Cubs Place Justin Steele On Injured List
11:05am: Steele tells ESPN’s Jesse Rogers that he first felt discomfort during his most recent start against the Rangers. He gutted through another couple innings, but the discomfort lingered in the days following that appearance. He believes it’ll be a minimum IL stint.
10:22am: The Cubs placed lefty Justin Steele on the 15-day injured list due to tendinitis in his left elbow, per a team announcement. Righty Ethan Roberts has been recalled from Triple-A Iowa to take his spot on the roster.
It’s something of a surprise IL placement for the excellent 29-year-old southpaw. The Cubs hadn’t previously acknowledged any elbow troubles for Steele — at least not publicly — and he’s coming off the best results of his season to date. He fired seven shutout innings with three hits, two walks and eight punchouts against the Rangers just two days ago.
Steele’s fastball averaged just 90.2 mph during that outing, however, tying him for the lowest mark of his career. At first glance, that could’ve been chalked up to frigid low-30s temperatures at Wrigley Field, but it seems there’s at least some degree of elbow trouble at play. On the whole, Statcast has measured Steele’s average heater at 90.8 mph this season — a career-low mark that’s down even relative to his early work in prior seasons.
The Cubs haven’t given any sort of timetable for Steele’s absence. He’ll be sidelined into late April at the very least, joining fellow starter Javier Assad on the injured list. The Cubs still have Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd and Ben Brown locked into rotation spots. Veteran swingman Colin Rea seems likely to step into the starting five in place of Steele, though lefty Jordan Wicks gives Chicago a healthy option who’s on the 40-man roster down in Triple-A. Fellow Triple-A starter Caleb Kilian, also on the 40-man roster, was placed on the minor league IL over the weekend after giving up six runs in 2 1/3 innings during his 2025 debut.
The Cubs have an off-day tomorrow — one of five remaining off-days on their schedule in the month of April. They still have six consecutive days with a game from April 11-16, so they’ll need a fifth starter during that stretch, but they can plug Rea or Wicks in as the starter in a de facto bullpen game and navigate the rest of the month with only four starters, pending the rest of the group’s health.
Roberts, 27, has pitched in a pair of big league seasons with the Cubs but has yet to cement himself as a regular in the bullpen. He’ll give manager Craig Counsell a fresh arm for now, and his early work in Iowa is certainly eye-catching; he’s appeared in three games, tallied 4 1/3 innings and held opponents scoreless on four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts.
Jake Rogers Diagnosed With Oblique Strain, Could Miss More Than One Month
April 9: Manager A.J. Hinch said this morning that Rogers was diagnosed with a strained oblique and noted that it’ll be more than a minimal IL stint, adding that strains of this nature often take a month or more to heal (via Chris McCosky of the Detroit News).
April 8: The Tigers announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran catcher Tomas Nido from Triple-A Toledo and placed fellow catcher Jake Rogers on the 10-day IL with tightness in his left oblique. Infielder/outfielder Wenceel Perez has been transferred from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot. Perez’s 60-day stint includes the time he’s already missed; he’ll be eligible to return in late May.
Rogers, 30 next week, was scratched from the lineup less than an hour ago. He felt the discomfort in his oblique area while taking swings in the batting cage prior to today’s game, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic. The Tigers — whether influenced by the frigid temperatures at today’s home opener or not — will take the cautious route. They have not yet provided a timetable for his return or specified whether Rogers will head for an MRI. At this point, they’re using the term “tightness” and not “strain,” which suggests Rogers could escape with a relatively minimal IL stay.
Rogers has appeared in six games thus far and is out to a .222/.364/.333 start. He’s seeking a rebound from a down year in 2024, hopeful of returning to the 2023 form that saw him belt a career-best 21 homers while providing his typical brand of plus-plus defense behind the dish. Evan Woodbery of MLive.com pointed out earlier thiat his IL placement will snap a stretch of 37 straight Tarik Skubal starts caught by Rogers.
Nido doesn’t have the same power upside as Rogers, but he’s a plus defender with plenty of big league experience under his belt — most of it coming with the Mets. The 30-year-old veteran (31 this weekend) is a .210/.245/.309 hitter in 945 big league plate appearances accrued over parts of eight MLB seasons. Nido is just over seven weeks shy of six years of big league service time, and this new stint with Detroit will help him inch closer to the six-year mark. He appeared in 49 games between the Mets and Cubs last year, slashing a combined .192/.219/.315 with four homers.
Though Nido has never hit much outside a tiny seven-game sample in the shortened 2020 season, he’s consistently drawn above-average marks for his framing, his ability to block balls in the dirt and his prowess in controlling the running game. His throwing numbers did dip a bit below-average in 2022-23, but he bounced back with a 22.7% caught-stealing rate in 2024 — a couple ticks higher than the league-average 20.4% mark.
Jonny DeLuca To Miss 2-4 Weeks Due To Shoulder Strain
The Rays announced Tuesday that center fielder Jonny DeLuca has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right shoulder strain. Manager Kevin Cash tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that DeLuca is likely to miss two to four weeks. Infielder Coco Montes is up from Triple-A in DeLuca’s place.
It’s an abrupt halt to a blistering start in DeLuca’s 2025 season. The former Dodgers farmhand, acquired alongside Ryan Pepiot in the trade sending Tyler Glasnow to Los Angeles, is out to a .435/.480/.522 start with four steals in 25 plate appearances. He’s obviously not going to sustain that pace, which is buoyed by a .526 average on balls in play and comes in spite of a bleak 10.5% hard-hit rate, but DeLuca has been a key piece in an already injury-plagued outfield through nine games. Josh Lowe and Richie Palacios are both on the shelf as well. That leaves the Rays with rookies Jake Mangum and Kameron Misner in prominent roles alongside defensive nomad Christopher Morel in left field. Infielder Jose Caballero has been getting work in the outfield as well. Montes is primarily an infielder but does have a bit of left field experience in the minors and in Japan last year.
Tampa Bay’s 40-man outfield depth is more or less already depleted, though veteran Eloy Jiménez is out to a decent start in Triple-A. Even if he’s a defensive liability, he has experience in the corners and could be a serviceable short-term option. Prospects Chandler Simpson and Tre’ Morgan are other potential non-roster options who could be called upon if a need arises before the guys on the IL get healthy.
The Rays traded Jose Siri to the Mets in November and quickly revealed that they planned to use DeLuca as the primary center fielder to start the post-Siri era. DeLuca hit a pretty tepid .217/.278/.331 for the Rays last year but stole 16 bases and got solid marks for his glovework. As mentioned, he got out to a far better start this year, though in a small sample but with some flags. Regardless, it’s still a blow, especially given the other injuries the club is already dealing with.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
Chadwick Tromp Elects Free Agency
Braves catcher Chadwick Tromp went unclaimed on outright waivers following his recent DFA, reports Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Atlanta assigned him outright to Triple-A Gwinnett, but he rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, as is his right as a player who’s previously been outrighted in his career.
Tromp, 30, began the season as the team’s backup to top prospect Drake Baldwin. Starter Sean Murphy suffered a rib fracture during spring training that caused him to miss the start of the year. Atlanta designated Tromp for assignment when Murphy was reinstated from the injured list a couple days ago.
The Braves now have a healthy Murphy and Baldwin on the big league roster, and they recently picked up catcher Jason Delay in a cash deal with the Pirates. Atlanta also has a pair of non-roster veterans, Sandy Leon and James McCann, in the organization. There’s enough depth that both Delay and McCann are playing in Double-A at the moment.
Dating back to his 2020 debut with the Giants, Tromp has appeared in 61 MLB games. He’s a .224/.235/.385 hitter with five home runs and 10 doubles in 162 plate appearances, but his 1.9% walk rate and 30.9% strikeout rate underscore a problematic approach at the plate. That said, the Aruban-born backstop is considered a strong defender and carries a career .254/.327/.419 batting line in part of seven Triple-A seasons. An organization with less catching depth than the Braves currently possess will likely add Tromp on a minor league deal and plug him into the Triple-A mix — if not directly onto the big league roster in a backup capacity.
White Sox Re-Sign Brandon Drury To Minor League Deal
The White Sox announced Tuesday that they’ve agreed to a new minor league contract with infielder Brandon Drury. He’ll head to extended spring training for now. Drury was with the ChiSox this spring and enjoyed a monster performance in the Cactus League, hitting .410/.439/.821 with three homers and seven doubles in 41 plate appearances. He looked like a lock to make the team until he suffered a broken thumb right at the end of camp. The Sox released him from that minor league pact, but the two parties have now come to terms on a new deal.
Drury, 32, has run pretty hot and cold in his career. At the end of the 2021 season, he had a career batting line of .249/.296/.415. That production translated to a wRC+ of 83, indicating he was 17% below league average overall.
He then snapped off a really good performance over the next two years. He has never walked much but managed to launch 28 home runs with the Reds and Padres in 2022. He slashed .263/.320/.492 for a 123 wRC+. He signed a two-year, $17MM deal with the Angels going into 2023 and the first year went quite well. He launched another 26 homers and hit .262/.306/.497 for a 114 wRC+.
But everything went south last year. He battled various minor ailments throughout the year and produced a tepid line of .169/.242/.228. The White Sox were able to grab him on a minor league deal and it seemed for a while like they would get him on the upswing, though his aforementioned excellent spring performance was cut short by a broken thumb.
He will once again try to play his way onto the White Sox, which is certainly possible. He has played everywhere but catcher in his career, though he hasn’t played shortstop or the outfield recently. Still, the ability to play the non-shortstop infield positions gives him a chance to crack the lineup if he’s in good form. Miguel Vargas and Andrew Vaughn are taking most of the playing time at the corners right now with Lenyn Sosa at second, though none of them are performing well. Vargas and Sosa can be moved to other positions while Vaughn is only under club control through 2026 and is playing himself into non-tender territory.
If Drury can get healthy and back in form, he would be a candidate to spend some time in the majors with the White Sox. If he produces numbers like his spring performance or his 2022-23 seasons, he would be an intriguing midseason trade candidate.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin, Oncea-Imagn Images
Víctor Robles Likely To Miss About 12 Weeks
The Mariners today provided an update on outfielder Víctor Robles, who was placed on the 10-day injured list yesterday due to a left shoulder dislocation. Today’s update says that the dislocation caused a small fracture in the humeral head in his left shoulder. The club believes that the fracture will heal without surgery, though Robles will be continually monitored to ensure that is the case. Even if he does continue to avoid surgery, the club estimates it will take him six weeks to heal, followed by a six-week rehab process. That suggests he will miss about 12 weeks even in a best-case scenario.
Of course, if there are any setbacks along the way or if it’s determined that Robles will instead require surgical intervention, that timeline would change. In either scenario, given that Robles is already looking at an absence that would extend to around the All-Star break, doubts about his ability to return this season could arise. For now, however, the Mariners are surely relieved that the injury doesn’t look to be season-ending in nature.
Robles, 27, was a longtime top prospect with the Nationals who debuted in as a 20-year-old in 2017 but never quite found his footing as a regular in Washington. He looked on the cusp of a breakout when he hit .258/.328/.430 with plus defense in 2018-19, his age-21 and age-22 seasons, but in 1124 plate appearances from 2020 through the time of his release last May, he batted only .222/.301/.308.
The Mariners signed Robles to a big league deal early last June and were almost immediately rewarded for their show of faith. He filled a bench role early on but played so well in a limited role that he forced himself into the everyday lineup before long. In 77 games with Seattle, Robles turned in a superlative .322/.393/.467 batting line with four homers, 20 doubles and an eye-catching 30 steals in just 31 tries.
Robles was never going to sustain the .388 average on balls in play that propped up his batting line, but he also showed vastly improved contact skills, cutting the 24% strikeout rate he’d displayed from 2020-24 (27.3% with the Nats last year) all the way to 16.8% as a Mariner.
With Seattle, Robles proved much more aggressive, increasing his swing rate at pitches over the plate by several percentage points and also improving his contact rate on said swings. He swung at only 49% of pitches over the plate up through the 2023 season and made contact on 84.5% of those swings; with the Mariners, he offered at 53% of pitches in the zone and made contact at an 87.1% clip.
Even with some expected regression, the Mariners’ version of Robles looked like a more balanced hitter than the one who’d spent several years struggling in D.C. The Mariner front office clearly believed that to be the case, as Robles inked a two-year, $9.75MM contract covering his first two free agent years last summer. The deal spans the 2025-26 campaigns and includes a club option for 2027.
Now, Robles will spend around half of that contract’s first season (at least) on the shelf. He’d been slotted in as the everyday right fielder with Randy Arozarena in left field and Julio Rodriguez in center field. The Robles injury likely paves the way for more Luke Raley to see more outfield time. He’d originally been expected to play more first base in 2025, but a big performance in spring training from Rowdy Tellez forced the Mariners to reevalute. Seattle released Mitch Haniger and committed to Tellez and Raley splitting the load between first base and DH.
Raley and Dominic Canzone figure to get more time in the outfield. It’s also possible that utilitymen Miles Mastrobuoni and Dylan Moore could log some reps there. All three of Raley, Canzone and Mastrobuoni are left-handed hitters, so a platoon arrangement among them isn’t likely. Raley and the righty-hitting Moore could make sense as an on-paper platoon, but Moore has been used as an infielder exclusively thus far and played a career-low 138 innings in the outfield last year.
However it shakes out, the Robles injury is a significant setback for a Mariners club that currently ranks 21st in the majors in runs scored (36). It’s also likely to result in a defensive downturn; the early marks from Robles this season have been uncharacteristically below average, but he’s generally graded as a strong defender in center and is viewed as a potential plus defender in a corner.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Tigers Notes: Margot, Vierling, Rogers
The Tigers placed outfielder Manuel Margot on the 10-day injured list due to left knee inflammation and recalled fellow outfielder Brewer Hicklen from Triple-A, per a club announcement.
Margot has gone 6-for-19 (all singles) to begin his Tigers tenure. He joins Parker Meadows, Matt Vierling and Wenceel Perez on the injured list for a Detroit club that has seen too many injuries in its outfield corps. The team didn’t provide an immediate timetable for Margot’s return. Notably, the left knee is not the same knee that Margot injured back in 2022, when he missed about half the year with a strained patellar tendon in his right knee.
The 29-year-old Hicklen was acquired from the Brewers on March 28 in exchange for cash. He’s hitless in a tiny sample of nine big league plate appearances but has appeared in parts of four Triple-A seasons, slashing .244/.352/.476 in 1366 plate appearances at the top minor league level. Hicklen will join Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter and utilitymen Zach McKinstry, Ryan Kreidler and Andy Ibanez as outfield options for skipper A.J. Hinch.
The Tigers added in a separate announcement this morning that Vierling, who’s been out all season with a strained rotator cuff, is beginning a throwing program today. There’s still no firm timeline for his return, though Hinch noted to reporters that a motivated Vierling was out on the field playing begin throwing in 30-degree weather this morning — both a testament to his eagerness to return and the improved state of his shoulder (link via The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen).
In other Tigers injury news, the team scratched catcher Jake Rogers today due to tightness in his left oblique. As MLive’s Evan Woodbery points out, this means that reigning Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal will be caught by a different catcher for the first time since 2023. Backup Dillon Dingler is getting the start today, snapping a streak of 37 consecutive Skubal starts caught by Rogers.
There’s no indication from the Tigers whether Rogers will require an MRI or a trip to the injured list. Veteran Tomas Nido is on hand in Triple-A Toledo as an experienced option to pair with the 26-year-old Dingler if Rogers is forced to miss any time.
Rogers, 30 next week, is out to a .222/.364/.333 start in his first six games of the season. He’s a premium defender behind the dish and has been looking to rebound from a down year at the plate in 2024, when he batted just .197/.255/.352. As recently as 2023, Rogers popped 21 homers in a season while batting .221/.286/.444.
Yankees Designate Adam Ottavino For Assignment
The Yankees announced this morning that they’ve designated veteran righty Adam Ottavino for assignment in order to clear roster space for fellow righty reliever Ian Hamilton, who’s being reinstated from the 15-day injured list.
It’s the second time the Yankees have designated Ottavino for assignment in the past week; he cleared waivers, elected free agency and quickly re-signed after his previous DFA. The 39-year-old righty and New York City native has pitched in three games with the Yankees and tossed 1 2/3 scoreless and hitless innings — albeit with four walks. He’s also punched out three of the nine batters he’s faced.
The swift turnaround likely didn’t come as a surprise after his quick DFA and re-signing. Veteran pitchers, especially relievers who can’t be optioned to the minors, can often find themselves in this situation. The Yankees themselves have gone through similar situations in the past with righties David Hale and Ryan Weber; both pitchers were designated for assignment by the Yankees several times in the same season, quickly clearing waivers and re-signing on each occasion.
If Ottavino is comfortable with the setup, it’s quite possible he’ll go the same route following this DFA. Fans sometimes bristle at the nature of these carousel scenarios, but the player tends to be on board. Since he can’t be optioned, the recurring DFAs/re-signings effectively amount to being optioned and resummoned to the majors when a fresh arm is needed. If Ottavino (or any other player in this situation) grows weary of the gambit, electing free agency presents a clear path to finding a more palatable situation. However, as a Brooklyn native, he may be more amenable to a cyclical arrangement of this nature than most other veterans with his level of service time (13+ years). And, of course, if another club chooses to claim Ottavino, he’d gladly head to a new club willing to carry him in the big league bullpen.
Selected 30th overall by the Cardinals back in 2006, Ottavino made his MLB debut with St. Louis in 2010 and then spent the 2012-18 seasons as a mainstay in the Rockies’ bullpen after being claimed off waivers by Colorado early in the 2012 campaign. Since reaching free agency, he’s repeatedly signed with his hometown Yankees and Mets, plus a one-year stay in Boston (where he attended college) after being traded over from the Yankees in 2021.
In his more than 13 years of MLB service, Ottavino has tallied 744 2/3 innings with a 3.48 ERA, 46 saves, 194 holds, a 27.2% strikeout rate and a 10.4% walk rate. He’s tacked on another 12 2/3 innings across five years and eight series in the postseason.
As for the 29-year-old Hamilton, he opened the season on the 15-day injured list. He was slowed by a lengthy bout with a viral illness early in camp which set him back a few weeks. He was hit hard in three Triple-A rehab outings, but the Yankees apparently feel his stuff is crisp enough and his arm is built up enough to rejoin the big league ‘pen.
Hamilton was a minor league signee for the Yankees in 2023. He’d previously bounced from the White Sox, to the Mariners, to the Phillies, to the Twins, to the Guardians via the DFA carousel but has since broken out as a steady member of Aaron Boone’s relief corps. In 95 2/3 innings for New York across the past two seasons, he’s posted a 3.10 ERA with a 27.4% strikeout rate, 10% walk rate, 16 holds and three saves.
White Sox Outright Dominic Fletcher
Outfielder Dominic Fletcher was not claimed off waivers following last week’s DFA and has now been assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox announced Monday. He’ll remain with the organization as a depth option.
Now 27 years old, Fletcher came to the ChiSox last winter in a trade that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to the D-backs. At the time of the swap, he was coming off a .291/.399/.500 showing in Triple-A and had slashed .301/.350/.441 in his first 102 big league plate appearances. Impressive as those performances were, the Snakes had an outfield contingent made up of Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Alek Thomas. They’d also had talks with free agent Randal Grichuk, whom they signed just a few days after trading Fletcher. There wasn’t much space in the Arizona outfield.
A move to a rebuilding White Sox club with ample opportunity for playing time looked like a positive for Fletcher, but he struggled in his new environs. The Sox gave Fletcher 241 turns at the plate, but he mustered only a .206/.252/.256 batting line. His subsequent .121/.211/.212 batting line in 38 plate appearances this spring didn’t inspire any further confidence, and the Sox brought free agents Mike Tauchman, Austin Slater and Michael A. Taylor to join Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. in the team’s outfield mix.
Now off the team’s 40-man roster, Fletcher will head to Charlotte and hope to play his way into another opportunity. Even with all of last year’s struggles, his .263/.333/.389 line in 106 Triple-A plate appearances was respectable, if a bit below average in a hitter-friendly setting. Fletcher is a career .293/.376/.462 hitter in 889 Triple-A plate appearances, so he does have a track record to suggest he could earn another look.