Cubs Announce Several Roster Moves
The Cubs announced a series of roster moves to add some fresh arms to the bullpen after their recent pair of extra-inning games taxed the relief corps. Right-handers Hayden Wesneski and Colten Brewer are up from Triple-A Iowa — the latter of whom had his contract selected to the 40-man roster. Chicago optioned righty Daniel Palencia and lefty Luke Little to open a pair of spots on the active roster. Right-hander Julian Merryweather, already shelved with a stress fracture in his ribcage, was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot for Brewer on the 40-man roster. He’s been on the IL since April 6, meaning he’ll now be out until at least June 6.
The Cubs will be the fourth big league club for Brewer, 31. The right-hander tossed 8 1/3 innings with the Yankees in 2023 and has previously spent time with the Padres and Red Sox. He’s logged a combined 99 1/3 innings across parts of five MLB campaigns, pitching to a 4.98 ERA with a 19.7% strikeout rate, 13.1% walk rate and 51.3% grounder rate. Brewer also spent time with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball last year, hurling 11 1/3 innings while allowing three runs on six hits and six walks (one intentional) with 14 strikeouts.
Brewer signed with Chicago on a minor league pact over the winter and had a strong spring training (seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts, no walks). He’s posted quite similar numbers in Des Moines so far: 7 2/3 innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, two walks, nine strikeouts. The 6’4″ righty is no stranger pitching to working in a long-relief role and could give the Cubs multiple innings if needed.
A protracted absence for Merryweather stings for the Cubs. The 32-year-old joined the organization as a waiver claim out of Toronto in January 2023 and quickly became one of their most important relievers. Since Opening Day ’23, Merryweather touts a 3.29 ERA (3.46 FIP, 3.41 SIERA) with a huge 32.1% strikeout rate. His 11.7% walk rate could rather obviously stand to improve, but Merryweather has done a nice job keeping the ball in the yard and frequently overpowering opponents with a heater that’s averaged 98.1 mph as a Cub. Among the 244 big league pitchers to toss at least 70 innings since Opening Day 2023, Merryweather’s 15.4% swinging-strike rate ranks 11th, placing him right between Mariners setup stud Matt Brash and reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
Padres Place Yu Darvish On Injured List
The Padres announced Wednesday that they’ve placed righty Yu Darvish on the 15-day injured list due to a tightness in his neck and recalled right-handed reliever Logan Gillaspie from Triple-A El Paso in his place. Darvish’s IL placement is retroactive to April 15.
Darvish had been slated to take the ball for San Diego on Saturday but will now be sidelined until at least April 30. The team hasn’t provided further details on the injury or given a timetable for the length of his expected absence. The Friars also haven’t listed a replacement starter for Saturday yet, though they have an off-day tomorrow which could allow them to move everyone else up a day for the time being without starting someone on short rest.
In five starts this season, the veteran Darvish has pitched 23 2/3 innings and notched a 4.18 ERA. He’s sitting on an uncharacteristically low strikeout rate (21.9%) and high walk rate (9.9%). Darvish’s most recent start against the Dodgers, wherein he yielded three runs and fanned just two in five innings, saw his average fastball drop more than a mile per hour relative to his season debut.
With Darvish shelved for a yet-to-be-determined period of time, the Padres will lean even more heavily on the trio of Joe Musgrove, Dylan Cease and Michael King. Twenty-seven-year-old knuckleballer Matt Waldron has pitched well through three starts but comes with minimal track record in the big leagues. Other rotation options on the 40-man roster include righties Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez in addition to lefties Jackson Wolf and Jay Groome. Brito is already on the big league roster in a long-relief capacity. Groome has yet to pitch more than two innings in a Triple-A appearance this season. Both Wolf and Vasquez have been hit quite hard in their first looks of the ’24 season in El Paso.
The 37-year-old Darvish is in the second season of a six-year, $108MM contract that runs through his age-41 season. That deal, which promised Darvish five years and an additional $90MM on top of the final $18MM he was owed under his prior contract, was engineered in many ways as a means of tamping down his luxury tax hit. The $90MM in new money was closer to what one might’ve expected for a then-36-year-old Darvish over a three-year term. He’d finished eighth in Cy Young balloting a season prior, rattling off 194 2/3 innings of 3.10 ERA ball. The Padres instead stretched what looked like three-year money out over an additional five years, weighing down the annual value and lessening the contract’s luxury hit in the process.
Mets Claim Michael Tonkin, Designate Tyler Jay
The Mets have claimed righty Michael Tonkin off waivers from the Twins, per a team announcement. Left-hander Tyler Jay was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
It’s in many ways a reversal of some recent bullpen-related transactions in Queens. New York designated Tonkin for assignment on April 5, traded him to the Twins for cash, and less than a week later selected the contract of Jay (a former Twins top prospect himself). Minnesota designated Tonkin for assignment a second time after he made just one appearance.
Both Tonkin and Jay were original Twins draftees — Tonkin in the 30th round in 2008 and Jay with the No. 6 overall pick in 2015. The 34-year-old Tonkin has allowed 10 runs in six innings between the Mets and Twins this year, though only four of them have been earned. He’s whiffed eight of 33 opponents and walked three, although he’s also plunked three batters in his tiny sample of innings.
Tonkin spent the 2023 season in the Braves’ bullpen, logging a 4.28 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in 80 innings. That set a new career-high MLB workload for the journeyman right-hander, who owns a career 4.42 ERA (4.55 FIP, 3.70 SIERA) with a 23.1% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 39.7% grounder rate in 232 1/3 big league innings between Minnesota, Atlanta and New York. Tonkin has also pitched in the D-backs and Brewers systems in addition to stints with the independent Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, the Mexican League’s Toros de Tijuana, and the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan.
As for Jay, his major league debut came far, far later than most would’ve expected when he was taken sixth overall as a high-profile college arm out of the University of Illinois. A former top-100 prospect, he’s been slowed by shoulder and neck troubles throughout his career and notably underwent thoracic outlet surgery back in 2017, costing him a year of his career. Jay never tossed more than 83 2/3 innings in any of his seasons with the Twins before being cut loose during the canceled 2020 minor league season. He didn’t pitch at all in 2021 and spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League.
His work with the Slammers earned him a look in the Mets’ system late last year. He re-signed on a minor league deal over the winter, tossed 5 2/3 shutout frames in Triple-A Syracuse to begin the season, and allowed one run on five hits and a walk in his first four MLB frames with the Mets. Jay only struck out one of the 18 batters he faced but also recorded an outstanding 66.7% ground-ball rate. New York will have a week to trade Jay, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
D-backs Select Logan Allen, Transfer Eduardo Rodriguez To 60-Day IL
The D-backs announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Logan Allen from Triple-A Reno and transferred lefty Eduardo Rodriguez from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a roster spot. The Snakes also recalled righty Justin Martinez from Triple-A. Right-hander Luis Frias and left-hander Tommy Henry were optioned to Reno to creative active roster space for Allen and Martinez.
It’ll be the first big league action since 2022 for the 26-year-old Allen (not to be confused by the other left-hander named Logan Allen, who solidified himself in the Guardians’ rotation with a strong rookie campaign in 2023).
The older Allen also pitched for Cleveland previously, to make matters more confusing. He’s a former eighth-round draft pick who’s appeared in parts of four big league seasons, working to a combined 5.89 ERA in 96 1/3 frames between Cleveland, San Diego and Baltimore. In a dozen innings with Reno, he’s pitched to a 3.00 ERA with nine strikeouts, three walks and a 50% ground-ball rate.
The “60-day” term on Rodriguez’s IL stint is retroactive to his original placement and does not reset to today. While Arizona had hoped he’d only miss a month originally, the veteran southpaw recently experienced renewed shoulder discomfort during a throwing session and had his rehab program paused. In light of that setback, it’s not especially surprising to see him pushed to the 60-day IL. His original placement was retroactive to March 25, meaning he’s now sidelined through at least Friday, May 24.
With Rodriguez now shelved for another five weeks at least, Arizona’s rotation will consist of Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery and Brandon Pfaadt in the top four spots. Montgomery has also yet to make his season debut but it scheduled to do so on Friday. Twenty-six-year-old righty Ryne Nelson currently holds the fifth spot, but he’s yielded eight runs in 13 2/3 innings this season and carries a 5.31 ERA in 157 2/3 frames dating back to last year. His grip on that rotation spot is not exactly iron-clad.
Astros To Activate Justin Verlander On Friday
The Astros will reinstate Justin Verlander from the injured list prior to Friday’s game against the Nationals, manager Joe Espada announced to the Astros beat this morning (X link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Verlander will start Friday’s game in what’ll be his season debut. The three-time Cy Young winner opened the season on the 15-day injured list after he was slowed by shoulder fatigue early in spring training.
Verlander’s return is a boon for an Astros rotation that has been hammered by injuries, even beyond the expected absence of Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia Jr., both of whom are still on the mend from surgeries that ended their 2023 seasons. Houston saw Verlander slowed by shoulder troubles early in spring, lost Jose Urquidy to a forearm strain and recently placed Framber Valdez on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation.
The Astros have already cycled through multiple depth starters, including rookies Blair Henley and Spencer Arrighetti. Even with an unexpectedly dominant start to the year for Ronel Blanco — previously the team’s sixth starter but now a vital member of the staff who’s already thrown a no-hitter in 2024 — Houston starters have the fifth-worst ERA in Major League Baseball at 5.13. The quartet of Henley, Arrighetti, J.P. France and Hunter Brown have combined to yield a staggering 44 runs in just 36 1/3 innings of work.
At 41 years old, it’s fair to wonder how long Verlander has left as a high-end starter. But he looked the part in 2023 when he tossed 162 innings of 3.22 ERA ball, fanned 21.5% of his opponents against a 6.7% walk rate, and maintained a solid 94.4 mph average on his heater. He’s been tagged for an ugly 11 earned runs over seven innings in two minor league rehab appearances, but he’s also fanned nine of 39 opponents in that time (23.1%) and issued just two walks (5.1%).
Verlander’s return should at least prevent the ‘Stros from needing to give any more starts to any of the team’s rookies for the time being. He’ll step into the rotation alongside Cristian Javier, Blanco, France and Brown. Houston will hope for better results from sophomores France and Brown, both of whom were solid rotation pieces in their 2023 rookie showings. (Though France wilted in rather glaring fashion down the stretch last year.) Brown, in particular, was one of the game’s top pitching prospects prior to last year’s debut. He’s had an awful start to the season, headlined by a nine-run shellacking at the hands of the Royals, but he held a powerhouse Braves lineup to two runs over six innings in a rebound effort last night.
Turning back to Verlander specifically, the timing of his return bears particular importance. His two-year, $86.666MM contract contains a vesting $35MM player option for a third season. If he’s able to throw 140 innings in 2024, he’ll have the right to exercise that player option and lock himself in at $35MM next year — provided he finishes the season without an arm injury that would prevent him from pitching in 2025. If his shoulder causes further problems and sends him back to the injured list, the conditions of that player option will become far more pertinent. As it stands, the future Hall of Famer should have ample time to reach the requisite 140 frames.
Orioles Designate David Bañuelos, Select Albert Suarez
8:42am: The Orioles have now announced the morning’s roster moves. Bañuelos has indeed been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster and on the active roster will go to righty Albert Suarez, whose contract has been selected from Norfolk.
Suarez, 34, has pitched in parts of two big league seasons — both with the Giants — but hasn’t been on a major league mound since 2017. He posted a 4.51 ERA in 115 2/3 innings with San Francisco in 2016-17, spent the 2018 season with the D-backs’ Triple-A club, and has been pitching in Japan and South Korea in the five-year interim.
Suarez spent the 2019-21 campaigns with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, logging a collective 3.00 ERA, 19.4% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate in 162 frames. He’s spent the past two seasons with the KBO’s Samsung Lions, recording a 3.04 ERA in 281 2/3 innings over the life of 48 starts. In 15 1/3 innings to begin his 2024 season with the Tides, Suarez has posted an ugly 5.87 ERA but a very intriguing 17-to-1 K/BB ratio.
It could be a short stay on the 40-man roster for him as well, depending on how the team’s rotation plans play out. Suarez is out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent back down to Norfolk without first clearing waivers. Regardless, it’ll be a rewarding and gratifying moment for a 34-year-old righty who has undoubtedly wondered at times whether he’d ever return to the majors.
8:36am: The Orioles will announce today that they’ve designated catcher David Bañuelos for assignment, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. He’ll be the corresponding roster move for the promotion of today’s starting pitcher. Righty Tyler Wells had been slated to take the ball, but he hit the injured list last night with an elbow injury.
Bañuelos was already with the Orioles on their taxi squad as an emergency third catcher. Multiple O’s beat writers last night suggested that his addition to the 40-man roster was primarily due to him already being with the club and the team not having sufficient time to add another arm with Wells hitting the 15-day IL rather suddenly.
The O’s did right by Bañuelos, plugging the 27-year-old minor league veteran into the game as a pinch-hitter to at least give him a brief big league debut after a six-year grind in the minors. Bañuelos likely knew from the jump that his stint on the 40-man would be quite brief, and even though he merely flew out in place of Colton Cowser, he nonetheless said after the game that the lone at-bat was “honestly one of the coolest moments of my life” (X link via Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun).
Baltimore will now have a week to trade Bañuelos, pass him through outright waivers or release him. He joined the O’s over the winter on a minor league deal and has opened the season with a 2-for-11 showing in Triple-A Norfolk. One of those two knocks left the yard. Bañuelos was a fifth-round pick by the Mariners in 2017 who was traded to the Twins for international bonus space a year later. He spent six seasons in Minnesota’s minor league ranks and is regarded as a strong defender with average power and a well below-average hit tool. In 307 career Triple-A plate appearances, Bañuelos is a .209/.268/.394 hitter with a 31.9% strikeout rate.
Astros Outright Wander Suero
Astros right-hander Wander Suero went unclaimed on outright waivers following his recent DFA and has been assigned to Houston’s Triple-A affiliate, per the Astros’ transaction log at MLB.com. He’ll have the right to reject that assignment in favor of free agency, both by virtue of his big league service time (more than three years) and by the fact that he’s previously been outrighted in his career.
The 32-year-old Suero appeared in just one game and faced only one hitter with the Astros prior to his DFA. The veteran righty inked a minor league deal with Houston over the winter, was summoned to the big leagues to add a fresh arm to a beleaguered bullpen, and wound up surrendering a walkoff single to Salvador Perez in his lone outing as an Astro. It’s possible he’ll stick around as a depth option.
Suero had made five appearances with Triple-A Sugar Land before being called up. He tossed five innings of two-run ball, punching out five hitters without issuing a walk. That’s a solid start to building off what was a strong performance at the Triple-A level last season. Suero pitched 47 times for the Dodgers’ top affiliate in 2023, turning in a 3.26 ERA with an above-average 25.9% strikeout rate in the Pacific Coast League.
That earned him a few scattered looks at Dodger Stadium, although the vast majority of his big league time has come with Washington. Suero pitched for the Nationals from 2018-21, including 78 appearances for the World Series team in 2019. Suero posted a sub-4.00 ERA in two of his first three seasons but stumbled to a 6.33 mark in 42 2/3 frames in 2021. That kicked off a nomadic phase of his career that has bounced him between the Angels, Dodgers and Astros systems.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Dodgers To Promote Andy Pages
The Dodgers are calling up top outfield prospect Andy Pages, as first reported by Francys Romero (X link). The 23-year-old is already on L.A.’s 40-man roster, so they’ll only need to make a corresponding 26-man move, though it’s possible his promotion still leads to a 40-man move. Speculatively speaking, fellow outfielder Taylor Trammell could be at risk with Pages’ ascension to the big leagues, and Trammell is a recent waiver claim who’s out of minor league options.
Pages currently ranks as baseball’s No. 94 overall prospect at MLB.com and No. 95 overall at Baseball America. He garnered additional top-100 fanfare heading into the 2023 season but saw his stock take a bit of a hit due to injury troubles; Pages’ 2023 campaign ended when he underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder in early June.
That injury came on the heels of Pages’ first promotion to the Triple-A level. He appeared in just one game with the Dodgers’ Oklahoma City affiliate but had turned in a stout .284/.430/.495 batting line in 142 Double-A plate appearances prior to that move up the minor league ladder. The righty-swinging Pages has obliterated Triple-A pitching in the early stages of the 2024 season, tallying 73 plate appearances and recording a .371/.452/.694 slash with five homers, three doubles, a triple, two steals, an 11% walk rate and a 17.8% strikeout rate.
Pages draws praise for his raw power — which couples nicely with a swing and approach geared for lifting the ball — and plate discipline. He can play all three outfield positions, though scouting reports at BA and MLB.com suggest he profiles best in a corner, where he has the speed and instincts to be a capable defender.
The Dodgers’ outfield currently features Teoscar Hernandez in right, with a combination of James Outman, Enrique Hernandez, Chris Taylor and the aforementioned Trammell rounding things out in the other two spots. Jason Heyward is currently on the injured list with a lower back issue, though when healthy, he and Hernandez can be expected to roam the corners most days. Pages could potentially serve as a righty-hitting complement to Heyward and/or Outman, though it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the Dodgers plan to get him more regular work than the short side of a platoon.
Given the timing of the promotion, Pages can’t accrue a full year of big league service time in 2024 — at least not solely by remaining on the roster. Because he was regarded as a top-100 prospect on multiple outlets, he’d qualify for a full year of service time if he finishes in the top two in this year’s National League Rookie of the Year voting. Barring that — and pending future optional assignments bac to the minors, which are a firm possibility — Pages will be controllable all the way through 2030. If he’s in the big leagues to stay, he’ll be a surefire Super Two player who’s eligible for arbitration four times, rather than the standard three, beginning in the 2026-27 offseason.
Twins, Tony Kemp Agree To Minor League Deal
The Twins are bringing veteran second baseman/left fielder Tony Kemp aboard on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Ballengee Group client will presumably head to Triple-A St. Paul to begin his tenure with the organization.
Kemp, 32, began the season with the Orioles but was designated for assignment when Baltimore called up No. 1 overall prospect Jackson Holliday. He went unclaimed on waivers and rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency. He’ll now join up with a Minnesota club that has seen its infield depth immediately thinned out by injuries.
Minnesota lost star third baseman Royce Lewis to a quad strain in the first game of the season, and shortstop Carlos Correa recently hit the injured list with an oblique strain. That’s pushed utilitymen Willi Castro and Kyle Farmer into more regular roles. Former top prospect Austin Martin has gotten some time on the infield dirt as well, but he’s also being used in the outfield with Max Kepler currently on the injured list due to a knee contusion suffered when fouling a ball into his leg. Jose Miranda, another former top prospect who had a strong debut showing in 2022 before seeing his 2023 campaign ruined by shoulder surgery, is also back in the corner infield mix at the big league level.
While Kemp’s 2023 season was one he’d like to forget — he hit just .209/.303/.304 in 419 plate appearances with Oakland — he was a solid contributor for the A’s from 2020-22. In that time, he hit .252/.341/.361 while playing both second base and left field. Kemp is a career .237/.324/.351 hitter who’s walked in 10.1% of his plate appearances and fanned at just a 13.3% clip. That latter number could hold particular appeal to a Twins club that has been allergic to contact both this year and last. Dating back to 2023, no team in baseball has a higher strikeout rate than Minnesota’s woeful 26.7% clip.