviedo made just one appearance before being diagnosed with a flexor strain and placed on the 60-day injured list. Gray landed on the 15-day IL with a hamstring strain after exiting his most recent start in the middle of the third inning. Left-hander Patrick Sandoval still hasn’t pitched for Boston after signing a two-year, $18.25MM contract two offseasons ago. The Sox knew he’d miss most of 2025 rehabbing from UCL surgery, but he didn’t make it back at all last year and is now dealing with biceps discomfort that popped up during a minor league rehab stint. Righty Kutter Crawford missed the 2025 season due to a knee injury and wrist surgery. He’s also on a rehab stint but also could be facing a setback after experiencing elbow discomfort during a minor league start.
Counting Tanner Houck — who won’t pitch this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery late last August — the Sox have an entire rotation’s worth of arms on the injured list. At the moment, their healthy starting options include Suarez, Early, Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and, once this move is official, Tolle. Right-hander Tyler Uberstine and lefty Jake Bennett are on the 40-man roster and pitching well in Worcester; Uberstine made his MLB debut earlier this season when he pitched 2 2/3 innings in a long relief appearance. He’s since been optioned back to Triple-A.
All of the injuries could give Tolle some runway to turn this into more than a spot start. There’s no expectation that Gray’s injury will necessitate a long-term absence, but the Sox have yet to put a firm timetable on his recovery, either. Even if it’s just a minimum stint, that’d be enough for Tolle to make multiple starts.
The Red Sox don’t have an off day until April 30, so they won’t have the luxury of skipping this spot in the rotation if they want to send Tolle down and bring up another arm for the ‘pen. However, they could still option Tolle and then call up Bennett or Uberstine to take the ball when this spot in the rotation comes up again next Tuesday. Alternatively, if Bello continues to struggle as he has through his first four starts (6.75 ERA, 14.1% strikeout rate, 13% walk rate in 18 2/3 innings), it’s hard not to wonder whether the currently 9-15 Red Sox might consider at least a short-term change. And, as always, the possibility of injuries elsewhere on the staff could create a more lasting opportunity for Tolle.
Tolle, the No. 50 overall draft pick in 2024, impressed in his first big league start last summer, tossing 5 1/3 innings and holding the Pirates to a pair of runs on three hits and two walks with eight punchouts. His next two starts were shaky, however, and the Sox moved him to the ‘pen for the final few weeks of the season. He wound up posting a 6.06 ERA in a small sample of 16 1/3 innings, but Tolle’s upper-90s four-seamer and 90 mph cutter were on full display. He fanned more than one quarter of his opponents and notched a huge 14.8% swinging-strike rate. This year in Triple-A, he’s added a two-seamer and upped the usage rates on both his curveball and changeup, giving him a more well-rounded arsenal.
Jackson Holliday Undergoing MRI For Continued Hand Discomfort
Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday is in Baltimore for another MRI on his ailing right hand, the team announced to reporters (link via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner). The O’s will likely have further updates once the imaging has been performed. However, with an off-day tomorrow, said update might not come before Friday.
Holliday suffered a broken hamate bone during a batting practice swing early in spring training. He had surgery on Feb. 12 to remove the hamate hook — standard procedure for hitters who incur this injury. That surgery typically comes with a recovery period of four to eight weeks, but Holliday hasn’t been able to get back on track. The O’s halted his first rehab stint and sent him for additional testing. He went out on a new rehab stint a few days later but has now been pulled back again after experiencing another painful swing.
Now more than two months removed from the surgery, Holliday still doesn’t appear all that close to joining the Orioles. The 22-year-old has taken 56 plate appearances between High-A Frederick and Triple-A Norfolk during his pair of rehab stints and carries an anemic .176/.250/.235 batting line with a 23.2% strikeout rate and a 5.4% walk rate. He’s averaged 86.3 mph off the bat with just a 26.7% hard-hit rate in his 47 plate appearances in Norfolk.
With Holliday sidelined, the Orioles have given utilityman Jeremiah Jackson the lion’s share of playing time at second base. He’s responded with a stout .297/.321/.527 batting line (136 wRC+) and five home runs in 78 turns at the plate.
Whether he can sustain that is an open question. Jackson has benefited from a .327 average on balls in play — a higher-than-average mark, but not egregiously so. (League average thus far is .289.) However, he’s walked only three times (2.6%), and his 73.2% contact rate ranks 139th among the 195 MLB hitters who’ve tallied at least 70 plate appearances this season. His free-swinging, low-contact approach could well prove exploitable over a larger sample, but for the time being, Jackson has more than capably held down the fort at the keystone.
Holliday’s eventual return could have ramifications around the infield. If Jackson is still hitting well, he could slide over to third base in place of former top prospect Coby Mayo. The expectation was that Mayo’s bat would be fine at the hot corner in place of the injured Jordan Westburg, but there were substantial questions about his defense. The inverse has played out. Mayo has looked plenty solid with the glove, but he’s continued to flounder against big league pitchers, hitting just .158/.262/.246 with a homer and a 27.7% strikeout rate. Mayo has drawn plenty of walks but hasn’t hit the ball hard (86.3 mph average exit velocity, 33.3% hard-hit rate).
Time will tell how much longer Holliday remains sidelined, but recent developments certainly aren’t encouraging. The former No. 1 pick hit .242/.314/.375 with 17 homers and 17 steals last year as a 21-year-old in his first full major league season.
Twins Promote Connor Prielipp
The Twins announced Wednesday that they’ve recalled top pitching prospect Connor Prielipp from Triple-A St. Paul. He’ll make his major league debut tonight, starting their road game against the Mets. Infielder/outfielder Ryan Kreidler was optioned to Triple-A in his place.
Prielipp, 25, was the No. 48 overall draft pick out of Alabama back in 2022. He’s a consensus top-five prospect in the Twins’ system who currently sits 81st on Baseball America’s ranking of the sport’s top 100 prospects. The 6’2″ southpaw has begun his 2026 season with 16 2/3 frames, a 2.30 ERA and a huge 34.9% strikeout rate in Triple-A, but his 12.7% walk rate is obviously higher than Minnesota would prefer.
Health troubles have plagued Prielipp to this point in his career. He dominated when healthy enough to take the mound at Alabama but required Tommy John surgery early in his sophomore season. On stuff alone, he might’ve been a first-round talent, but the injury concerns and the pandemic-impacted 2020 season limited him to only seven starts in his NCAA career. He posted preposterous numbers in that time: a 0.96 ERA with 45.6% strikeout rate against a 6.8% walk rate.
Durability concerns have carried over into Prielipp’s pro career. Renewed elbow troubles in 2023 prompted an internal brace procedure to once again repair his left ulnar collateral ligament. He pitched just 30 innings in his first two pro seasons combined but in 2025 tossed a career-high 82 2/3 frames with a 27% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate.
Prielipp has worked off a four-pitch mix in 2026, sitting 95.7 mph on his four-seamer — up from the 94.8 mph he averaged in his return from surgery last year. He’s largely shelved his sinker this season but incorporated a new curveball that sits in the 82-83 mph range. Prielipp also has a slider and changeup in the upper 80s. All three of his fastball, slider and changeup draw plus grades in Baseball America’s scouting report (60 each on the 20-80 scale). FanGraphs touted the slider as a plus-plus (70) pitch on last season’s scouting report.
Minnesota’s rotation ran into trouble as soon as pitchers and catchers reports. Right-hander Pablo López experienced discomfort in his first bullpen session this spring and wound up requiring UCL surgery that’ll cost him the whole season. David Festa, a former top-100 prospect who was in the rotation mix this spring, suffered a shoulder injury and has yet to pitch in 2026. Right-hander Mick Abel, a former first-round pick and top prospect acquired in the trade sending Jhoan Duran to the Phillies last summer, won a rotation spot in camp but just hit the injured list due to elbow inflammation. He’d just rattled off 13 shutout frames with a 16-to-3 K/BB ratio across his past two starts.
With those injuries impacting the staff, the Twins have Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods Richardson and breakout candidate Taj Bradley in the rotation at the moment. Prielipp will get at least one crack at forcing his way into the mix, and it’s plausible that he could get a couple looks if he impresses in tonight’s debut. There’s no formal timeline on Abel’s recovery yet, but Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that his MRI results were a best-case scenario: only mild inflammation and no structural damage. Abel will miss at least two starts. Even if he only requires a minimum stint, Woods Richardson has been hit hard in the early-going and could be a bullpen candidate if Prielipp and Abel outpitch him. (Woods Richardson is out of minor league options and thus cannot simply be sent to Triple-A to get back on track.)
The timing of Prielipp’s promotion takes him out of the running for any PPI consideration. He’s also been called up late enough in the season that his only viable path to a full year of major league service would be a top-two finish in American League Rookie of the Year voting. Barring that, he’ll be controllable through at least the 2032 season. If Prielipp is up for good, he’d be on pace for Super Two status, making him arbitration eligible four times rather than three (beginning after the 2028 season). However, he’s in the first of three minor league option years, so he’s hardly a lock to stick in the majors for good from this point forth.
Regardless, Prielipp joins a crop of controllable young arms who can give Twins fans some hope even amid the chaos stemming from last July’s fire sale, an ownership restructuring and the recent departure of president of baseball operations Derek Falvey. Prielipp, Bradley, Abel, Kendry Rojas (called up yesterday), Dasan Hill (another top-100 arm down in Triple-A) and recently recalled righty Andrew Morris are all at or on the cusp of the MLB level. Festa and fellow right-hander Zebby Matthews (currently in Triple-A) were both top-100 talents prior to their debuts but have yet to establish themselves. Bradley is controlled through 2029. The others are all controlled through 2030 or later. The entire group is 25 or younger, with the exception of Festa, who turned 26 a month ago.
Braves Recall Didier Fuentes, Designate Ian Hamilton For Assignment
The Braves announced Wednesday morning that they’ve recalled right-hander Didier Fuentes from Triple-A Gwinnett. Fellow righty Ian Hamilton was designated for assignment to open a spot on the active roster. Fuentes will start tonight’s game against the Nationals.
Hamilton’s contract was just selected to the big league roster last week. He made only one appearance with Atlanta and was tagged for three runs in an inning of work. He’ll now be traded or placed on waivers within the next five days.
With his latest appearance, the 30-year-old Hamilton has now pitched 151 1/3 major league innings between the White Sox, Twins, Yankees and Braves. He’s worked to a solid 3.75 ERA overall, although a terrific 2023 season (2.64 ERA, 58 innings) disproportionately affects that career-long mark; Hamilton had a 4.91 ERA in 14 2/3 innings prior to that season and has a 4.35 earned run average in 78 2/3 frames since.
Hamilton has fanned just over one quarter of his major league opponents (25.4%) but also carries a bloated 11.3% walk rate that’s nearly three percentage points north of the league average. He’s shown above-average grounder tendencies (45.9%) and has done a nice job of avoiding homers and hard contact in general. The right-hander sat 96 mph with his heater for the 2024-25 Yankees but averaged 94.4 mph in his lone Braves appearance. His sinker velocity dipped similarly. Hamilton’s primary breaking pitch is a slider that he’s typically thrown at a near 50% clip.
Fuentes, 10 years younger than Hamilton, won’t turn 21 until mid-June. Despite that youth, he’s auditioning for a role in the Atlanta rotation. The right-hander struggled in a four-start cup of coffee last summer but had a big spring showing and has been excellent in Gwinnett thus far. Through his first 16 2/3 frames, Fuentes sports a tidy 2.16 ERA with a 31.7% strikeout rate and a 9.5% walk rate. He made one long relief appearance with the Braves early this season before being sent down and shined there as well, holding the Royals to a run on two hits and a walk with four punchouts in four innings.
Atlanta’s pitching injuries have been chronicled at length. Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep had surgery to remove loose bodies from their elbows before the season started. Joey Wentz tore his ACL during spring training. Spencer Strider opened the season on the injured list due to an oblique strain and has yet to return.
The Braves have been left with a group of Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and Martín Pérez to shoulder the rotation load thus far. To call Elder (1.50 ERA in 30 innings) and Pérez (2.21 ERA, 20 1/3 innings) “pleasant surprises” thus far would be an understatement. Pérez has pitched like a fifth starter when healthy for the bulk of the past five seasons. Elder was one of the least-effective pitchers in baseball in 2024-25.
It’s not reasonable to expect either Elder or Pérez to sustain this level of production, but there’s no taking away what’s already in the books; these impeccably timed hot streaks have helped the Braves weather a storm of early injuries that threatened to dig them in a massive hole for a second straight season. Instead, Atlanta has an NL-best 2.98 ERA from the rotation and sits at 16-8 with a five-game cushion in a disappointing NL East division. With Strider on a minor league rehab assignment, Fuentes now in the majors, top prospect JR Ritchie performing well and injured arms like Schwellenbach, Waldrep and AJ Smith-Shawver (Tommy John surgery last year) all progressing through their rehab windows, Atlanta could be on the cusp of escaping those early health setbacks with an improbable division lead, which would set the Braves up incredibly well for the remainder of the season.
Braves Place Raisel Iglesias On Injured List
The Braves placed closer Raisel Iglesias on the 15-day injured list due to shoulder inflammation this morning, per a team announcement. Lefty Dylan Dodd was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett to take Iglesias’ spot on the active roster. Iglesias had an MRI which showed inflammation, no structural damage, per Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The IL placement comes a few days after Atlanta skipper Walt Weiss had acknowledged that Iglesias was unavailable because he’d slept on his shoulder wrong (via MLB.com’s Mark Bowman). Weiss said at the time that Iglesias might be available the following day (Sunday), and he indeed pitched an inning in that game. He’s now headed to the IL and will miss at least two weeks of action. Weiss will likely provide further updates on Iglesias’ status later tonight, before the Braves take on the Nats in D.C.
Iglesias sat 94.8 mph with his four-seamer in 2025 and was close to that mark for his first several appearances of the current season. His heater sat 95 mph in an April 14 outing but dropped to 93.9 mph the following day and sat just 92.9 mph his last time out.
Iglesias re-signed with Atlanta on a one-year, $16MM deal over the offseason. He’s gotten out to another strong start, holding opponents scoreless on just five hits with an 11-to-1 K/BB ratio in his first 8 2/3 frames. The right-hander struggled early last season due to an uncharacteristic stretch of susceptibility to home runs, but since mid-June of last year, he’s rattled off 52 innings with a 1.04 ERA, 31.2% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate while converting 26 of 27 save attempts.
With Iglesias shelved, Atlanta will almost certainly turn to fellow free-agent addition Robert Suarez in the ninth inning. The former Padres closer, who inked a three-year, $45MM contract this offseason, picked up the save Saturday when Iglesias was unavailable and has been dominant as the Braves’ primary setup man this season. He’s held opponents to just one run on seven hits and a walk with 11 strikeouts in 9 2/3 frames. Suarez picked up 77 saves and 20 holds while pitching to a 2.91 ERA in four seasons with San Diego before signing in Atlanta this winter.
Mets Planning To Recall Christian Scott For Thursday Start
The Mets will recall righty Christian Scott from Triple-A Syracuse to start Thursday’s series finale against the Twins, manager Carlos Mendoza tells the team’s beat (link via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo). It’ll be Scott’s first big league action since undergoing Tommy John surgery during the summer of 2024. He’ll square off against Twins top starter Joe Ryan.
Scott, now 26 years old, once ranked as the organization’s top pitching prospect and one of the top prospects in the entire sport. He made his major league debut in 2024 and posted a 4.56 ERA with 19.8% strikeout rate and 6.1% walk rate in his first nine starts in the Mets’ rotation. He’d previously tossed 42 1/3 innings with a 2.76 ERA, 33.5% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate at the Triple-A level. His surgery didn’t take place until September, so he was never going to be an option for the Mets in 2025.
At this point, Scott is 19 months removed from going under the knife. He held opponents to three runs in six spring innings and has tossed 13 2/3 innings in Syracuse so far in 2026. His 5.27 ERA isn’t much to look at, but Scott has set down 29.3% of his opponents against a microscopic 3.4% walk rate. His 95.3 mph average four-seamer is actually up about a mile per hour over his prior levels. He’s pairing that pitch with a slider and splitter — the same three-pitch mix he featured prior to his elbow injury.
Outside of Nolan McLean, the Mets’ rotation is something of a mess at the moment. Freddy Peralta has been solid but not as effective as expected when trading a pair of top-100 prospects for the final season of his contract. David Peterson‘s 5.40 ERA is tied heavily to a sky-high .373 average on balls in play, but the results are discouraging nonetheless. Clay Holmes has a sub-2.00 ERA but is working with diminished strikeout and walk rates; metrics like FIP (4.18) and SIERA (4.23) feel he’s in line for a change of fortune. Lefty Sean Manaea, in the second season of a three-year deal guaranteeing him $75MM (with some notable deferrals), has been relegated to a long relief/swing role.
Most concerning of all is right-hander Kodai Senga, whom the Mets optioned to Triple-A last summer amid a series of struggles that looks to have been rekindled. The 33-year-old started the season in strong fashion (four runs, 16-to-5 K/BB ratio in his first 11 2/3 innings) but has lasted only 5 2/3 innings over his past two starts. In that time, he’s been shelled for 14 runs (13 earned) on 14 hits and five walks with only six strikeouts (17.1%).
For the time being, Mendoza indicated that Senga would stay in the rotation. His start date will be pushed back to Saturday, however. Peterson, meanwhile, will pitch out of the bullpen during the upcoming turn through the rotation (via SNY’s Chelsea Janes). It doesn’t seem that move is permanent, but with the Mets mired in a calamitous 11-game losing streak, they’re pulling some levers to try to change the team’s fortunes and avoid the doomsday scenario of digging an April hole that’s simply too large to escape.
The tumult in the Mets’ rotation could pave the way for Scott to carve out a lasting spot. His workload will probably be monitored closely this season, but the Mets can find ways to try to manage that if he’s pitching like one of the team’s five best starters. From a service time vantage point, Scott only needs 56 days on the major league roster or injured list this season to cross from one to two years of service. Doing so would put him on track for arbitration following the 2028 season and free agency following the 2030 campaign. He’s currently in the second of his three minor league option years.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Steve Adams
- Good morning! We’ll get going at 1pm CT, but as always, feel free to ask questions ahead of time.
- Good afternoon! Let’s get started a little arly.
- Early, even.
Green Monster
- Any chance someone other than Tanner Scott will pick up all the Dodgers’ saves with Diaz going on the IL?
Steve Adams
- I’d imagine Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen get some chances as well
squinky
- Will Hoffman be the jays closer much longer?
Steve Adams
- Lots of early closer questions. I can tell fantasy season is in full swing! Ha
- Hoffman has struck out 45% of the opponents he’s faced. I know he had the one really bad outing and another two-run hiccup, but yeah, he’s going to hold onto it as long as he’s missing bats anywhere close to this level. He faced four hitters last night and fanned three of them in a scoreless frame.
- Can I be an “ace” while Hunter Brown is out?
Steve Adams
- They don’t even need him to be an ace — they just need someone (multiple someones) to be passable, credible starters.I don’t think Arrighetti has the command to consistently perform like a mid-rotation arm, and it’s a little worrying that his velo’s down a bit. He’s a fourth/fifth starter at best for me, but even consistent fouth starter production would be big for Houston right now
David
- Cade Horton will be out for about 16 months following Tommy John surgery. Will this affect his timeline for becoming arbitration eligible and then a free agent?
Steve Adams
- No, he’ll accrue service time on the major league injured list that whole time.
Boys in Blue
- If they could all get and stay healthy, which TWO are must keepers and which two are likely trade bait? Gavin Stone, Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, Roki Sasaki, Landon Knack, Justin Wrobleski, Bobby Miller
Steve Adams
- Sheehan and Roki. I know the latter has struggled, but we saw the bullpen upside last October and the raw stuff/talent is the highest of the bunch.You can take your pick of the others … I like Wrobleski well enough but he lacks the ceiling of a Sasaki or Sheehan. I have minimal faith in Stone staying healthy. I don’t think you’re getting much/anything for Miller at this point.
ZacharyA
- What’s a small-ticket item you’d personally like to see in the next CBA?
Steve Adams
- All draft picks eligible to be traded
- Does that count as small-ticket? I suppose relative to the salary cap/floor or an international draft, it feels “small”-ish? Maybe that’s too large, but it’s so silly to me that it’s not allowed.
Orioles Designate Sam Huff For Assignment
The Orioles announced Tuesday that catcher Sam Huff has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to catcher Adley Rutschman, who’s returning from a brief stay on the 10-day injured list due to a minor ankle injury.
Huff was just selected to the big league roster last week. He appeared in three games with Baltimore, going 2-for-9 with a double, an RBI and five strikeouts in nine plate appearances. With Rutschman back from the injured list, however, the O’s can turn catching duties back over to their Opening Day tandem of Rutschman and prospect Samuel Basallo.
Huff, 28, signed a minor league deal with the O’s in January. The former Rangers top prospect has now played in parts of six big league seasons and slashed a respectable .246/.299/.427 with a dozen homers in 281 trips to the batter’s box. That’s roughly league-average offense, by measure of wRC+, and more than 10% better than the standard catcher. However, Huff’s output has come in spite of a colossal 36.3% strikeout rate. He’s needed a .354 average on balls in play just to get to league-average with the bat. As such, he’s highly unlikely to sustain his current pace.
On the defensive side of things, Huff has solid framing grades in his limited major league work. He’s struggled with blocking balls in the dirt and controlling the run game. The former seventh-round pick has just an 18.5% caught-stealing rate in his career and has been charged with eight passed balls in 527 innings behind the dish.
Baltimore will have five days to trade Huff or place him on outright waivers. (The latter seems likelier.) Waivers would be another 48-hour process, so the outcome of today’s DFA will be known within a week. If he clears waivers, Huff could be assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk, where he hit .156/.250/.168 in 36 plate appearances before being summoned to the big leagues. However, since he’s previously been outrighted in the past, he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.