Astros Release Jose Abreu
The Astros announced Friday that they’ve released first baseman Jose Abreu. The former American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player is in the second season of a three-year, $58.5MM contract. Houston will eat the remainder of the money still owed to Abreu on that deal.
Houston selected the contract of catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel from Triple-A Sugar Land, reports KPRC-2’s Ari Alexander. In 201 plate appearances in Triple-A this season, Hummel boasts a .301/.423/.509 slash (135 wRC+) with seven homers, 13 doubles, eight steals (in nine tries), a 17.4% strikeout rate and a massive 16.4% walk rate. The Astros acquired the 29-year-old from the Giants via an April waiver claim and later succeeded in passing him through outright waivers.
While Abreu generally exceeded expectations in landing that sizable three-year deal, few could’ve predicted that the contract would go this poorly. Abreu hit .237/.296/.383 with Houston last season and began the 2024 season in such a calamitous funk that the veteran agreed to be optioned at a point when he was 7-for-71 on the season. Since returning, Abreu hasn’t looked any better, hitting .167/.186/.333 in 43 trips to the plate.
Overall, Abreu’s tenure with the team will come to an end with a shocking .217/.275/.351 batting line in 714 plate appearances. That’s about 28% worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+. When coupled with below-average defense at first base, Abreu was 1.6 wins below replacement level, per Baseball-Reference, and a full two wins below replacement per FanGraphs.
Although there were some signs of decline in 2022, Abreu still hit .304/.378/.446 that season. A good portion of his power had eroded (hence the pedestrian .141 ISO and career-low 15 homers), and a fair bit of his production was propped up by a .350 average on balls in play that the plodding Abreu was never going to sustain over the long run. The Astros, operating without a general manager for the first portion of the offseason, still paid a hefty per-year price to sign Abreu into his late 30s, with owner Jim Crane spearheading negotiations on that deal and on Rafael Montero‘s own surprising three-year pact. Though the length of the pact was a modest surprise, it pales in comparison to how surprising the extent of Abreu’s decline has been.
Between Abreu and Jon Singleton, Houston’s lack of production at first base has been near the bottom of all Major League Baseball. Only the Rockies — Kris Bryant, Elehuris Montero, Michael Toglia and Hunter Goodman — have seen their first basemen combine to deliver a lesser output than the Astros’ miserable .181/.262/.291 batting line. That dearth of offense from a typically bat-heavy position in the lineup has been one of many reasons for the Astros’ disappointing 31-38 record. Houston sits eight games back of the division-leading Mariners and six games out in the AL Wild Card hunt (with six teams to leapfrog in order to claim one of those three spots).
Abreu’s contract will now be dead money on the Astros’ payroll both this year and next. It still counts toward the luxury tax as well, even though he’s no longer on the roster. That dead money only further adds to a troubling long-term outlook that raises legitimate questions about the team’s ability to continue putting a perennial contender on the field. Despite their questionable long-term outlook and their 2024 struggles, however, general manager Dana Brown — hired after the signing of Abreu — has insisted that his team will not be a seller and that he expects to operate as a buyer in the run-up to next month’s trade deadline. The Astros reportedly have interest in adding multiple starting pitchers.
As for Abreu himself, he’ll now head to the open market and be able to field interest from other clubs. It’s unlikely that any team will place him directly onto the big league roster in light of his recent struggles, so he’d very likely need to settle for a minor league deal.
Whether Abreu is amenable to that sort of arrangement isn’t clear, but players often want to go out on their own terms rather than be forced from the game they love due to declining performance. Abreu’s willingness to be optioned earlier this season and the constant praise he’s received from teammates both in Chicago and in Houston regarding his work ethic and passion for the game could point a willingness to keep going. Teammates Mauricio Dubon, Jeremy Pena and Kendall Graveman all lauded Abreu’s work ethic last September when discussing his late-season hot streak with Chandler Rome of The Athletic, as well as his impact in the clubhouse. That drive, combined with his sterling clubhouse reputation and outstanding track record in Chicago, could lead to interest on what amounts to a no-risk flier from a team with a need for help at first base and/or against left-handed pitching.
Braves, Matt Carasiti Agree To Minor League Deal
The Braves agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Matt Carasiti, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He recently elected free agency when the Rockies designated him for assignment and passed him through outright waivers.
Carasiti, 32, allowed 10 runs in 8 2/3 frames out of the Colorado bullpen this season and carries a 7.36 ERA in 33 frames with the Rox dating back to last season. He’s appeared in parts of four major league seasons and pitched to a 7.41 ERA in 58 1/3 innings. Rough as those numbers are, Carasiti also owns a 4.18 ERA in 170 career frames in Triple-A, where he’s fanned 25.5% of his opponents against a 10.5% walk rate. He also pitched well in 103 2/3 innings during his lone season in Nippon Professional Baseball back in 2018.
Carasiti has averaged better than 95 mph on his sinker in his career and has kept the ball on the ground at a hearty 48.5% clip in the big leagues. He’ll add some experienced bullpen depth to a Braves club that currently has A.J. Minter, Tyler Matzek and Jimmy Herget on the 15-day injured list.
Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, Orioles Among Teams Interested In Tanner Scott
Marlins closer Tanner Scott has already been drawing trade interest for several weeks, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post lists the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies and Orioles as just some of the many teams showing interest in the hard-throwing lefty. Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic suggested this morning that Scott could be the next notable name to be moved — although that doesn’t necessarily indicate a trade of Scott is nearing the finish line. But the Marlins already showed their willingness to act early on the trade market when they moved Luis Arraez just five weeks into the season, and power bullpen arms are among the most sought-after commodities on the trade market every year.
That said, Scott alone isn’t likely to fetch the Marlins a sizable haul on his own. He clearly has trade value and should net some minor league talent, but the 29-year-old southpaw is in his final season of club control and will reach free agency at season’s end. The Marlins were willing to pay down nearly all of Arraez’s contract in their trade with the Padres, and doing so on Scott’s $5.7MM salary could help to enhance his appeal, but there are concerns even beyond the southpaw’s dwindling club control.
Command has always been an issue for the hard-throwing Scott, and 2024 is no exception. Quite the opposite, in fact. This year’s 16.8% walk rate is the highest of Scott’s career (excepting a 1 2/3-inning debut back in 2017). As noted here back in late May, he’s been slowly paring that number back since issuing an alarming swath of walks early in the season, but Scott has still walked 12% of his hitters dating back to May 1.
That’s not as troubling as a nearly 17% mark, but it’s still three percentage points higher than the average reliever — and the gap between that mark and last year’s career-best 7.8% mark is even wider. Scott has also seen his swinging-strike rate drop from a mammoth 17.4% in 2023 to 13.5% this year, while his opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate has fallen from 36.1% to 28.8% — a possible indicator that he’s missing by a much larger margin when he’s failing to find the strike zone.
To Scott’s credit, he’s been on an exceptional run of late. He surrendered a walk-off home run to Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez yesterday, but those two runs were the first he’d allowed since April 30. Dating back to May 1, Scott has a minuscule 1.17 earned run average and huge 32.8% strikeout rate in 15 1/3 innings. Overall, the lefty touts a 1.93 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate and 52.5% grounder rate in 28 innings this year (in addition to that bloated 16.8% walk rate). He’s also averaging 96.9 mph on his heater.
Scott’s trade value would surely have been higher in the offseason, when he had a full year of club control and was fresh off a 33.9% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate in a career-high 78 innings. But the Marlins made the playoffs last year, and even after turning over their front office and largely idling throughout the winter, presumably wanted to see if the team could play its way back into postseason contention. A catastrophic 1-11 start to the season emphatically answered that question.
The Marlins could potentially package Scott with another trade candidate, such as coveted starter Jesus Luzardo, and look to extract a huge package by combining two sought-after players in a single trade. They could also hope that by moving Scott early, they can catch lightning in a bottle in the same manner that the Royals did last summer by moving Aroldis Chapman in late June — a trade that netted them current No. 1 starter Cole Ragans. (To be clear, Ragans was seen as a buy-low candidate at the time, and the Royals deserve credit for completely turning the former first-round pick’s career around.) Hitting that kind of jackpot almost certainly won’t happen, but that trade is illustrative of the fact that Miami could potentially get some MLB-ready help in return for Scott — provided the player in question is viewed as something of a project.
With regard to the teams linked to Scott, any of the bunch is a sensible target. The Yankees load up on bullpen arms every deadline they’re in contention, and they’ve regularly shown an affinity for ground-ball pitchers and power lefties. Scott checks both boxes. The Orioles know Scott better than any team in the game, having originally drafted and developed him — only to trade him to Miami in a deal they’d like to take back (Kevin Guerrero and Antonio Velez went to Baltimore in the deal). Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is always intrigued by high-end velocity and doesn’t need much help in the rotation right now, making a deeper bullpen a logical focus. The Dodgers have several notable relievers on the injured list at the moment (Brusdar Graterol, Joe Kelly, Ryan Brasier) and lack this type of flamethrowing left-handed presence in their current bullpen.
There’s some overlap between the clubs eyeing Scott and those reportedly eyeing White Sox closer Michael Kopech, which is only natural. Playoff hopefuls always look to beef up the relief corps around the trade deadline, and with so few sellers on the market at the moment, the few teams that are willing to deal should see increased demand.
White Sox Select Chad Kuhl
The White Sox announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Chad Kuhl from Triple-A Charlotte. Chicago also reinstated outfielder Tommy Pham from the injured list and optioned righty Jordan Leasure and outfielder Zach DeLoach to Charlotte in a pair of corresponding moves.
Kuhl, 31, is a veteran of seven big league seasons who joined the South Siders on a minor league deal in the offseason. He’s made 13 appearances in Charlotte, 11 of them starts, and posted a 4.34 ERA in that time. Kuhl’s 17.3% strikeout rate is considerably below-average, while his 13.6% walk rate with the Knights is substantially higher than average. He’s turned in a strong 53.5% grounder rate and done a nice job keeping the ball in the yard, averaging 0.8 homers per nine frames.
Kuhl spent the 2023 season with the Nationals organization but struggled through 16 appearances before being cut loose. He announced shortly thereafter that while he’d received contract offers to sign elsewhere, he was taking a leave from the game to support his wife, Amanda, as she battled Stage 3 breast cancer. She announced via social media in November that she’d completed her cancer treatments. The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt chronicled the couple’s journey through that harrowing ordeal this past April, revealing within that Amanda is thankfully in the “maintenance” phase of her treatment and no longer showing any sign of cancer.
Prior to Kuhl’s time with the Nats, he spent five seasons with the Pirates and a sixth with the Rockies. In all, he’s totaled 615 big league innings and pitched to a 4.98 ERA, though that number is skewed to an extent by last year’s grisly 8.45 mark while quietly dealing with that terrifying family issue away from the field. Kuhl’s best season came with the ’17 Pirates, when he started 31 games and logged a 4.35 ERA over the course of 157 1/3 innings.
The White Sox don’t have an immediate opening in the rotation, but Kuhl can provide a long relief option and perhaps step up next week if the Sox want to get their starters some extra rest. Top starter Garrett Crochet, notably, has already established a new career-high in innings pitched after shifting from a relief role to the rotation this season. For now, the Sox have Chris Flexen, Erick Fedde and top prospect Drew Thorpe lined up to make the next three starts in their road series with the Diamondbacks.
Rays Release Harold Ramirez
The Rays have released designated hitter/outfielder Harold Ramirez following last week’s DFA, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’s now a free agent who can sign with any club.
Ramirez always seemed likely to end up on the open market after his DFA. As we noted when he was designated for assignment, the 29-year-old’s combination of offensive struggles and relatively notable salary obligation made him a virtual lock to pass through either outright waivers or release waivers. And since he surpassed five years of major league service time earlier this season (and thus gained the right to retain his salary even upon rejecting an outright assignment), there was no real distinction between the two types of waivers in his case.
The Rays will remain on the hook for the balance of Ramirez’s $3.8MM salary. There’s about $2.19MM of that sum left to be paid out as of this writing. A new team would only owe Ramirez the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster (about $426K from now through season’s end, or just shy of $4K per day). That sum would be subtracted from what Tampa Bay owes Ramirez, but the Rays are stuck with the significant majority of his salary regardless.
Tampa Bay explored trades involving Ramirez both at the offseason’s non-tender deadline and again during spring training but didn’t find a deal to their liking. That came in spite of a big 2022-23 showing that saw Ramirez slash .306/.348/.432 in 869 trips to the plate, with a particular knack for pummeling left-handed pitching. Strong as that offensive output was, Ramirez lacks defensive value — he’s a poor defender in the outfield corners and at first base — and is a free-swinger who rarely draws a walk. He’s been primarily a designated hitter with the Rays.
The 2024 season has been a challenge for Ramirez. He’s hitting .268, a perfectly fine mark, but has coupled that with an ugly .284 on-base percentage and a punchless .305 slugging percentage. He’s hitting .310 in a small sample of 58 plate appearances against lefties but has only one walk and a .379 slugging percentage in those matchups. Effectively, Ramirez has been a singles-hitting, short-side platoon designated hitter. Because of his lack of walks and power, his overall offensive output has been 27% worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+.
Given those struggles, it’s not at all surprising that no team wanted to commit nearly $2.2MM to Ramirez by placing a waiver claim. But now that he’s a free agent who’d cost the prorated minimum, Ramirez becomes a far more interesting flier who should draw broad-reaching interest — especially from teams who have been lacking production against left-handed pitching. Speculatively speaking, each of the Reds, Nationals, Rangers and Cardinals rank in the bottom-third of the league in terms of both DH production and production against left-handers. But, given the low cost of acquisition now associated with Ramirez — who can be controlled through the 2025 season via arbitration — it’s easy to make a case for the majority of teams taking a no-risk roll of the dice on his right-handed bat.
Cubs’ Ben Brown Diagnosed With Stress Reaction In Neck
Cubs right-hander Ben Brown was placed on the injured list with a neck strain last week, but the team has now diagnosed him with a more ominous-sounding stress reaction in his neck, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic (X link). It’s expected that Brown will be out longer than the 15-day minimum on his current IL stint, though a firm timetable isn’t yet known.
“We’re still trying to figure out how long and what it means and what he can do,” manager Craig Counsell told the Cubs beat regarding Brown’s updated diagnosis. “It’s a unique injury for a pitcher, so we’re trying to just get some more opinions.”
Acquired from the Phillies in the 2022 trade sending David Robertson to Philadelphia, the now-24-year-old Brown made his big league debut this season. He’s been quite good in 15 appearances with the Cubs — eight of them starts. In 55 1/3 frames, Brown has pitched to a 3.58 ERA with a terrific 28.8% strikeout rate, a solid 8.6% walk rate and a 38.9% grounder rate. Brown has only yielded 0.81 homers per nine frames. He’d recently stepped into a consistent rotation role — his last four outings were starts — and posted a 3.60 ERA with a 25-to-6 K/BB ratio in 20 innings.
Brown’s injury dovetails with the return of fellow rookie Jordan Wicks, who was out for six weeks due to a forearm strain. Also 24 years old, the left-handed Wicks came on in long relief of Brown when Brown exited after four innings. He tossed 3 1/3 frames that day and held the Reds to one run in that time. With Brown shelved, Wicks seems likely to step into the No. 5 spot in the rotation behind Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad.
Wicks made seven starts last season and barely kept his rookie eligibility intact. He’s up to 61 innings in his big league career (26 1/3 of them this year) and owns a 4.43 ERA with a 20.1% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 43.3% ground-ball rate. Wicks tossed 126 innings last season and, after missing six weeks of the current year, shouldn’t need to worry about soaring past that workload. But given his own injury earlier this season and some questionable depth in the rotation — particularly in light of veteran Kyle Hendricks‘ struggles — it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Cubs look into some rotation help at next month’s deadline, assuming the team is still in contention for a Wild Card spot. Chicago is currently 7.5 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central but just one game out in the NL Wild Card chase.
Marlins Designate Burch Smith For Assignment
The Marlins announced Friday that right-hander Burch Smith has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to fellow righty Shaun Anderson, who has been recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville.
Smith, 34, has pitched 29 2/3 innings out of the Miami bullpen this season and logged a respectable 4.25 earned run average with a subpar 17% strikeout rate but strong walk and ground-ball rates of 6.7% and 47%, respectively. He’s hit a rough patch of late, however, yielding five runs over his past 4 1/3 innings. Opponents have scored against him in three straight appearances.
This run with Miami marked Smith’s first big league work since the 2021 season. He spent the 2022 season with Japan’s Seibu Lions and the 2023 campaign with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Hanwha Eagles. Smith has previously pitched for the Padres, Royals, Brewers, Giants and A’s. In all, he’s pitched 220 2/3 innings at the MLB level and recorded a 5.79 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate.
Burch signed with the Rays on a minor league deal back in January but exercised an upward mobility clause in that contract — a clause intended to give veteran players on minor league deals the option to opt out of their contract if another team is willing to place him on its 40-man roster. That scenario played out late in spring, when the Marlins showed interest in Smith. He made their Opening Day roster and has generally been used in low-leverage settings this season.
Smith will surpass five years of service time while in DFA limbo, meaning even if he goes unclaimed on waivers, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment and retain the remainder of this year’s $1MM salary. Miami will either trade him, release him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers within the next week.
Pirates Outright Ben Heller
Right-hander Ben Heller went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Pirates and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been outrighted previously in his career, which will give Heller the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency if he so chooses.
Heller, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Bucs in the offseason and was selected to the big league roster after punching out an eye-popping 43% of his opponents in 18 1/3 innings down in Indianapolis. His brief big league look with the Pirates could scarcely have gone worse, however. The former Yankees and Braves righty was rocked for five runs in an inning of work during his team debut and struggled even more considerably in his second appearance, yielding seven runs (six earned) in another inning. Heller’s ERA with the Pirates sits at a stratospheric 49.50.
Stunning as that number is, Heller entered the 2024 season with a career 3.06 earned run average in 50 innings. That includes 18 2/3 frames of 3.86 ball with Atlanta just last season. He’s fanned 20.4% of his big league opponents against an 11.3% walk rate and has generally kept the ball on the ground at an above-average level (45.1%). The Milwaukee native also has had plenty of success in the upper minors, pitching to a sharp 3.15 ERA with a 32.5% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate in parts of six Triple-A campaigns — a span of 163 innings.
Michael Kopech Drawing Interest From Several Teams
The White Sox are one of the game’s few clear sellers with the trade deadline still six weeks out, and teams have been showing recent interest in closer Michael Kopech, reports Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. Among the interested clubs are the Royals, Phillies and Yankees, each of whom has sent scouts to watch the hard-throwing righty in the past few weeks. Levine adds that rival clubs believe the Sox are seeking controllable pitching in return.
Kopech, 28, is in his first season as a full-time reliever after making a combined 52 starts with the ChiSox in 2022-23. He’s taken up the role of the team’s primary closer, though given Chicago’s dismal results this season, he’s only picked up five saves on the year. Kopech’s bullpen tenure got out to a strong start, but he’s hit a rough patch of late, yielding eight earned runs over his past 6 1/3 frames. That rocky stretch has ballooned his ERA from 3.18 to 4.91.
Despite that lackluster mark, there’s plenty to like about Kopech. Once touted as one of the game’s elite pitching prospects — he and Yoan Moncada headlined the White Sox’ return for Chris Sale during their last rebuild — Kopech boasts a power arsenal that helps him miss bats in droves. He’s averaged a blazing 98.7 mph on his heater this season and punched out a gaudy 32.3% of his opponents. Kopech’s 14.1% swinging-strike rate is well north of the league average. That power arsenal, as is often the case, comes with notable command issues; Kopech has walked 13.5% of his opponents in 2024 and sports an unsightly 13.6% mark dating back to 2022.
Beyond his bat-missing ability, Kopech is both affordable and controllable. He’s earning $3MM in 2024 and would be arbitration-eligible once more this winter before reaching free agency following the 2025 season. Adding Kopech for a pair of pennant chases would give any contending club a power arm with an often triple-digit heater, bat-missing slider and a newly implemented cutter that’s been a plus pitch thus far.
With regard to the interested parties, none of the three teams listed by Levine comes as a surprise. The Royals have already been canvassing the bullpen market in early June, though their status as a division rival to the White Sox might make it tougher to complete a deal with Kansas City than with Philadelphia, New York or any of the surely yet-unnamed clubs who have interest in prying Kopech from the South Siders. That said, the Royals rank 22nd in the majors with a 4.32 ERA from their relievers. Their bullpen’s collective 93.5 mph average fastball velocity (per Statcast) is 27th in the majors, while its 17.7% strikeout rate is the worst in MLB. Kopech would add the type of power, bat-missing repertoire the Royals currently lack.
The Phillies (3.55, ninth) and Yankees (3.19, third) both rank among MLB’s ten best teams in terms of bullpen earned run average. They’ve gotten there in slightly different ways, with the Phillies focusing on strikeouts (26.5%, third in MLB) while the Yankees have a below-average 21.9% strikeout rate but also possess the third-best ground-ball rate of any team (46.8%). Both teams are among the three best in baseball at limiting home runs, with the Philly bullpen sitting at 0.68 HR/9 and the Yankees narrowly trailing at 0.74 HR/9. Both clubs are luxury-tax payors in 2024, making Kopech’s relatively modest $3MM salary all the more appealing.
It stands to reason that the Royals, Phillies and Yankees are just three of many clubs looking at Kopech as the trade deadline looms next month. Bullpen help is on every postseason hopeful’s deadline wishlist every summer, and Kopech is the type of power arm that any team would love to try to maximize. While velocity is up throughout the game, and triple-digit fastballs are no longer the rarities they once were, that doesn’t take away from Kopech’s impressive repertoire. The only pitchers in MLB (min. 10 innings) who throw harder on average are Oakland’s Mason Miller, Minnesota’s Jhoan Duran, Milwaukee’s Abner Uribe, Arizona’s Justin Martinez and St. Louis’ Ryan Helsley. Kopech’s bottom-line run prevention numbers may not stand out, but other teams surely covet the upside and feel there’s a potentially elite reliever to be unlocked with a few tweaks.
The Astros’ Problematic Long-Term Outlook
The Astros' recent run of success if one of the most remarkable in MLB history. Yes, what everyone now knows about their 2017 season will taint that legacy for many, but Houston has since won a second World Series, appeared in two more, and made the American League Championship Series every single year since 2017. Trash can jokes will never go out of style for some, but what the Astros have accomplished across multiple GMs and multiple managers in the past seven years is objectively incredible.
As we sit more than 40% of the way through the 2024 season, however, it's becoming increasingly apparent that times could be changing. Houston sits 8.5 games back of the Mariners in the American League West and would also need to leapfrog the defending World Series champion Rangers to get back into the division race. The Wild Card scene isn't all that much better. Houston is 5.5 games back of the third Wild Card spot, but with five teams standing between them and that potential playoff berth. The roster has been decimated by injuries.
At least at the moment, 2024 doesn't look to be the Astros' year. However, the bigger problem for the Astros isn't necessarily what lies ahead in the final three and a half months of the current season, but rather what looms beyond that point. Because when I say "times could be changing," I'm not referring to a simple one-year hiatus from their typically deep postseason runs. When it comes to the Astros, they're facing far larger and far more concerning long-term questions.
Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription
- 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