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Astros Sign Jordan Weems To Minor League Deal

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The Astros have signed right-hander Jordan Weems to a minor league deal, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. The righty will report to Triple-A Sugar Land and provide the Astros with some non-roster depth.

Weems, 32, was released by Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. He had signed a minor league deal with that club in the offseason and was at the Triple-A level to start the year. He logged 17 2/3 innings with a 5.09 earned run average. His 12.5% walk rate was on the high side but his 22.5% strikeout rate was decent and his 45.1% ground ball rate was pretty solid.

That wasn’t enough to get him called up to the big leagues but he has some respectable major league work on his track record. Over 2022 and 2023, he logged 94 1/3 innings for the Nationals with a 4.29 ERA. His 10.1% walk rate was a bit worse than par but he struck out 25.4% of batters faced. Unfortunately, things turned sour last year. His strikeout rate dropped to 17.9% and his walk rate ticked up to 12.2%, leading to a 6.70 ERA. He was outrighted to the minors in August and elected free agency at season’s end.

Between last year’s major league work and this year’s stint in the minors, it hasn’t been a great stretch for the righty. However, as mentioned, he was a serviceable big leaguer in the prior two seasons. For the Astros, there’s no real risk in bringing him aboard via a minor league deal to get a close-up look at him. Their bullpen has been pretty good this year but there’s no harm in adding some extra non-roster depth in case some injuries pop up in the coming weeks or months.

Photo courtesy of Mike Lang, Imagn Images.

Jose Urena Elects Free Agency

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José Ureña elected free agency, the Blue Jays told reporters (including Mitch Bannon of The Athletic). Toronto designated the veteran righty for assignment on Saturday. He went unclaimed on waivers and had the service time to decline an outright.

Ureña spent less than a month with the Jays. Toronto signed him to a big league deal in early May. He made one spot start as the Jays were cycling through pitchers to fill the #5 rotation job. Ureña made another two-inning start as a quasi-opener in front of Eric Lauer. He has otherwise been working in 1-2 inning stints as a low-leverage reliever.

The 33-year-old Ureña pitched 12 1/3 innings. His five runs allowed are reasonable, but that came despite a 5:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio and three homers. It’s tough to see that approach working long term, so the Jays pulled the plug over the weekend. Ureña had an even briefer stint with the Mets earlier this year. New York carried him on the active roster for three days between late April and early May. He made one three-inning appearance as a Met.

Ureña figures to land another minor league contract. He has a long track record as a swingman over an MLB career that has spanned parts of 11 seasons. He managed 109 innings across 33 appearances (nine starts) with the Rangers last year, turning in a 3.80 ERA despite a below-average 15.1% strikeout rate.

Giants Activate Jerar Encarnacion

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The Giants activated first baseman/corner outfielder Jerar Encarnacion from the 60-day injured list before tonight’s game against San Diego. Outfielder Luis Matos was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento. The move bumps the team’s 40-man roster count to 39.

Encrnacion broke a bone in his left hand when he dove for a ball in Spring Training. He underwent surgery that knocked him out for the first two months of the season. Encarnacion had entered camp with a decent path to playing time, especially against left-handed pitching. He could pick up short-side platoon reps at first base from LaMonte Wade Jr. and figured to get a lot of run as the designated hitter.

Wilmer Flores has hit for enough power to establish himself as Bob Melvin’s top choice at DH. The lefty-swinging Wade has had a terrible season at first base, though. He’ll take a .167/.271/.271 slash line into play tonight. While Wade has never been a conventionally slugging first baseman, he reached base at north of a .370 clip in each of the past two seasons. The Giants continue to give him the majority of playing time against righty pitching. Casey Schmitt has gotten some first base reps as well. He’s hitting .195 with no homers in 15 games.

Encarnacion, 27, appeared in 35 games late last season. He hit five homers while slugging .425, but it came with a .248 average and a .277 on-base mark. His only previous experience consisted of 23 games for the Marlins in 2022. Wade remains the starter tonight against San Diego right-hander Stephen Kolek. Melvin conceded that he could cede playing time rather quickly if he doesn’t get on track offensively. “It’s going to be about performance here. If (Wade) starts to take off here he might see more playing time, and if not, you might see Jerar a little bit more,” he told reporters (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area).

In either case, this remains an area to watch as the 33-26 Giants approach deadline season. Bryce Eldridge looms in the minors, but he’s still 20 years old and has yet to play a Triple-A game. Shayna Rubin of The San Francisco Chronicle wrote last week that the organization will get former top prospect Marco Luciano some first base reps in Triple-A as well. Luciano is only hitting .212/.335/.394 over 52 games with Sacramento, so he’s not an ideal option either.

Orioles Reinstate Colton Cowser From 60-Day IL, Designate Cooper Hummel For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that outfielder Colton Cowser has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. In a corresponding move, infielder/outfielder Cooper Hummel has been designated for assignment.

The O’s have been without Cowser for almost the entire year. In just the fourth game of the season, he slid into first base and suffered a fractured left thumb. The Orioles announced that he would probably miss six to eight weeks. He has gone just beyond that, as today is nine weeks since he suffered that injury.

While he’s been gone, the club has been struggling badly. Even though they just swept the White Sox over the weekend, they sport a record of 22-36, with the Sox the only club below them in the American League standings.

That is perhaps at least somewhat due to Cowser’s absence. Last year, he hit 24 home runs for the O’s and swiped nine bases. His 30.7% strikeout rate was quite high but he also drew walks at a solid 9.3% clip. He got strong marks for his outfield glovework, playing all three spots. FanGraphs credited him with four wins above replacement and he finished second to Luis Gil in American League Rookie of the Year voting.

Getting that player back in the lineup is nice but the O’s have a steep hill to climb. They’re also not at full strength in the outfield as Cedric Mullins, Tyler O’Neill and Ramón Laureano are all still on the shelf. Those absences make Cowser’s return a very welcome sight for Baltimore fans. He’ll join an outfield mix that currently consists of Heston Kjerstad, Dylan Carlson, Ryan O’Hearn, Jordyn Adams and Jorge Mateo.

As for Hummel, this is the latest transaction in what has surely been a frustrating week-plus for him. The O’s signed him on May 25th, after he had opted out of a minor league deal with the Yankees. He was designated for assignment the next day, without appearing in a game. Catcher Adley Rutschman had a concussion scare and the O’s needed to give that roster spot to Chadwick Tromp. A few days later, with Rutschman feeling better, Hummel was re-signed on May 30th.

But he’s now heading into DFA limbo yet again. Around all the transactions, he has just one plate appearance as an Oriole. He pinch hit for Ryan Mountcastle on Friday and struck out. It’s a bit of a microcosm for Hummel’s entire career, as he has always performed well in the minors but hasn’t been given many big league chances. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has a .284/.419/.475 line and 132 wRC+ at the Triple-A level. Despite that strong output, he hasn’t received more than 26 big league plate appearances in a season since 2022.

He’ll head back into DFA limbo for a week at most. He just cleared waivers last week and seems likely to do so again. If that comes to pass, he will have the right to elect free agency as a player with a previous career outright.

Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images

Dodgers Designate Chris Stratton For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced that they have acquired right-hander Will Klein from the Mariners in exchange for minor league lefty Joe Jacques, a move that was previously reported. They have also recalled righty Ryan Loutos. In corresponding moves, right-hander Noah Davis has been optioned to the minors and righty Chris Stratton has been designated for assignment.

Stratton, 34, was just signed about a week ago after being released by the Royals. He tossed three innings for the Dodgers over two appearances, allowing two earned runs and two walks and two hits while striking out five.

The veteran parlayed a solid 2023 season into a surprising two-year, $8MM deal with Kansas City going into 2024. But since signing that pact, he hasn’t been especially effective. He has thrown 78 1/3 innings dating back to the start of last season with a 6.09 earned run average. His 46.1% ground ball rate in that time is strong but his 18.2% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate are both a few ticks worse than average.

Since the Royals released Stratton, they remain on the hook for what’s left of his salary. Any other club can sign Stratton and only pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, as the Dodgers just did. That amount was subtracted from what the Royals paid.

The Dodgers were happy to grab a fresh veteran arm for a few days, but since they had no commitment to him, they have quickly jettisoned him for more fresh arms. He is likely to wind up on the open market again in the coming days and will see if another team is looking for bullpen reinforcements. He had a strong run of results from 2020 to 2023. In the last of those years, he tossed 82 2/3 innings with a 3.92 ERA, 24% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate.

Photo courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images

Tigers Reinstate Parker Meadows From 60-Day IL

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The Tigers announced that outfielder Parker Meadows has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Fellow outfielder Justyn-Henry Malloy has been optioned to Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, right-hander Ryan Cusick has been designated for assignment. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reported the Meadows and Malloy moves prior to the official announcement.

Meadows, 25, will be making his season debut as soon as he gets into a game. Way back in February, he was battling some inflammation in his upper right arm. It was later revealed that this was due to issues with the musculocutaneous nerve. He was placed on the 60-day IL in late March, indicating he wouldn’t be an option for the Tigers in the first two months of the season.

He seems to be fine now. He has played eight rehab games over the past two weeks and put up a stout .259/.394/.556 line in those. His throwing was a concern when the issue first cropped up but he’s been playing the field during his rehab, so he’s presumably fine in that regard as well.

Now that he’s back, it should be a boost for the Tigers. Meadows hit .241/.317/.413 for a 106 wRC+ in 119 games over the previous two seasons. He also stole 17 bases and received strong marks for his center field defense. FanGraphs credited him with 3.1 wins above replacement in that time, even though he had played less than a full season’s worth of games.

The Tigers have had a number of health problems in the outfield this year. In addition to Meadows, Matt Vierling and Wenceel Pérez have also missed significant time. Vierling was recently reinstated but went right back on the IL after just a few days.

The club has managed to weather that storm about as well as could have been expected. Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter have both been great while utility guys like Javier Báez and Zach McKinstry have also made nice contributions. Now that Meadows and Pérez are back, that should further strengthen a team that already leads the majors with a 39-21 record.

Cusick, 25, was just claimed off waivers from the A’s a few days ago. He will likely wind up back on waivers again in the coming days and it’s possible he’ll clear. As the best team in baseball, the Tigers are last on the waiver priority list, so the other 29 clubs passed on him just a few days ago.

A former first-round pick of Atlanta, Cusick’s minor league work hasn’t produce much optimism yet. He posted poor numbers for the A’s in the minors in 2022, 2023 and through the first half of 2024. A move to relief last year inspired some optimism, as he posted a 1.73 ERA in his final 26 innings. However, his results have backed up here in 2025. He had a 6.75 ERA in 14 2/3 Triple-A innings before the A’s designated him for assignment. Since being claimed, he has tossed one scoreless inning for Toledo.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Pirates Claim Ronny Simón, Designate Tanner Rainey For Assignment

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2:25pm: The Pirates announced that they have claimed Simón and optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis, with Rainey designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

1:25pm: The Pirates have claimed infielder Ronny Simón off waivers from the Marlins. The latter club designated him for assignment last week. Right-hander Tanner Rainey has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for Simón. Mike Rodriguez first reported that Simón would be joining the Pirates. Craig Mish of the Miami Herald reported that it would be a waiver claim. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com reported that Rainey was the corresponding move.

Simón, 25, got his first major league call just over a month ago. The Marlins selected his contract on April 20th and he stuck on the roster until he was designated for assignment on May 30th. He got into 19 games and stepped to the plate 56 times, producing a batting line of .234/.327/.277.

That was a fairly unremarkable performance from a statistical point of view but Simón got thrust into the spotlight in an unusual way. As relayed Jason Foster and Christina De Nicola of MLB.com, Simón had a nightmare game against the Padres last week. The Fish were up 6-0 on Tuesday but several errors and general defensive miscues from Simón allowed the Friars to engineer an 8-6 comeback victory.

Amid the chaotic contest, Simón was seen wiping tears from his face. After the game, he received plenty of encouraging messages from his teammates and even his opponents. Per the MLB.com story, Padres such as Manny Machado, Luis Arráez and Fernando Tatis Jr. sent supportive texts to Simón after the game. In addition to that challenging on-field experience, Simón also had to deal with getting sent into DFA limbo a few days later. However, he has quickly found a new home by landing with the Pirates.

Simón’s major league time isn’t much to go on. Presumably, the Pirates are paying more attention to his minor league work. In 2,328 minor league plate appearances, he has a .266/.341/.446 line and 108 wRC+. Before getting called up this year, he got into 15 Triple-A contests and had a massive .354/.441/.521 line in that small sample.

As of July of last year, FanGraphs considered Simón to be one of the top 20 prospects in the Rays’ system, noting that his switch-hitting and defensive versatility gave him a good shot to eventually become a utility player. He has experience at the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as the outfield corners. He’s generally been able to steal about 20-35 bases annually. The Rays didn’t give him a 40-man spot at the end of last year, which led him to sign a minors deal with the Marlins coming into 2025.

He still has a full slate of options, so the Pirates can keep him in the minors if they don’t have room at the big league level. Rainey’s DFA does open an active roster spot but the Pirates might recall a pitcher rather than playing with the pitching staff shorthanded.

Rainey, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Pirates in the offseason and was selected to the roster about a month ago. He has since tossed 7 2/3 innings over 11 appearances, allowing nine earned runs. There’s surely a bit of luck in there, especially from a 35.7% strand rate that is ridiculously low, but he also hasn’t done himself any favors by walking 16.2% of batters faced. On the positive side, his 24.3% strikeout rate and 45% ground ball rate are solid numbers.

He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last for as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Pirates could take five days to try to line up a trade. Rainey’s overall track record includes 197 big league innings with a 5.44 ERA. From 2019 to 2024, he logged 182 1/3 of those innings with a 4.49 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate and 14.1% walk rate.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Marlins Outright Matt Mervis

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Marlins first baseman Matt Mervis passed through waivers unclaimed following his recent DFA and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald.

Mervis, 27, generated some buzz among Marlins fans when he homered six times in an eight-game stretch early in the season. Even during that blistering hot streak, however, he fanned in 39% of his plate appearances. The lefty-swinging slugger has always had good power but has never made contact in the majors. Mervis’ lack of hit tool and poor swing decisions caught up to him quickly after that power surge. From April 17 through his DFA in late May, he slashed .125/.213/.213 with a 36% strikeout rate and only one home run.

This is the third season in which Mervis has seen big league time. He’s tallied 261 plate appearances between the Cubs and Marlins but managed only a .165/.238/.322 batting line (53 wRC+) due in large part to a 34.5% strikeout rate. His 66.9% contact rate in that time ranks 470th out of 485 big leaguers (min. 250 plate appearances).

In parts of four Triple-A seasons, Mervis has fared far better. He’s a .269/.371/.511 hitter in 1045 plate appearances and, more encouragingly, has only fanned in 23.3% of his plate appearances there. He’ll spend time in Jacksonville continuing to work on his plate discipline and swing decisions. There’s little doubting Mervis’ power; he bashed 36 home runs in the minors back in 2022 and has connected on 73 round-trippers over his past 1369 plate appearances in the minors. Miami doesn’t have anyone firmly blocking him at first base, so if he can make some gains in Triple-A, another look could be in store for him later this season.

D-backs Release Joe Mantiply

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The Diamondbacks released lefty Joe Mantiply after his recent DFA, per their transaction log at MLB.com. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll be a free agent who can sign with any team tomorrow afternoon.

Mantiply, 34, has been a frequent presence in Arizona’s bullpen dating back to 2021. From ’21-’24, he pitched 198 1/3 innings with a 3.63 ERA, a 22% strikeout rate, a 6.1% walk rate, a 51.9% grounder rate, 50 holds and three saves. In 2022, specifically, he was one of the team’s most frequently used relievers in high-leverage spots.

The 2025 season has been an abject disaster for Mantiply, however. He fired a perfect inning in his first appearance of the season and immediately tanked thereafter. By the time Arizona optioned Mantiply to Triple-A Reno on April 19, he’d been tagged for a calamitous 13 runs in just 7 1/3 innings across eight relief outings. He got another look in mid-May and was quickly optioned again after surrendering four runs in 2 1/3 innings.

Even Mantiply’s time in Triple-A was generally a struggle. He allowed four runs in his first appearance with Reno and five in his final one. Those ugly outings bookended a strong run of 9 2/3 shutout innings, but the overall results were grim. In 9 2/3 MLB frames this year, Mantiply has a 15.83 ERA. He’s posted a 5.56 mark in 11 1/3 Triple-A innings.

Mantiply has always been a soft-tosser, but his fastball has bottomed out in 2025, averaging a career-low 88.2 mph. He sat 91.3 mph with the pitch back in 2021-22, when he was at his best, and was at 89.5 mph last year. He’s still filling up the strike zone, but doing so with diminished stuff has yielded diminished returns.

By all accounts, Mantiply is healthy at the moment. Teams are always in need of left-handed bullpen help, and Mantiply has a generally solid track record in the majors, so he ought to get another chance to turn his season around with a new club before too long. He’ll almost certainly need to pitch his way back to the majors on a minor league deal, however. He’s being paid $1.7MM this year, and the D-backs will remain on the hook for the rest of that salary — minus the prorated minimum for any team he spends with another club’s big league roster.

Mariners To Acquire Joe Jacques

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12:10pm: Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reports that the Mariners are sending right-hander Will Klein to the Mariners for Jacques. Klein was just designated for assignment by the Mariners a few days ago. The Dodgers will need to open a 40-man roster spot for him.

Klein has just 7 1/3 innings of major league experience, which all came last year. He allowed nine earned runs in that time. This year, he’s been in Triple-A and has posted a 7.17 ERA at that level with a strong 30.5% strikeout rate but also a massive 18.1% walk rate. That’s generally been his recipe throughout his minor league career.

7:11am: In an early morning deal, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Mariners are acquiring southpaw Joe Jacques from the Dodgers. The return headed to Los Angeles is not yet known, though unlikely to be significant given Jacques’s status as a player on a minor league deal.

Jacques, 30, was a 33rd-round pick by the Pirates all the way back in 2018. He climbed the minor league ladder with Pittsburgh and ultimately reached Triple-A with them before posting a 3.12 ERA across three levels of the minors in his final season with the organization. It wouldn’t be until 2023 when he made his big league debut as a member of the Red Sox, for whom he pitched to a pedestrian 5.06 ERA in 26 2/3 innings of work. He generated an excellent 64.7% ground ball rate, but struck out only 16.4% of his opponents while walking 8.2%. Overall, Jacques profiled as a roughly average to slightly below average reliever based on his peripheral numbers, including a 4.53 FIP and a 4.12 SIERA.

Jacques remained on Boston’s 40-man roster throughout the 2023-24 offseason, but ultimately made just one appearance at the big league level in 2024 before he was designated for assignment and plucked off waivers by the Diamondbacks. He had a similar experience with Arizona, appearing in one game before he was eventually designated for assignment to make room on the roster for newly-acquired reliever A.J. Puk. Those two outings in the majors last year saw him surrender three runs on six hits and a walk across three innings of work while striking out two. Meanwhile, the lefty pitched to a 5.48 ERA in 42 2/3 innings of work at the Triple-A level.

It was a lackluster performance overall, but when Jacques reached minor league free agency he was quickly snapped up by the Dodgers on a minor league deal back in November. Jacques has struggled to a 6.04 ERA in 22 1/3 innings at Triple-A so far this year, although a 3.82 FIP and a .391 BABIP suggest there could be some bad luck baked into those numbers. Clearly, the Mariners saw enough in the underlying metrics to have interest in acquiring him. Yesterday was a day many players on minor league deals around the league had the opportunity to trigger opt outs and upward mobility clauses; if that came to play in this deal, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Seattle add Jacques to the 40-man roster once the deal becomes official.

One possible reason for Seattle to have interest in Jacques is their dearth of left-handed pitching options. Gabe Speier is the only lefty on the Mariners’ pitching staff at the moment, and while he’s currently in the midst of a resurgent season that’s made him a legitimate high-leverage option he’s just one season removed from a 5.70 ERA in 29 appearances. Jhonathan Diaz and Tayler Saucedo are both in the minors on the 40-man roster, but Diaz has been used primarily as a starter this season while Saucedo has surrendered four runs in 3 2/3 big league innings this year. It’s a thin enough group to justify the addition of another arm to the mix, especially one like Jacques that has a minor league option remaining.

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