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Tigers Designate Matt Manning For Assignment

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The Tigers have designated right-hander Matt Manning for assignment, per Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. The former top prospect’s spot on the roster will go to newly acquired reliever Paul Sewald.

Manning, 27, was the ninth overall pick in the 2016 draft and for years ranked among the game’s top pitching prospects. At one point, he was part of an untouchable trio of pitching prospects in Detroit, alongside former No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize and 2024 AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. Things for Manning haven’t panned out. That’s in part due to injuries, but the right-hander has had several opportunities in the majors and has yet to deliver on his former prospect status.

Manning logged big league time each season from 2021-24, starting a total of 50 games for Detroit over those four years. He posted sub-4.00 ERAs in 2022-23 but did so with bottom-of-the-scale strikeout numbers and plenty of hard contact allowed. On the whole, Manning has a 4.43 ERA, 16.4% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 40.4% ground-ball rate in 254 MLB frames.

That collective output is decent, but Manning struggled to a 4.88 ERA in 27 2/3 big league innings last year and has been shelled in Triple-A thus far in 2025. He’s spent the entire year in Toledo but turned in a 6.04 ERA with a gruesome 15.9% walk rate in 50 2/3 innings. Detroit dropped him from the Mud Hens’ rotation back in April and has been using Manning in short relief since May 1, but the results have still been uninspiring: 5.12 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate, 15.1% walk rate.

This is Manning’s final minor league option year. He can spend as much time in Triple-A for the remainder of the season as a new team would like, but he’ll have to stick on the major league roster with any club that claims/acquires him beginning next season. Manning has four seasons of club control remaining. He can be traded at any point up until this afternoon’s deadline, but after that he’ll need to be placed on waivers. Even with his struggles of late, it seems likely another club would at least take a no-risk flier on him just given his former pedigree — particularly a rebuilding or selling club that frees up several 40-man roster spots with trades of veteran players today.

Mariners Acquire Caleb Ferguson

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The Mariners acquired left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson from the Pirates for minor league right-hander Jeter Martinez. Righty Collin Snider has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. Ferguson is playing on a one-year, $3MM contract and is a free agent at season’s end.

Ferguson, 29, is in the midst of a strong season with Pittsburgh. He’s pitched 43 1/3 innings and logged a 3.74 ERA with a 19.3% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. He’s allowed only one homer on the season and kept just under 50% of his opponents’ batted balls on the ground.

While Ferguson isn’t a flamethrower who misses bats in bunches — he’s averaging 94.1 mph on his four-seamer this season — he avoids hard contact better than any other reliever in the game. Ferguson’s 83.5 mph average exit velocity is the lowest of any pitcher in Major League Baseball (min. 40 innings). His 25.2% hard-hit rate is second, trailing only Padres standout lefty Adrian Morejon.

Ferguson has pitched in parts of seven major league seasons. He’s totaled a 3.69 earned run average in 305 big league innings. The southpaw typically misses more bats than he has in 2025 (career 26.4% strikeout rate), but he’s currently sporting his lowest walk rate since the shortened 2020 season and has never limited hard contact as well as he’s managed to this year. Ferguson has been an absolute monster against left-handed opponents, limiting them to a pitiful .167/.257/.182 slash in 74 plate appearances. He’s also been strong against right-handers, however, holding them to a .250/.327/.354 slash. It’s not quite dominant, but this is his best production versus righties since 2022.

The Mariners have only had one reliable left-hander in their bullpen this season: Gabe Speier. They’ve given brief looks to Tayler Saucedo, Blas Castaño and Jhonathan Diaz, but no one from that group has even pitched five innings out of the big league bullpen. Ferguson gives skipper Dan Wilson a second southpaw option who, like Speier, can handle both lefties and righties.

Seattle is known to be on the lookout for high-impact talent at the back of the bullpen. Ferguson isn’t necessarily that marquee arm they’ve been seeking, but in all likelihood he’ll be just one of multiple relievers acquired. The Mariners are reportedly making a run at Twins closer Jhoan Duran and have also been tied to young, controllable bullpen arms in Colorado like Seth Halvorsen and Juan Mejia.

As for the Pirates, they’ll spin their low-cost investment in Ferguson into the 19-year-old Martinez. The 6’4″ righty, signed out of Mexico for a $600K bonus during the 2022-23 signing period, has started 16 games against older and more advanced competition with the Mariners’ Low-A affiliate. He’s struggled to a 6.18 ERA due in no small part to a 13.2% walk rate.

Martinez posted strong ERAs in prior seasons with the Mariners’ affiliate in the Dominican Summer League, however, and he’s shown plenty of ability to miss bats with a mid-90s fastball that can scrape triple digits. Baseball America ranked Martinez 22nd among Seattle prospects earlier this month. FanGraphs ranked him 15th in the system last month, where Eric Longenhagen praised that heater and a pair of secondary pitches (slider, changeup) that could be plus pitches. Command is the biggest issue, but Martinez is still more than two years away from needing to be added to the 40-man roster, so the Pirates will have awhile to try to rein in the free passes and keep him in the rotation. If a move to the bullpen ends up being necessary, it’s easy enough to imagine Martinez’s already impressive fastball playing up a bit further.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the Mariners were acquiring Ferguson. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times reported that Martinez was going the other way.

Mariners Promote Tyler Locklear, Place Luke Raley On Injured List

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The Mariners placed first baseman/outfielder Luke Raley on the 10-day injured list due to back spasms and recalled first baseman Tyler Locklear from Triple-A Tacoma, per a team announcement. (Adam Jude of the Seattle Times first reported the moves.) The team has not indicated how long Raley is expected to be sidelined, but his placement on the IL is retroactive to July 27, meaning he can return in a week’s time.

Locklear, 24, was making a case for a call to the majors even before Raley’s injury was known. The former second-round pick is among the hottest hitting prospects in baseball, slashing .316/.401/.542 on the season. That includes a solid but unexciting start to his 2025 season; dating back to Memorial Day weekend, Locklear has posted an outrageous .356/.441/.681 slash in 50 games (227 plate appearances).

Locklear received a brief look in the majors last season, but he didn’t hit much in a tiny sample of 49 plate appearances. He’s spent the entire 2025 season in Triple-A. Last week’s acquisition of Josh Naylor means Locklear won’t be stepping in to take everyday at-bats at first base, but he can mix in at designated hitter and give the M’s a big bat off the bench.

This year’s surge at the plate has put Locklear back on the map as a potential long-term option at first, but it’s surely also sparked some trade interest in the young slugger. The Mariners have been looking for help at third base and in the bullpen, and Locklear is one of many appealing prospects in a deep Mariners farm system that could help president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander achieve those goals.

As for Raley, it’s the second IL stint of his season. He missed about five weeks earlier due to an oblique strain. He’s having a down year at the plate, particularly in terms of power output, hitting .220/.343/.348 in 170 trips to the plate. That batting line is at least partially skewed by a recent and notable slump that’s seen Raley hit just .190/.320/.286 with 19 strikeouts in his past 50 trips to the plate. It’s certainly possible that Raley’s back issue has been plaguing him for some time and contributed to that skid.

Pirates Trade Ke’Bryan Hayes To Reds

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The Reds and Pirates have come together on an intra-division swap that will send third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, per announcements from both clubs. The Pirates are receiving veteran reliever Taylor Rogers and minor league shortstop Sammy Stafura. The Reds will reportedly take on the entirety of Hayes’ contract, which runs through the 2029 season.

Hayes, 28, is a former first-round pick and top prospect who looked to be on the cusp of stardom early in his career. He graded as an elite defensive third baseman throughout his time in the minors and hit well as he climbed the minor league ladder. Hayes made an electric debut in the shortened 2020 season, showing off that plus-plus glove while hitting .376/.442/682 in his first 95 big league plate appearances.

Hayes didn’t replicate that output in his first full big league season in 2021, but he held his own with a .257/.316/.373 batting line in 396 plate appearances despite missing significant time due to a wrist injury. He hit just six homers but played outstanding defense and swiped nine bags. The following April, Pittsburgh signed him to an eight-year, $70MM deal which, at the time, was the largest in franchise history.

Unfortunately for Hayes and the Pirates, back injuries have become a recurring problem in Hayes’ still-young career. He’s spent significant time on the injured list due to back troubles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 — totaling five IL stints due to his back in that period of three years. Hayes still managed a league-average season at the plate in 2023 (.271/.309/.453, 100 wRC+, 15 homers, 10 steals) but he’s been a well below-average hitter since. In 788 plate appearances dating back to Opening Day 2024, he’s mustered only a .234/.281/.290 batting line (58 wRC+).

The Pirates frontloaded Hayes’ extension, paying him $10MM in each of the contract’s first two seasons and then cutting the salary back to $7-8MM per year thereafter. He’s making $7MM in 2025, with about $2.26MM of that sum yet to be paid out. He’ll then be owed $36MM from 2026-29 ($30MM in salary plus at least a $6MM buyout on a $12MM club option for the 2030 season).

It’s a relatively hefty sum to take on, though Hayes remains such a premium defender that his glove alone is arguably worth the remaining $9MM annual value on the contract (including the 2026 buyout). Hayes has been credited with an astonishing 91 Defensive Runs Saved and 73 Outs Above Average in 4796 career innings at third base, including 16 DRS and 15 OAA in 861 innings this year already. Since Hayes debuted in 2020, he leads all of Major League Baseball (at all positions) in both DRS and OAA. Andres Gimenez’s 63 DRS and Francisco Lindor’s 68 OAA are the second-highest marks in each category.

On top of a legitimate claim to being the game’s top defensive player, Hayes does have some encouraging offensive trends. His 20.7% strikeout rate in 2025 matches his career mark and checks in lower than the league average. He also regularly posts strong batted-ball metrics. Hayes has averaged 90.7 mph off the bat in his career, and 46.3% of his batted balls have traveled 95 mph or faster. The downside, however, is that far too much of that hard contact comes in the form of ground-balls. A hefty 49.5% of Hayes’ career batted balls have been hit into the ground, and his lack of consistent elevation offsets his average power.

A move to Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park could prove beneficial. Pittsburgh’s PNC Park is the toughest park in MLB on right-handed power over the past three years, per Statcast’s Park Factors. Great American, meanwhile, has been the second most conducive park to right-handed home runs in that time. It’s feasible that Hayes might at least eke out a few extra home runs just from the more favorable dimensions in his new home park.

The acquisition of Hayes could push infielder Noelvi Marte into the outfield on a more permanent basis. Marte is enjoying a nice rebound year at the plate, batting .276/.329/.500 with seven home runs and six steals in 146 plate appearances. Cincinnati has been having Marte go through outfield drills and has given him eight innings of actual right field (three games) over the past couple weeks.

Rogers’ inclusion in the Hayes return is solely for financial purposes. The 34-year-old is an impending free agent earning $12MM in the final season of a three-year $33MM contract, though the Giants are paying half that salary under the terms of the offseason trade that shipped him to Cincinnati. The Pirates, in all likelihood, will turn around and try to trade Rogers before tomorrow afternoon’s deadline.

So far in 2025, Rogers has pitched to a 2.45 ERA with a 23.3% strikeout rate and 13% walk rate in 33 innings. Rogers has a track record as a closer and setup man but hasn’t been used frequently in high-leverage spots by the Reds this year. He should draw some interest, especially if Pittsburgh is willing to pay down some of the $1.94MM he’s still owed through season’s end.

Beyond shedding the entirety of an unwanted contract, the Pirates’ return in the trade is the 20-year-old Stafura. He’s just two years removed from being the No. 43 overall pick in the draft and receiving an over-slot bonus of nearly $2.5MM. Stafura was regarded as a potential first-round pick in 2023. He’s spent the 2025 season in Class-A, hitting .262/.393/.411 (131 wRC+) with four home runs, 18 doubles, nine triples and 28 stolen bases (in 33 attempts).

Stafura possesses well above-average speed and has walked in more than 15% of his plate appearances in his professional career. His 23.9% strikeout rate is a bit high and there have been some concerns about Stafura’s hit tool. He’s played 170 of his 172 games in the field at shortstop (plus two at second base). Baseball America, in ranking Stafura ninth among Reds farmhands, noted that while Stafura has a roughly average arm, it’s quite accurate and he has the other defensive skills needed to stick at shortstop. It’s always possible Stafura will eventually slide to second or move into a utility role, but for now, the Pirates figure to keep him at shortstop.

Cincinnati has spent much of the past few weeks looking for offensive upgrades. Hayes is quite possibly an offensive downgrade, but he’ll be a massive boost to the team’s defense. The Reds, presumably, will remain in the market for a hitter who can more meaningfully upgrade their lineup.

Mark Feinsand, Mark Sheldon and Alex Stumpf of MLB.com first reported that Hayes had been traded to the Reds. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the return. Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Reds were taking on Hayes’ entire contract.

Rockies Trade Tyler Kinley To Braves

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The Braves and Rockies have agreed to a deal sending right-handed reliever Tyler Kinley from Colorado to Atlanta in exchange for Double-A righty Austin Smith. Both teams have announced the deal. Kinley, who’s earning $3MM in the final year of his contract, has an affordable $5MM club option for the 2026 season.

The 34-year-old Kinley has an unappealing 5.66 ERA on the season but has fanned 23.8% of his opponents on the season. Metrics like FIP (4.14) and SIERA (4.15) feel he’s been far better than that earned run average should indicate. He’s been on an excellent run of late, pitching to a 2.37 ERA with a 31.1% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate in 19 innings since mid-June.

Kinley’s overall 12.6% walk rate this season is an eyesore, but he’s also been plagued by a fluky 59.4% strand rate that’s well shy of his 68% career mark and the 72% league average. The 6’4″ righty sits 95.2 mph on his heater and boasts a terrific 14% swinging-strike rate, which could give Atlanta some optimism that Kinley’s strikeout rate has room to improve. He’s also among the league leaders in terms of limiting hard contact.

It’s a surprise to see the Braves add a veteran player, given the team’s 45-61 record in an increasingly injury-decimated season. Kinley deepens the current relief corps and brings a hint of upside which, if unlocked, would make him a bargain option for next season. His ’26 club option has a $750K buyout, so Atlanta will be making a net $4.25MM decision in the offseason after Kinley has had a 2025 audition.

In that sense, the Braves — who fully intend to compete in 2026 — are getting a proactive jump start on some offseason shopping. Braves relievers Raisel Iglesias and Rafael Montero are free agents at season’s end. Pierce Johnson is also in the final guaranteed season of his deal, though like Kinley, he has a 2026 club option. Each of Iglesias, Montero and Johnson has been a reported trade candidate as Atlanta begrudgingly concedes to listening on short-term veterans at this year’s deadline.

Going back to the Rockies is the 26-year-old Smith, Atlanta’s 18th-round pick back in 2021. He posted decent numbers in the low minors in 2021-22 after being drafted out of Arizona, but he missed nearly all of the 2023-24 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. Smith tossed 26 innings last year across three minor league levels and posted a 6.92 ERA with nearly as many walks as strikeouts.

He’s been far better this year between High-A and Double-A but still has pedestrian numbers against far younger competition. He’s logged a combined 4.31 ERA with a 26.2% strikeout rate and much improved (but still higher than average) 11.5% walk rate. Smith has yet to climb to the Triple-A level in the minors.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported that Kinley was headed to the Braves in exchange for a prospect. David O’Brien of The Athletic reported Smith’s inclusion in the deal.

Giants Open To Offers On Relievers; Camilo Doval Drawing Interest

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The Giants have informed other teams that they’ll listen to offers on some of their bullpen, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. Francys Romero reports that Camilo Doval, in particular, has drawn interest from several teams. San Francisco has dropped five consecutive games and is now sitting .500 on the season — nine games back in the NL West and five games out of a Wild Card spot.

Doval, 28, popped up in trade rumblings back in the offseason, but the Giants held onto him rather than sell low on the heels of a down season. That’s proven to be the right call, as Doval has bounced back with a 3.15 ERA, a 25.1% strikeout rate, 15 saves and seven holds on the season. His 12.8% walk rate is too high but is down from last year’s even uglier 14.4% mark. Doval sits 98.1 mph with his cutter and can run the pitch up over 100 mph, though his velocity is down a bit from the past three seasons, when he sat over 99 mph. Doval couples the cutter with a slider and what’s now a seldom-used sinker.

The 2025 season is Doval’s first year of arbitration eligibility. He’s earning $4.525MM and is slated to receive raises in each of the next two seasons. He’s a free agent in the 2027-28 offseason. If the Giants are amenable to a deal, he’d join names like David Bednar, Dennis Santana, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and Cade Smith as one of the market’s more appealing relievers with some remaining club control.

Presumably, if the Giants are open to trading any veteran players, righty Tyler Rogers would be available. The submariner has been a steady member of San Francisco’s bullpen since 2019 but is in his final season of club control before free agency. The 34-year-old has pitched to a pristine 1.80 earned run average in 50 innings this year. Rogers has never missed many bats but has a 20.2% strikeout rate this season that — while still lower than average — represents a step up from the 17.3% mark he posted over the past four seasons. His command has long been a strength, but this year’s minuscule 2.1% walk rate is a career low.

Rogers offsets his lack of strikeouts with that plus command and also by inducing some of the weakest contact in the sport. His unique arm angle and 83 mph sinker regularly prove difficult to square up. Opponents are averaging just 84.8 mph off the bat against him this year, and Rogers has allowed just a 32.2% hard-hit rate. He’s also kept a massive 64.4% of batted balls against him on the ground.

Doval and Rogers stand as the two most logical trade candidates in the San Francisco bullpen, but if the Giants wanted to pursue an even more substantial return, they could hear out teams who have interest in Ryan Walker or Randy Rodriguez. Walker is in the midst of a down season but was one of the National League’s top relievers just last year, when he notched a 1.91 ERA, 32.1% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate. He’s controllable for four years after the current season but is a late-blooming arm who’ll turn 30 in November.

The 25-year-old Rodriguez would be overwhelmingly difficult to pry away. He’s controlled for another five years after the 2025 season and currently boasts a 1.20 ERA with a massive 36.3% strikeout rate against a 5.3% walk rate. Rodriguez sits 97.4 mph with his four-seamer, pairing it with a plus slider that’s helped him land in the 90th percentile of big league pitchers in both whiff rate and chase rate on pitches off the plate, per Statcast.

White Sox Trade Austin Slater To Yankees

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The Yankees have upgraded their bench and added some outfield depth, announcing Tuesday that they’ve acquired outfielder Austin Slater from the White Sox. The Yankees are sending minor league right-hander Gage Ziehl back to Chicago in return. It’s a one-for-one swap.

Slater, 32, is a reserve outfielder who’s played all three spots and posted good numbers against left-handed pitching — both in 2025 and throughout his nine-year career in the majors. He’s hitting .236/.299/.423 in 135 plate appearances this year, including .261/.338/.552 versus left-handers. In 1006 career plate appearances versus lefties, the righty-swinging Slater is a .270/.362/.436 hitter.

Slater is playing the season on a one-year, $1.75MM deal, though he’s already tacked on $100K worth of incentives based on games played and plate appearances. He could feasibly tack on another $175K by reaching 75 games played and 200 plate appearances. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end.

Though he’s not likely to step into an everyday role, Slater is an affordable means of complementing switch-hitting left fielder Jasson Dominguez, who’s slashing .284/.354/.456 versus right-handed pitching but just .207/.286/.299 versus left-handed opponents. Much the same way that the Yankees acquired Amed Rosario to platoon with new third baseman Ryan McMahon, Slater can share time with Dominguez moving forward.

The Yankees are currently without MVP candidate Aaron Judge, who was recently placed on the injured list due to a forearm strain. A precise timetable for a return remains unclear, but it’s expected Judge will be limited to DH work when he initially returns. Dominguez, Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger will be the primary outfield trio while Judge is on the mend. Grisham, like Dominguez, struggles against left-handed pitching.

Ziehl, 22, was the Yankees’ fourth-round pick in 2024. He’s spent the bulk of the year in A-ball but was just bumped up to Double-A. The Miami product has posted a combined 4.15 ERA with a 20.2% strikeout rate and 4% walk rate in 86 1/3 innings. Baseball America ranked Ziehl 18th among Yankees prospects on their midseason update of the system just last week. He’s a three-pitch starter whose fastball can climb to 97 mph. Ziehl pairs that pitch with a slider and changeup that both draw average or better grades.

Jack Curry of the YES Network first reported the trade.

Orioles Trade Seranthony Dominguez To Blue Jays

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The Blue Jays and Orioles executed a bit of business between games of their doubleheader today, as Baltimore traded right-hander Seranthony Dominguez and cash to the Toronto in exchange for minor league righty Juaron Watts-Brown. Both clubs have announced the swap. The Jays designated veteran reliever Chad Green for assignment to open 40-man and 26-man roster spots for their new acquisition.

Dominguez, 30, is earning $8MM in his final season of club control. He’s spent the past year in Baltimore after coming over from the Phillies at the 2024 trade deadline. The 6’1″, 225-pound righty has been among the Orioles’ top setup options this season, pitching 41 2/3 innings of 3.24 ERA ball with an excellent 30.9% strikeout rate but also a troubling 13.7% walk rate. Command has been a problem for the hard-throwing Dominguez at times in the past, but never quite to this extent.

Even with the glut of free passes, Dominguez has still enjoyed a strong year. This year’s strikeout rate is the second-highest of his career (second to only his rookie season), as is his 14.3% swinging-strike rate. He’s sitting 97.7 mph with his four-seamer and 97.9 mph with his sinker, per Statcast, pairing those blistering primary offerings with a pair of newly implemented secondary weapons: a splitter averaging 87.4 mph and a more seldom-used curveball that’s sitting 83.7 mph.

Dominguez has picked up 13 holds and a pair of saves. He’s been charged with three blown saves on the season. Outside of closer Felix Bautista, no reliever in the Baltimore bullpen has been used more frequently in high-leverage situations. He’s no stranger to protecting late leads, either, evidenced by the 40 saves and 71 holds he’s tallied in 298 major league appearances dating back to his 2018 debut in Philadelphia.

Toronto’s bullpen entered play today tied for seventh in the majors with a collective 3.72 ERA — although that was before serving up a whopping 12 runs to the Orioles in the first game of today’s twin bill. (Two of those runs were yielded by backup catcher Ali Sanchez pitching in mop-up duty.) They’ve gotten terrific work out of Yariel Rodriguez, Brendon Little and Braydon Fisher, in particular.

Offseason signee Jeff Hoffman has a 4.73 ERA, though that’s skewed a bit by a five-run meltdown back in May. He’s pitched to a flat 3.00 ERA with a 33.8% strikeout rate and 5.6% walk rate in 18 innings dating back to June 1. Fellow veteran Yimi Garcia, who re-signed as a free agent with the Jays this winter after being traded to the Mariners last July, missed more than a month with a shoulder impingement and then was placed back on the IL day due to an ankle sprain just three days after returning. He’s still on the shelf but has posted a 3.86 ERA in 21 innings when healthy.

The Jays are eyeing a variety of upgrades as they look to keep their spot atop the standings in the American League East. They’ve been in the hunt for bullpen upgrades — and still are even after acquiring Dominguez, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com — in addition to rotation arms like Dylan Cease and prominent bats like Steven Kwan (though Kwan, in particular, is a long shot to change hands). In an effort to obtain upgrades of that nature, they’ve been willing to listen to trade offers on some controllable young big leaguers who’ve gotten their feet wet in the majors already, though that didn’t prove necessary with regard to Dominguez.

Dominguez will net the Orioles the 23-year-old Watts-Brown, whom the Blue Jays selected with their third-round pick back in 2023. The Oklahoma State product has spent the season in the rotation at High-A and Double-A, logging a combined 3.54 ERA with a 30.5% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate in 89 innings. He ranked 14th among Jays prospects, per Baseball America’s most recent midseason update of their system.

Listed at 6’3″ and 190 pounds, Watts-Brown sits 92-94 mph with his four-seamer and can run it up a couple ticks higher when he needs to reach back for more. Scouting reports at BA, MLB.com and FanGraphs all laud the lanky right-hander’s slider and curveball as plus pitches, but command troubles and a lack of missed bats with his heater have led to some thought that he might be better suited for a relief role down the road. The Jays have continued to develop him as a starter, and that’ll presumably be the case as well for an Orioles club that is quite thin on upper-level pitching.

Watts-Brown walked an untenable 13.2% of hitters in 2024 and, after notching a much-improved 7.7% walk rate in High-A to begin the season, is back up to an 11.8% walk rate in 11 Double-A starts. He’s also plunked four hitters in 51 innings there. Watts-Brown will need to further refine his command to thrive as a starter, but his frame and four-pitch arsenal lend themselves well to rotation work if he can scale back on the free passes. That he’s already in Double-A suggests a potential 2026 debut for the former third-round pick if things go well.

Dominguez is the third reliever shipped out by a disappointing Baltimore club this month. The O’s sent Bryan Baker to the Rays prior to the All-Star break and traded Gregory Soto to the Mets last week. Dominguez and Soto were obvious trade candidates, given their impending free agency on a team that has fallen well shy of expectations. Other O’s veterans who are set to hit the market at season’s end (e.g. Ryan O’Hearn, Cedric Mullins, Zach Eflin, Charlie Morton) are likely to follow.

Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet first reported the trade.

Rangers, Mariners Eyeing Rockies’ Relievers

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The Rockies, more open to dealing at this year’s deadline than in seasons past, have been open to offers on controllable young relievers in their bullpen. The Rox have several power arms who could appeal to bullpen-needy contenders, and two teams that have been eyeing them recently are the Rangers (per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) and Mariners (per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com).

Grant reports that the Rockies are under the impression that right-handers Jake Bird, Victor Vodnik and Tyler Kinley are all available via trade. As a veteran in the final guaranteed season of his contract, Kinley is a fairly straightforward trade candidate. But Bird, who’s controlled three years beyond the current season, and especially Vodnik, who’s controlled for an additional four years, stand as the types of player Colorado wouldn’t even consider moving at prior trade deadlines.

Kinley, 34, is making $3MM in 2025 and has a $5MM club option with a $750K buyout. He’s sporting an ugly 5.66 ERA but more appealing secondary marks. The 6’4″ righty is averaging 95.2 mph on his four-seamer but uses his slider as his primary offering (60.1%), which has surely contributed to a hefty 14% swinging-strike rate. That’s a well above-average mark and could portend an uptick in Kinley’s 23.8% strikeout rate, which is only a bit better than average. Kinley’s 12.6% walk rate needs work, but he’s shown better command in the past. Metrics like FIP (4.14) and SIERA (4.15) both feel he’s been better than his ERA, and other clubs might be intrigued to see what he could do with more analytical input than the Rockies provide.

Bird, 29, was excellent through the end of June but has had a brutal month in July. He’s been rocked for 15 runs (14 earned) in just 6 2/3 innings since the calendar flipped, ballooning his once-terrific 2.63 ERA all the way to 4.73. He has roughly average velocity but makes good use of a sinker/slider/curveball repertoire to miss bats and keep the ball on the ground at above-average levels. In 53 1/3 innings — Bird frequently works more than one inning per outing — he’s fanned 26.3% of his opponents against a 9.7% walk rate. Bird’s 48% ground-ball rate is well above average, and he’s done a nice job avoiding home runs both in 2025 (0.84 HR/9) and in his career (0.90).

The 25-year-old Vodnik would be valued most highly of the trio mentioned by Grant. He’s in just his second big league season and is sporting a tidy 3.19 ERA with an above-average 23.9% strikeout rate and a massive 56.6% ground-ball rate in 31 frames. Vodnik averages a blistering 98.6 mph on his fastball and just under 92 mph on his “changeup.” However, Vodnik doesn’t quite miss bats at the level one might expect from someone with such a powerful arsenal. The results have been strong nonetheless, though Vodnik’s 4.12 FIP and 4.11 SIERA (driven by his shaky command) point to some potential regression.

Vodnik and Bird, in particular, seem like they’d hold appeal to a Rangers club that has some reluctance to exceed the luxury tax threshold. Neither has reached arbitration yet, so neither would add to the club’s luxury obligations. Kinley would have just $951K left on his contract by the time the deadline rolls around, though the $750K buyout on his 2026 option would also come into play.

Bird is also on the Mariners’ radar, per Kramer, who notes that Seattle has “heavily” scouted him and bullpen-mates Juan Mejia and Seth Halvorsen. Mejia is a particularly obscure trade candidate, given that he just made his MLB debut earlier this year. He’s pitched 36 innings and logged a 4.50 ERA but with a 3.78 FIP and 3.60 SIERA. He’s set down 23.7% of his opponents on strikes and walked 8.6% of the hitters he’s faced.

Mejia is a pure two-pitch reliever with a four-seamer that averages 96.2 mph and a slider sitting 82.9 mph. He’d be controllable for a full six years beyond the current season and is in the second of two minor league option years. That’d give Seattle plenty of long-term control and flexibility.

Halvorsen, 25, is arguably the most appealing of the whole group. His 4.99 ERA is pedestrian, but he’s averaging 100 mph on his four-seamer, inducing chases off the plate at an above-average rate and sporting a 13.2% swinging-strike rate. The flamethrowing young righty has punched out just 20.9% of his opponents but fanned batters at a 28.9% rate during last year’s debut (albeit in a smaller sample of innings). His 11.6% walk rate is too high, but his 54.4% grounder rate is excellent.

Halvorsen only briefly got a look late last season and hasn’t been optioned since first being selected to the big leagues. As such, he has a full slate of three option years. He’s controlled for five more years beyond the current season. Pitchers who average 100 mph or better and keep the ball on the ground at such high rates are rare breeds, and Halvorsen’s chase rate, swinging-strike rate, minor league numbers and 2024 results all suggest there could be more strikeouts in the tank as well. His command has never been great, and that’ll be the challenge for the Rockies or another club to unlock, but the raw tools in Halvorsen’s arsenal are tantalizing.

Whether the Rockies actually bite the bullet and trade any of their controllable relievers is an open question, but there’s a relatively limited supply of relievers controlled beyond the current season and a large number of teams hoping to acquire such pitchers. Beyond the Rangers and Mariners, each of the Phillies, Tigers, Yankees, Dodgers, Mets and Cubs have been linked to relievers with multiple years of club control. One long-shot possibility, Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase, was removed from consideration earlier this week when he was placed on administrative leave amid MLB’s ongoing gambling investigation.

While there are plenty of bullpen arms available on the market, many of them (e.g. Ryan Helsley, Raisel Iglesias) are free agents at season’s end. Teams like the Pirates (David Bednar, Dennis Santana), Guardians (Cade Smith) and particularly the Twins (Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax) have set lofty asking prices on the bullpen arms they control beyond the current season. The Rox will surely have a hefty asking price on relievers like Vodnik and Halvorsen, but the demand for controllable bullpen help could present them with an opportunity to provide a jolt to a weak farm system.

Mariners Showing Interest In Willi Castro, Twins’ Relievers

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The Mariners have already upgraded the right side of their infield with last week’s addition of Josh Naylor, and as they continue to look around the league for help at the other corner and in the bullpen, they’ve increasingly focused in on the Twins, reports Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. Seattle had interest in Willi Castro this past offseason and has again been in touch with Minnesota about the possibility of a Castro swap.

Castro, 28, would give the Mariners an option at third base while still leaving the door open for a potential addition of a prominent slugger like Eugenio Suárez. The switch-hitting Castro is versatile enough to handle second base, shortstop or any of the three outfield spots — though he’s best used as an emergency option at short or in center. He’s primarily played second base and the outfield corners for the Twins this season but has 74 innings at third base (532 in his career) and 26 innings at short (1213 career innings).

The versatile Castro is in his final season of club control and earning $6.4MM. He’s hitting .252/.343/.418 with 10 homers, 15 doubles, a pair of triples and nine steals (in 12 tries). It’s Castro’s third straight productive season since being non-tendered by the Tigers and signing a minor league deal in Minnesota. In two-plus years with the Twins, he’s slashed .251/.336/.401 while playing all over the diamond.

Castro has been solid enough at the plate that even absent a more notable acquisition at the hot corner, he’d still be a marked improvement over in-house options on his own. Rookie Ben Williamson has been playing third base for much of the season in Seattle. He’s turned in sharp defense but carries an anemic .256/.293/.315 batting line in 289 turns at the plate. The hope had been that Jorge Polanco could play third base for the M’s after re-signing this past offseason, but he’s been limited to DH work for much of the season after undergoing knee surgery following the 2024 campaign and playing through a side/oblique issue for much of the early portion of the current season.

On top of their need in the infield, the Mariners have been canvassing the trade market for high-leverage relief help. Kramer notes that hard-throwing righties Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax stand out as on-paper fits and the type of arms Seattle has been seeking. Both are in their first arbitration season and controlled through 2027. Duran is earning $4.125MM this season. Jax is being paid $2.365MM.

While Duran is the more famous of the pair given his status as Minnesota’s closer and his possession of one of MLB’s hardest fastballs, both pitchers are viewed within the industry as elite bullpen options. Duran carries a career 2.47 ERA and 30.6% strikeout rate, though this year’s 25.7% mark (while still strong) is a career low. He’s averaging 100.2 mph on his four-seamer and complementing that blistering offering with a splitter/sinker hybrid (“splinker”) that sits 97.5 mph.

Duran may be more well-known, but Jax is arguably even more appealing. Beyond his lower salary, he boasts superior strikeout and walk rates, sitting at 36.9% and 6.7%, respectively. He’s been dogged by a .371 average on balls in play, which has helped to inflate Jax’s ERA to 3.91, but metrics like FIP (2.00) and SIERA (1.94) rank him among the game’s very best relievers. Among the 651 pitchers (starters and relievers alike) to throw even five innings in the majors this year, Jax is tied with Aroldis Chapman for the fourth-best swinging-strike rate (19.8%). Josh Hader, Mason Miller and Fernando Cruz are the only pitchers with higher marks.

Adam Jude of the Seattle Times writes that while the Mariners indeed covet Duran and/or Jax — as well as Castro — there’s very little chance the M’s could pry away both Castro and one of the Twins’ top bullpen arms in the same trade. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported last week that the Twins were seeking multiple top-100 prospects for either Duran or Jax individually. Jude hears similarly. Adding Castro, one of the more appealing rental players on the market, would only drive the asking price up even further.

Jude suggests left-hander Danny Coulombe as one viable alternative in the Minnesota bullpen. He’s pitched 31 innings this year and logged a pristine 1.16 ERA with a 25.4% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. The 35-year-old southpaw signed a one-year, $3MM deal with the Twins over the winter — his second stint in Minnesota — and is a free agent at season’s end.

Speculatively, the Mariners could also look into righty Brock Stewart. The 33-year-old is making just $870K this season and, like Duran and Jax, is controlled through 2027. He’s been excellent since signing a minor league deal with the Twins three years ago but has also missed considerable time due to injury. Stewart touts a 2.33 ERA, 31.7% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate in 77 1/3 innings dating back to Opening Day 2023. Stewart is averaging 96.1 mph on his four-seamer, and while his 15.1% swinging-strike rate isn’t quite at Jax’s elite level, it’s tied with San Diego’s Jason Adam for 28th among 373 big league pitchers who’ve pitched at least 30 innings this year.

The Mariners are well-positioned to land virtually any trade target they covet — it’s just a matter of how much they’re willing to thin out what’s regarded as one of baseball’s top farm systems. Seattle has eight of Baseball America’s top-100 prospects. Minnesota isn’t embarking on a full rebuild but rather aiming to retool and contend again in 2026, so they’d probably prefer prospects closer to big league readiness for their top trade chips (though they did settle on a 19-year-old catching prospect in yesterday’s Chris Paddack trade).

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