Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Brown: Astros Exploring Market For Left-Handed Bats

By | at

Even as the Astros have lost 60% of their rotation to the injured list, they not only remain in contention — they hold a relatively commanding five-game lead over the second-place Mariners in the American League West. It’s shaping up to be another deadline focused on adding talent, and general manager Dana Brown candidly indicated yesterday in a radio appearance on SportsTalk 790 AM that he hopes to add a left-handed bat prior to the July 31 trade deadline (link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Brown acknowledged that there are other items on his wishlist but called a left-handed bat the “big issue.”

It’s stating the obvious, in many ways. With Yordan Alvarez out indefinitely due to a small fracture in his hand — an injury originally announced as inflammation — the only left-handed bat in the Astros’ lineup is switch-hitting catcher Victor Caratini. Backup catcher César Salazar, utility infielder Luis Guillorme and switch-hitting catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel are all on the bench as left-handed options. Just minutes before this was published, the ’Stros also reinstated outfielder Taylor Trammell from the injured list and optioned infielder/outfielder Shay Whitcomb, giving them another lefty bat off the bench.

Brown didn’t list a specific position at which he hopes to add a left-handed hitter. The Astros’ least-productive spots on the diamond, by measure of wRC+, have been first base, second base, left field and designated hitter. First base is being manned by Christian Walker after he signed a three-year, $60MM contract in the offseason. He’s not likely to lose his job anytime soon. The struggles at the other three positions are all intertwined.

Jose Altuve has taken up the lion’s share of playing time in left field this year and has graded as one of the game’s worst defenders there. Defensive Runs Saved has him last in the majors among left fielders. Statcast’s Outs Above Average has him “only” tied for fifth-worst, but many of the people surrounding him have played more innings. On a rate basis, he’s close  to the bottom. Those struggles aren’t exactly surprising; Altuve is learning left field on the fly at 35 years of age — but the reason he’s doing so is because his glovework at second base had deteriorated so much. He’s also graded poorly at second in limited time this season. Altuve could, in theory, be moved to designated hitter — but Alvarez will return at some point. Houston could up Alvarez’s time in left field, but he’s not a great defender himself and the Astros have limited his reps in the outfield due to a history of knee troubles.

There’s not necessarily one clean spot where Houston can acquire a left-handed bat and plug said hitter into the lineup on an everyday basis at that singular position. That’s just emblematic of how teams operate these days, though. Most clubs rotate players through multiple positions as opposed to the bygone era of set starting players at every position on the diamond. There are a few players who’ll be regularly penciled into the same spot regardless of matchup on every team, of course, but not entire lineups constructed in that manner.

Broadly speaking, it might behoove the Astros to target a left-handed bat who can play both the infield and the outfield. That could mean less playing time for Altuve, Walker, utilityman Mauricio Dubon and right fielder Cam Smith, but no one from that group would see his at-bats erode entirely.

It’s still too early for many clubs around the league to make determinations on buying and selling, but someone like switch-hitting utilityman Willi Castro would be a nice fit in Houston if the Twins can’t escape their recent tailspin and wind up selling some rental players. The Rays are typically willing to engage on their more expensive veteran players, regardless of contention status, and they’re nearing the end of their commitment to Brandon Lowe (signed through 2025 with an $11.5MM club option for 2026). The Cardinals are too close to playoff contention right now to consider it, but Brendan Donovan is the type of player who could benefit the Astros. Those, to be clear, are speculative suggestions but are the sorts of players whose skill sets would gel with the Astros’ roster as currently constructed.

Any talk of Houston adding to the roster should be accompanied by a payroll caveat. Astros owner Jim Crane is reportedly loath to exceed the luxury tax for a second straight season. He’s publicly suggested that he’d do so in the right scenario — an Alex Bregman this past offseason appeared to be such a case, for instance — but the team’s actual actions and reporting from the Houston beat all strongly suggest staying under the $241MM tax threshold is a priority. The Astros, knowing a Kyle Tucker extension would stretch well beyond Crane’s comfort levels, traded him to the Cubs this past offseason. They also dumped a good portion of Ryan Pressly’s contract in separate swap with the Cubs later in the winter — a move that dipped them back under the tax threshold.

An April trade with the Braves in which Houston surprisingly found a taker for $3MM of the remaining commitment to Rafael Montero could prove pivotal this summer. The Astros had been about $2.5MM shy of the tax threshold at that point. RosterResource now estimates them to be about $5.5MM away, giving Brown a good bit of additional leeway as he seeks to add some left-handed balance to his lineup.

Michael King Unlikely To Return Prior To All-Star Break

By | at

TODAY: King addressed reporters (including Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune) about his status, and said that he is “very confident that I will pitch by the end of the year.”  This framing isn’t exactly a relief to Padres fans since there seemingly hadn’t been any concern that King’s season could be in jeopardy, yet the righty painted a reasonably positive view about the progress that he has made to date.

“I’ve had days where I’ve been really, really frustrated with it and been really sore and felt like I didn’t get much activity that day,” King said.  “And then I’ll wake up the next day and all of a sudden [it’s] like, ’Oh my God, I feel like I can pitch in a game right now.’  So it’s taking it step by step and knowing that [the nerve] can fire when it fires, but obviously it’s that annoying process.  I’ve got a ton of confidence that what we’re doing is the correct thing to do, and I’ve felt my body progress in great ways.”

JUNE 19: The Padres have been without right-hander Michael King for nearly a month now due to a pinched nerve in his shoulder, and it doesn’t sound as though he’ll be rejoining the team anytime soon. Asked yesterday by MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell whether King would be out through the All-Star break, manager Mike Shildt replied, “I think that’s pretty accurate” before declining to put a specific target date on the star right-hander’s return.

It’s a brutal injury for all parties involved. King is a free agent at season’s end and appeared to have a chance at cashing in on a nine-figure contract in free agency after a dominant run dating back to his late-2023 move to the rotation when he was still with the Yankees. An absence of this length owing to a fairly uncommon shoulder issue does him no favors in that regard. From the team’s perspective, he’s one of their top rotation options — if not the top rotation option — and there’s minimal depth to replace him.

[Related: 2025-26 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings]

King, 30, opened the 2025 season on a tear. In his first 10 starts, he logged a 2.59 ERA with a gaudy 28.4% strikeout rate, a sharp 7.6% walk rate and a 38.3% grounder rate. He averaged less than a homer per nine innings pitched, held opponents to a pedestrian 88 mph average exit velocity and had tossed his first career shutout against the Rockies on April 13. Add all of that onto to King’s 2024 season and his huge finish to the 2023 campaign, and the former 12th-round pick (Marlins, 2016) boasts an electric 2.72 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in 267 2/3 innings since his full-time move to rotation work.

With King joining Joe Musgrove (2024 Tommy John surgery) and Yu Darvish (elbow inflammation) on the injured list, the Friars have leaned on Dylan Cease and Nick Pivetta atop their rotation. Cease has had two brutal outings — including his most recent one — that have skewed his ERA, but he had an 11-start run of 3.39 ERA ball with a 30.6% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate between his two meltdowns. Pivetta, who signed a creative four-year deal after lingering in free agency for much of the winter, has proven to be a godsend. He’s cooled a bit after racing out to a 2.01 ERA through his first seven starts but still sports a tidy 3.40 mark on the season, pairing that with a 27.7% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate.

The rest of San Diego’s staff hasn’t been nearly as impressive. Righties Randy Vásquez and Stephen Kolek have both posted mid-3.00 ERA marks but done so with poor strikeout and walk rates (and a poor home run rate, in Vásquez’s case), creating some justifiable skepticism about their ability to sustain their respective marks of 3.70 and 3.59.

Twenty-five-year-old Ryan Bergert has looked strong through his first three career starts and pitched well in nine Triple-A starts, too. His track record is limited, however; he posted a 4.78 ERA in 98 Double-A frames a year ago and has never reached even 110 innings in a professional season. Offseason signee Kyle Hart has been clobbered for a 6.66 ERA in his return from a big year in the Korea Baseball Organization. Knuckleballer Matt Waldron ate up 146 2/3 innings with a 4.91 ERA last year but opened the 2025 season on the injured list due to an oblique strain. He was reinstated from the 60-day IL earlier this month and optioned to Triple-A where he’s made three straight effective starts. He’s likely the next man up if the Padres need another starter.

The emergence of Bergert and the manner in which Kolek has stepped up — even if he’s been shaky since two brilliant starts to begin his season — have left the Padres in a better spot than most would’ve expected upon hearing that both King and Darvish would face protracted absences in 2025. Still, with multiple rotation arms sporting ERAs that don’t appear all that sustainable, King’s nebulous injury status is all the more problematic for San Diego.

This level of uncertainty seemed hard to imagine when King was first placed on the injured list. Shildt said at the time that the right-hander “felt like he slept on [his shoulder] wrong” at that time. It’s clear now that there was something more significant at play. King is doing some occasional light throwing work, but it sounds as though he’ll need to build through a full throwing progression and a rehab stint of some note before he’s back on the big league radar. For a Padres team that’s patching over its rotation with a series of relative unknowns and a pitcher who was eyeing a major contract in free agency, that seemingly innocuous start to his absence has snowballed in a most unwelcome manner.

Blue Jays Notes: Rotation, Yesavage, Outfield

By | at

The Blue Jays could get Max Scherzer back as soon as next week, writes Keegan Matheson of MLB.com. The future Hall of Famer tossed 74 pitches and punched out eight hitters — including a rehabbing Wilyer Abreu — in a rehab start against the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate this week. The Jays will need to see how Scherzer’s ailing thumb responds, but he’s built up and feels his stuff is where it needs to be. If Saturday’s scheduled bullpen session between starts goes well, Scherzer could return to the Jays next Tuesday.

A healthy Scherzer would be a welcome boon at an opportune time. Toronto recently lost Bowden Francis to the injured list. Kevin Gausman has allowed 17 runs over his past 20 innings. Chris Bassitt has allowed at least three runs in four of his past five starts, pitching to a 5.59 ERA in that span.

Scherzer, 40, lasted only three innings in his Jays debut early this season and pitched only 43 1/3 innings with Texas in 2024. There are genuine concerns about his health, both in terms of his thumb being able to hold up over the course of a full big league start and in terms of how it’ll recover between outings when he’s taking the ball every fifth day. At least with regard to his two rehab starts — 56 pitches and 74 pitches — he’s been holding up well enough during those games themselves. It might be a bit before the Jays let him unleash 100 pitches, but even if his pitch count is closely monitored, Scherzer should stabilize a rotation that’s cycled through a hodgepodge of fifth starter options this year.

The occupant of that fifth and final spot in the rotation, even with Scherzer back in the fold, is up in the air. Lefty Eric Lauer, who signed a minor league deal over the winter, has been excellent pitching in a variety of roles. Matheson notes that Lauer is angling for that fifth spot, quoting the lefty as follows: “I’m a starter and I want to be a starter. The fifth spot is kind of up in the air. I go out there and try to take that fifth spot every time.”

Lauer has indeed made a strong case. He’s pitched in 10 games for Toronto, four of them starts, and picked up 35 1/3 innings with a 2.29 earned run average. He’s fanned 26.1% of his opponents against an 8% walk rate. His ability to sustain that strikeout rate is a bit questionable, given below-average swinging-strike and chase rates of 9.8% and 24.6%, respectively, but this is far and away Lauer’s best work since his 2021-22 peak with the Brewers.

That said, another low-cost pickup has made a similarly strong case. Right-hander Spencer Turnbull, signed to a deal after the season was underway, has pitched 4 1/3 innings and held opponents to one run. He’s allowed seven hits, walked two and only fanned a pair, but Turnbull can add to his case when he starts tonight’s game against the White Sox.

Mitch Bannon of The Athletic adds that manager John Schneider called the fifth starter’s spot a “healthy competition” between Lauer and Turnbull. For now, both are in the picture. If there are any setbacks with Scherzer, perhaps that’ll remain the case. But if Scherzer returns next week, the Jays will have more healthy rotation arms than spots available — hardly a bad thing. If they get to that enviable spot, the Blue Jays could consider a variety of options. Turnbull could serve as a piggyback option behind either Lauer or Scherzer. They could go with a six-man rotation. They could alternate Turnbull/Lauer in that fifth spot depending on their opponent.

Further down the road, Toronto is hopeful that 2024 first-rounder Trey Yesavage can push to join the starting staff. That’s not likely in 2025, as he was only just promoted to Double-A and has already thrown nearly two-thirds as many innings this year as he did in his junior season at East Carolina University. However, Bannon writes in a separate piece that the hard-throwing Yesavage could emerge as a candidate to join the major league club down the stretch if the Jays are in contention — perhaps in the bullpen.

Schneider tells Bannon that Yesavage “has definitely opened some eyes here” and that “the stuff is real.” Blue Jays scout Coulson Barbiche adds that even when he was watching Yesavage pitch in college, he seemed “darn near ready-made” for the major leagues.

The 6’4″, 225-pound Yesavage has breezed through minor league lineups in his first full pro season, logging a 2.67 ERA with a mammoth 42.5% strikeout rate and an almost comical 21.1% swinging-strike rate. His 11.5% walk rate needs to come down, but Yesavage is already at his third minor league level of the season. The Jays may not have been all that aggressive with his original assignment to Low-A, but they’re promoting him aggressively now; Yesavage spent only four starts in High-A before being bumped to Double-A, where he’s now made two starts.

Good questions on the pitching side of the roster are circulating at the moment, but there’s also some uncertainty with the team’s mix of position players — specifically in the outfield. The Jays have Daulton Varsho and Anthony Santander on the injured list at the moment, but there’s still a surplus of outfield talent on the roster — particularly with Nathan Lukes returning from the concussion list today.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet looks at what could be a looming logjam. Varsho is one of the game’s premier defenders and will man center field once healthy. Santander and George Springer will share one corner spot and the DH spot. Addison Barger is in the midst of a breakout and has logged plenty of time in right field, but he can play third base regularly once the rest of the group is healthy. Prospects Alan Roden and Jonatan Clase are also in the mix, as are Lukes, Will Robertson, Myles Straw and Davis Schneider.

It’s highly doubtful the Jays would move one of the more established veterans or Barger, given how well he’s hitting, but Davidi wonders whether the Blue Jays might be deep enough in outfielders to deal from that hefty supply as they look to improve for the stretch run.

Dodgers Acquire Zach Penrod From Red Sox, Transfer Roki Sasaki To 60-Day IL

By | at

2:50pm: The Dodgers have made it official, announcing that they acquired Penrod in exchange for cash considerations. Right-hander Roki Sasaki has been transferred to the 60-day injured list as the corresponding active roster move. Sasaki has been on the IL since mid-May due to a shoulder impingement. He can be reinstated 60 days from that initial IL placement, which would be mid-July. He was recently shut down from throwing and has an uncertain timeline.

1:37pm: The Dodgers and Red Sox have agreed to a trade that’ll send left-hander Zach Penrod from Boston to Los Angeles, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. The Sox designated Penrod for assignment earlier this week in the wake of the Rafael Devers blockbuster, as they were acquiring two 40-man players (Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison) and only trading away one.

Penrod, 28, is an interesting story. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Rangers in 2018 and pitched briefly in their system before being cut loose during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He then spent three years pitching in the independent Pioneer League before catching the eyes of Red Sox scouts and returning to affiliated ball.

A nice minor league showing across multiple levels in 2024 pushed Penrod up onto the 40-man roster. He tossed 62 2/3 frames across three levels and logged a 4.16 ERA with a huge 34.8% strikeout rate but a similarly hefty 12.4% walk rate. The Sox summoned him to the majors in the season’s second half, and he pitched four innings down the stretch, holding opponents to a run on three hits and four walks with three strikeouts.

Penrod was in the mix for a bullpen spot heading into the 2025 season, but an elbow injury in spring training knocked him out for nearly three months. He returned to the mound in late May and has pitched 7 1/3 minor league innings. It’s been a mixed bag. He’s allowed four runs and only seven hits while punching out nine of 36 batters (25%). However, he’s also issued seven walks, plunked a batter and tossed three wild pitches.

Command has never been a particularly strong suit, but it’s also understandable if there’s some rust after he was initially diagnosed with elbow inflammation in late February and didn’t get back onto a mound in a game setting until May 24. Penrod’s 95 mph average fastball this year is a match for his 2024 mark, and he’s posted a huge 15% swinging-strike rate after logging a even more-impressive 16.6% mark in that regard during last year’s minor league run.

Penrod will give the Dodgers a hard-throwing lefty with clear bat-missing ability and, as critically, a full slate of three minor league option years remaining. Los Angeles churns through the final few spots of its bullpen as much as — if not more than — any other team in the sport, so flexible arms with Penrod’s general skill set are always going to be somewhat appealing to the Dodgers.

Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

By | at

MLBTR's Steve Adams hosted a live chat today at 2pm CT, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers.

 

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS
  • 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

White Sox Willing To Include Cash In Trade Talks On Benintendi, Robert

By | at

The White Sox, sporting a 23-52 record, will operate as deadline sellers once again. They don’t have as much to offer as many other potential sellers around the league — partly because they’ve already sold off many desirable assets earlier in this rebuild but also due to the significant salaries of some of their remaining veterans. To that end, Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic report that the South Siders are willing to include cash to help pay down the salaries on pricey outfielders Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Benintendi.

Heading into the season, GM Chris Getz surely hoped that wouldn’t be necessary with regard to Robert, in particular. The 27-year-old has performed at a superstar level in the past when healthy. As recently as 2023, Robert slashed .264/.314/.542 (128 wRC+) with 38 home runs, 20 steals and elite center field defense in 145 games. That’s the only season in Robert’s career where he’s played more than 100 games, however. Injuries have repeatedly dogged the electric young outfielder, and he’s now been hitting poorly for more than a year.

Since Opening Day 2024, Robert has turned in an anemic .212/.276/.351 batting line (75 wRC+). He’s fanned in 32.5% of his plate appearances and, in 2025 specifically, been extremely prone to harmless infield pop-ups; 11 of Robert’s 155 batted balls this season (7.1%) have been infield flies.

Despite the run of awful production, there are some reasons for cautious optimism. Robert’s strikeout rate is enormous but not too much higher than the 29% he posted during that brilliant 2023 campaign. He’s also walking at a career-high 9.8% clip and chasing pitches off the plate at a career-low 31.3% rate, per Statcast. He’s hitting the ball as hard as ever, averaging 90.3 mph off the bat with a 42.9% hard-hit rate. Both are his second-best marks in any season of his career. His 11% barrel rate isn’t far behind his career 11.9% mark.

One might expect a player with Robert’s speed to slow down after a 2023 MCL injury and a Grade 3 strain of his hip flexor in 2024, but that’s not the case. Robert is 22-for-27 in stolen base attempts in 2025, and Statcast measures his sprint speed at 28.8 feet per second. That’s actually his fastest mark since his 2020 rookie year and places him in the 87th percentile of big leaguers. Given that plus speed, it’s not surprising to see Robert way up in the 97th percentile in terms of outfield range (as measured by Statcast).

Robert is hitting the ball hard, playing strong defense, showing more patience than ever before and running better than he has since his rookie season. He’s also hitting .190/.273/.303. It’s a confounding state of affairs, but as sharp as the tools may look, the results are clearly going to weigh down his trade value. Many teams with needs in the outfield would love to roll the dice on a Robert rebound following a change of scenery — just not at his current price tag.

This is the final guaranteed season of Robert’s six-year, $50MM contract, but the deal contains a pair of $20MM club options for 2026 and 2027. If he can turn things around, there’s still bargain potential. The Sox missed the boat not trading Robert coming off that 2023 season, but if they’re willing to pay down some of this year’s $15MM salary and the $2MM buyout on Robert’s 2026 club option, they could likely find a taker who’d be willing to give up some degree of prospect value. He’s a gamble, but a high-upside one who can be controlled for two more years at reasonable rates. There’s jackpot potential for a new team, and if things don’t work out in the final couple months, said club could always hit the “eject” button and decline Robert’s 2026 option.

It’s a slightly different story with Benintendi. While Robert has been on the downswing for more than a year, Benintendi has increasingly looked like his old self at the plate for more than a calendar year now. He quietly turned things around midseason last year and is slashing .251/.321/.468 with 24 homers, 24 doubles, two triples, a 9.1% walk rate and an 18.4% strikeout rate in his past 515 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+, that’s 20% better than average at the plate.

Benintendi’s speed is down a bit since his peak, however, and at 30 years old he now grades out as a below-average left fielder. A team that buys into his production dating back to last year might view Benitendi as a serviceable multi-year option in left field. However, he’s being paid $16.5MM this year and next, and his contract calls for a $14.5MM salary in 2027.

Benintendi almost certainly would command less than the two years and $31MM he’s owed for 2026-27 if he were a free agent, but he’s also no longer the total sunk cost he looked to be a year and a half into his five-year contract with Chicago. If the Sox eat half the remaining contract or more, they might well find an interested taker. Plenty of contenders and playoff hopefuls are looking for outfield help; the Padres, Royals, Reds and Dodgers have all gotten poor production from left field this year.

The ChiSox won’t necessarily need to eat salary to move some of their other available players, but speculatively speaking, their willingness to do so on Robert and Benintendi could be a sign they’re willing to do so elsewhere. Aaron Civale’s $8MM salary isn’t prohibitive, but a team looking for a fourth starter to supply innings down the stretch might be willing to give up a bit more if Getz & Co. pick up the tab on most or all of his salary. Mike Tauchman ($1.95MM) and Adrian Houser ($1.35MM) are even less expensive, but covering some of that cash could be particularly beneficial to teams angling to stay under the luxury threshold.

Marlins To Select Robinson Piña

By | at

The Marlins are calling up right-hander Robinson Piña for his major league debut, reports Kevin Barral of Fish On First. The team has not announced the move yet. Piña’s contract will need to be selected to what is currently a full 40-man roster in Miami, so the Fish will need to make a corresponding move in that regard.

Piña, 26, will make his big league debut the first time he takes the mound. He spent the 2017-23 seasons in the Angels system before becoming a minor league free agent and signing with the Phillies ahead of the 2024 campaign. The Phils never added him to the 40-man roster, and Piña again became a minor league free agent this past offseason, signing with Miami in his second run through the open market. This time around, he’ll get that coveted first MLB opportunity.

Piña has certainly earned his call to the majors. He’s appeared in 13 games, 11 of them starts, and tallied 57 innings with a 3.47 ERA, a 22.2% strikeout rate, a 6.2% walk rate and a 46.9% ground-ball rate. Command was an issue for him early in his minor league career, but he’s now turned in consecutive minor league seasons with walk rates that clock in considerably south of average. This year’s 92.8 mph average sinker is up a mile per hour over last year’s levels, and Piña has been consistent all season; he hasn’t yielded more than three earned runs in any appearance and has held opponents to two or fewer runs in 10 of 13 outings overall.

Miami has Edward Cabrera lined up to start today, with Janson Junk, Eury Pérez and Sandy Alcantara listed as probables in their next three games thereafter. There’s no need for an immediate spot starter — barring an injury the team has not yet made public — but they could be looking to add some length with Junk having spent the season in a long relief role. The Marlins also have an off-day coming on Monday, so they could option Adam Mazur and skip the fifth starter’s spot next time through the rotation. Doing so would give them options for how best to use Piña, who’s fully stretched out and has topped 80 pitches in five of his past six appearances.

D-backs Place Gabriel Moreno On Injured List, Select Aramis Garcia

By | at

The Diamondbacks announced Thursday that they’ve placed catcher Gabriel Moreno on the 10-day injured list due to a right hand contusion (retroactive to June 16) and selected the contract of fellow catcher Aramis Garcia from Triple-A Reno. Righty Christian Montes De Oca was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Garcia, who returns just nine days after being outrighted off the 40-man roster.

Moreno originally hurt his hand while trying to block a wild pitch earlier this month. He’s played just three games in 12 days since taking that errant pitch off his hand. Arizona was clearly hoping to avoid an IL stint, but things have reached a point where they’ll sit him down for the next week and get another catching option on the roster to complement Jose Herrera.

The 25-year-old Moreno is enjoying another solid all-around year. The former top prospect’s .270/.324/.414 batting line isn’t elite but is firmly above league average (106 wRC+). That’s big production from any catcher, a position that is regularly manned by below-average hitters, but it’s especially nice for a player with Moreno’s elite defensive grades. He draws plus marks for his framing, blocking and throwing alike. Since 2023, he ranks as the game’s third-best defender behind the plate, by measure of the Defensive Runs Saved metric, and the seventh-best in MLB according to Statcast. Because Moreno’s IL stint is backdated three days (the maximum allowed under MLB rules), he’ll be eligible to return a week from now.

As for Garcia, he’s a 32-year-old journeyman who was briefly up with the Snakes in the wake of the original injury to Moreno. He only appeared in one game, however, and didn’t take a plate appearance before being designated for assignment and passed through waivers. He’s played in parts of six big league seasons and carries a career .211/.248/.325 line in 327 trips to the plate during that time. He currently sports a .250/.399/.524 line in 38 Triple-A games and is a career .235/.306/.430 hitter in parts of seven seasons at that level.

Presumably, Garcia will see a bit more game action this time around. Herrera, who’ll serve as the primary catcher with Moreno down, has played eight games in 12 days since Moreno was originally banged up. It’s a heavy workload for any catcher but particularly a glove-first backup who’s hitting .171/.284/.244. Herrera is up to 101 plate appearances this year — already just 23 shy of his career-high in the majors, where he’s a lifetime .199/.279/.256 hitter.

The 60-day IL move for Montes De Oca was an inevitability. The 25-year-old righty landed on the injured list earlier this month due to elbow inflammation, but the D-backs announced five days ago that he was headed for surgery to repair a stress fracture in his lower back. That surgery was likely to take him out for most or all of the remaining season anyhow — a miserable turn of events for a young hurler who’d tossed 2 2/3 innings of scoreless ball in his MLB debut just days prior to landing on the injured list.

Nats GM On Martinez, Losing Streak, Ruiz, Cavalli

By | at

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo made his weekly appearance on the Sports Junkies show on 106.7 FM The Fan this morning and discussed a wide range of topics, beginning (and focusing most heavily) on recent comments from his manager Davey Martinez and the team’s 10-game losing streak (audio link to full show, with Rizzo’s interview commencing around the 2 hour, 24 minute mark). He also touched on key differences between the 2019 Nats’ early struggles and the current team’s struggles, things he’d like to see from catcher Keibert Ruiz, and on former top prospect Cade Cavalli’s progress in the minors. It’s a broad-reaching interview full of lengthy and candid answers that Nats fans, in particular, will want to check out in full.

Martinez found himself at the center of some controversy in recent days, in large part due to contradictory statements on back-to-back days over the weekend. Speaking with the Nationals beat on Saturday, Martinez adamantly defended his coaching staff before suggesting that the onus for turning around amid such a lengthy losing streak falls to the players. The next day, Martinez suggested he was merely voicing support for his coaching staff and claimed, confoundingly, that he’d never mentioned his players. Per Andrew Golden of the Washington Post, Martinez’s lack of accountability for his comments left some players “pissed [off].”

Via the Post’s Spencer Nusbaum, Martinez stated the following on Saturday:

“Sometimes they got to go out there and they got to play the game. It’s always been about the players. Always. I played this game a long time. Never once have I blamed a coach for anything. [As players], we worked our asses off to get better. They gave us information, and we used it. These guys understand what the game is. … Sometimes you got to put the onus on the players. They got to go out there, and they got to play the game — and play the game the right way. We can’t hit for them. We can’t catch the balls for them. We can’t pitch for them. We can’t throw strikes for them. They got to do that.”

A day later, when asked about his comments and pressed further who he was referencing if not his players, he replied:

“Was never about them, right? I never mentioned anything about players, right? I appreciate those players. I played. I understand how hard this game is. They know that. So it’s a difficult game. These guys are out there trying hard. We got to do the little things. As I talked about, we start doing little things, we’ll start winning some of these games.”

Certainly, Martinez is in an unenviable spot. His team is mired in its worst losing streak since dropping a dozen straight games back in 2008, under a different manager, coaching staff and front office. Balancing the desire to voice support for his coaching staff while rallying his players and holding everyone accountable for the team’s struggles — all while facing mounting speculation about your own job security — is a tough task.

At the same time, it’s understandable if some players were irked — not necessarily even by being called out but by Martinez’s apparent unwillingness to take ownership of those comments just 24 hours later. The longtime Nats skipper, who won a World Series there in 2019, made clear Sunday that he’d “talked to a lot of [his players]” already and suggested there were no issues. Golden’s subsequent reporting, which cited “multiple” anonymous sources familiar with the situation, suggests otherwise. It’s possible — if not likely — that the set of comments hit different players differently. Some likely had an easier time shrugging things off than others.

There’s been plenty of speculation about Martinez, who’s reportedly in the final guaranteed year of his contract (although the Nats hold a 2026 option over him as well). Rizzo noted that if given the chance to do it again, Martinez “would have gotten his point across — which was ’support the coaches’ — in a smoother or better way that didn’t ruffle the feathers of the fan base.”

However, the GM opined that the story took on more life among fans and the media than in the clubhouse itself. Rizzo stated that he doesn’t “see any unrest or unhappiness” among his players and added that Martinez talked things over with the players following his comments. More broadly, he gave Martinez a rather resounding vote of confidence.

“Dave Martinez is as player-friendly a manager as I’ve ever had. He and Dusty Baker, to me, run the clubhouse like no one else I’ve ever had in my career. … This guy does 500, 600 interviews a year; he does two a day — pre-game, post-game, every time. He got caught in a frustrating, angry moment and kind of lashed out. I think it was out of frustration. Here’s my take on that situation. There’s onus on the players. There’s onus on the coaches. There’s onus on the manager, and there’s a great onus on the general manager to do a better job.

“…To me, Davey is the same manager in the clubhouse when there’s no cameras and there’s no media in the room. He’s the same guy he was in that Marlins series [this weekend] as he was on Oct. 30, 2019. Same guy.”

It’s clear based on Rizzo’s comments today that the Nationals’ 2019 World Series victory carries plenty of weight in his regard for Martinez — understandably so. The GM noted that at the time of Washington’s 19-31 start in 2019, there were also calls for Martinez’s job. While acknowledging and empathizing with the frustration the fan base feels, he stressed that it’s his job to take a “big picture” look and keep in mind the “entirety of a season” that still has more than three months remaining.

“My job as the leader of the organization is that when things are at their craziest and most stressful, I have to be at my calmest and my best,” said Rizzo. “When things are at their worst, I have to be at my best. That’s my message that I gave to our coaching staff the other day.”

Rizzo repeatedly dismissed the notion that there was pressure from ownership to make personnel changes in the front office or dugout. He spoke at length about the differences between the 2019 Nats — a veteran-laden team that engineered one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent MLB history — and the 2025 Nats, a young team where the average level of major league service time per player isn’t even three years. Through it all, he maintained confidence in his skipper and continued to place blame back on himself.

“[Martinez] has proven through trials and tribulations that he can handle a roster. He can handle a veteran-laden team, and now he’s developing at the big league level. My track record is, I have fired managers midseason, I’ve fired managers after the season, I’ve fired coaches midseason, I’ve fired coaches after the season. We’re all being evaluated. We’ve all got to look ourselves in the mirror. We’re at a point right now where we’re moving forward the development of these young kids. I think Davey still has the pulse of the clubhouse. He’s a great clubhouse presence. He’s a calming clubhouse presence.

I’m responsible with everything that goes on, the good and the bad, the 10-game losing streak — that’s my team that I put out there. I take responsibility for the successes and the failures of this franchise, and I think that’s what leaders do.”

Turning to more specific issues with the roster, Rizzo was asked about catcher Keibert Ruiz’s declining defensive grades since signing his eight-year, $50MM contract extension. The GM made no secret that he feels his catcher “needs to get back to where he was,” plainly opining that Ruiz “was a better catcher, thrower and blocker” earlier in his career. Rizzo called catcher a “beatdown position” that takes a physical toll on any player and suggested that Ruiz is feeling some of those effects.

Defensive metrics bear that out. Ruiz, 27 next month, drew strong defensive marks from scouts as a prospect and posted quality numbers early on in the majors. In 2022, his first full season in the majors, the former top prospect posted a 28.2% caught-stealing rate that checked in four percentage points better than average and drew positive blocking grades from Statcast. His framing drew below-average but not egregiously poor marks. For a then-23-year-old catcher who’d slashed .255/.315/.373 (94 wRC+) in his career — all at a time when most young catchers are still in the minors — it was a nice start.

Things have subsequently deteriorated, with Ruiz hitting .241/.286/.374 since. He showed more power in 2023-24, but in 2025 Ruiz has just two homers, a .252/.286/.322 batting line (71 wRC+) and dramatically worse defensive grades. Dating back to Opening Day 2023, Ruiz has -18 Defensive Runs Saved and a -36 Fielding Run Value from Statcast. He led the league in stolen bases allowed in 2023 and is doing so again in 2025 — although he also leads the NL in total runners thrown out this year (in part because teams seem so willing to run on him). Rizzo expressed optimism that an offensive turnaround was nigh, pointing to the fact that Ruiz has typically been a much better performer in the season’s second half.

Again, data bears that out, but it’ll be interesting to see how the organization’s valuation of Ruiz changes if his struggles at the plate continue — particularly with his defensive regression. He’s still signed through 2030, but not at such a significant annual rate that they can’t make a change if they feel such a move is warranted.

On young righty Cade Cavalli, who’s pitching in Triple-A and has completed his rehab from 2023 Tommy John surgery, Rizzo suggested the goal is to get the former top prospect to the point where he can consistently contribute five or six innings at a time in the majors. The 26-year-old boasts a 2.30 ERA and 28.3% strikeout rate over his past six starts but has thrown just 27 1/3 innings in that time (less than 4 2/3 innings per outing). Presumably, Cavalli will get a look back in the majors later this summer, but after he pitched just 8 1/3 innings total in 2023-24, the Nats seem to be treading lightly. Cavalli tossed 79 pitches in his most recent start, and that represents his most in any game this year.

Rays Owner Stuart Sternberg In “Advanced” Talks To Sell Team

By | at

1:55pm: The team is expected to remain in the Tampa Bay area if the current sale process is completed, Marc Topkin and Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times report. It’s not yet clear where exactly within that region Zalupski’s group would seek to have a new stadium built.

12:18pm: The Rays have issued the following statement acknowledging the negotiations but declined to provide further comment or details:

“The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team has recently commenced exclusive discussions with a group led by Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby and prominent Tampa Bay investors concerning a possible sale of the team. Neither the Rays nor the group will have further comment during the discussions.”

11:40am: Rays owner Stuart Sternberg is in “advanced talks” with Jacksonville real estate developer Patrick Zalupski about a sale of the franchise for approximately $1.7 billion, per a report from Scott Soshnick and Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico. Zalupski has signed a letter of intent to purchase the club, the Sportico pair adds, though that does not signify that a deal will definitely cross the line. Still, Joel Sherman off the New York Post hears similarly, reporting that talks between the two parties are serious and that the Zalupski-led group is the only buyer with which the Rays are negotiating at the moment.

Sternberg purchased the Rays franchise for $200MM back in 2004 and has spent years unsuccessfully attempting to secure public funding for a new stadium in or around the St. Petersburg/Tampa area. A deal finally looked to be well on its way toward completion a year ago, but Hurricane Milton wrought catastrophic damage on Tropicana Field, derailing those plans and pushing the Rays to temporarily relocate to Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field — home to the Yankees’ Florida State League affiliate and their annual home park during spring training.

Zalupski is the CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a publicly traded, Jacksonville-based developer that has built more than 31,000 homes across ten states. Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.4 billion, while his company’s valuation rests at $3.4 billion.

Per Sportico, Zalupski is the lead investor in a larger group that counts Ken Babby and Bill Cosgrove among several potential minority stakeholders. The former holds majority stakes in the Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate and the Guardians’ Double-A club and is the son of prominent NBA agent (and former Phoenix Suns president of basketball operations) Lon Babby. The latter is the CEO of Union Home Mortgage Group. Other investors are involved and figure to come to light if the sale process indeed continues toward completion.

The potential sale of the team comes just months after spring reports suggesting that commissioner Rob Manfred and several owners throughout MLB were beginning to pressure Sternberg to orchestrate a sale of the club. At the time, Sternberg was said to at the very least be courting additional minority owners to invest in the team — all while local business leaders were in the early stages of putting together groups to potentially pursue a majority stake in the club. None of Zalupski, Cosgrove or Babby were listed as prospective buyers at the time, though it’s fair to presume they were involved in and/or spearheading some of those early efforts.

Sternberg has owned the Rays for more than two decades, and the team’s stadium has been at the forefront of any and all narratives surrounding the organization since that time. With the A’s in the process of moving to a new home on the Las Vegas strip, Tropicana Field was considered perhaps the most dilapidated facility in Major League Baseball — even before last year’s hurricane damage, which saw the entire roof ripped off “the Trop” and left the Rays without a home stadium for a few months. The move to Steinbrenner Field currently only runs through the 2025 season.

Throughout his time owning the Rays, Sternberg has explored a variety of options ranging from constructing a new facility on the existing site of Tropicana Field, to building a new stadium in downtown Ybor City — even to a convoluted split arrangement that would see the Rays host half their home games in Florida and half in Montreal. Beyond the dated nature of Tropicana Field, the location of the park has been a frequent source of consternation for fans; the stadium is not in Tampa proper but rather on the nearby — and, for many, difficult to access — Pinellas County peninsula in the city of St. Petersburg. That’s one of many prominent factors in the Rays’ longstanding attendance troubles.

With the Rays residing in a small media market and perennially unable to ramp up attendance, payroll has been a frequent issue. Tampa Bay is among the bottom teams in the league each year in terms of player payroll, despite receiving hefty annual sums from the league’s revenue-sharing system. The constant payroll restrictions from Sternberg have led to the Rays becoming notorious for developing star players then trading them off to other clubs for packages of younger, more controllable and — crucially —  cheaper talent. That’s created something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as it’s hard to retain fans and bolster attendance when local residents’ favorite players are constantly being shipped out for young players that are general unknowns to the majority of the fan base.

Prior to Hurricane Milton, the Rays had a tentative agreement for the construction of a $1.3 billion, 30,000-seat facility in the Gas Plant district near the existing Tropicana Field site. Construction of that park was part of a larger $6.5 billion redevelopment project in the area. Mass hurricane damage in the area slowed critical votes on funding and raised difficult to unanswerable questions about the cost of repairing Tropicana Field, the viability of potential interim homes for the Rays and various other logistical issues. Sternberg announced back in March that his team was no longer pursuing the Gas Plant project — an outcome that had grown increasingly inevitable as frustrations between the team, the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County all played out in ugly, public fashion.

The lost 2025 season at Tropicana Field also pushed the Rays’ existing lease at the stadium back a year; it had been slated to expire after the 2027 season but now runs through the 2028 campaign. Of course, it’s still not entirely clear that Tropicana Field will be repaired in time for the Rays to play their 2026 home games there. Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times recently reported that the city of St. Petersburg approved another $5.3MM in funding, bringing the total to $38.5MM of the estimated $57MM needed to repair Tropicana Field’s damages. Whether the remainder of that funding will be approved and whether the requisite work can be completed in a timely manner remain unclear.

If the potential sale goes through, there will still be more questions than answers. The hope is that Tropicana Field will be ready at or very near the beginning of the 2026 regular season. Even if that timeline stays on track — in terms of securing remaining funding, completing the work and the wild card of avoiding any further weather damage during hurricane season — it still wouldn’t be clear where the team’s home games would take place following the 2028 campaign.

Manfred has said his hope is to keep two teams in Florida, though even that opens various possibilities. The Rays have explored building sites in several neighborhoods, and Hall of Famer Barry Larkin referenced the Rays’ ongoing stadium concerns when discussing his efforts as part of a group that hopes to bring Major League Baseball to Orlando. Looking beyond Florida, the cities of Nashville, Salt Lake City and Portland have made a desire to bring MLB to their cities known as well. All of those locations will be speculatively tied to the Rays as the current ownership situation plays out.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top