Cubs Designate Ty Blach For Assignment
The Cubs have designated left-hander Ty Blach for assignment, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. His spot on the roster goes to fellow southpaw Caleb Thielbar, who has been reinstated from the injured list.
Blach signed a minor league deal with the Cubs last month and was selected to the big league roster Sunday. That marked his first time on a big league roster since 2024. The 35-year-old handled himself well, tossing three shutout innings yesterday against the Brewers. Blach allowed only one hit, didn’t walk anyone, and punched out two of the nine batters he faced. In addition to his three sharp big league innings, Blach has pitched well in four of his five appearances with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Des Moines. He has a 5.23 ERA overall in 20 2/3 innings there, though most of the damage against him came in one start that saw him tagged for six runs in 3 2/3 innings.
With yesterday’s Cubs appearance, Blach has now pitched in parts of eight big league seasons with four different teams. The majority of that experience came with the Giants, who drafted him out of Creighton with their fifth-round pick back in 2012. Blach tossed 299 1/3 frames of 4.36 ERA ball with San Francisco from 2016-18. He then made five starts for the 2019 Orioles and spent the 2022-24 seasons with the Rockies.
Since that solid Bay Area run back in ’16-’18, Blach has been hit hard, yielding a 6.76 ERA in 223 2/3 innings. Part of that stems from calling Coors Field his home for several years, of course, but Blach is also a soft-tossing lefty who’s never missed many bats and has to rely on weak contact and precise command. There’s not much margin for error with a pitch-to-contact lefty who’s sitting 89.8 mph with his sinker and pitching half his games at altitude. That said, Blach did average 91.1 mph on that sinker in yesterday’s appearance — right in line with his velocity from his early days with the Giants.
The Cubs have five days to trade Blach, place him on outright waivers or release him. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll have the opportunity to accept an outright assignment with Chicago, though he also has the right to reject an outright in favor of free agency if he prefers that route.
Thielbar has missed nearly a month with a hamstring strain. The 39-year-old lefty had a terrific season with the Cubs in his age-38 campaign last year (2.64 ERA, 58 innings) and re-signed on a one-year, $4.5MM contract in free agency. He allowed three earned runs on six hits (two of them homers) and five walks with 11 strikeouts in 8 2/3 frames before hitting the injured list.
Pirates Recall Jhostynxon García
May 19: The Pirates announced that García has indeed been recalled from Triple-A. He’s in line to make his team debut as soon as tonight.
May 18, 9:52am: While García is expected to be promoted, Hiles adds in a follow-up report, the Pirates have been considering one other player as well. A decision has not yet been finalized.
8:55am: The Pirates are set to recall outfielder Jhostynxon García from Triple-A Indianapolis, reports Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Bucs are off today, so the move won’t be official until tomorrow’s road date with the division-rival Cardinals in St. Louis. The Pirates already optioned infielder/outfielder Nick Yorke to Indianapolis following yesterday’s game.
García, 23, was acquired from the Red Sox in the offseason trade sending Johan Oviedo to Boston. “The Password” ranked on various top-100 prospect list during the 2025 season but has slipped a bit; he’s still a generally well-regarded outfield prospect who’s bounced back from an awful start to his 2026 season to catch fire.
Despite an eye-popping spring with the Pirates in which he batted .405/.463/.595 in 41 plate appearances, García opened the season in the minors. The Pirates had Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Ryan O’Hearn locked into outfield spots and Marcell Ozuna at designated hitter. The Bucs understandably wanted García getting everyday reps rather than sparse playing time on the bench when he’s still in his formative, developmental years. The situation is a bit different now, with O’Hearn hitting the injured list over the weekend and Ozuna having struggled through an awful 39-game stretch to begin his season (.182/.271/.311).
García himself opened the season mired in a 1-for-27 slump through his first 29 trips to the batter’s box. He broke out with a three-hit game on April 5 and hit safely in six of seven games before landing on the minor league injured list due to a back injury. García rehabbed with the Pirates’ Class-A club for a few days in early May, then erupted with a 5-for-5, three-homer outburst in his return to the Triple-A lineup last month. Overall, since that three-hit game in early April, he’s slashed .324/.365/.632. It’s only 68 total plate appearances — a handful of them in A-ball — but it’s clear that García has broken out of that early-season slump.
For the Pirates, the inverse is true. Pittsburgh was swept by their intrastate rivals over the weekend, dropping three straight to Philadelphia by scores of 11-9, 6-0 and 6-0. The Pirates were 16-11 back on April 25 and have gone 8-12 since. They’re still a game over .500, at 24-23, but they’ve five games back of the Cubs for the NL Central lead and 3.5 games out in the NL Wild Card hunt.
García should jump into the mix and get everyday at-bats, likely in right field in place of O’Hearn. Jake Mangum can float between all three outfield spots as needed. If García is hitting well when O’Hearn is ready to return from the injured list, that could put some pressure on Ozuna — at least as long as the rest of the roster is healthy. Reynolds, Cruz and O’Hearn have been key cogs in a Pirates lineup that ranks sixth in the majors in runs scored (229), sixth in batting average (.248), fourth in on-base percentage (.332) and is tied for 13th in slugging percentage (.388). They’re not going to be displaced. O’Hearn can also play first base, but Spencer Horwitz is slashing .273/.383/.414, so he’s not going anywhere either.
García made his major league debut with the Red Sox last year, but he received only nine plate appearances and accrued just nine days of major league service time. There isn’t enough time left on the calendar for him to reach a full year of service in 2026, so he’ll be controllable all the way through 2032 in Pittsburgh. Future optional assignments could change that trajectory, of course. He’s in his second minor league option year and will have one remaining beyond the current season.
Ryan Jeffers Diagnosed With Hamate Fracture
11:47am: The Twins have now announced the full slate of moves. Righty Garrett Acton has been moved to the 60-day IL to open roster space for Jackson. Acton has been out since late April due to a shoulder strain, and he’ll now be sidelined into late June at the earliest.
11:20am: It’s shaping up to be quite a day for the Twins — and not in a good way. Not only are the Twins optioning former No. 1 pick and top prospect Royce Lewis to Triple-A, they’ll also lose their starting catcher for an extended period. Ryan Jeffers has been diagnosed with a fractured hamate in his left wrist, Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune reports. Jeffers broke his bat on a foul ball in the eighth inning last night and motioned for trainers a couple pitches later. He exited mid-at-bat. The Twins will select the contract of journeyman catcher Alex Jackson to replace Jeffers, per Aaron Gleeman. Victor Caratini will presumably shoulder the starting workload behind the plate.
It’s a brutal injury for Jeffers, a free agent at season’s end, and for the Twins. Jeffers has been not only one of the Twins’ best hitters in 2026 but one of the most productive players in the game. He’s hitting .295/.408/.541 with seven homers and as many walks as strikeouts (15.6% apiece). Jeffers’ 165 wRC+ (indicating he’s been 65% better than a league-average hitter) ranks seventh among the 186 major league players who’ve logged at least 140 plate appearances in 2026.
Jeffers, 29 next month, has somewhat quietly been one of baseball’s best-hitting catchers for several seasons now. Dating back to 2023, he sports a .258/.346/.445 batting line with 51 homers and 70 doubles in 1411 plate appearances. Strikeouts were once an issue for him, but he’s dropped his rate of punchouts in three straight seasons. Jeffers had an uncharacteristic power outage last year, hitting just nine homers, but he slugged 35 homers in 800 trips to the plate from 2023-24 and was on pace for 20-plus again in 2026. This year’s .246 ISO (slugging minus batting average) is a career-high and would be his third ISO of .200+ in the past four seasons.
The Twins haven’t provided a timetable, but hamate fractures tend to sideline players for around four to five weeks. They typically require a small surgical procedure to remove the “hook” at the end of the bone. It bears emphasizing, however, that a four-week timetable is far from certain. Corbin Carroll, Francisco Lindor and Andrew Vaughn all took about that long (give or take a few days) to return from their own hamate fractures this season, but Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday suffered a hamate fracture in mid-February and only just returned yesterday after multiple setbacks. A best-case scenario would see Jeffers return in mid-June, but that’ll hinge on how the surgery and the first few weeks of rehab play out.
In his place, Caratini will likely slide into the regular catcher’s role. The former Cubs, Brewers and Astros backstop signed a two-year, $14MM deal with the Twins as a free agent this winter. That contract positioned Caratini to serve as Jeffers’ backup while also mixing in at first base and designated hitter. He was coming off a nice three-year run between Milwaukee (2023) and Houston (2024-25), wherein he slashed a combined .262/.328/.400. That’s about five percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+, and about 17% better than the average catcher.
Things haven’t gone to plan for the switch-hitting Caratini so far in Minnesota. He’s appeared in 34 games and taken 127 plate appearances but posted a bleak .192/.299/.231 batting line. Perhaps more consistent playing time at one position will help his bat perk up.
Caratini is walking at an 8.7% clip with an 18.9% strikeout rate that’s nearly four points lower than league average, so it’s not as though his approach at the plate has completely evaporated. His contact rate on pitches within the strike zone is a superlative 95.7%. His 36.5% hard-hit rate is a career-low, but his 88.8 mph average exit velocity is right in line with last year’s 88.7% mark. Caratini, despite a sharp 22.4% line-drive rate, is hitting just .226 on balls in play. Statcast feels he’s been one of the game’s unluckiest hitters, pegging his “expected” batting average at .247 and his “expected” slugging percentage at .363.
Jackson, 30, is having a typical season for himself over in St. Paul. For him, that means good defense and power with poor on-base marks and far too many strikeouts. He’s batting .239/.295/.511 with seven homers in 95 Triple-A plate appearances, but he’s struck out nearly 33% of the time he’s set foot in the batter’s box.
The Twins acquired Jackson in an offseason deal with the Orioles, sending minor league utilityman Payton Eeles the other way in the deal. At the time, Jackson was viewed as the backup to Jeffers. The Twins were going through some ownership uncertainty and didn’t know what kind of resources — if any — they’d have to spend in free agency. Once they announced three new minority stakeholders and received the green light for some modest free agent spending, Caratini was brought in on his two-year deal. Jackson was passed through waivers in spring training and stuck around as a depth piece. He’s being paid $1.35MM this year and will now find himself in the backup role he initially envisioned — just behind a different starting catcher.
Acton, 27, was acquired from the Marlins in an April trade sending minor league righty Logan Whitaker back to Miami. He’d previously been designated for assignment by the Fish. Acton tossed 6 2/3 solid innings for Minnesota before hitting the injured list. He still only has 13 1/3 major league innings to his credit, but Acton has big strikeout numbers in his minor league career and enjoyed a strong season with the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate last year in his return from a yearlong injury absence: 3.68 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate, 11.4% walk rate in 58 2/3 innings.
The Twins haven’t specified how long they expect Acton to be sidelined. Assuming his injury isn’t season-ending in nature, there should be plenty of opportunity for him in a patchwork bullpen that’s been one of the worst in Major League Baseball through the season’s first eight weeks.
Orioles Select Albert Suarez, Designate Maverick Handley
The Orioles on Tuesday selected the contract of righty Albert Suarez from Triple-A Norfolk and designated catcher Maverick Handley for assignment, per a team announcement. Handley’s DFA opens a 40-man spot for Suarez. Baltimore optioned righty Cameron Foster to Norfolk to make room on the active roster.
Suarez, 36, has been a heavily used swingman for the Orioles since making a 2024 return from the Korea Baseball Organization. He started 24 games and made another eight relief outings in ’24 and has appeared in 11 games over the past two seasons, mostly out of the ‘pen, while also missing time with injuries.
Overall, since Suarez joined the Orioles on a minor league deal in the 2023-24 offseason, he’s given them 161 innings of 3.58 ERA ball split between 25 starts and 18 relief outings. This will be his second big league stint of the season. The O’s already passed him through waivers once. He’s made two starts in Norfolk, totaling nine innings and allowing four runs with a 7-to-2 K/BB ratio.
An ugly start from Trevor Rogers yesterday led to both Foster and Dietrich Enns throwing 35-plus pitches. Suarez will give the bullpen a fresh arm in the event that the O’s need some more length in today’s game. Since he’s been starting in Norfolk, he’s stretched out for multiple innings if need be.
The 28-year-old Handley has been up-and-down between Norfolk and Baltimore and on-and-off the Orioles’ 40-man roster over the past calendar year. He’s totaled only 48 major league plate appearances and gone 3-for-42 with a trio of singles and a 39.6% strikeout rate. Handley posted decent numbers in Triple-A last year (.258/.373/.367) and has steadily posted big walk rates throughout his time in the minors. He’s a glove-first backup who can work counts but has a sub-par hit tool and well below-average power.
Baltimore will have five days to trade Handley or place him on waivers. If he clears waivers, he’ll have the option to reject an outright assignment and become a free agent, which hasn’t been available to him in the past. However, he’s spent his whole career in the Orioles organization since being selected in the sixth round of the 2019 draft, so he may opt to stick with the only club he’s known.
Twins Option Royce Lewis, Select Orlando Arcia, Designate Justin Topa
11:02am: Right-hander Justin Topa is being designated for assignment to make room for Arcia on the 40-man roster, per MLB.com’s Matthew Leach. It sounds as though there’ll be additional roster juggling for the Twins at some point today, as this sequence leaves them at 25 players and short one arm in the ‘pen.
10:58am: Minnesota is selecting the contract of veteran infielder Orlando Arcia to take Lewis’ spot on the big league roster, Hayes further reports. They’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move to get Arcia onto the roster.
10:52am: The Twins have optioned third baseman Royce Lewis to Triple-A St. Paul following a dismal start to his 2026 season, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports. It’s the first time since 2022 that the former No. 1 overall pick has been optioned, and it’s the second member of Minnesota’s Opening Day lineup to be sent down in the past week. The Twins also sent struggling right fielder Matt Wallner out last Thursday — his first time being optioned in two years.
Now 26 years old, Lewis looked bound for stardom when he debuted in 2022-23 with a .307/.364/.549 slash and 17 homers in his first 70 MLB games (280 plate appearances). On top of that performance, he went on to club four homers in 26 plate appearances during Minnesota’s 2023 postseason run. Injuries have taken their toll and derailed the promising slugger’s trajectory. Lewis has twice torn the ACL in his right knee. He’s also had three strains/partial tears of his left hamstring, a quad strain in his right leg and (earlier this year) a mild sprain in his left knee.
In 31 games and 119 plate appearances this season, Lewis is hitting just .163/.261/.279. Strikeouts have never been a prominent issue for him in the past — he posted a 21% strikeout rate from 2022-25 — but he’s fanned in 31.1% of his plate appearances this season. Lewis’ 32.8% chase rate on balls off the plate isn’t egregiously higher than his 31.4% career mark, but it’s way north of the 28.2% mark he showed during that 2022-23 flash of potential stardom. Meanwhile, his contact rate on pitches within the zone has dropped from 83.7% entering the year to just 78.3%. His contact rate when he does chase off the plate has cratered, falling from 59.1% in 2022-25 to only 44% this season.
Because it’s been so long since he was sent down, Lewis is still in the second of three minor league option years. He’s making $2.85MM this season after avoiding arbitration over the winter, and he’s already crossed the four-year threshold in service time this season, so a minor league assignment doesn’t change his potential timeline to free agency. Getting to six years of service and free agency isn’t a guarantee at this point, however. He’ll need to get back on track in the minors or else risk being non-tendered following the season.
With Lewis headed across the Mississippi River for the time being, third base seems likely to be handled by a combination of Arcia and utilityman Ryan Kreidler. Left fielder Austin Martin and shortstop Brooks Lee both have experience at third base, but Martin is enjoying a breakout in the outfield while the Twins are trying to give Lee a long leash to see if he can handle shortstop in the long run. Neither seems all that likely to change positions — at least for now. (Top prospect Kaelen Culpepper could potentially push Lee off shortstop at some point this summer.)
Arcia, the younger brother of former Twins top prospect and outfielder Oswaldo Arcia, has an inconsistent big league track record but has been on a tear in St. Paul this season. Once ranked as one of the sport’s 10 best prospects, the younger Arcia never found his footing with his original organization, the Brewers. Milwaukee wound up trading him to Atlanta in 2021, and Arcia went on a nice two-year run with the Braves, hitting .258/.319/.419 in 767 plate appearances from 2022-23. The same struggles he experienced with the Brewers resurfaced in 2024, however, as Arcia batted just .214/.263/.337 in 816 plate appearances between the Braves and Rockies from 2024-25. Overall, he’s a .239/.292/.369 hitter in 3537 big league plate appearances.
Arcia will get a chance to bounce back with the Twins after hitting .318/.376/.556 with eight homers, 10 doubles, a triple, three steals, an 8.5% walk rate and an 18.8% strikeout rate in 39 games (165 plate appearances) with the Saints to begin the year. He’s accrued well beyond eight years of big league service time, so even if Arcia does put together a rebound effort, he’ll be a free agent at season’s end.
Topa, 35, has spent parts of three seasons with the Twins after coming over from the Mariners alongside prospect Gabriel Gonzalez in the Jorge Polanco trade. He missed nearly all of the 2024 season following a spring knee injury but was a solid middle-relief presence in 2025, tossing 60 innings with a 3.90 ERA, an 18.3% strikeout rate, a 6.7% walk rate and a 47.7% ground-ball rate.
The 2026 season hasn’t been kind to Topa. He’s pitched 19 innings and served up 18 runs (17 earned) on 27 hits and 11 walks. He’s yielded four home runs, struck out only 13% of his opponents and walked 12% of them.
Earlier in his career, Topa was frequently injured but showed premium stuff when healthy, leading to plenty of “what if” speculation about a potentially high-end reliever who simply couldn’t stay healthy. He broke out with the 2023 Mariners, logging a 2.61 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and 56.7% grounder rate in what’s still a career-high 69 innings. The power sinker that Topa showed that season is down from an average of 95 mph to 93.2 mph in 2026, however. Topa isn’t missing bats anywhere close to a league-average level, and his command has worsened.
The Twins are paying Topa $1.225MM this season. Between that salary and his struggles, it’s likely that he’ll either clear outright waivers or be released, though the Twins can spend up to five days looking for a trade partner before going the waiver route.
Braves Release Aaron Bummer, Place Drake Baldwin On Injured List
The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve released left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer and placed catcher Drake Baldwin on the 10-day injured list due to an oblique strain. Atlanta also activated lefty Dylan Dodd from the 10-day IL, recalled righty Victor Mederos from Triple-A, selected the contract of catcher Chadwick Tromp and optioned right-hander JR Ritchie to Triple-A.
The Baldwin injury is a massive setback for an Atlanta club that’s also once again without veteran Sean Murphy (fractured finger). The 25-year-old Baldwin won National League Rookie of the Year honors in 2025 and has thus far played like he has his eyes set on some additional hardware; Baldwin has played at an MVP-caliber pace in 2026, sprinting out of the gate with a .303/.389/.543 batting line. After swatting 19 home runs in 446 plate appearances as a rookie, he’s already clubbed 13 in just 216 trips to the batter’s box in his sophomore season.
By measure of wRC+, Baldwin has been 60% better than average at the plate this season — the eighth-best qualified hitter in the sport. That’s a feat in and of itself, but considering the average catcher is about 12% worse than average at the plate, Baldwin’s immense production is all the more valuable. Couple that with strong blocking skills and average framing grades, and Baldwin has been one of the best all-around players in baseball. Both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference peg him at 2.2 wins above replacement through just over one quarter of the regular season.
The Braves have yet to put a timetable on Baldwin’s potential absence. Every injury case is different, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for upwards of one month. A more severe strain would come with a lengthier absence. Atlanta skipper Walt Weiss will surely provide more details prior to this afternoon’s contest against the Marlins, who pounced the now-optioned Ritchie and the now-released Bummer for a combined 12 earned runs — six apiece — last night.
With Baldwin and Murphy both shelved, Atlanta will go from one of the sport’s most potent catching tandems to perhaps the lightest-hitting backstop tandem in baseball. Tromp joins 37-year-old Sandy León in handling catching duties for the foreseeable future. León hasn’t topped 100 plate appearances in a big league season since 2021 and carries a .176/.245/.268 batting line over his past 930 trips to the plate in the majors. Tromp is a career .221/.230/.390 hitter in 178 major league plate appearances. They’re both solid defenders, and Tromp has some modest pop in his bat, but both can be reasonably projected for an OBP in the .250 range.
As already referenced, Bummer was tagged for six runs last night in what will go down as his final appearance with the Braves. He lasted only one inning. Were that meltdown an isolated instance, the veteran Bummer’s track record would surely have spared him. The entire 2026 season, however, has been a calamitous one for the 32-year-old southpaw.
Bummer has pitched 15 1/3 innings for the Braves this season and been shelled for a 7.63 ERA. He’s given up multiple runs in five of his 19 appearances, and most of the damage has come in the past five weeks. Dating back to April 13, Bummer has been torched for 15 runs (13 earned) on 17 hits and seven walks in 11 1/3 innings. Opponents have belted six home runs in that span, and he’s fanned only 16.9% of his opponents along the way.
Prior to 2026, Bummer gave the Braves two seasons of quality middle relief. He rarely found his way into high-leverage spots but still combined for 109 2/3 innings of 3.69 ERA ball. He set down 25.1% of his opponents on strikes and logged a tidy 7.3% walk rate over those two seasons. It wasn’t star-level performance, but Bummer was a perfectly serviceable bullpen arm.
There were some warning signs last season, however. Bummer’s strikeout rate dipped by several percentage points, while his average four-seamer and average sinker both fell by about two miles per hour. The strikeout and velo declines have worsened in 2026. Bummer sat 94.7 mph on his four-seamer and 94.3 mph on his go-to sinker as recently as 2023. He’s averaging 90.5 mph and 90.2 mph, respectively, on that pair of pitches this season.
Atlanta originally acquired Bummer from the White Sox in a volume trade sending five players back to Chicago: Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster, Nicky Lopez, Braden Shewmake and Riley Gowens. He was signed to a five-year, $16MM contract with club options for the 2025-26 seasons at the time. After a strong debut campaign in Atlanta, the Braves restructured the contract, effectively guaranteeing both option years in advance while trimming $500K from their combined value and pushing the bulk of the salary into the 2026 season. Bummer earned $3.5MM last year and is being paid $9.5MM this season.
The Braves will remain on the hook for the entirety of that contract. Bummer will be free to sign with any team, and a new club would owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the major league roster. That small sum would be subtracted from what Atlanta owes the veteran southpaw, but they’ll eat the vast majority of the contract regardless of Bummer’s next steps.
Mets To Promote Nick Morabito
The Mets are planning to recall outfield prospect Nick Morabito for his major league debut, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. He’ll fill the 26-man roster spot that’s being vacated by the previously reported DFA of veteran outfielder Austin Slater.
Morabito, the No. 75 overall pick in the 2022 draft, entered the season generally ranked between 10th and 20th among Mets farmhands. The 23-year-old has held his own thus far in his first taste of Triple-A, slashing a roughly league-average .253/.364/.390 in 175 trips to the plate. Morabito has walked at a hearty 12% clip, fanned in 22.9% of his plate appearances, connected on four home runs and gone 14-for-16 (87.5%) in stolen base attempts.
Morabito hasn’t hit the ball particularly hard in the upper minors, and despite this season’s four home runs, he’s considered to have well below-average power. He’s a plus runner who’s capable of handling all three outfield spots at an above-average level.
The Mets already have a crowded outfield mix, thanks in part to a pair of fellow rookies; Opening Day right fielder Carson Benge has come alive at the plate lately, and A.J. Ewing has hit the ground running since last week’s promotion to the big leagues. Juan Soto entered the season as the everyday left fielder, but he’s spent more time at designated hitter lately while playing through forearm and ankle issues (the latter stemming from an at-bat last week where he fouled a ball into his right foot).
Soto’s uptick in DH time and Slater’s DFA could create more outfield opportunities for the fleet-footed Morabito. The influx of youth and steady presence of Soto’s bat will likely continue to cut into playing time for outfielder/designated hitter MJ Melendez. The former Royals top prospect has predictably cooled off after a blistering start to the season. Melendez provided an early spark when he hit .345/.406/.655 in his first 33 turns at the plate, but that production was buoyed by a .533 average on balls in play and came in spite of a 36.4% strikeout rate and 68% contact rate. Melendez’s lack of contact has caught up with him. He’s hitting .133/.278/.200 with a 33.9% strikeout rate this month and is currently in a 1-for-20 slump.
Morabito was selected to the 40-man roster back in November in order to shield him from selection in December’s Rule 5 Draft. As such, he’s in the first of three minor league option years. Enough time has passed in 2026 that he can’t accrue a full year of major league service this season, meaning Morabito will be under club control for at least six additional years — all the way through 2032. That timeline could change, depending on whether Morabito is optioned back to Syracuse at any point (and on how long said optional assignments last).
Twins Notes: Woods Richardson, Rojas, Lewis
The Twins are moving struggling starter Simeon Woods Richardson to the bullpen for at least this turn through the rotation, per Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. Left-hander Kendry Rojas, a well-regarded prospect whom Minnesota acquired in last year’s Louis Varland trade with the Jays, will take his place and start tonight against the Astros.
It’s not necessarily a full-fledged rotation change. Rojas is taking the ball in what’ll amount to a bullpen game. Woods Richardson may even factor into the contest in some sort of bulk relief role. However, the 25-year-old has struggled immensely as a member of Minnesota’s starting staff this year. Woods Richardson has started nine games but been tagged for a grisly 7.71 ERA. He’s been done in by extreme susceptibility to home runs (1.93 HR/9) and the lowest strikeout rate of any pitcher who’s thrown at least 20 innings this year (10.1%).
Woods Richardson is a former second-round pick and touted prospect who came to Minnesota alongside breakout left fielder Austin Martin back in the 2021 José Berríos trade with the Blue Jays. From 2024-25, he was a solid back-end starter, taking the ball 51 times (all but one of them starts) and recording a 4.11 ERA with a 21.5% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.
Woods Richardson hasn’t seen a massive drop-off in velocity, but his heater is down more than half a mile per hour, from last year’s 93.2 mph to a 92.6 mph average this season. He’s moved away from a curveball that was never all that effective and shifted from a traditional changeup to a harder splitfinger change that hasn’t produced the type of results for which he or the team hoped.
If the Twins were able, they’d likely have optioned Woods Richardson by now in hopes of getting him on track. He’s out of minor league options, though, so the solution isn’t so straightforward. Minnesota surely doesn’t want to completely jettison a formerly well-regarded prospect who gave them 50 mostly decent starts from 2024-25 and who still has four additional seasons of club control remaining.
Whether this is a full-on role change or just a temporary break to get him some bulk work in lower-leverage spots, a move to the ‘pen has seemed like an inevitability for some time now. It’s hard not to wonder what Woods Richardson’s arsenal might look like in shorter relief, however, especially since the Twins’ bullpen has been an unmitigated nightmare. Most pitchers see their velocity tick up when abandoning starting pitching and moving into one-inning, max-effort outings. Woods Richardson sat 93.2 mph last year and got strong results on his slider in both 2024 (opponents hit .214 and slugged .313) and 2025 (.214, .378). Bumping that velo into the mid-90s and focusing more heavily on that slider could produce better results.
Whatever shape it takes in the short term, Rojas figures to have a clear path to audition for a rotation spot in the long term. The Twins reluctantly parted with a homegrown (and hometown) Varland last year in large part because they were so enamored of Rojas’ potential in the rotation. The 6’2″, 190-pound southpaw has a 2.20 ERA in 16 1/3 minor league frames this season and has allowed two runs in his first 7 1/3 MLB frames out of the bullpen. Rojas has walked as many batters as he’s struck out (eight), which isn’t particularly encouraging, but he’s a 23-year-old in his first taste of major league action. Rojas walked 5.3% of his opponents in the minors and has generally been between 9-10% in most other seasons, so there’s no reason to expect command woes of this nature over a larger sample.
Rojas has sat 96 mph with his four-seamer in the majors and 97 mph in Triple-A this year. He’ll mix in an occasional sinker, but his go-to secondary offerings are a slider and changeup both thrown in the upper 80s. He’s a consensus top-10 prospect in an above-average Twins system that got stronger because of last summer’s fire sale and will get another boost this summer with the No. 3 overall draft pick. Rojas joins Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, Connor Prielipp, Zebby Matthews and top-100 prospect Dasan Hill in a collection of young arms around which the Twins hope to build the next core of their rotation.
While Woods Richardson struggles on the mound, Minnesota is facing a similar inflection point with struggling third baseman Royce Lewis. The 2017 No. 1 overall pick looked bound for stardom when he debuted in 2022-23 with a .307/.364/.549 slash and 17 homers in his first 70 MLB games (280 plate appearances). On top of that performance, Lewis went on to club four homers in 26 plate appearances during Minnesota’s 2023 postseason run. The sky looked to be the limit.
Injuries, however, have taken their toll. Lewis has twice torn the ACL in his right knee. He’s also had three strains/partial tears of his left hamstring, a quad strain in his right leg and (earlier this year) a mild sprain in his left knee. That’s practically a career’s worth of lower-half injuries, but Lewis incurred them all before even turning 27 years old (which he’ll do on June 5).
In 31 games and 119 plate appearances this season, Lewis is hitting just .163/.261/.279. Strikeouts have never been a prominent issue for him in the past — he posted a 21% strikeout rate from 2022-25 — but he’s fanned in 31.1% of his plate appearances this season. Lewis’ 32.8% chase rate on balls off the plate isn’t egregiously higher than his 31.4% career mark, but it’s way north of the 28.2% mark he showed during that 2022-23 flash of potential stardom. Meanwhile, his contact rate on pitches within the zone has dropped from 83.7% entering the year to just 78.3%. His contact rate when he does chase off the plate has cratered, falling from 59.1% in 2022-25 to only 44% this season.
Dan Hayes of The Athletic spoke to Twins skipper Derek Shelton, who voiced praise for Lewis’ work ethic and the amount of effort he’s put in to climb out of this rut. That only goes so far, however, and sooner than later the Twins will need to see tangible gains or else consider a demotion similar to Matt Wallner, who was optioned to Triple-A last week after two-plus years on the big league roster. Hayes lists journeyman Orlando Arcia and top-100 prospect Kaelen Culpepper as potential options to swap out for Lewis. Both would need to be added to the 40-man roster. Culpepper is a shortstop but could play third base in the majors or perhaps push Brooks Lee to the hot corner. Arcia doesn’t have a big track record but is hitting .318/.376/.556 with eight homers over in St. Paul.
Lewis is controllable through the 2028 season. He’s making $2.85MM this season after avoiding arbitration over the winter. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining.
Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript
Steve Adams
- Good afternoon! We'll get going in 90 minutes or so, but feel free to submit questions ahead of time if you prefer. Looking forward to it!
- Happy Monday! Let's get going
Rookie Craze
- AJ Ewing or Henry Bolte? Who's ship are you jumping on? I see Ewing as a higher floor more guarantee to be a major league regular. I see Bolte as having a higher ceiling and more chance at All Star status but more risk of being a flop. Am I right?
Steve Adams
- I think Ewing just has a higher ceiling and floor. Bolte probably has more power and obviously has elite speed, but the hit tool is so shaky. Ewing feels both safer and likelier to become an All-Star
Olereb
- Are the Braves stuck with Jurickson Profar? I mean it does not sound fair, the Braves signed him because they felt he could help them for the next 3 years. He cheated not once but twice, he let them down. In my opinion the Braves should be able to void his contract. There’s nobody that’s going to want him and the circus that’s going to follow him.
Steve Adams
- They're not stuck paying him or anything. He's not taking a roster spot or collecting any salary while he's out with his suspension. He hit when he was healthy last year. I suppose they're stuck with him for 2027.I don't think you'll ever see an agreement that a PED suspension should void a player's contract. There are millions (tens of millions, in some cases) on the line. Imagine if ... I don't know, Anthony Rendon tested positive for PEDs last year and had his contract voided, then accused the Angels of giving him some kind of banned substance. It'd be a fiasco, and it flies in the face of the fully guaranteed contracts for which players have fought. I don't see it.
Carter
- Marlins are gearing towards a disappointing season... do you think they will capitalize on the market and sell off starting pitching? Alcantara can warrant a good return while someone like Meyer can get a better one. Any thoughts?
-
Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription
BENEFITS- Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
- Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
- Remove ads and support our writers.
- Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker
Orioles Claim Michael Siani, Designate Jose Espada
The Orioles claimed outfielder Michael Siani off waivers from the Dodgers and designated righty Jose Espada for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster. Siani has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.
Siani was designated for assignment by the Dodgers last week when they acquired fellow outfielder Alek Thomas in a trade with the D-backs. The 26-year-old Siani has spent the entire 2026 season with the Dodgers’ Triple-A club after coming over from the Yankees in a February waiver claim. That capped off a busy winter for Siani, who bounced from the Cardinals, to the Braves, to the Dodgers, to the Yankees and back to the Dodgers in a series of DFAs and waiver claims.
In 107 plate appearances with the Dodgers’ top affiliate, Siani has slashed just .225/.355/.303. He’s walked at a huge 15.9% clip but has also fanned in 28% of his plate appearances and has yet to hit a home run. Siani has picked up five doubles and a triple in addition to a 5-for-7 showing in stolen base attempts.
An over-slot fourth-rounder with the Reds back in 2018, Siani has spent all of his major league time in the National League Central between Cincinnati and St. Louis. He briefly debuted with the Reds in 2022 but made only 25 major league plate appearances before being claimed by the Cardinals in September of 2023. He was a frequently used, defensive-minded fourth outfielder with the 2024 Cards when he logged a career-high 334 plate appearances.
In parts of four major league seasons, Siani owns an anemic .221/.277/.270 batting line (58 wRC+) but good grades for his defense and baserunning. He’s played 1014 major league innings in the outfield — primarily in center but with fleeting corner appearances mixed in — and been credited with overwhelmingly positive marks from Statcast’s Outs Above Average (16) and from Defensive Runs Saved (7). He’s also gone 21-for-26 in stolen base attempts, giving him a success rate of nearly 81%.
The Orioles lost Dylan Beavers to an oblique strain last week. Heston Kjerstad hasn’t played at all this season due to a hamstring injury and is on the 60-day IL. Siani adds some depth to an outfield group that has gotten good production from Taylor Ward and Leody Taveras but has seen former top prospect Colton Cowser and relatively high-priced slugger Tyler O’Neill (who signed a three-year, $49.5MM contract prior to the ’25 season) both struggle tremendously at the plate.
Espada, 29, is the cousin of Astros skipper Joe Espada. He’s pitched one scoreless inning with the O’s this year and another three shutout frames with them in 2025. The 2015 fifth-rounder (Blue Jays) has only five big league frames to his credit. Espada carries a 4.57 ERA and 27.5% strikeout rate in parts of three Triple-A seasons, but he’s also walked 15.5% of his opponents at the top minor league level. Beyond his work in North American ball, Espada tossed 27 innings with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball back in 2024.
Espada has sat 93.6 mph on his four-seamer in the majors, coupling it with a slider that sits just under 93 mph. In the minors, he’s frequently used a splitter that averages just under 90 mph, but he hasn’t used the pitch heavily in his tiny sample of MLB work.
The O’s will have five days to trade Espada or place him on outright waivers. That’d be another 48-hour process, meaning his DFA will be resolved within a week’s time. Espada doesn’t have three years of big league service and hasn’t been outrighted at any point in his career, so he won’t have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed. In that scenario, he’d head to Triple-A Norfolk and stick around as non-roster depth.