Astros’ Bennett Sousa, Kaleb Ort Unlikely To Return In Regular Season
Astros relievers Bennett Sousa and Kaleb Ort aren’t likely to make it back to the big league roster before the end of the regular season, general manager Dana Brown revealed in a radio appearance on SportsTalk 790 AM this weekend (via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). A return during the postseason is possible for both pitchers. Sousa has been out since Aug. 20 due to a mild flexor/pronator strain. Ort landed on the 15-day IL this past Friday due to elbow inflammation.
Sousa, 30, emerged from relative obscurity with a breakout performance in 2025. The ‘Stros claimed him off waivers in Sept. 2023 and were already his fifth organization of the calendar year at that point. He pitched 6 1/3 shutout frames down the stretch, showing enough to hold a 40-man roster spot. Sousa didn’t pitch in the majors or minors in 2024, however, as he required surgery to alleviate thoracic outlet syndrome in early April.
Returning just over one year later, Sousa’s first appearance in the majors this season came on April 9. He opened the year with eight scoreless innings before finally yielding his first run, and he hasn’t really looked back. In 50 2/3 frames, Sousa has shown virtually no ill effect from the surgery. If anything, he’s better than ever.
Sousa has worked a career-high number of innings and is sitting on a sharp 2.84 ERA that’s supported by metrics like FIP (2.73) and SIERA (2.95). He’s set down a hearty 29.6% of his opponents on strikes, issued walks to just 7.5% of the batters he’s faced, and has allowed only 0.71 homers per nine innings pitched. Left-handers have posted a terrible .145/.191/.242 batting line against him, and while righties have been better than that — it’d be hard to be much worse — they’re still sporting a rather tepid .235/.300/.378 slash against him. Sousa was virtually untouchable through early July (1.83 ERA), but he struggled to a 4.96 mark with vastly worse command in 16 1/3 innings before hitting the IL last month.
Ort hasn’t been as effective, but his 4.89 ERA is arguably a bit misleading. He’s had two complete nightmare outings this season — one in which he was tagged for five runs in one-third of an inning and another one (his last before hitting the IL) where he surrendered four runs in two-thirds of an inning. Any pitcher will look better when you toss out his worst couple outings of the season, but Ort has a 3.20 ERA through 45 innings in his other 47 appearances.
Command has been one of two glaring flaws for Ort, evidenced both by his 13.9% walk rate and his 1.57 HR/9 mark. The other is his susceptibility to left-handed hitters. When facing fellow righties, he’s yielded only a .188/.311/.317 batting line. Left-handers have bludgeoned him at a .254/.342/.524 clip.
Ort hasn’t been a key piece of the Astros’ high-leverage corps. He’s typically worked in middle relief. Sousa has tallied seven holds and four saves, and his role had begun to increase after Josh Hader was lost for the remainder of the regular season in mid-August. Hader, Sousa and Ort all hope to be able to return in October, but their absence complicates Houston’s path to postseason ball.
The Astros are still very, very strong postseason favorites, but they’re hardly locks to win the division. Houston sits 2.5 games up on Seattle at the moment, and the two teams still have a three-game series against each other on the schedule. It’d take a considerable collapse to drop out of the playoff field entirely, but it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility (even if it’s a long shot).
A full contingent of relievers, obviously, would improve the Astros’ chances of hanging onto the division lead, but they’re instead trying to piece together the bulk of the relief corps. Bryan Abreu, Bryan King and Steven Okert have been strong basically all season, but the rest of the bullpen is filled out by veteran newcomers (Enyel De Los Santos, Craig Kimbrel), rookies (AJ Blubaugh, Jayden Murray, Logan VanWey) and struggling righty Lance McCullers Jr. (6.97 ERA in 50 1/3 innings). Both De Los Santos (0.69 ERA in 13 innings) and Kimbrel (6 2/3 scoreless) have been quite effective, though the latter has walked seven of the 27 batters he’s faced (25.9%).
Houston will keep trying to get by with that patchwork bullpen. Assuming they do make the postseason, it’d be a big boost if even one of those more seasoned arms — Hader or Sousa, in particular — could make it back to Joe Espada’s bullpen, but there’s no guarantee any of the three are back in the fold this year.
Braves Designate John Brebbia For Assignment
The Braves announced Monday morning that they’ve designated right-hander John Brebbia for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to righty Alexis Diaz, whom Atlanta claimed off waivers yesterday. Diaz has formally reported to the club. Atlanta also optioned right-hander Rolddy Munoz to Triple-A Gwinnett and recalled right-hander Connor Seabold in his place.
Atlanta only selected Brebbia to the big league roster on Aug. 29. This brief stay marks his second stint with the Braves, as he also joined them for the final month or so of the 2024 season. Brebbia pitched in three games this time around, yielding three runs on six hits (two homers) and a walk with six strikeouts. The resulting 7.71 ERA matched the mark he’d logged in 18 2/3 innings with the Tigers prior to being cut loose in Detroit.
The 2025 season marks a second consecutive season of rough results for Brebbia, but his struggles really only extend a bit more than the past calendar year. The right-hander pitched pretty well for the first three-plus months of the 2024 season with the White Sox before melting down around the time of the All-Star break. Brebbia surrendered 18 runs in his final 18 1/3 innings last year, ballooning his ERA nearly two runs up to 5.86.
Brebbia was reliable bullpen arm in St. Louis and San Francisco from 2017-23. He carried a career 3.53 ERA, 26% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate (336 2/3 innings) into last year’s All-Star break. Even with his struggles late last year and throughout the 2025 season, the 35-year-old Brebbia has a solid 4.04 ERA in 378 1/3 big league innings. He’s collected four saves and 62 holds while striking out 25.6% of his opponents against a solid 7.5% walk rate.
Brebbia will now head to outright waivers or be released. He’ll head into the offseason and likely latch on as a minor league signee with a non-roster invitation to spring training somewhere.
Mets Option Kodai Senga
The Mets announced Friday that right-hander Kodai Senga has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. Catcher Francisco Alvarez has been reinstated from the injured list. New York also optioned catcher Hayden Senger and activated righty Wander Suero, whom they claimed off waivers yesterday.
Senga’s five-year, $75MM contract stipulated that he needed to consent to being optioned at any point, meaning he gave his approval for the move. It’s obviously a bit surprising at first glance to see a former Rookie of the Year runner-up with a 3.02 ERA optioned to Triple-A, but the Mets have been mulling this move in recent weeks as Senga’s struggles have mounted. He’s pitched to a bleak 6.56 ERA over his past eight starts and lasted only 35 2/3 innings in that time. He’ll bite the bullet and head to the minors as he looks to get back on track before the Mets’ overwhelmingly likely trip to the postseason.
SNY’s Andy Martino reports that the decision to option Senga doesn’t appear to have strained the relationship between player and team. He was included in multiple discussions on the possibility and ultimately “felt respected by the process and consented without issue,” per Martino.
The demotion for Senga coincides with the expected promotion for pitching prospect Brandon Sproat, who’ll reportedly make his major league debut when he starts Sunday’s game against the Reds. He’ll join a youth movement in a rotation that currently includes fellow top prospects Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong. That trio of rookies will join David Peterson, Clay Holmes and the also-struggling Sean Manaea as the Mets’ starters for the time being.
Senga has to spend at least 15 days in the minors and can only be recalled sooner if it’s to replace an injured player on the roster. The Mets surely want him to get multiple Triple-A starts to try to get back on track anyhow, but his results in Syracuse will determine whether he’s back to rejoin the rotation in the final week or so of the regular season — and in the playoffs.
While the recent struggles are notable, it bears mentioning that Senga started the 2025 campaign in excellent fashion. Through his first 13 starts, he posted an exceptional 1.47 earned run average, albeit with less-impressive rate stats (23.9% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate) and some more skeptical grades from metrics like SIERA (4.28) and FIP (3.25). A hamstring strain sent Senga to the injured list in mid-June, and while he tossed four shutout innings in his return to the big leagues just under one month later, his struggles began immediately thereafter.
If Senga were still feeling the effects of that hamstring injury, he’d likely have been placed on the injured list rather than optioned. However, it’s possible that he developed some bad mechanical habits while compensating for that injury. He’s displayed uncharacteristically poor command since the All-Star break, walking 13% of his opponents (plus another two plunked batters) and yielding an average of 2.02 homers per nine innings pitched. Prior to his hamstring injury, he’d walked 10.7% of his career opponents and surrendered just 0.81 homers per nine frames.
There are no real service time or salary implications with Senga’s demotion. He’s guaranteed the full freight of that $75MM sum regardless, and his contract stipulates that he become a free agent at its conclusion, even though he’ll have under six years of major league service time. Sending him to Syracuse doesn’t alter his window of control with the team — it merely provides him a lower-stakes environment to try to get back to his All-Star form.
The other side of today’s notable slate of transactions will see the astonishing return of Alvarez. The Mets’ catcher had been one of baseball’s hottest hitters since mid-July but tore a ligament in his thumb while sliding into second base. That injury occurred less than three weeks ago, and his health troubles were compounded when Alvarez suffered a broken pinky finger upon being hit by a pitch on his minor league rehab assignment.
That damaged thumb ligament will require offseason surgery, but Alvarez will remarkably gut out both of those injuries as he tries to help his club down the stretch. Alvarez, like Senga, was optioned to the minors earlier this summer amid some pronounced struggles but returned with a vengeance, hitting .323/.408/.645 in 71 plate appearances before his injury. He went just 4-for-19 with eight strikeouts in 21 plate appearances during his rehab stint, though he did belt a grand slam in his final minor league game prior to today’s activation.
9 Contract Options To Keep An Eye On In September
The final push of the 2025 season is upon is, which means postseason chases for fans lucky enough to root for contending clubs and offseason dreams for those whose clubs are already out of the running. It also means that players with vesting clauses in their contract and/or performance incentives are beginning to unlock bonuses related to plate appearances, innings pitched, games finished, etc.
In particular, there are a handful of club options that are worth keeping an eye on either for incentive purposes or for season-long rehabbers who’ll have a limited September window to audition for next year’s club. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco already highlighted the three vesting options of note last month, but we’ll still take a look at how those players are tracking and also shine a light on six more club/mutual options that’ll have some present financial ramifications as well as potential 2026 roster implications.
Here are nine options to keep in the back of your mind as the season’s final weeks play out…
Pete Fairbanks, RHP, Rays
Fairbanks’ three-year, $12MM extension with Tampa Bay contained a $7MM club option for the 2026 season, but he’s boosted that option’s value considerably. Fairbanks already triggered $1.5MM in escalators based on his total appearances in the first three seasons of the deal, and he’s maxed out a set of escalators based on his number of games finished in 2025, tacking another $2MM onto the option price. His option at this moment is valued at $10.5MM, but if he appears in even two more games this year, he’ll boost his 2023-25 appearance count to 150, triggering another $1MM escalator. If he appears in seven of Tampa Bay’s final 22 games, he’ll bump his 2025 appearance total to 60 and hit another $1MM escalator.
Despite all those escalators, MLBTR has learned that the option maxes out at $11MM. That salary for a reliever is steep for the Rays, but Fairbanks has pitched a career-high 52 1/3 innings and logged a 3.10 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate en route to 24 saves. Even if the Rays were hesitant to commit $11MM to a frequently injured reliever who’ll turn 32 in December, a team with lesser budgetary concerns would be willing to do. The option will very likely be picked up either way, but the steeper the cost, the likelier an offseason trade becomes.
Andrés Muñoz, RHP, Mariners
Muñoz’s four-year, $7.5MM contract has become one of the game’s great bargains. At the time of the agreement, he’d made just one appearance for the M’s and had only 23 2/3 major league innings under his belt due to Tommy John surgery. The four-year term bought out his final pre-arbitration year and all three arbitration seasons, while also giving Seattle options on his first three free agent years. It’s easy to say now that Muñoz would’ve earned more through arbitration, but it’s hard to blame a 22-year-old who’d scarcely pitched in the majors for locking in that life-changing payday, and there was some modest risk for the Mariners in the deal as well.
The first of those three option years has a $6MM base value, but Muñoz has already boosted that by $500K. He unlocked $250K option escalators when he reached 20 and 30 games finished on the season. He’s finished 39 games now, and he’ll hit additional $250K escalators when he finishes his 40th and 45th games of the season. The first of those is a lock, and the second is certainly within reach.
Muñoz’s contract also has an $8MM club option for 2027 and a $10MM club option for 2028. He can boost both those figures by $1MM with the same set of escalators based on his games finished in the next two seasons, and beginning next year, he can also earn an additional $2MM per season based on games finished.
John Means, LHP, Guardians
Coming off his second career Tommy John surgery, Means signed a one-year, $1MM deal with the Guardians. Cleveland knew full well he’d miss most of the season recovering from last summer’s UCL operation. Means has a $6MM club option, with no buyout. He can’t boost that sum any further, but he’s on the cusp of returning to the majors and making what’ll amount to a two- or three-start audition.
Means, 32, has made four minor league rehab starts and has pitched well. He’s tossed 13 1/3 innings and yielded four earned runs (2.70 ERA) on eight hits and five walks with 13 punchouts. He’d been slated to make his final rehab start today before being scratched with an illness, but a return to the majors could happen as soon as next weekend.
When healthy, Means has been a high-quality starter. He’s posted a 3.68 ERA in 401 big league innings, all coming with the Orioles. He’s a former Opening Day starter and All-Star for Baltimore who has twice topped 140 innings in a season. A pair of UCL surgeries has limited him to just 52 1/3 innings since Opening Day 2022, however.
The Athletic’s Zack Meisel suggests that as long as Means is healthy, the option will be picked up. The Guards have committed a full year to rehabilitating the talented lefty. And, as explored at MLBTR last night, Cleveland has an uncharacteristic need for some pitching upgrades. A $6MM gamble on Means isn’t exactly a pricey roll of the dice, but the Guardians are one of the sport’s lowest-payroll clubs. If Means returns next week and gets rocked in his only two or three big league starts this year, it doesn’t feel like a given that they’ll dedicate that $6MM sum to him. If he looks even close to his old form, it seems like a reasonable risk to take. His handful of starts will be worth watching with a careful eye for Cleveland fans.
Jose Urquidy, RHP, Tigers
Urquidy is in a very similar situation to that of Means. He’s rehabbing from a second career Tommy John surgery and signed a one-year, $1MM deal with a $4MM club option for the 2026 season. Like Means, he’s on a minor league rehab assignment right now and could be activated in the near future. The former Astros righty tossed three scoreless innings for Triple-A Toledo three days ago and has now pitched 14 2/3 minor league innings with a 4.30 ERA and a 12-to-3 K/BB ratio.
Urquidy and Means have nearly identical career innings totals, though Urquidy’s 405 frames have come in a more condensed five seasons. From 2019-22, the right-hander posted a 3.74 ERA with a 20.3% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate in 342 innings for Houston. He was hit hard in a 2023 season that was shortened by shoulder troubles (5.29 ERA in 63 frames) and didn’t pitch in 2024 due to the elbow/forearm discomfort that eventually prompted his Tommy John surgery in early June last year.
If Urquidy comes back anywhere close to that 2019-22 form, a $4MM option should be a no-brainer, but a rocky performance could give the Tigers reason to pause. Urquidy’s return will also be worth monitoring since he could pitch his way into postseason roster consideration for Detroit.
Tyler Kinley, RHP, Braves
Atlanta looked past Kinley’s dismal 5.66 ERA with the Rockies and acquired him in July, clearly believing that the hard-throwing righty was only a few tweaks away from success. It’s been a masterstroke. Kinley has pitched 13 2/3 innings and allowed just one run since being traded to Atlanta in exchange for 26-year-old Double-A righty Austin Smith. The Braves have Kinley throwing even more sliders and working with a slightly lower release point, and the results have been stellar — albeit in a small sample.
The Braves were out of the postseason chase by the time the deadline rolled around, so the mere fact that they traded for a potential free agent with a 2026 club option signaled that they were open to exercising that option in spite of his struggles. Kinley’s success in Atlanta makes it quite likely he’ll return, but there’s a good chance it won’t be at the $5MM base price of his value. His contract contains option escalators based on games finished, the first of which kicks in at 20. Kinley has currently finished 18 games this year, including three with Atlanta. If he finishes two more, he’ll boost next year’s option to $5.5MM — and he’ll also unlock a $500K bonus for the current season.
It’s not a major change, but those incentives would bump him from a $2.08MM luxury tax hit to $2.875MM. Assuming the options on Kinley, Pierce Johnson, Chris Sale, Ozzie Albies and Ha-Seong Kim are all exercised, Atlanta will have $207.5MM committed to next year’s books when the offseason begins (before accounting for arbitration raises).
Harrison Bader, OF, Phillies
Bader has proven to be a terrific pickup for the Phils, hitting .307/.374/.477 in his first 99 plate appearances since being traded over from Minnesota. He’s up to 406 plate appearances on the season, which is just enough for his incentive structure to kick in. The $1.5MM buyout on Bader’s $10MM mutual option jumped to $1.7MM when he reached 400 plate appearances, and it’ll climb to $1.9MM at 425 plate appearances and $2.1MM if he reaches 450. It’s a minor bump, but for a Phillies club that’s a third-time luxury payor in the top tier of penalization, they’ll pay a 110% tax on the prorated portion of that extra $600K.
Given the strength of Bader’s play, they’ll happily pay that, of course, and the increased buyout does nothing to change the fact that Bader will return to free agency this winter. It’s been over a decade since the last time both sides of a mutual option were exercised in MLB (Brewers, Aramis Ramirez in 2014). Bader’s plus defense and strong season at the plate should position him for a multi-year deal in the offseason.
Jorge Polanco, INF, Mariners
Polanco is nine plate appearances shy of converting his 2026 mutual option into a $6MM player option. He’s also already tacked $2MM onto his 2025 salary via plate appearance incentives, and when he hits the 450 mark needed to trigger that player option, he’ll unlock another $500K. That’ll bump the veteran switch-hitter up to a $9.5MM salary in 2025. He’d get another $500K if he can make it to 500 plate appearances, but it’s not a guarantee he’ll get 59 plate appearances in between now and season’s end.
Though he’s slumped considerably in the middle months of the season, Polanco has heated up again in the past three weeks. He’s slashing .254/.319/.471 with 23 homers and 17 doubles in only 441 plate appearances — miles better than the down year he had with the M’s in 2024 before undergoing offseason knee surgery. He’s played well enough that he’s probably going to decline a $6MM player option anyhow, but it’ll be a nice safety net in the event of an injury (so long as it’s not a lower-half injury, as his contract contains language that’d prevent the player option from kicking in if he’s dealing with an injury related to that offseason knee procedure).
Matt Strahm, LHP, Phillies
Strahm is on the cusp of having his contract’s 2026 option vest. While that originally came at a $4.5MM base value, he’s already boosted the option value to $6.5MM via $1MM escalators at 40 and 50 innings pitched. Once he reaches 60, the option value increases to its maximum $7.5MM. The contract also stipulates that if Strahm pitches 60 innings and passes a physical at the end of the season, it’ll automatically vest.
Strahm has been excellent in 2025, logging 56 1/3 frames of 2.88 ERA ball with a 27.9% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate. He’s saved six games and tallied 17 holds. The Phillies would’ve picked up the option anyhow, but this removes any doubt.
Lucas Giolito, RHP, Red Sox
Giolito’s two-year, $38.5MM contract with Boston couldn’t have started much worse. The typically durable righty went down with a UCL injury in spring training last year, ultimately requiring surgery that wiped out his entire 2024 season. His 2025 return didn’t appear to be going well early on, either. Through his first seven starts, the 31-year-old was shelled for a 6.42 ERA in just 33 2/3 innings.
Since June 10, however, Giolito has returned to form. He’s started 15 games, totaled 91 2/3 innings and logged a pristine 2.26 earned run average. His 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate in that time are both about half a percentage point worse than league average among starting pitchers, but it’s been a strong run overall, pushing his season ERA down to a tidy 3.38.
That turnaround would make Giolito’s $14MM club option likely to be picked up — but it’s not likely to remain a club option. The right-hander’s contract stipulates that with 140 innings pitched this year, that option converts into a $19MM mutual option with a $1.5MM buyout. With 125 1/3 innings under his belt, Giolito only needs another 14 2/3 frames in the final three weeks to convert that option to mutual status. If and when he reaches that point, Giolito is a lock to decline his half of the mutual option, collect that buyout and return to free agency in search of a multi-year deal. The Sox could — and likely would — counter with a qualifying offer, but the hefty contracts for mid-rotation arms like Eduardo Rodriguez (four years, $80MM), Sean Manaea (three years, $75MM), Taijuan Walker (four years, $72MM), Jameson Taillon (four years, $68MM) and Luis Severino (three years, $67MM) in recent offseasons all suggest that Giolito can reasonably seek a pricey three- or four-year deal ahead of what’ll be his age-31 season.
Diamondbacks Claim Elvin Rodriguez
The D-backs have claimed righty Elvin Rodriguez off waivers from the Orioles, per announcements from both teams. Arizona transferred first baseman/designated hitter Pavin Smith to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Smith was placed on the 10-day IL in late August, so the move to the 60-day injured list officially ends his season.
Rodriguez signed a split major league deal with the Brewers over the winter after pitching well in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball from 2023-24. He pitched 18 2/3 innings with Milwaukee and just one inning with Baltimore, combining for an ugly 9.15 ERA between the two teams. He’s been far better in Triple-A, logging a combined 40 1/3 frames with a 4.46 ERA, 18.3% strikeout rate and 5.3% walk rate between Norfolk and Nashville.
The now-27-year-old Rodriguez made his MLB debut with the 2022 Tigers (29 2/3 innings) and pitched even more briefly with the 2023 Rays (3 1/3 innings). He’s allowed more than a run per inning in his 52 2/3 big league frames but has a decent track record in Triple-A and turned in a sparkling 1.80 ERA in 45 innings pitching in Japan. Rodriguez is in the second of three minor league option years. If the D-backs hold onto him into the 2026 season, he’d still have one option remaining, but given his rough performance in the majors this year, it’s far from a sure thing he’ll stick on the roster that long.
As for Smith, the quad injury will formally end a season that started in impressive fashion but faded as the year progressed. Smith hit .270/.348/.547 in 158 plate appearances last year and came roaring out of the gate with a .291/.347/.473 slash in 174 plate appearances through the end of May. He’s since cratered with a .208/.310/.375 batting line in 114 plate appearances and now won’t get a chance to pull himself out of that slump.
Even with the poor finish, Smith touts a .262/.357/.475 slash and 17 homers in 446 plate appearances dating back to last year. By measure of wRC+, he’s been 29% better than average in the batter’s box. The lefty-swinging Smith has the benefit of being platooned, and the D-backs will surely look to pair him up with a righty bat next year, but he’s emerged as a viable contributor on the strong side of a first base or DH platoon — a welcome development for a former top-10 pick who hit just .240/.319/.379 through his first 1094 MLB plate appearances from 2020-23.
Marlins Announce Several Roster Moves
The Marlins have designated right-hander Luarbert Arias for assignment and selected the contract of infielder Jack Winkler from Triple-A Jacksonville, per a club announcement. They’ve also placed third baseman Connor Norby and outfielder Derek Hill on the 10-day injured list — the former due to a quad strain and the latter due to a hamstring strain. Lefty Josh Simpson and infielder Maximo Acosta have been recalled from Triple-A to take that pair of roster spots.
Arias, a 24-year-old righty, made his major league debut with Miami this season but was torched for 13 runs in 10 1/3 innings. He’s posted a 3.93 ERA in 18 1/3 innings in Triple-A but walked nearly twice as many batters (13) as he’s punched out (seven). The Marlins selected Arias, a former minor league Rule 5 pickup out of the Padres organization, back in November to protect him from being nabbed in the major league phase of the most recent Rule 5 draft.
At the time, it wasn’t hard to see why. Arias was coming off a strong year in Jacksonville, having totaled 68 innings with a 3.04 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate. He’s taken notable steps back this season and has already been designated for assignment and passed through waivers once this summer. Because of that prior outright, he can reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency if he once again goes unclaimed.
Winkler’s contract is being selected to the roster for the second time this season. The 26-year-old utilityman went 2-for-12 with a pair of singles in a very brief MLB look earlier this year but has since been designated for assignment and outrighted. He’s back in the majors now despite struggling through a 9-for-58 skid in Triple-A between big league stints. He’ll add a righty bat with some defensive versatility to the Marlins’ bench while Norby is out, but Winkler posted a lackluster .220/.291/.328 batting line in 261 plate appearances during his Triple-A debut this year, so fans shouldn’t expect much in the way of offensive contributions.
It’s the third IL stint of the season for both Norby and Hill. Given the minimal time left on the regular-season calendar, either injury could feasibly be season-ending, but there’s been no definitive word from the club on that front just yet.
Norby, acquired alongside Kyle Stowers in last summer’s Trevor Rogers trade with Baltimore, hasn’t hit nearly as well as hoped this year. The former top prospect has been sidelined by oblique and wrist injuries previously, batting .274/.298/.373 when healthy enough to take the field. Hill, 29, has played strong defense but hit just .213/.275/.331 in 141 plate appearances on the year. He’s previously missed time due to wrist and finger injuries.
White Sox Select Dominic Fletcher
The White Sox have selected the contract of outfielder Dominic Fletcher from Triple-A Charlotte and reinstated righty Dan Altavilla from the 15-day injured list, per a club announcement. Right-hander Jonathan Cannon and first baseman Tim Elko were optioned to Charlotte in a pair of corresponding transactions.
Fletcher, 28, was acquired from the D-backs in the 2023-24 offseason trade that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to Arizona. It hasn’t worked out particularly well for either team. Fletcher hit only .206/.252/.256 in 241 plate appearances with Chicago last year — a far cry from his strong .301/.350/.441 showing in 102 plate appearances during the 2023 season. The Sox designated him for assignment in spring training and passed him through waivers.
Fletcher has spent the entire 2025 season thus far in Triple-A, where he’s batted .260/.317/.453 with 17 home runs, 19 doubles, four triples and seven steals (in 11 attempts). He’s walked at just a 6.5% clip but also has a lower-than-average 19.5% strikeout rate.
Altavilla missed more than a month due to a lat strain but will return for the final few weeks of the season. He signed a big league deal with the ChiSox midseason after briefly opting out of a minor league deal with the club. In 26 2/3 innings, the 32-year-old righty (33 on Sunday) has posted a tidy 2.36 earned run average but with far less encouraging rate stats. He’s fanned only 15.5% of his opponents against a bloated 12.7% walk rate (leading to a 5.84 FIP and 5.08 SIERA).
Tigers Place Kyle Finnegan On Injured List, Activate Parker Meadows
The Tigers announced Friday that right-hander Kyle Finnegan has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right adductor strain. Finnegan felt tightness when warming up in the bullpen recently and was held back from entering that game. The team had hoped he’d avoid an IL trip, but Finnegan will now be down for at least the next couple weeks.
In more positive news, the corresponding move for placing Finnegan on the injured list is the reinstatement of outfielder Parker Meadows from the 10-day IL. He’s been out since late July due to a strained quadriceps but is in tonight’s lineup, hitting ninth and playing center field.
Detroit acquired the 32-year-old Finnegan from the Nationals at the deadline in exchange for pitching prospects Josh Randall and R.J. Sales. He’s been exceptional in his new surroundings, firing 14 1/3 shutout innings with a mammoth 38.8% strikeout rate against a sharp 6.1% walk rate. The Nats have more than doubled the usage rate on Finnegan’s splitter and have him throwing far fewer four-seamers, and he’s seen enormous jumps in both strikeout rate and swinging-strike rate (from 9.2% to 14.3%).
Finnegan has always had plus velocity but has generally posted strikeout rates around the league average despite that fact. He’s still sitting 96.3 mph on his four-seamer, per Statcast, but the Tigers have helped him unlock greater bat-missing ability, which should bode well for his return trip to free agency at season’s end. For the time being, the focus will be on getting him back to the field as quickly as possible. Finnegan has picked up four saves and a hold with Detroit, and since his acquisition, he’s been their No. 2 option in high-leverage situations behind Will Vest.
As for the 25-year-old Meadows, he’s had a season to forget, thanks in no small part to injuries. The 2018 second-rounder had a breakout performance in 2024 when he hit .244/.310/.433 with nine homers, nine steals and strong defense in 82 big league games. He missed the first two-plus months of the current season due to a nerve issue in his upper arm, however, and he strained his quad only seven weeks after returning. In the interim, he hit just .200/.270/.296 with a 29.2% strikeout rate that was up four percentage points over his 2024 level.
The Tigers have been using Wenceel Perez and Javier Baez in center field, but Perez’s glove doesn’t grade out particularly well there and Baez can now mix in at additional positions as he continues to embrace his super-utility role. Meadows will be flanked by Riley Greene and a combination of Perez, Baez, Justyn-Henry Malloy and Kerry Carpenter in the outfield.
Nationals Outright Darren Baker
The Nationals announced Friday that infielder/outfielder Darren Baker, whom they had designated for assignment earlier in the week, went unclaimed on waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. He’ll remain with the organization but will no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster.
The 26-year-old Baker made his major league debut with Washington last September and went 7-for-14 with two doubles and five singles. The son of Hall of Famer and former Nats manager Dusty Baker, Darren has spent the bulk of the past three seasons in Rochester, hitting for solid batting averages that have helped fuel a solid on-base percentage. He has bottom-of-the-scale power, however, resulting in an ultimate .274/.345/.336 batting line in just shy of 1300 plate appearances. Baker runs well and has collected 83 steals in 99 attempts in his 309 games at the Triple-A level.
Baker has spent the majority of his professional career playing second base but has more than 900 innings in left field as well. He hasn’t been outrighted previously in his career and doesn’t have three years of big league service, so he doesn’t have the option to reject this assignment in favor of free agency. He’ll stick around as a depth option and hope to play his way back into another look at the big league level.
Twins Outright Noah Davis
The Twins announced Friday that they’ve passed right-hander Noah Davis through waivers and assigned him outright to Triple-A St. Paul. That’ll be the corresponding roster move for Pablo Lopez‘s previously reported reinstatement from the 60-day injured list, which is now official.
Davis landed in Minnesota back in July, coming over from the Dodgers in a cash swap after he’d been designated for assignment. The 2018 eleventh-rounder made four short relief appearances for the Twins and allowed multiple runs in all of them. He’s been tagged for 22 runs in 11 innings between Minnesota and L.A. this season, further inflating the already unsightly 7.71 ERA he logged in parts of three seasons with the Rockies (51 1/3 innings).
Though Davis has been hit exceptionally hard in the majors, he has a more encouraging track record in the upper minors. He’s pitched 176 2/3 innings in Triple-A, logging a 4.79 ERA despite most of his time being spent in an exorbitantly hitter-friendly setting (Colorado’s Albuquerque club in the Pacific Coast League). Davis has pitched 43 1/3 innings between the Triple-A clubs for the Dodgers and Twins this year and turned in a solid 3.95 ERA with a strong 26.1% strikeout rate.
This is the second career outright for Davis — the Rockies outrighted him last September — which gives him the right to reject the assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency, should he prefer to seek a change of scenery.