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Mariners To Promote Blas Castano

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The Mariners are recalling right-hander Blas Castano from Triple-A Tacoma, reports John Brophy. The 26-year-old righty will be making his MLB debut when he first takes the mound. The team has not announced the move or any corresponding transactions. Castano is already on the 40-man roster — Seattle selected his contract last November to shield him from being taken in the Rule 5 Draft — so the M’s only need to make a 26-man roster move to accommodate their newest call-up.

Castano, 26, was originally signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Yankees back in 2018. They released him in the summer of 2023, after which he quickly signed a minor league pact with the Mariners. He’s since solidified himself as a prospect of some note in the system. Baseball America ranked him 23rd in a deep Mariners farm heading into the year.

Though he stands at an undersized 5’10” and 162 pounds, Castano has found some success in the upper minors. He split the 2024 season between Seattle’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, thriving at the former (3.31 ERA) but struggling a bit at the latter (5.13 ERA, albeit in a hitter-friendly league). It evened out to a 4.38 ERA, 20% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate in 125 1/3 innings — a strong enough showing that the Mariners clearly felt a pitching-needy organization might scoop him up if given the chance in the Rule 5 Draft.

This year, Castano has better run-prevention numbers but shakier rate stats in Tacoma. He’s posted a 3.43 ERA through 44 2/3 innings, but his strikeout rate has fallen from 23.3% to 15.5%, while his walk rate has jumped from 7.6% to 10.5%. He’s also plunked four batters in those 44 2/3 innings — including three in his most recent appearance. Despite clearly spotty command that day, he still held his opponents to a run through seven innings, however.

Castano’s primary pitch is a sinker that sits 93.1 mph this season, per Statcast. He’s complemented that offering with a slider that sits 82-83 mph, a changeup that sits 87-88mph, an 89 mph cutter to help neutralize lefties and a seldom-used four-seamer that sits in the same velo range as his sinker. Baseball America’s scouting report notes that Castano’s changeup is his best secondary offering when it’s working and calls the righty a potential fifth starter or a “do-everything swingman” who can pitch in a wide variety of roles.

Mariners relievers Jesse Hahn and Eduard Bazardo threw 28 and 30 pitches yesterday, respectively, and their scheduled starter is right Emerson Hancock, who’s pitched just 9 2/3 innings across his past two starts. They could want a fresh arm to give them some length in the event of another relatively short start from Hancock, or it’s possible Castano could get a spot start if the Mariners decide to shuffle up their rotation this weekend for any reason.

Mariners Activate George Kirby For Season Debut

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The Mariners announced Thursday that right-hander George Kirby has been reinstated from the injured list. He’ll make his 2025 debut today against the Astros. Righty Troy Taylor was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma last night to open a spot on the roster for Kirby’s return.

The first-place Mariners have surged to a 28-20 record this season despite not getting a single pitch from arguably their best starter. The 27-year-old Kirby has been out all season after the Mariners opted for a cautious approach when Kirby was diagnosed with shoulder inflammation during spring training.

A first-round pick back in 2019 (No. 20 overall), Kirby quickly became one of the Mariners’ top pitching prospects and was soon regarded as one of the top prospects in the entire sport. He breezed through the minors and could very well have debuted even sooner were it not for the canceled 2020 minor league season.

Kirby broke through to the majors in 2022 and hasn’t looked back. He pitched 130 innings over the life of 26 starts in his rookie season and turned in a 3.39 ERA with a 24.5% strikeout rate and 4.1% walk rate. Few pitchers can sustain a walk rate that low, but Kirby has actually improved upon that mark in subsequent seasons. He was touted as having the best command of perhaps any top pitching prospect in the sport prior to his debut, and he now has a legitimate claim to the best command of any pitcher in Major League Baseball.

Since his 2022 debut, no starting pitcher has a lower walk rate than Kirby’s 3.1% mark. Only one qualified reliever in that time has a better walk rate (Chris Martin, at 2.8%). You’d have to drop the threshold to a minimum of 20 innings pitched (total) since 2022 to find a second pitcher with a lower walk rate than Kirby.

Kirby’s pinpoint command is all the more deadly when one considers that he’s not the archetypal soft-tossing, finesse pitcher typically associated with this type of precision. He’s averaged 95.8 mph on his four-seamer in his career and sat 96.1 mph with the pitch from 2023-24.

Kirby was an All-Star in 2023 and finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting that season. He’s started 89 big league games for the Mariners since his debut and touts a 3.43 ERA, 23.3% strikeout rate and 43.4% ground-ball rate to go along with that pristine walk rate. Those strikeout and grounder rates are only a bit better than average, but a pitcher who averages less than a walk per start doesn’t need to pile up strikeouts or ground-balls at league-leading rates to be among the most effective pitchers in the sport.

The Mariners are getting Kirby back at an ideal time. Rotation-mates Logan Gilbert (flexor strain) and Bryce Miller (elbow inflammation) are both on the 15-day injured list at the moment. Seattle is also set to square off against the second-place Astros for a four-game series. Houston has been a league-average team against right-handed pitching this season, and the ’Stros are currently without their top left-handed bat: designated hitter Yordan Alvarez (though he has uncharacteristically struggled versus righties this season). The only left-handed hitters on Houston’s roster are switch-hitting catcher Victor Caratini and backup catcher Cesar Salazar. Kirby held right-handed hitters to an awful .234/.257/.360 slash in 2024.

Oscar Gonzalez Signs Two-Year Deal With NPB’s Golden Eagles

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May 22: Gonzalez has officially signed a two-year deal with the Golden Eagles, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The MAS+ client will be paid $2MM through the 2026 season.

May 19, 7:50pm: Gonzalez has an agreement with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, reports Francys Romero.

3:44pm: The Padres have placed outfielder Oscar Gonzalez on unconditional release waivers in order to allow him to pursue an opportunity in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, reports Dennis Lin of The Athletic. With Gonzalez being granted his release, San Diego is down to 37 players on its 40-man roster.

Gonzalez, 27, signed a minor league deal with the Friars back in November. He’s appeared in 21 big league games and tallied 61 plate appearances while hitting .220/.246/.237. The Dominican-born slugger showed promise during his 2022 rookie campaign with the Guardians, bursting onto the scene with a .296/.327/.461 batting line and 11 homers in 382 plate appearances, but he’s hit just .216/.241/.293 in 241 MLB plate appearances since that time.

Gonzalez posted league-average offense with the Guards’ Triple-A club in 2023 and was a slight bit better than average in the Yankees’ system last year, but he’s been on a blistering tear in El Paso this season. It’s only 57 plate appearances, but the righty-swinging corner outfielder touts a .333/.368/.704 line with the Chihuahuas. The Pacific Coast League is notoriously hitter-friendly, but he’s still been 54% better than average in that time and now touts a career .285/.321/.502 output in 1212 Triple-A plate appearances spread across parts of five seasons.

The Padres have had some of the worst production in baseball out of left field in 2025, hitting just .190/.236/.268 as a whole from that position. The resulting 44 wRC+ (indicating they’ve been 56% worse than average at the plate) ranks 28th in MLB. The bulk of Gonzalez’s plate appearances — 42 of the 61 — came as a left fielder. He’s combined with Jason Heyward, Brandon Lockridge, Tirso Ornelas, Gavin Sheets, Jose Iglesias and Connor Joe to compile that floundering left field line at the plate.

As it stands, left field seems likely to be an area of focus for the Padres when the deadline rolls around. The 27-18 Padres, sitting just one game behind the Dodgers in the NL West, look like surefire buyers. The farm system doesn’t have much in the way of immediate help to offer. Most of the outfielders in Triple-A are journeymen types who aren’t on the 40-man roster. Names like Tim Locastro, Forrest Wall, Mike Brosseau and Bryce Johnson have all logged time there with El Paso.

Twenty-six-year-old Yonathan Perlaza, a former Cubs farmhand who signed a minor league deal with the Padres after a nice performance in the KBO last year, is hitting .293/.335/.463 — but that’s about 8% worse than average in the PCL’s supercharged offensive atmosphere and he’s fanned in 28% of his plate appearances. It’s a dire situation, so any of those Triple-A names could get a look at some point — particularly with three vacancies on the 40-man roster. In general, the Padres’ system is lacking in impact outfielders after years of aggressive dealing on the trade market.

Nicky Lopez Elects Free Agency

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Infielder Nicky Lopez went unclaimed on outright waivers after being designated for assignment by the Cubs, per the transaction log at MLB.com. Chicago sent him outright to Triple-A Iowa, but Lopez has instead elected free agency. He can now sign with any team.

The 30-year-old Lopez is a versatile, glove-first utility player who’s seen considerable time at shortstop, second base and third base in his professional career. He grades as a plus defender at second base and third base, in particular, and is a roughly average runner by measure of Statcast’s sprint speed metric.

Lopez had a nice season at the plate with the 2021 Royals when he hit .300/.365/.378 in 565 plate appearances, but that’s been a clear outlier in an otherwise lackluster career with the bat. Since that time, the 2016 fifth-rounder (Royals) has mustered a meager .229/.300/.283 batting line (66 wRC+, or 34% worse than league-average offensive output). He’s played a combined 19 games between the Cubs and Angels this season but produced just one hit in 24 at-bats. He’s only struck out four times and has also drawn four walks.

Lopez isn’t going to return to that 2021 peak, but he can plausibly be expected to provide more with the bat than he’s managed in 2025’s small sample thus far. A team looking for some depth at any of the three infield positions left of first base — particularly some defensive-minded help — figures to give him a look before long.

The Cubs scooped him up on a major league deal and plugged him right onto the big league roster last time he was a free agent. It’s possible another team will do the same in the coming days, but signed a minor league deal in the offseason and could need to bide his time in Triple-A with whatever club takes a flier on him next. In 91 career games at the top minor league level, he’s a .304/.399/.444 hitter with more walks (50) than strikeouts (35) through 407 plate appearances.

Angels, Sammy Peralta Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Sammy Peralta, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’d been pitching with El Aguila de Veracruz in the Mexican League and will head to Triple-A Salt Lake for the time being. He’s represented by Premier Talent Sports & Entertainment.

Peralta, 27, has spent the majority of his career in the White Sox system. He reached the majors in both 2023 and 2024, logging a combined 35 innings of 4.37 ERA ball with a 17.9% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 41.7% ground-ball rate. The soft-tossing southpaw has averaged just 89.3 mph on his four-seamer in the majors and complements that pitch with a slider sitting just north of 78 mph and a changeup that averages just under 82 mph.

Peralta opened the 2025 season with a strong showing in an intensely hitter-friendly setting in Mexico — interestingly doing so as a starting pitcher. The 6’2″ lefty has spent nearly his entire professional career as a reliever but started four games with Veracruz and notched a 2.53 ERA with a 22-to-2 K/BB ratio in 21 1/3 innings (26.5 K%, 2.4 BB%). All 25 of Peralta’s major league appearances have been relief outings, and only nine of his 150 minor league games have been starts. He’d never pitched more than four innings in a single professional appearance prior to signing in Mexico.

It’s not yet clear which role Peralta will hold with the Halos. I’m told he stretched out in Mexico not necessarily due to a preference to move to a starting role but just to expand his versatility. Angels starters rank 19th in the majors with a 3.99 ERA, though both Jack Kochanowicz (4.71 ERA) and Kyle Hendricks (5.32 ERA) have struggled in nine starts apiece. The Angels’ bullpen is dead last in the majors with a 6.82 ERA, and they recently lost Ben Joyce to season-ending shoulder surgery. Peralta posted a 4.44 ERA in 50 2/3 relief innings at the Triple-A level in 2025 and carries a career 4.80 earned run average, 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in 125 2/3 innings at the top minor league level.

Report: “No Chance” Paul Skenes Will Be Traded This Year

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Amid the Pirates’ awful start to the season and decision to fire manager Derek Shelton, there’s been some speculation on the possibility of the Bucs blowing things up and again refocusing on building up the farm system. Specifically, many fans have begun to wonder about the possibility of the Pirates dangling the final four and a half seasons of control over reigning NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young finalist Paul Skenes. Unsurprisingly, there’s no real chances of that happening in 2025. Jon Heyman of the New York Post spoke to an unnamed Pirates executive who flatly told him, “No way, no chance, no how,” when the possibility of a Skenes trade was broached.

Any and all talk of a possible Skenes swap has been little more than wishful thinking from fans of other clubs. Much of the rumbling stems from ESPN’s Jeff Passan recent appearance on the Pat McAfee Show (video link). Passan never suggested a trade was likely or even plausible but opined that there’s at least “an argument to be made” that it’d be the right call, given the team’s immediate fall from postseason contention, their inability to score runs, and the unlikelihood of owner Bob Nutting spending to either surround Skenes with competitive players or to extend the team’s ace. Passan rightly pointed out that there will be teams asking about Skenes at this year’s trade deadline. Interest from other clubs is a given, but a trade has never seemed like a real possibility.

Skenes, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, made his MLB debut less than one year after being selected and immediately cemented his place among baseball’s top arms. He started the All-Star Game for the NL last season, secured 23 of 30 first-place votes in NL Rookie of the Year balloting, and finished third in NL Cy Young voting. Since debuting last year on May 11, Skenes leads the majors with a 2.12 ERA. He ranks 14th in innings pitched (195 2/3), fourth in strikeout rate (30.6%), fourth in differential between his strikeout and walk rates (24.3%), third in FIP (2.54) and fourth in SIERA (2.89).

Skenes is already an ace in virtually every sense of the word. The Pirates were presumably hoping that by holding off his call to the majors until mid-May, they could strike the balance between having Skenes help improve on their 2023 win total (76) and keep him out of the big leagues long enough to prevent a Rookie of the Year win and that would grant him a full year of service regardless of his promotion date. Neither worked out. Skenes got that full year of service by virtue of his Rookie of the Year win, and the Pirates finished the 2024 season with the same 76-86 record they produced in 2023.

Because Skenes secured that full year of service, he’ll be controllable for “only” six seasons. He’s under Pirates control through the 2029 campaign. Had he missed out on the full year, that would’ve been pushed back to 2030.

If he stays healthy and continues on his current trajectory, Skenes figures to shatter records in arbitration. He’d reach arb eligibility in the 2026-27 offseason and go through the process three times before reaching free agency in the 2029-30 offseason. Barring an injury or unexpected decline, he’ll have a case for a mammoth contract in free agency — perhaps the largest signed by a pitcher. He’ll hit the open market heading into only his age-28 season.

Extending Skenes right now would already require the largest contract in Pirates history by a wide margin. Pittsburgh has never given out a contract larger than Bryan Reynolds’ seven-year, $100MM extension. Skenes would more than double that on an extension and could even triple that commitment. It’s virtually unfathomable to think Nutting would ever pay that much for a single player. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the Pirates have only spent a combined $357MM in extensions dating back to 2016. They’ve spent even less in free agency; their combined free agent spending dating back to the 2011-12 offseason totals $302MM (Contract Tracker link).

Given the Pirates’ penurious spending habits, an eventual trade of Skenes feels like an inevitability — just not in the near term. Moving their ace while he’s still earning scarcely more than the league minimum simply doesn’t feel rooted in reality. One could argue that Skenes’ trade value will never be higher, and there’s some inherent truth that as he incrementally inches toward free agency, the diminishing amount of club control will impact his value. However, trading Skenes at any point when he has multiple years of control remaining would net the Pirates a monumental return — perhaps on par with or even exceeding the Nationals’ outrageous return for Juan Soto. The gap between the trade value of four years of Skenes and two years of Skenes is not as large as the gap between two years of Skenes and one year of Skenes.

As Skenes’ price tag climbs in arbitration, a trade will become more plausible. For the time being, even with the 2025 season all but lost, the Bucs understandably plan to hang onto their ace. He’s surely a draw for ticket sales and merchandise, and if the Pirates have any designs on a more competitive roster in 2026, it’s surely built around a pitching staff that can be anchored by Skenes, Mitch Keller, top prospect Bubba Chandler and a collection of talented, controllable arms that also includes Mike Burrows, Thomas Harrington, Braxton Ashcraft, Hunter Barco, Bailey Falter and Johan Oviedo.

Pirates’ Jared Jones, Enmanuel Valdez Undergo Season-Ending Surgeries

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2:00pm: The Pirates announced that Jones has undergone a repair of his UCL with a projected return to full competition in 10 to 12 months.

11:00am: Infielder Enmanuel Valdez also underwent season-ending shoulder surgery this week, Tomczyk tells the Pirates beat (via the Post-Gazette’s Colin Beazley). Valdez hit the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his left (non-throwing) shoulder on May 10. He was moved to the 60-day IL a few days later with minimal updates on his outlook. He’s now expected to be sidelined for roughly six months.

10:52am: Pirates right-hander Jared Jones will undergo season-ending surgery to address his ailing right elbow, senior director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk announced to the Pirates beat this morning (link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Jones has been out all season with an elbow injury. Evaluations back in spring training did not lead to a recommendation of surgery, but Jones recently met with Dr. Keith Meister — an orthopedic surgeon who’s performed dozens of Tommy John procedures for MLB players — after his return to throwing in late April seemingly did not go well.

It’s not yet clear what type of surgery will be performed, but since Jones has been dealing with a UCL sprain, Tommy John surgery and an internal brace procedure are both presumably on the table. Jones is going under the knife today, so more information on the nature of the surgery and his timetable for a return should be available within the next few days.

Jones, 23, entered the 2024 season ranked as a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport and broke camp in the Pirates’ rotation. He wound up pitching 121 1/3 innings and more than holding his own, logging a 4.14 ERA with a 26.2% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate — both a good bit better than league-average.

Those numbers are skewed a bit by a rough finish to the season. Jones was sporting a much stronger 3.56 earned run average through 91 innings with comparable rate stats. A lat strain suffered in early July cost Jones six weeks of his rookie season. When he returned in late August, he limped to a 5.87 ERA over his final six starts.

Even with that slow finish, the stage seemed set for Jones to team with Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller to form the nucleus of an outstanding rotation for years to come. That trio, with top prospect Bubba Chandler looming in Triple-A, gives the Bucs an enviable core of high-end pitching around which to build. That’s still the case, but Jones’ inclusion in the group will be delayed into at least early 2026 and perhaps all the way into the latter stages of next season, depending on what type of surgery he ultimately requires.

Pittsburgh isn’t short on promising young arms even beyond the names listed thus far. Righties Thomas Harrington and Braxton Ashcraft are both highly regarded. Twenty-five-year-old Mike Burrows was just recalled after a strong start in Triple-A this season and will start tomorrow’s game in place of righty Carmen Mlodzinski, who’s been optioned back to the minors after a rough stretch to begin the season. Generally speaking, the Bucs are deep in young, high-upside arms but lack that same type of talent on the position-player side of things. Oneil Cruz and Joey Bart are the only above-average hitters on the Pirates’ big league roster this season, and the bulk of the bats on whom they’ve staked their hopes on throughout this rebuild have not developed as hoped.

As for Valdez, he came to the Pirates in a December swap with the Red Sox. Boston had designated him for assignment and flipped him to Pittsburgh in exchange for minor league righty Joe Vogatsky. Valdez started the season decently, hitting .227/.329/.424 (108 wRC+) in April while holding a part-time role. He spent time at first base, second base and (very briefly) in right field along the way. The 26-year-old tallied just four hits in his next 26 trips to the plate before landing on the injured list, however. His season will end with a .209/.294/.363 line (82 wRC+) in 102 plate appearances.

Both Jones and Valdez will spend the remainder of the season on the 60-day injured list, accruing major league service time and pay along the way. Both players entered the season with one-plus years of big league service and will cross the two-year threshold while rehabbing from surgeries. They’ll both be under team control for an additional four seasons, although as an offseason DFA pickup, Valdez’s standing with the team is obviously more tenuous than that of Jones — a former second-round pick and top prospect who’s viewed as a foundational piece of the team’s future.

Valdez will have a minor league option remaining beyond the current season, but it’s possible he’ll be removed from the 40-man roster at season’s end to give the Bucs some more roster flexibility heading into the winter.

Pirates Promote Mike Burrows

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The Pirates have optioned righty Carmen Mlodzinski to Triple-A Indianapolis and recalled 25-year-old righty Mike Burrows, the team announced. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reported earlier this morning that Mlodzinski would be optioned out in favor of Burrows, who’ll start tomorrow’s game.

It’s a notable change in the Pittsburgh rotation, though not the one for which most Bucs fans have been pining. The Pirates have righty Bubba Chandler, widely regarded as the top pitching prospect in baseball, dominating in Indianapolis but will keep the 22-year-old flamethrower in the minors a bit longer.

That’s not to say that Burrows, a well-regarded pitching prospect himself, isn’t deserving of a look — far from it. He’s been excellent in Triple-A this season. The 6’1″ righty was an over-slot 11th-rounder back in 2018, signing for a $500K bonus that was more commensurate with fourth-round money at the time. His ascent to the majors has been slowed by injuries, most notably a Tommy John procedure that limited him to 6 2/3 innings in 2023 and 54 2/3 innings in 2024.

Burrows’ 2024 workload included a brief MLB debut — 3 1/3 innings of long relief against the Yankees in late September. He allowed one earned runs on two hits and three walks with two strikeouts in that game and wound up being credited with a win in his first MLB appearance.

This year, Burrows has been outstanding. He’s pitched 32 1/3 innings over seven starts — the Pirates have surely been limiting his innings a bit in his first full season back from UCL surgery — and pitched to a sterling 2.51 ERA. He’s averaging 94.7 mph on his heater, fanning 31.5% of his opponents, limiting walks at a solid 8.5% clip and sporting a terrific 14.4% swinging-strike rate. Burrows has paired that heater with a slider that sits 85.4 mph, a changeup in that same velocity range, and an upper-70s curveball. He’s also allowed only two runs over his past 17 2/3 frames while turning in a stellar 28-to-4 K/BB ratio.

The Pirates didn’t push Burrows past 75 pitches in a start until mid-May. He didn’t complete five innings until his sixth start of the season but has now done so twice in his past three outings. (The other was an 86-pitch effort wherein he lasted only 4 2/3 frames but punched out 11 batters.) Burrows’ two most recent starts have seen his pitch count climb to 86 and 87, respectively.

Entering the 2025 campaign, Baseball America ranked Burrows 13th among Pirates prospects, noting that improvements in his secondary pitches have restored some of his fallen stock and put him back in the conversation for a rotation role in the majors. He ranked 15th among Pirates farmhands at both FanGraphs and at MLB.com. His slight frame and injury history prompt plenty of speculation about an eventual move to the bullpen — perhaps in a multi-inning role — but he’s earned a chance to show he can stick in a rotation role.

Pirates starters rank 11th in MLB with a combined 3.71 ERA, thanks largely to brilliant work from ace Paul Skenes and an excellent 3.02 ERA from offseason signee Andrew Heaney. Mitch Keller has been solid (3.88 ERA), and fourth starter Bailey Falter has gone from looking like his hold on a rotation spot was fading to one of the league’s hottest pitchers; he’s allowed just one run in past 23 2/3 innings — albeit with a shaky 17-to-9 K/BB ratio in that time (19.5 K%, 10.3 BB%).

At some point, the Bucs will turn to the ballyhooed Chandler for a look, though perhaps not until they’re certain he won’t earn a full year of major league service time in 2025 (as Skenes did in 2024 when he won Rookie of the Year honors despite a relatively late May 6 call to the big leagues). The 6’3″, 218-pound Chandler has pitched to a 2.17 ERA with a huge 36.8% strikeout rate, a 10.5% walk rate, a 14.7% swinging-strike rate and a heater that’s averaged 98 mph.

Owen Miller Elects Free Agency

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Infielder Owen Miller, who was recently designated for assignment and outrighted to Triple-A by the Rockies, has rejected that outright assignment in favor of free agency, per the transaction log at MiLB.com.

Colorado originally acquired the now-28-year-old Miller from the Brewers in exchange for cash back in November. Milwaukee had designated him for assignment and passed him through outright waivers last summer, but the Rox selected him back to the majors in April. Miller went 2-for-14 with a pair of walks and was hit by a pitch during 17 plate appearances with Colorado before being designated for assignment again. Because of that prior outright, he had the option to elect free agency upon clearing waivers this time around.

Miller opened the 2025 season with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque. He tallied 90 plate appearances and batted .244/.322/.372 with two homers, two steals, a 10% walk rate and a 15.6% strikeout rate. It’s the fourth season in which Miller has seen time at Triple-A, where he’s a combined .279/.353/.427 batter in 793 plate appearances.

Miller has also seen major league time in five seasons now, previously suiting up for a pair of seasons with the Brewers and another two with the Guardians. He’s picked up 1032 plate appearances and hit .238/.287/.342 with 15 home runs, 52 doubles, a triple, 18 steals (in 20 tries), a 5.8% walk rate and a 21.3 strikeout rate.

Defensively, Miller is something of a jack-of-all-trades. He’s not necessarily proficient at any one position, but he’s recorded more than 1100 innings at each of shortstop, first base and second base, in addition to 815 innings at third base. He’s seen more sparse time in the outfield, logging a combined 204 innings across all three positions. Miller hadn’t played shortstop since 2021 until this season, but the Rockies gave him four games there in Triple-A this season — one of seven positions he played while in their system.

Miller will take that versatile defensive skill set and solid Triple-A track record back to the open market and search for a new opportunity with a club that could use a right-handed bat and/or some depth at multiple positions.

Tigers Designate Tomas Nido For Assignment

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The Tigers announced Tuesday that catcher Tomas Nido has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to fellow catcher Jake Rogers, who is being reinstated from the injured list after missing about six weeks with an oblique strain.

Nido’s DFA shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Though he’s hitting .343 with Detroit, that’s a 12-for-37 sample that’s consisted entirely of singles and has come without a walk. Nido’s offense has been buoyed by a .480 average on balls in play. He’s fanned 10 times in 37 plate appearances (27%) and chased pitches off the plate at a grim 41% clip. He’s a well-regarded defender, but Nido entered the season as a career .210/.245/.309 hitter in 945 major league plate appearances. He was hitting .160/.222/.320 in 28 Triple-A plate appearances at the time he was originally summoned to the majors in place of the injured Rogers.

Detroit will happily take the month-plus of solid backup work for Nido and would surely love to pass him through waivers in order to retain him as a depth option in Triple-A Toledo. It’s hardly out of the question that he gets claimed, but there’s a good chance he’ll pass through waivers unclaimed as he did in June 2023 after the Mets had designated him for assignment. If Nido does clear waivers, he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment (by virtue of both service time and that 2023 outright) in lieu of electing free agency.

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